Most Magicians Don't Know What a Narrowing Force Is
Don't be like most magicians.
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Sometimes you just want the best of both worlds. Yes, I want lemonade. Sure, I’d love an iced tea. Sometimes it’s hard to choose between the two. That is unless you’re in America—where a man presumably called Arnold Palmer invented the drink with his name that’s a mix of lemonade and iced tea.
In my list of the best things about America, the Arnold Palmers are surprisingly high on the list. They’re somewhere near ‘free refills.’ I will never get over my shock when I finish a drink in America and someone just refills the drink… for free?! Sure, America’s got guns and is lacking in national healthcare, but they sure know how to soda.
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Let’s say you’re doing a prediction.
You can force the selection.
Ensure the free choice is not so free at all.
You can use multiple-outs.
Limit the choices and swap the prediction accordingly.
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Forces and multiple-outs both have their benefits. Forces allow for a more impossible-feeling outcome but can feel restricting in their processes. Multiple-outs allow for a more free-feeling selection but with quite limiting guardrails.
A force might sound like:
“Reach into this bag and pull out any random number between 1 and 100.”
Multiple-outs might sound like:
“Name any number between 1 and 10.”
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A narrowing force (sometimes referred to as a funnel force) is a type of force in which the spectator does not get forced a specific outcome but instead toward a much smaller range of choices. It’s a way of guiding a spectator toward your intended goal.
By using a narrowing force, you are able to blend your methods.
Here are three basic examples of narrowing forces.