I have a roof over my head, reasonably good health, great friends and lots of opportunities in life. A lot of those things take a lot of work to make happen but, for the most part, I'm feeling rather fortunate.
I'm especially thankful to people like yourself who keep me thinking of ways to share the freaky things that I do with everyone I meet and there are heaps of stories to tell... like the time an 80 year old lady mistook me for a male stripper, the time someone mistook my onstage instruction for something else, or the time I made a mistake and chose the wrong volunteer to help me out (one of the times), and a heap more. Many are funny, some could make one cry, but they're all part of my life and I enjoy sharing most of them with you.
One funny time happened just last year in April/May 2010 when I was booked by a Spiritualist Church to perform a psychic party in Townsville. My friend, Leith, had done the booking herself and surprised me by saying that the hosting house's room was too small.
When she first said this, I was visualising something like a living room as most of these parties are in either the living room or in the rumpus room.
"How many people are there?" I'd asked.
To which she replied that there were 30 or 40 people interested in watching.
Just a brief aside here :- my psychic parties are usually small gatherings of 15-20 people. I present a mini show of about 10-15 minutes with my mind-reading and ESP demonstrations which work as nice little icebreakers for everyone before I start giving them each a palm reading, answering 1 or 2 questions.
Because of the time this can take, 30 or 40 people is A LOT OF PEOPLE. It was too much for time and also the room wasn't quite the right size.
"How about we make it two nights then?" I asked, figuring that I would already be in Townsville.
When I arrived in Townsville, I'd travelled to different secondhand stores and discount shops to find whatever cutlery I could find - forks, spoons, knives, etc - to bring along to the parties. I do encourage people to bring their own cutlery for the metal bending demonstrations but there are times when people either forget, don't want to bring their good silver, or simply don't bring anything at all. Therefore it was best to be prepared so that everyone could be entertained the same.
Both parties went well. Each time I had someone draw a simple picture ... and then revealed that I had drawn either exactly the same as they had or I was pretty close... demonstrated how it's possible to memorise very quickly long strings of numbers after having just seen them for 5 seconds.... and then the metal bending.
One gentleman had been dragged along by his wife and, of course, was a complete sceptic. Strangely enough, as he was one of the volunteers for the spoon bending, HIS teaspoon had the greatest effect. It was funny as we had energy workers there who do it professionally. They weren't able to make theirs bend even slightly and his started curling before our eyes.
He was a believer by the end of the night... and I've heard reports that the spoon was still bending by itself for another day or two afterwards!
Another person had a fork which completely snapped with the ends glowing a very light pink-red from the heat generated.
The power of the mind and the ways of the universe are very strange!!!
Now that's not the story itself this time... After both parties, some of the spoons and forks were still left over and unused.
Knowing that I was going to be going through metal detectors, I put those into my bag which was to be kept in the cargo hold.
I've never gone through the metal detectors at an airport without setting off the alarm. Usually it's my belt or my watch or even a couple of coins I've missed. So this time I had already removed my belt, my watch, put my iPhone and my wallet into the tray before walking through the gate and BEEP BEEP BEPP BPPP
That's when I remembered!
The fork that had bent and snapped at the previous night's party. For some reason the volunteer had given that back to me (people usually take those as souvenirs) and I'd absent-mindedly put it in my pocket and forgotten it.
OOPS!!!!
"You have what looks like a few forks in your pocket," the guard said.
It took some explaining, detailing the freaky mind shit that I do at shows, dealing with the sceptical looks on guard #1 who looked at pool-chest guard #2 with a "Get the taser out" look on his face.
That's how it started until one of them finally said, "Show us."
After bending a fork, held in one of their hands, to the side and one of their keys from their keyring with a few strokes, I was allowed to walk through to the lounge while wondering if anyone was EVER going to believe this when I finally got around to telling others.
What would YOU have done in that situation?
ESPecially Best Wishes,
Chris Johnson
www.thementalist.com.au
www.facebook.com/ChrisJohnsonTheMentalist
(c) Copyright Chris Johnson 2010, 2012, 2015
