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Jerome Finley
THE TABOO TREATISE
$1000

THE BLURB:
The Taboo Treatise is the most current offering from
visionary mentalism artist, Jerome Finley. From the elitist
price tag to the ‘taboo’ nature of its contents, ‘The
Thousand Dollar Ebook’ promises to make magic and mentalism
history.

What it contains:

‘Koran, Koran’
When Jerome used a disclaimer, this was it. As the title
suggests, this routine is Jerome’s take on Al Koran’s
‘Linking Rings’ presentation with multiple hooks and kickers
at the end.

‘The Grandmother Séance’
A self contained Séance that goes the extra mile to create a
Spiritualist flavored miracle for today’s discerning
audiences. This brilliant showpiece is Jerome’s nod to the
true roots of mentalism.

‘The Winter Tarot’
A simple reading with a powerful message and empowering
‘give away’ at the end.

‘Energetic Touches’
This routine is one of Jerome’s signature pieces and his
approach to the classic ‘Invisible Touch/PK Touches’ effect.
Utilizing multiple methods, layers of deception and phases,
any person is caused to FEEL an invisible caress and
energetic sensation multiple times. Hot and cold touches
from close up and across the room, this routine is unique in
that NO PHYSICAL CONTACT IS EVER MADE! It is also completely
impromptu and uses no gaffs, gimmicks or dual reality. Used
by some of the top performers in our field!

‘PIO’
A bold, beautiful and brilliant demonstration of real
Stigmata; based on true events and religious phenomenon! No
gaffs or gimmicks are utilized in this impromptu MIRACLE and
it just doesn’t get stronger or better than this. As with
all the material in this book, use with caution!

‘Q&A Wrap Up’
To be used after your formal Q & A act, this ‘wrap up’
involves the entire audience and gives EVERYONE in
attendance the experience of having a reading created just
for them! The ‘Wrap Up’ can be performed with index cards
and golf pencils or shared completely propless as the cherry
on top of your Q & A performances.

‘Look Ma, No Hands!’
A tough, thought provoking essay regarding propless,
impromptu mentalism and direct mind reading, the criteria
for ‘pure’ effects and a slicing look at contemporary
mentalism.

‘The Meditation’
A guided visualization Jerome incorporates during his
readings, before his séances and ‘Psi-Shows’; used in his
hypnosis programs, PK demonstrations and transformational
training experiences this beautiful and empowering exercise
has a variety of positive uses and effects on a person or
audience.

‘Real Magick’
A cherished favorite! ‘Real Magick’ does not rely on
trickery for its effect but on your connection with another
person; a powerful and beautiful moment to be shared as you
see fit and has the potential to alter a person’s life in a
very strong and dramatic fashion.

‘The Curandero Blessing’
Shared in the spirit of South American shamanism and
traditional healing, ‘The CB’ is used to remove negativity,
stress and spiritual maladies from a person’s mind and body.

‘Psychic Surgery’
No gaffs or gimmicks are used in this demonstration of
‘psychic healing’ and the shamanic extraction of negative
energies. Multiple building phases with a natural ‘distant
touch’ effect built in!

‘The Gift’
A group or solo manifestation exercise to be used in a
variety of situations and venues from close up to stage and
lends something extremely special and memorable to your
program while empowering your audience.

‘Protection Bottle’
How to make a magickal charm for protection to be shared
with your clients and sitters.

‘The Himmelsbrief’
‘A Letter from Heaven’ from the ‘Pow-Wow’
Dutch/Pennsylvanian system and tradition of folk magic;
another potent charm/magical object to create and share with
your clients and sitters with the intentions of protection
and blessing.

‘The Smudging Ritual’
A Native American rite for clearing a person or space of
negative energies and vibrations, purifying the sitter.
Includes a kicker ending from Christian Chelman.

‘A Touching Vision’
The Miracle Worker touches a person causing them to have a
vision of their own future!

‘The Reading’
A propless system for giving natural readings to anyone,
anytime, anywhere. Finally a direct and powerful system you
WILL be able to remember easily and naturally. If you can
talk, you can do this!

Stuart Cumberland’s ‘Power Pendulum Presentation’
An elegant and direct method for answering a participants
THOUGHT OF QUESTION(s) during a reading or other mentalism
demonstration.

‘The Curse’
One of the most powerful (yet simple) demonstrations in the
book and one of Jerome’s personal favorites! This ‘taboo’
bit of business comes straight from the charlatan’s hand bag
of tricks and is used to convince a person beyond all doubts
they are CURSED. Using charms and rites mentioned above, the
mystic is then able to remove the curse through a variety of
methods OR construct a charm to negate its effects.

‘Psychomagia Essay’
Inspired by the work of Alejandro Jordorowsky, Jerome and
Enrique Enriquez explore the concept of ‘Sacred Deceptions’;
illusions meant to disrupt a person’s reality and open their
minds up to psychological healing through magical placebo’s.
A grand lesson in tribal magic is shared via Jerome’s
experience in Africa during the time he spent with the Zulu
healers in Swaziland.

And much, much, MUCH more!

Included in ‘The Taboo Treatise’ is a primer for *Psychic
Mediumship*, Psychomagia ‘healing rites and rituals’,
additional routines, bits of business, séance tips, outlines
and as an added bonus, ‘TTT’ contains PORTIONS of the
legendary ‘Sumerian Mosaic’ material written with mentalist
sensation Paolo Cavalli!

MY COMMENTS:
Jerome Finley has done something that many might consider
insane.  He’s released his brilliant, original pet material
from his current working repertoire that nets him some very
handsome, corporate-performer-type fees.  Regardless of
whether one feels the material is good or not, the fact that
Jerome uses it speaks for itself.  It’s tested, worked, and
polished material designed for the serious and advanced
student of mentalism.  The only important questions then are
whether you wish to invest in this material and whether the
material is right for you, because, frankly, Jerome’s unique
style is not everyone’s cup of tea.  And, make no mistake,
this 8.5″ x 11″, 200-plus page e-book is an investment.
 
For the record, regarding Jerome Finley’s other published
works, I consider Thought Channel and Thought Channel V.2 to
be modern classics.  Random Acts of Kindness and Thought
Dial are important works, too, and well-worth purchasing. 
With this work, Jerome has stepped up the quality of his
material (if that’s possible) and is presenting his most
cherished routines and thoughts.  They build on previous
works and follow the same themes as material he’s previously
released, specifically Random Acts of Kindness.

To know whether this material is for you is to understand
Jerome Finley’s work and the direction he’s going in
mentalism.  That direction, for those unfamiliar with it, is
taking mentalism into the realm of reality.  In other words,
the techniques rely quite a bit on actual psychological
ploys, rather than gimmicks and magicky principles (although
Jerome certainly includes his fair share of routines using
classic mentalism principles).  Taking this further, one can
say that the material presented here is powerful mojo.

And most of the performance material in here is not easy to
perform and is intended for the serious student of
mentalism.  It’s not push-button performing, though
technically that doesn’t exist.  The difficulty I’m
referring to is not with sleights, of which there really
aren’t any.  I’m referring to the necessity of being quite
experienced with audience management and comfortable pulling
off certain techniques in order to be truly effective with
this material.  Another reason this is for the serious
student of mentalism is that Jerome references many works
and techniques that aren’t explained and is assumed the
reader will know.

The book contains over three dozen pieces.  Some of these
are fully fleshed routines, some are essays, and some are
ideas and thoughts which are just a page or two long.  There
are some routines I found to be stunning, such as “Fra-me”
and “The 3-4-5 Opener” which he uses together to open his
set.  The first brilliantly sets the mood and direction of
Jerome’s work and the latter is a beautiful word experiment
in which participants merely think of a word three times and
the performer reveals the words each time.  There are no
gimmicks and nothing is written down.  And then there are
some pieces in this book that I found to be solid ideas, but
not nearly as strong or unique as other material in the
book.  For example, “The Grandmother Seance” is a collection
of ideas for putting together a seance.  It’s solid
thinking, but most of the ideas are ones I’d seen elsewhere
in other routines of this nature.

And though all of this material is quite good, what really
sends this book into the stratosphere for mentalists is
Jerome’s focus on the exploration of concepts known as
“psychomagia” and “sacred deceptions.”  As explained in the
blurb, these are “illusions meant to disrupt a person’s
reality and open their minds up to psychological healing
through magical placebos.”  These are dangerous and powerful
concepts which rely mostly on psychology and beliefs.  It is
also the material and concepts that I anxiously want to
study more and to include into my act at some point.  This
is specifically addressed in the last half of the book,
although all of the material touches on these themes in some
way.

I know that many may want me to conclude by providing my
assessment about whether it’s worth it for the working
mentalist.  I can’t.  This book will have a different value
for each person.  Just like with any anthology book or DVD,
the routines and ideas that I find intriguing may not be
ones that you like and you just may find more in this book
that you will use than I did.  I can say that if you’re just
buying this out of sheer curiousity, you’re not a busy
working professional, and/or your performance style doesn’t
suit this type of material, then I can guarantee that you’ll
find this book to be overpriced and overvalued.  Its true
value will only be assessed by those who actually understand
the material and will use it.  I know that I will use some
of this material, and that I think highly of it.  So I can’t
tell you that this book will be worth it to you, because it
may not be.  All I can say is that this material is most
certainly worth it for my needs and purposes and thus is
highly recommended.