WITH BEN CARDALLTHE MINI MONOGRAPHS

Ben Cardall is the UK’s leading deductionist.

Ben has been studying deduction and all of the facets of skill that it entails for over 15 years now. It all

stemmed from his obsession with Sherlock Holmes, the detective with infinite reasoning and logic with an aptitude for picking out the smallest detail of a person within seconds of meeting them. Ben was curious as to whether this super human ability was achievable

and sort to find out. This was when he first started to study and put into practice everything he now knows

about mentalism. His book, ‘The Monographs’ is a comprehensive guide to becoming a deductionist.

www.bencardall.com https://www.youtube.com/user/Cardallmagicman

BEN CARDALL

It has long been wondered about, many have written about its impossibility, though few have actually dedicated their

lives to the pursuit of this skill. That skill is all that it takes to become a Deductionist. The real number is probably

somewhere in the thousands but given the millions upon millions of people affected by Holmes’ legacy, I consider

this to only be a few by comparison.

Whether it be because he is a fictional character, much as many of us hate to admit. Whether it be the poetic license taken with his skills, or the seemingly never ending palace

of information and attributes to draw upon, the skills of Sherlock Holmes have been considered too much for any

real person. The reality that I have worked on ids very different! Though everything must be taken with a pinch of

salt.

THEMES, MYTHS AND POSSIBILITIES

For those first starting into their journey of mastering these skills, they may have several far flung ideas about what is possible, and that every little crease in an item of clothing or speck of dirt on shoe will reveal some hidden truth that will illuminate this perfect stranger completely. This often

reminds me of David Carradine in the series ‘Kung Fu’ learning his skills from some wise, and usually blind

instructor to go out and then demonstrate what other worldly gifts he now possesses. This simply isn't the case.We are human beings after all, we would struggle to work

for days and nights with no sleep and drinking some alcohol and cocaine concoction, and expecting to maintain a high

work load. Reality must step in!

EXPECTATION VS REALITY

The reality is that each new skill or topic of information you look at will take time to master. The amount of time it takes to master will be down to how much practice is put in. Sufficed to say, very few people are born with the heightened observational awareness and retentive capabilities of the infamous detective so time to put the work in to

reap the rewards of the skills is paramount.Be prepared to fail! I know right! Curious that I would warn you of

that, but it’s the truth. Not every deduction you make or inference you draw will hit the mark. However, they can always lead you to new

ideas.Please remember that sometimes, a crease in a shirt is simply that. It

will be up to you to decipher the evidence that you see. The more ideas you have that point toward an inference, then the more likely that is to be the case. Deducing someone's girlfriend is about to go into labour

via looking at their shoulder is an impossibility.

EXPECTATION VS REALITY

That being said though, can you read the clues of a person, whatever they may be in order to know what they do for a living, where they come from and where they are going? If they are lying or telling the truth? Or even if they smoke cigars or cigarettes? Absolutely you can, it will just take

time, patience and practice to do it. Much like learning any new skill would.

Mindfulness is something that is always spoken about when it comes to this area of work so I will simply say, just be

mindful of getting swept up in fictional elements. When the reality is a long and at times a tough journey.

EXPECTATION VS REALITY

Nowadays when someone hears the word Deduction with reference to Sherlock Holmes, pretty much everyone will

know what you are talking about. Knowing information that you couldn’t possibly know. That is why when I talk about these ideas and trainings I use the term Deduction as a blanket term for many other terms of rational thought.

These were popularized by the godfather of pragmatism Charles Sanders Peirce. These terms of Deduction,

Induction and Abduction. Three approaches to the logical thought process behind problem solving

TERMS

INDUCTION - Evaluation of the hypothesis, inferring from observational or experimental tests of its deduced

consequences. This is closely followed by Occam's Razor. Basically meaning that the most likely solution when

presented with evidence will be the correct ones.DEDUCTION - Explicit deduction of consequences of the

hypothesis as predictions about evidence to be found. Corollarial or, if needed, Theorematic. Basically meaning

that after the evidence is presented the only possible solution would be…whatever it is. This is Deduction.

ABDUCTION – Succintly put this is reasoning backwards from an answer. Though i believe that Sherlock himself

describes it best...

THE TERMS EXPLAINED

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practice it much. In the

everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. There are fifty who can reason synthetically for one who can reason analytically.”

“I confess,” said I, “that I do not quite follow you.”“I hardly expected that you would. Let me see if I can make it clearer. Most people, if you

describe a train of events to them will tell you what the result would be. They can put those events together in their minds, and argue from them that something will come to pass. There

are few people, however, who, if you told them a result, would be able to evolve from their own inner consciousness what the steps were which led up to that result. This power is what I mean

when I talk of reasoning backward, or analytically. ”“I understand,” said I.

“Now this was a case in which you were given the result and had to find everything else for yourself. Now let me endeavour to show you the different steps in my reasoning. To begin at the beginning. I approached the house, as you know, on foot, and with my mind entirely free from

all impressions. I naturally began by examining the roadway, and there, as I have already explained to you, I saw clearly the marks of a cab, which, I ascertained by inquiry, must have been there during the night. I satisfied myself that it was a cab and not a private carriage by

the narrow gauge of the wheels. The ordinary London growler is considerably less wide than a gentleman’s brougham.

FROM ‘A STUDY IN SCARLET’

To begin I would suggest developing the proper mindset to do this kind of work. Everything else will follow, though you are basically learning to see things in a new way. To do this,

I would suggest you learn to develop control over the emotional voice inside your head. It is after all, antagonistic

to clear reasoning. This little voice gives you the confidence to complete

whatever you need to do, or can colour your opinion of people based on your own models of the world. This is why I suggest control over it, giving you the ability to critically

analyse anyone and any scene properly.Here are a couple of exercises you can do to start gaining

control and then we shall finish with a game!

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Headphones plugged into 2 alternate sources, 1 has a very quiet, somber mellow piece of music on. Like chill out

whale song. On the other headset you have some really loud, attention grabbing music. The idea is to turn the loud

music up incrementally, and still focus on the chill out music. An idea first popularised Bruce Lee. This will help

develop your concentration, and awareness, as well as your conscious control over both. Once this becomes easier, you swap the loud music out for your all time favourite song, and still concentrate on the chill out music. You can then

swap the chill out music out for an audiobook. This exercise will allow you to develop the control over your senses, and voice in your head that acknowledges the likes you have, to allow you to pick out details in amongst the ‘noise’ of any

situation.

EXERCISES

These emotions can colour our opinions of anything that we need to deduce about and stop us from getting at the truth

of the matter. They make us fall foul of things like confirmation bias and versions of inattentional blindness.

Let us say, for example, that you had a particularly bad run in with a tall bearded fellow, who is covered in tattoos He

was in a rock bar, showed typical signs of angry personality i.e. not willing to listen to reason, only interested in talking with their fists, the worst kind of narrow minded person you

could ever hope to meet. The worse this run in was, then invariably the worse your opinions on this ilk would be.

DEMONSTRATIVE GAME

(You see this man, mercilessly looking down at something on the floor? What could it be? a gun? his victim?)

DEMONSTRATIVE GAME

Continuing on down this hypothetical rabbit hole, you then come to aid the local police force in their murder

investigation. The person who stands trial is exactly this type of person to look at, tall, hairy and covered in tattoos.

You have to examine the evidence to help him clear his name as he is protesting his innocence. Your emotions at this point would then entangle you to such a degree that

you wouldn’t be able to read their body language and emotions properly; you wouldn’t be able to read the

evidence and the crime scene properly. Your emotions would feed the confirmation bias and only look for things

that support your original theory of how all of these people are. Your inattentional blindness would be fed in the sense that you would not see evidence that aids what you were

hired for in the first place. This is how they become antagonistic to clear reasoning.

DEMONSTRATIVE GAME

DEMONSTRATIVE GAME

(Nope, he’s hugging his son. There was even a bit of his son’s hand on the other photo)

 Unless you learn to quiet that emotional voice in your head, which

informs you of your opinions and models of everything in the world, you will truly miss a lot of relevant data. If not all of it at times. This will

prevent you from obtaining a high degree of accuracy in your deductions. Unless you quiet that voice all people who dress in black

and have tattoos will be heavy metal fans; all women who wear revealing clothing will be trampy,; all builders will be inarticulate and

unintelligible and so on. You don’t want to see the world in your models of it when you are reading everything as a Deductionist. Let the truth of

what is there speak for itself. This doesn’t mean that you have to be a cold-hearted person who has no feelings whatsoever. It just means that

you have learnt how and when to quiet that voice in your head.

DEMONSTRATIVE GAME

So remember folks to take care of your brain. To observe carefully and to deduce shrewdly.

Many more lessons and ideas in the book, ‘The Monographs’ - A Comprehensive Manual on All You Need to

Know to Become an Expert Deductionist.

IN CLOSING

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