Читать книгу The Spa Lover's Guide to Europe - Marc Lemezma - Страница 17

This can be an amazing experience, yet it almost works itself as it is part physics and part optical illusion. In fact, the ring never moves – not one millimetre. It is the rubber band that moves, under your control of course. Given a little practice in front of a mirror, you can create the appearance of motion and make the experience feel quite eerie.

In general, whatever objects you perform mind magic with, it is important that they look perfectly ordinary, so start by choosing a rubber band of the right colour, length and thickness for the job. Bright colours, such as blue or red, are not ideal, but good old brown rubber bands are perfect. Try to find some that will comfortably stretch to about 60 cm (2 ft) long. Width is not critical, but anything wider than about 3 mm (⅛ in) would be a little unwieldy.

For the rest of the explanation I will assume you are right-handed. If you are left-handed, you simply need to swap hands while you undertake the ring rise.

Thread the rubber band through a ring and pinch one end of the band between your right thumb and forefinger. Make sure you grip this end very firmly. With your left thumb and forefinger, pinch the band tightly about halfway along its length, leaving the remainder of the band resting in your left hand. The ring should be positioned on the section of band between your two hands.

Now stretch the band out between your hands as far as it will go, at the same time raising your right hand a few centimetres higher than your left so as to make a definite incline. Make sure you keep a tight grip with both hands. Gently shake the band to adjust the position of the ring so that it sits perhaps a quarter of the way along, nearest to your left hand.

Now comes the secret moves, which, when combined, produce the effect of movement. The first of these is ‘slipping’.

Gently release the pressure between your left thumb and forefinger, thus allowing the band remaining inside your hand to slowly slip through. The section of band stretched between your hands will become longer, but more importantly, the ring will appear to be moving away from your left hand and upwards along the band.

The second secret move is called ‘slacking’. Grip tighter again with your left thumb and finger, then gently bring your right hand towards the left, just a little. This slackens the band and compensates for the apparent increase in its length. It also has the effect of making the ring appear to be getting closer to the right hand, further enhancing the illusion of movement.

Given a little practice, you will be able to slip and slack simultaneously, giving the impression of a very smooth and spooky motion when, in fact, the ring never moves at all.