The Amazing Kreskin offers to read Campbell's mind

The Amazing Kreskin offers to read the premier's mind
by Rebecca Aldous - The North Shore Outlook

(with links by the Alberta Report Editorial Collective)

It's on Gordo.

One of the world's most recognized mentalists has offered to use his talent to determine whether B.C.'s premier planned the Harmonization Sale Tax before the provincial election.

"It's a formal offer," The Amazing Kreskin says.

Kreskin is confident he can weed the truth out of Gordon Campbell.

It's no biggie, the 74-year-old has been reading people's thoughts since he was nine – back when his name was George Kresge.

It all started with a simple game involving a red beanbag.

His Grade 3 teacher in his hometown of Montclair, N.J., asked a classmate to leave the classroom while the remaining children hid the beanbag.

When the girl returned, she had to find it and her fellow classmates were only allowed to help her with the directions "hot" and "cold."

Little Kresge didn't get a turn. Eager to play he begged his brother to conceal a penny in his grandparents' house.

Once his brother had done the deed, Kresge climbed the basement stairs, went through the kitchen, passing his grandmother and the old coal stove, and walked straight into his grandparents' bedroom. There he climbed up a big maroon chair and, on his tippy toes, reached for the penny on top of the curtain railing. It was no problem, he recalls.

The problem was his brother had not once called out the words "hot" or "cold" and his Greek grandmother was now convinced Kresge had the devil's eye. It was only a matter of minutes before all his relatives heard the tale.

By the age of 12, Kresge was reading thoughts full-time and became know as "The World's Youngest Hypnotist."

[...]

"I realize this is not the way to relate with people," Kreskin says. "I don't do this in everyday life or otherwise people couldn't and I couldn't stand myself."

His talent is one reason Kreskin is drawn to the isolation of night. He does most of his thinking during the dark hours and sometimes his jogging too, Kreskin says.

It's unadulterated and empty.

Although Kreskin believes his skills can't be taught, he thinks there are other people in the world who share them. But as schedules get crammed with more deadlines and events, less people have the time to discover their talents, he says.

It's a shame, Kreskin continues, as there is so much in life worth slowing down for, things that even his talent can't dissect. Love is one, he points out.

"The human mind is an amazing instrument," Kreskin says.