Robert Channing: The Mind Reader

The subject of mind reading is a contentious one. Some people believe in the powers of the supernatural and some do not.  An e-mail sent to the student body about upcoming campus events, featured an event called “The Mentalist.” A man named Robert Channing would be coming to Frostburg to show us his mind skills, which according to the e-mail, includes “ESP, mind reading and mental telepathy.”

The event took place in the ARMAH at 8 Pm on Tuesday, September 11th. There were blue and purple lights on the stage as well as a light, foggy mist. The setting seemed as though it was a magic show (which did not help any doubts of this being a hoax go away). A member of the University Programming Council (UPC) walks onto the stage and introduces the guest performer. Robert Channing walks out with a big smile on his face, introduces himself, and immediately begins with a disclaimer. He tells the audience that he does not know anyone in the crowd, nor does he use paid actors in his show and if someone can prove that he uses actors then he will give them $100,000. Channing goes on to say that much of what he does involves ESP (which stands for extra sensory perception) and that tonight he will be doing a series of experiments to demonstrate how that works.

To start off, Channing asks for all the boys in the crowd who have change in their pockets to stand up. He then chooses a random girl, from the left section of the crowd, to pick one of those boys and tells her to count the change in her head. After she counts the change he asks her if the amount is $1.35. The girl’s eyes widen as she opens her mouth, nods her head, and says “Yes.” Immediately the audience starts to murmur, and a few people even clap. Robert smiles and then asks the crowd if they want more. The crowd cheers as Channing directs his attention to the right section of the audience.

Since his last volunteers were from the left section, he decides to choose a female volunteer from the right side. Paula-Ann Maxwell, a senior here at FSU, volunteers herself for his next act. Robert asks Paula to pick a number between one and 100. He tells the audience that while Paula thinks of her number, he is going to write it down on a piece of paper. After Paula picks her number, Robert chooses another girl at random to read the piece of paper out loud. Before the girl reads the paper aloud, he asks if her if she knows Paula and vise versa. Both tell him no. He then asks Paula to reveal her number out loud, and she says “57”. Robert signals the girl to read the paper out loud, and sure enough he had “57” written on the paper. The audience breaks out into applause. When asked about her initial reaction to Channing guessing her number, Paula said, “I was shocked because I didn’t think it was possible…but there’s no denying it because he guessed it!”

Channing goes on to perform a series of successful experiments. He has two volunteers come
up on the stage, read a random word on any page in a random book, and accurately tells them what word they read. He has two other volunteers from the crowd, a boy named Nigel and a girl named Hailey, come up to the stage and blind fold him with duct tape. While blindfolded, Channing received a five dollar bill from a member of the audience and was able to tell it was a five dollar bill, as well as say the number and name on it accurately. Also, while blindfolded, Channing was able to identify numerous objects by the smallest detail like a red guitar with a purple adornment attached to it. 

One experiment, however, did not have such a positive result. While still blindfolded, Channing asks Nigel to collect a watch from an audience member and change the time on it. He then asks Hailey to read the time in her mind so that he could guess it. Unfortunately, Hailey was unfamiliar with how to read an analog clock so Nigel had to read the time instead. Channing says that the time on the watch reads 2:54, but it actually reads 2:47.

Channing wraps up the show with two last experiments. For the first of the two, Channing is still blindfolded. He asks that everyone in the audience fill out a note card with a funny memory, a number with significance to it, a question for him to answer, a nickname given to the person, and the person’s full name. He then instructs the audience to place their right hand on the card and exchange it with the person next to them. He asks the audience members to exchange the cards three more times before they are collected and mixed up in a bowl. Channing pulls out cards and rubs them against his forehead. He starts calling out random facts that were written on the cards. One girl asked Channing if her boyfriend was cheating on her and his reply was “The real question is, when are you gonna stop cheating on him?” A student who goes by the name “Big Poppa” asked Channing if he could tell him who to bet on for the super bowl. Though Channing says he is not allowed to do that, he instead tells Big Poppa that there’s a surprise waiting for him when he gets back to his room.

The final feat of the show was Channing’s prediction. For this experiment, he took off the blindfold and duct tape. Channing claims that before he even reached Frostburg, these thoughts came to him, so he wrote them down on a piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope that had the word “Prediction” written on it. He then asks the audience to stand up if they want what is inside the envelope. Big Poppa stands up and Channing walks over to him and asks “You want what’s in this envelope Big Poppa?” Channing asks the crowd to think of a dream vacation as he hands the envelope to a random girl. He then picks four members from the audience randomly and asks them to stand. He asks one of the four people where they would want to go for their vacation and she said “Trinidad and Tobago.” He then asks another one of the four people who they would take and the girl says “Kyle.” He asks a third person of the four standing what day and they replied “February 14, 2013.” Channing then asks the last person of the four standing up how much money they will spend and they replied “$17,000.50.” He then tells the girl holding the envelope to give it to a random guy, who then gives the envelope to another girl. At this point, Channing invites all three of them to the stage, and he tells the last girl with the envelope to rip it in half and empty it into a bowl. Then he instructs the girl, a freshman named Gabby Cousino, to read the pieces of paper out loud to the audience. The pieces of paper had exactly what the four people chosen earlier had said. The audience starts to cheer and applaud. Channing smiles and says “35% of what you experienced is ESP, 35% is showmanship, and the rest is luck.”

Overall students seemed to enjoy the show. When asked about her reaction to reading the pieces of paper, Gabby Cousino says “When I saw the number and saw ‘Kyle’, I kind of freaked out ‘cuz I didn’t know he’d actually be right.” Laura Cofrancesco, a junior here at Frostburg, says “I had my doubts about psychics, but after seeing him, I think it might be real.” Frank Taylor, another junior at Frostburg, says the show was “pretty exciting and I was really impressed.” Based on these positive reviews from the students, Robert Channing is more than welcome to come back to FSU to show us his mental skills!