DIRECT MIND READING

One trick that puzzled me for a long time was Trevor Hall’s Direct Mind Reading. He famously performed it at The Hoffmann Memorial Lecture at the Magic Circle in 1951. In 1956 he advertised it as a limited edition dealer item in The Magic Circular. I’ve never managed to locate a copy of the instructions (almost, but that’s another story) and I’d be very surprised if Hall ever sold all his 100 sets, hence its rarity. What follows is my guess as to the basic method. I’m including it here not only because it is a great trick but I think it deserves a place in the history of the Koran Miracle Deck. Those of you who have the Not The Berglas Effect manuscript will see how it fits into the chronology.

Let’s start with the effect as reported in the notes for Trevor Hall’s 1951 lecture entitled The Creation of a Magical Effect. The lecture was devoted to thought-of card effects.

EFFECT

I am frequently asked whether direct mind-reading is a possibility. The answer to that is 'Yes and No.' [To Peter Warlock] : If you say to me now, 'What am I thinking about?' I haven't the faintest idea, and neither has anybody else. But if you are prepared to help by forming a vivid mental picture of an everyday object, then direct mind-reading is sometimes possible. If we take a pack of cards as 52 everyday objects, again if you think of a card on the spur of the moment and ask me what it is . . . I don't know. I might have a hunch about it but there would be no guarantee of success. But if you will look at one of these cards and think intently of it, then between us we may succeed. [Pack is spread into the widest possible fan, and shown to Peter Warlock.]

Will you look at these cards, Peter, and think of one? I would like you to think of it so intently that you can imagine yourself putting out a finger and pulling it out of the fan, but without, of course, doing so. Have you done that? Thank you. You will agree that you have of your own free will looked at and just thought of a card. I haven't asked you to write it down, or even touch it . . . it is a secret locked in your mind. Yet it may be thought that I have in some mysterious way influenced your choice, so we will have a second card thought of in such a manner that everybody may be satisfied that these thoughts are genuinely haphazard.

[To Peter Warlock] : Will you cut the pack? Cut it again . . . and again if you wish. You must now be satisfied that nobody in the world knows the position of a single card in that pack. Do you agree? Are you satisfied, therefore, that the card now lying on top of the pack could be any card amongst the 52? You are? Good. Will you please give it to Ernest and ask him to look at it and think intently of it.

[To Peter Warlock] : Now, in order that you may know both cards, will you take it back, look at it yourself and remember it, and push it anywhere you like in the pack to lose it. [Cards put away.] We have finished with the cards and the conditions have been fulfilled.

[To Peter Warlock and Ernest Wethered] : You are now literally thinking of two everyday objects, and you, Peter, are the only living; soul who knows them both. I am sorry to burden you with this double work, but in mind-reading" one is sometimes up against a difficulty. For example, the other night I named the two cards as the Seven of Clubs and the Nine of Spades and I was wrong. They were, in fact, the Seven of Spades and the Nine of Clubs, and I need hardly tell you where I went astray. My two helpers were thinking intently of very similar mental pictures, and you will readily understand how they superimposed themselves on me.

As the success of this experiment depends upon you, Peter, may I ask you a simple question? All I need to know is whether I am in the same difficulty tonight, because if I am I must take special precautions. Can you confirm that the two cards are entirely dissimilar in colour and value? They are? Good. I think then that with the smallest amount of concentration by you I shall be able to divine your card. You will agree that you just thought of a card, of your own free will, in the spread out pack? And that as a member of Council of the MAGIC CIRCLE you will agree that there is no conjuring principle which would enable me to divine it? And that therefore it is a fact that at the moment nobody else in the world but you can possibly know that you are thinking of the Two of Clubs? And yet that was in fact the very card you decided to think about? Good.

[To Ernest Wethered] : Now, Ernest, will you think intently of your card? You will agree that it was chosen absolutely at random by Peter and handed to you, and then given back to him to be buried in the pack? And that I have neither seen it nor touched it? You will admit, therefore, that if I can say that you are at this moment thinking of the Nine of Hearts, there is perhaps something to be said for direct mind-reading? And the Nine of Hearts is correct? Thank you very much.

METHOD

I think Hall used a deck that combined elements of the Ralph Hull Nu Idea Force Deck and the Koran Miracle Deck. There are many ways to put these two principles together and what follows is just one.

The deck is made up of 54 cards. 27 of them consists of 3 x 9 banks of cards that are arranged so that you can divine any card thought of by a process of interrogation. The set up is similar to the Koran Miracle Deck.

Here is the set of cards. The should appear in a random order but are shown here grouped in suits for clarity. The backs of all these cards are lightly roughed:

KD 10D 3D JC 2C AH 5H QS 9S

26 of the cards consist of the 9H. This card will always be forced as one of the two selections. The faces of each 9H is lightly roughed. Also each 9H is a short card of the kind found in the Svengali Deck or Hull’s Nu Idea deck.

The 9H cards are alternated with the three banks of cards. A completely different card , say, King of Spades, is now placed on the face of the deck. Its back has been treated with roughing fluid.

What you have is a rather peculiar rough and smooth force deck. If the faces of the cards are spread towards the spectator, other than the KS on the face of the deck they will only be able to see cards from the 9-card banks. All the 9H remain hidden. The roughing should be very light because later the spectator will need to remove one of the 9H from the deck.

If the cards are squared and given to the spectator to cut he will always cut a short card to the top, thus forcing the 9H.

The deck restricts choice when handled in one manner and forces a choice when handled in another. Time to move on to the handling and a rather clever divination idea of Hall’s.

HANDLING

The presentation is covered in earlier in the description of the Effect. Pay attention to Hall’s careful presentation before trying to vary it. What you say really matters.

The mechanics of the trick are relatively simple. When the deck is spread with the faces towards the spectator only the 9-card banks show. The spectator thinks of one of these 9 cards. You square the deck and give it a couple of cuts to indicate to the second spectator what you want him to do.

The second spectator cuts the deck several times and then takes a look at the top card. It will always be a short card, one of the 9H. This card is now handed to the first spectator who now knows the identities of both cards. Here the interrogation begins and introduces a brilliant idea of Hall’s.

Ask the spectator: ‘Can you confirm that the two cards are entirely dissimilar in colour and value?’

This one question drastically reduces the number of possibilities. Let’s assume the answer is YES. This means that the thought-of card must be one of the following:

JC 2C QS

One question has reduced the 9 possible cards to only three. With a bit of guesswork it will only take you two more wrong guesses at most to nail the card. I'm assuming that, for obvious reasons, not all of Hall's interrogative questions were included in the Magic Circular write up. However, it is also possible that Hall refined the interrogative technique even further or used fewer cards in the force banks to enable him to achieve a quick hit.

If the spectator says NO and tells you that the two cards are the same colour, the thought-of card must be one of the following:

KD 10D 3D AH 5H

This time the question has narrowed the selection down to five possibilities.

Regardless of the outcome you now interrogate further using the usual method of identifying whether the card is high or low or quizzing the spectator about the suit. If you are familiar with the working of the Koran Miracle Deck you should have no problem.

Finally, if the spectator answers your initial question by saying that both cards are the same value you know immediately that he thought of the 9S. Easy.

NOTES: I like Trevor Hall’s thinking. The addition of a second card is clever way of disguising the interrogation and offers the opportunity of a brilliant first question. it also gives you the added security of knowing the identity of one of the cards from the very beginning. You can make the deck up with banks of five, six, eight or ten cards as per any of the many Koran Miracle Deck variations.

One final point. If you are nimble of mind, you can do this trick with a marked and stacked deck. Or even just a stacked deck. Ask a spectator to select a card and put it in his pocket. You do all this without looking at the cards. But you cut the deck at the point of removal so that later glancing back at the deck you can deduce the identity of the selection.

Next ask the spectator to call stop as you spread the cards face-down from one hand to the other. When he stops you raise the cards towards him and ask him to think of one of the cards he can see. You spread that portion of the deck so he can only see about half a dozen of the cards. Because the cards are marked you know the identity of the first card of the batch. Put the cards away.

The spectator is thinking of a card and you already know the names of the cards in the small batch he looked at. Ask him to take out the card from his pocket. He is now thinking of two cards. Using exactly the same opening question and interrogation technique you can deduce the identities of both selections.

You should make the conditions under which the trick is performed seem impossible in order to get the most out of it. But other than that I think it's worth playing around with and that there is more to be done with Hall's basic idea.

DECKORAMA

The following idea arose out of a discussion about the Rama Deck with Alex Conran. I’d read the advert and watched the video and thought I recognised an old principle at work. But more about that later.

It got me wondering what the simplest set up might be for an ‘impossible location’ effect using an ordinary deck. And with that thought in mind, the following trick was born.

EFFECT: A deck of cards is tabled in front of the spectator. He is asked to cut off about a third of the deck, shuffle the packet and look at the top card. There’s no way you could know the identity of this card.

He puts the packet down on the table and then cuts some cards from the remainder of the deck and drops them on top of his selection, effectively burying it. Again, there is no way of knowing the position of his card or the identity of the cards above or below it.

Finally, a second spectator picks up the remaining portion of the deck. He shuffles them. He notes the bottom card of the packet and then drops it on top of the rest of the deck. Once again it’s apparent that you cannot know the name of his card or any of the cards surrounding it. So, without any obvious key cards to guide you, how can you possibly locate the two selections?

The answer is, quite easily.

METHOD: The trick depends on a set-up. The 26 red cards are at the top of the face-down deck and the 26 black cards are at the bottom.

Step 1: Table the deck and ask the first spectator to cut off about a third of the cards from the top. It doesn’t matter how many he cuts. Ask him to shuffle the cards, “so that I can’t know the position of any one of them.” With the packet still in his hands ask him to look at the top card and remember it. Then place the packet on the table.

Step 2: Ask him to cut some more cards from the deck and drop them on top of his card to bury it. All you need make sure is that he cuts into the original lower half of the deck. If you are paying attention it should be obvious as to whether he has cut enough cards.

If he only cut a few cards originally, he will need to cut many more now. Conversely if he cut a lot of cards to form the first packet, he doesn’t need to cut too many cards now. Try to play it so that about a third of the deck is left behind.

Step 3: Finally, ask a second spectator to pick up the remaining third of the deck. He shuffles the cards, takes a peek at the bottom card of the packet and then drops this packet onto the tabled cards. Both spectators should be convinced that their cards have been lost in the deck. They have, but because of the original red/black set up it will be an easy matter to find them again.

The first thing to realise is that because of the set-up the first spectator will have chosen a red card and the second spectator chose a black card.

Step 4: Pick the deck up and spread through it. The cards at the face of the deck will be red. The last of this batch of red cards will be the first spectator’s chosen card. That was easy!

Okay, keep spreading. You will come to a batch of black cards. Followed by another batch of red cards. Finally, a second batch of black cards. The face card of this batch is the second spectator’s card. Again, easy. You’ve just found both selected cards.

Now all you have to do is come up with a presentation that makes the finding of the cards as good as the impossible conditions under which the cards were selected.

BONUS EFFECT

I showed the above location to Guy Hollingworth who remembered a similar trick though one that involved a slightly more complicated set-up. Unfortunately he couldn’t remember the name of the inventor so I can’t give credit at the moment. However, that trick inspired the idea of revealing the second selection without having to look through the deck.

It requires no alteration to the set-up or procedure so let’s assume that both cards have been selected. Point out that no one could know the location of the chosen cards.

Step 1: Pick the deck up and give it a false shuffle, one that doesn’t alter the position of any card. The false shuffle is not necessary but I think it does two things: it adds to the notion that the cards are lost. And it helps provide a time break before the next phase. A shuffle and some chat from you will allow the spectators to start enjoying the effect as opposed to puzzling out the method.

Step 2: Put the deck on the table and cut off a portion that is less than half the deck. The portion needs to contain more cards than the second spectator cut. Place these cards aside and then pick up the remainder of the deck.

Look through these cards. From the face you will see a batch of red cards followed by a batch of black cards, followed by a second batch of red cards. The last red of the first batch is the first spectator’s selected card. Upjog it from the spread.

Continue spreading the cards and count the number of black cards. Make a mental note of it. Let’s assume it is 11.

Take out the upjogged red card and ask the first spectator to name his chosen card. Turn the card around to show that you were correct.

Step 3: You can now find the second card without even looking through the other packet. Just subtract your memorised number from 26 to give you the position of the selection in the tabled packet. In this case we subtract 11 from 26 which means that the second card is 15^th from the top of the tabled packet.

Because you know the position of the selection there are lots of ways of revealing it dramatically. For example, you can have the spectator deal cards from the packet face down onto the table and when you ‘sense’ the card you call stop.

NOTES: Alex Conran pointed out a great Lie Speller trick in Simon Aronson’s book Aronson’s Approach. It’s in the description of the Self Control trick. See the Comments section on page 26 and 27. It offers a way of spelling to any position in the deck and is ideal for this particular location where you know the location but not the identity of the card.

When I first came up with this location it was only designed to find one card. The spectator cut a packet of cards, shuffled them, noted the top card and then placed them on the table. He then cut a small packet of cards (though one that took him beyond the 26^th card in the deck) from the larger packet and dropped it on top of his selection. He continued cutting small batches of cards from one packet to the other, burying his card even deeper. Soon the deck was fully reconstituted and his card lost. He could then cut the deck and complete the cut several times to lose his card.

At that point you can pick up the deck. If you spread the cards towards you, you will see two batches of red cards. The rear card of one of these batches is the selection. To determine which batch look for the smaller bunch of black cards. If you imagine that this smaller batch of black cards is what separates the two red batches, then the selected card is the rear card of the batch nearest the face of the deck. I’m assuming that nothing bizarre has occurred during the selection process.

I should mention that if the red batches become split during the cutting, just cut the deck between the black cards to reconstitute them and make the thought process easier for you. Play with the trick. You’ll figure it out.

BARBOUR’S SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY TRICK

I mentioned earlier that when I saw the Rama Deck video I felt it was a familiar idea, one that had been reinvented for a new generation. In the Sid Lorraine archives at Ask Alexander there is a very clever trick attributed to Victor Barbour that reveals just how long magicians have been toying with this principle.

The effect was one in which a miniature photograph of a playing card was produced. Spirit Photography effects of this type were very popular during right up to the 1930s but Barbour’s version featured a novel combination of methods.

He used a special deck which did two things. It restricted the choice of card to one of twenty-six. And at the same time it told him which of those twenty-six cards had been selected.

The deck was constructed along the lines of a Mene-Tekel Deck but instead of being made up of twenty-six pairs of identical cards it had a full complement of fifty-two cards. Each pair of cards was set up according to the Si Stebbins system. So if the first card of one pair was, say, 3C the second card would be the 6H, assuming that suits were arranged in CHaSeD order.

The top card of each pair was a short card. In fact it was both short and narrow, exactly as in the improved version of the Mene-Tekel Deck, sometimes called The Self-Shifting Deck. This meant that if the deck was riffled shuffled by the spectator, then the cards would always fall in pairs. And no pair of cards would be separated.

Additionally each long card was marked on the back. If the spectator cut the deck he would bring a short card to the top. He looked at that card while the performer secretly looked at the mark on the back of the next card. Because of the Si Stebbins system the performer could work out the name of the selection. In effect Barbour had created a deck of cards that could be riffled shuffled by the spectator, any card cut to and the performer would instantly know which card had been selected. All very prescient of the Rama Deck.

Barbour used this knowledge to bring out a two-way envelope already loaded with a small piece of photographic paper on which was the image of the selection. A blank piece of photographic paper was then examined by the spectator before being inserted in to the free compartment of the envelope.

During all this Barbour took the opportunity to switch out the gaffed deck. Then the spectator returned his short/narrow card to the regular deck and gave the cards a thorough shuffle. All very convincing.

After some mumbo jumbo Barbour opened the envelope but only showed the blank side of the photograph. He pretended that the trick hadn’t worked out. And suggested that perhaps the special paper had to be closer to the cards. He cut the deck into two packets, secretly cutting at the spectator’s selection which because of it being both short and narrow was now acting as a key card.

Carefully he put the photographic paper between the halves of the deck. He did this by balancing the paper on the blade of the knife he had used to open the envelope and using it as a scoop to place the paper in position. This was a common handling for tricks of this type. It lent some authenticity to the idea that a photographic image was going to be developed on the paper.

After a few seconds the deck was opened at the paper and the paper turned over to reveal an image of the selection on it. This would have been very impressive in its day. For the kicker the top card of the lower packet was turned over to reveal that it was the selected card. I think it’s a really interesting routine and well worth resurrecting with a smarter trimmer handling perhaps having the spectator cut the deck and using the old Crossing the Cut Force to reveal the selection at the finish.