One of the things regular visitors to this site want to see is the latest in forgetting techniques, and the occasional super-forgetting demonstration. If you are just such a visitor, you'll definitely enjoy today's entry.

Starting with the basics of forgetting, there is a very thorough article over at MentatWiki called HowToForget that gives some great tips. These should be studied closely, as we all know, our schools focus far too little on techniques for forgetting.

If this seems like too much work, there are some wonderful pseudo-forgetting demonstrations out there. In the book Self-Working Number Magic, there's a great, yet simple stage routine, called Memorease. In this effect, one of three people is given a magic amulet, which causes the remaining two to suddenly gain the ability to forget a list of letters they were just shown! The person with the amulet, of course, is still able to remember the list of letters perfectly, as usual.

This effect also appears in Chronicles, along with a similar version called Memory, which uses a list of words, instead of letters.

If close-up is more your style, you may want to check out Eugene Burger's Observo. No matter how many times you show two spectators the same packet of cards, neither of them can agree on any of the details, thus proving that you, as the performer, have magically given them the gift of super-forgetting! Eugene Burger himself can be seen talking about the routine in detail in a free video, available in both QuickTime and Windows Media formats.

Harry Anderson has his own version of this type of routine. It's called Shadow Card, and uses a single card, on which none of four people can agree. When the card is finally shown, none of the four is correct!

Finally, I should mention the most etherial of the super-forgetting routines. Not surprisingly, it comes from Wonder Wizards. The routine is from Luke Jermay's 7 Deceptions, and is described as follows: “A spectator looks at a playing card. You cause the spectator to forget this card, and they cannot remember it. Included in this full explanation is how to cause people to forget their name temporarily and much more. Yes, you CAN do it!” Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to review the book personally, so I can't speak as to how this routine plays, or give any details about it.

Oh, one last thing before I finish up this post. Did I remember to wish you all a happy April Fools Day?