The_Rambler_2000-03-23

              World's Greatest Mentalist Performs ESP at Farmingdale
by Christopher Collora
Skepticism is one of the key qualities
of a journalist, however the amazing
performance of Mr. Robert Channing,
is enough to raise serious belief in extra
possibilities.
Recently, famed Mentalist Robert
Channing brought his ESP/Comedy act
to SUNY Farmingdale's Little Theater.
A crowd of some 40 plus students gath-ered
at 8.00 to witness a truly amazing
act. Mr. Channing began the show by
stating that if anyone could prove that
he used planted people in his perform-ances,
he'd pay them $100,000. He
used several assistants from the audi-ence
to demonstrate his abilities.
For one demonstration, he had two
students flip through random books and
pick a word out. He then predicted the
words.
Still not convinced? He then blind
folded himself with two silver dollars,
one face mask, and seven pieces of
masking tape. He then had the student
assistants gather two random dolor bills
from the audience. He not only predict-ed
the correct dolor denomination but
got the serial numbers correct while
blindfolded!
He then had the assistants gather ran-dom
objects from around the room.
With no contact at all, he was able to
determine the objects, their color, and
match them to the correct owners! The
final segment he had students write
information on a piece of paper and
questions. While blindfolded, he "read"
the questions and associated them with
Mr. Channing predicts random words
the people who asked. He then answered
most of the questions, adding in several
bits of humor.
One of the most interesting predictions
he made was that one girl's boyfriend
was cheating on her. This got several dif-ferent
reactions after the show, as several
girls wanted to know if it was them Mr.'
Channing reviled that that prediction was
one of his humor ones, because he
phrased it "there is a giri in the audience
who wants to know if her boyfriend is
cheating on her... my response is stop
cheating on him."
For the final act of the evening, Mr.
Channing revealed that he had made a
"My act is 30% ESP,
30% showmanship,
and 40% luck.*'
prediction on the airplane ride out. He
predicted the exact "dream'Vacation spot
that four Farmingdale students would put
together that night. He handed a sealed
envelope to one of his student assistants.
Then he choose four students at random
and asked them for a location (Hawaii) a
date (March 2006) and how much they
wanted to spend on this vacation
($5,000) Then the assistant opened the
envelope. He got it exact!
Perception being 9/10 of reality, one
can conceivably be convinced of Mr.
Channings ESP abilities, however anoth-er
consideration is interpretation. This
brings about the curious concept of belief
' based on apparent evidence. Channing
was always in control of the perception
element because he was on stage, he
could have made us see what he wanted
us to see.
"Anything your mind can
conceive, and you truly
believe it in your heart,
you can do i f
- Robert Channing, Mentalist
Mr. Channings own remarks "My act
is 30% ESP, 30% Showmanship, and
40% luck." Minds are read, numbers are
predicted, and future events are foretold.
His comments about Farmingdale, "it's
pronominal, its a great college the stu-dents
are very enthusiastic, and we're
here to have fun... the feeling that I get
is that this is a wonderful college, the
people are very friendly and there is a
lot of success going out of this college"
He revealed that his ability developed
his ability since he was four years old,
he said that "everyone has this ability,
some call it an extra sense but I call it
perception and everyone can develop it
with practice and concentration."
His message to the college was
"Anything your mind can conceive, and
you truly believe it in your heart, you
can do it." Mr. Channing has performed
his act on television and around the
nation. Yet my question of Bill Gates
pin # is still unanswered...
Overall Mr. Channings performance
was entertaining and very well received.
It many believe, buy most thought about
the possibility of ESP
Afterwards, he left with the modest
admonition "the show is 30% ESP 30%
showmanship and 40% dumb luck"...
yea right!
Farmingdale students amazed and amused by Mr. Channing photos by Steve Anderson
Local News
U.S. ARMY Vs,
Farmingdale
Journalism Class
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