In the first half, Ian Punnett (Twitter) was joined by mentalist and memory expert Jim Karol, who described his journey from being a nationally known mentalist act to his current status as a medical anomaly and motivational speaker. Karol lost his job at a steel mill and turned to his interest in magic to begin a new life as a performer. He practiced on housewives who were part of his wife’s Avon contact list and was soon doing magic tricks as a paid performer. At age 49, he was told that he had "the heartbeat of a 90 year old man" and began exercising to build up his stamina. During long rides on a stationary bike, he began to teach himself memory techniques and came up with a system for memorizing cards by associating them with male celebrities.
From there, he branched out into memorizing all the countries in the world and the states in the U.S. Karol believed he had developed a new way to teach people to improve their memories and develop what he calls a "mental matrix." He said that exercising memory "stimulates neurogenesis and neuroplasticity," causing the brain to develop new pathways and even allowing certain areas to grow larger. Karol discovered that these new abilities also enhance intuition and the ability to detect when others are lying or being deceptive. He added that this can even cause ‘"synesthesia," or the sense of hearing colors or assigning colors to numbers or words.
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During Open Lines, Brett called in to ask what had happened to the man who allegedly flew into area 51 live on Coast to Coast with Art bell in 1997. Ian said that he didn’t know, but that the segment was "great radio," even though he believed it was a hoax. Brenda recounted the eerie story of a small boy named Harry Spitz who died in a town in her state of West Virginia and whose grave apparently "exploded" almost 60 years after his burial, and the body, when recovered "looked like it did when it was buried." She also said that the boy’s mother ended up in a mental health facility where the furniture in her room was reportedly moved by an unseen force one day of every year.
James from Florida said he has been diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy and that he can "feel other people’s feelings" and has vivid dreams. He said that it "kind of enhances your perception." Christopher in South Dakota said that he remembers seeing "shadowy figures" on a few occasions in his childhood. He later found out that murders had occurred in the building where he lived. Lance in California claimed that he has "always had psychic abilities," but that the ability seems to be active at random times, and that he has also "spoken to dead relatives."
News segment guests: John M Curtis, Howard Bloom