MUSCAT: Do you know the exact time your child was born?” Deepak Rao asks me. “Yes,” I say. “Let me guess,” he says taking my hand in his.
“1, 2, 3…,” he counts till 12, never for a moment taking his eyes off my face.

One to 60 he counts again, continuing to hold my hand and gazing at my face. After half a minute he says, “I think I know.”

Rao takes off his watch, resets the time.

“I have now set my watch to the time your child was born and I won’t touch the key again,” he says, and tells me to spell out the time aloud.

“8.32,” I say.

He turns the watch around and shows me his watch. It shows 8.32.

That is Deepak Rao with his incredible extra sensory perception (ESP) for you. “I could sense it from your reaction. Truth has its own way of surfacing,” Deepak says. Asia’s one and only ESP specialist, who is in the Sultanate to present his show on February 1 at Grand Hyatt between 7 and 9pm, Deepak says: “It is about the ability to use your mental faculty to the maximum.”

Event management company Charisma LLC is organising the Extra Sensory Perception show, which is being staged for the first time in Oman. The show is being presented by National Bank of Oman.

To “shock and awe” is Deepak’s style.

“My presentations are entirely home-grown and the concept is totally new. It is a unique kind of show and to the best of my knowledge I don’t think there is anyone in Asia, Africa, Far East or Middle East who does such shows,” he claims.

Deepak clarifies that his presentation is not a magic show.

“In the beginning of the presentation I make it clear it is not a magic show. We use only the mind,” he says once again turning a sunglass topsy-turvy without even touching it.

Little bit of humour is part of the show.

“But more than the humour, I like to keep the shock and awe going,” says Deepak who can make you laugh every other second.

The highly engaging 60-minute show will involve experiments in intuition, levitation, telepathy, tele-kinesis, clairvoyance, deja-vu, and premonition. “It is a very fast-paced presentation which will be completely interactive,” says Deepak.

“The show starts with a twominute introduction on what it is all about and another one minute dedicated to laying the ground rules on the process of the show. We then swing into action,” he says. Deepak believes his “ability” to baffle the day lights out of you is not about power.

No godman

“I don’t call it a special power because I don’t want to get into that realm. The minute you say “power” you denote and connote all sorts of godman-like abilities,” Deepak says.

With over 215 top corporate clients (whom he likes to call friends) across the globe, Deepak is country or city-hoping nearly every day of the month. Deepak has been impressing corporates who include Microsoft, Infosys, HP, American Express, British Gas, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Philips, Pepsi India, Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI, British Airways, Jet Airways, Thomas Cook, Glaxo since 1992.

“I hadn’t ever thought of making this my main profession. Initially, my focus was on advertising and promotion works and I used this ability to complement my profession. For instance, when I went for presentations I would show one of these bits. The advantage was that the payments would come faster,” he says, smiling.

However, as the popularity of the concept surged, Deepak took it up as a full time profession after 2002.

On why the show is so well liked, he says: “I have a certain style of presentation which has gone a long way in popularising the show.”

Most corporate houses who book him are revolving their conference themes around the ESP show.

“I am called conference energiser,” says the man with a funloving demeanour.

So what is the “take away” from the show?

“Twenty-five years ago there was a Bruce Lee movie, Enter the Dragon. Nobody came out of the cinema hall after seeing the movie learning karate or getting a black belt, but what happened was it helped open 20 karate schools in Mumbai because people were inspired. Similarly, what I can do is I can motivate and inspire somebody. My show is about mission impossible,” says Deepak.

The man, who has written a book on the human mind, says ESP is an important inborn ability that can sharpen a person’s mind and can be used to excel in life.

“Most people use only 5 to 15 per cent of their mental faculties, while few use 15 per cent to 25 per cent,” he says.

May be that explains his special ability.

There is much to look forward to from India’s leading motivational speaker and corporate edu-tainer show to be held tomorrow.

For details contact: 98596850 and 95200168.

Taking advantage of his presence here for the ESP Show, Charisma is organising a twohour morning training session on advertising by Deepak Rao today at Crowne Plaza Muscat titled “It’s creative only if it sells.”