How To Bend Keys With Your Mind by Lorin Wiener

Very well illustrated with 14 photos and clearly described.

Presentation: Ask the audience if someone has a key you can use which they will no longer need. If they do not have a key they want to part with, you can provide the key. Start off with three keys. Have the first key inspected by an audience member and ask them to verify that it is a real key with no marks or bends in it. Retrieve that key and hand out another key for a spectator to inspect. This time have them make a unique mark on the key with a Sharpie pen, i.e. their signature, a symbol, etc. Retrieve that key from the spectator and hand out one last key for inspection. Now all three keys have been retrieved and you may proceed.

Pick a spectator to help you do this experiment in which you will prove that they can bend a key with their mind while it is in their own closed hand. Place one of the inspected keys on a table explaining that this key will be used as an antenna to channel one's thoughts and focus energy to bend one of the keys. At this point have the spectator place the back of his hand over the key with his palm facing upward. Next, place the two remaining inspected keys (one signed) into the spectator's hand and close their fingers around the keys tightly. Ask the spectator to concentrate with you on bending at least one of the two keys, if not both of the keys in his hand. Ask the spectator to imagine the keys bending very slightly and to just concentrate their thoughts. When the time is right slowly open the spectator's fingers revealing the keys. To the audience's surprise, the key with the unique signature or symbol will have been bent while in their own hand! They will be even more amazed at the amount it is bent since they expected only a slight bend.

1st edition 2004; 11 pages
word count: 1508 which is equivalent to 6 standard pages of text