In my spare time (okay, by that I mean five minute snatches here and there), I’m reading a fortune telling book, a book on hexes, and finally finishing THE ART OF MODERN CONJURING.

Gotta say, I love THE ART OF MODERN CONJURING.  Originally published in 1886, I guess technically the info on the conjuring isn’t “modern” but that just makes the book all the more fun.  It’s full of techniques that allow you to fool others into thinking they are seeing magic, and it also some very interesting sections on mind reading.

Which brings me to my topic today, “Willing.”  According to my lovely book, Willing was a popular game/past-time back in drawing-room days.  The idea being that “the combined will of a number of persons will compel one of the party to do what they desire and will.”

Picture, if you will, a group of people gathered in a circle, all holding hands (in one unbroken chain.)  One person stands in the middle of the circle, wearing a blindfold. She (or he) is told to keep her mind completely blank.  All of the others focus on one task (they all know this task—everyone is in the know, except for Ms. Blindfolded), and if the event goes as planned, Ms. Blindfolded will suddenly break through the circle and complete the task that the others were all mentally shoving on her.  They’ve willed her to complete the task.

Now, when I read the info about Willing, all kinds of story ideas popped into my head.  Oh, the things I could do with this scenario.  Both in a novel that is historical or in a contemporary.  This is definitely gonna go down in my idea file.  🙂  (And it’s gonna be included as a game at my next Halloween party, too!)

What do you think? Do you believe you’d be Willing?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 am and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.