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Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Ashley Harris Sunday night Freshman Natalie Schutz lifts a weightless table by a cloth that isn't stuck to the table.

Do you think magic and mind reading are not possible? You should have seen the performance of a master of illusion, mentalism and magic, Brian Imbus.

His show entitled "Miracles of the Mind," took place last Sunday night in the Student Union. His performance filled with magic, illusion and mentalism was a miraculous entertainment for the Lewis University students and guests.

The show consisted of a variety of displays of Brian Imbus' abilities with a high audience participation. At the beginning he demonstrated his unusual ability to read people's thoughts by guessing names, places, time, and names of cards which were all chosen by a random individual from the audience.

Soon afterwards he went even further and with the help of Ally, a member from the audience, Mr. Imbus duct-taped two quarters, one to each of his eyes, than put one more strip of duct tape and a blindfold over his eyes. Next he asked her to find three very unusual objects. Ally held each object in between his hands, without touching them, and he was able to describe each object with very specific details.

The "Miracles of the Mind" was a combination of predictions, illusion, and magic tricks blended with good humor, which kept the audience participating. Many volunteers went on stage to experience the "impossible" on their own skin.

Furthermore, Mr. Imbus made Kylie Gullett forget her own name. Kylie volunteered to be hypnotized and experienced very strange things. At first he erased the number seven out of her memory and when she counted her fingers she was shocked, "It is very weird to know you have ten fingers and have it not come out that way," Kylie said. "To actually watch him count them and have eleven fingers, it is very surreal," she described. Next, Mr. Imbus was able to make Kylie forget her own name and he asked her a million dollar question: What is your name? She did not know. "A complete blank, I had no idea,"expressed Kylie of her weird feeling.

During the hypnosis Kylie was also given a deck of playing cards and she was asked to choose one, but she was not aware that the cards were blank. However, she was sure she saw the card, "I put my thumb in there and picked randomly and it was the six of clubs," she said. Lastly, Mr. Imbus asked Kylie to get the envelope that was taped to the back of her chair, inside of which was a sheet that said she will pick a card and it will be a six of clubs.

Brian Imbus was fascinated with magic and illusion ever since he got his first magic set as a Christmas present from his parents when he was four-years-old. Over time, additional interests in mind reading, psychology, and hypnosis led to a concept of his show. He started with the idea of the show about ten years ago and has performed thousands of them since then.

Mr. Imbus explained his abilities in a very simple way, "I use the abilities that we all have, I use the five senses to create the illusion of the sixth sense," he said. "Some of it is real, some of it is illusion, and I live it up to the spectator to judge what is real and what is not."

The whole performance got the audience's attention and appreciation. Kylie was very impressed by Mr. Imbus's abilities, "I thought that it was really cool to see him play with your mind," she said.

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