Of course we all know that men are thinking of the Ace of Spades and Ladies are thinking of the Queen of Hearts and it seems like the success rate of this is pretty high.

Well, here at work today, I have a cute little business card holder in which I placed the Ace of Spades and turned it around so nobody could see it.

Someone walked in eventually to ask a question and I told them to think of any card. I tried to hurry them a little and eventually they said "King of Spades".

Luckily for me, I knew by chance that the King of Spades was on the top of the deck
so I flipped it over and told him that I knew he would pick the King of Spades.

He was SHOCKED!!!

Then I proceeded to tell him that I also knew that he was going to pick a different card and changed his mind at the last minute and that his first choice was "right over here" and pointed to the business card holder.

More SHOCK!

Finally I said "And the card you were originally thinking of was this... the Ace of Spades." and I turned around the holder and there it was.

Completely JAW-DROPPED SHOCKED!

Not only did I predict 2 selections, I knew he changed his mind!


So now I'm wondering how this could be turned into a real effect. I suppose the invisible deck plus the Ace of spades inside your lappel?

Now, it really did appear that he changed his mind because he paused just enough.


Any thoughts from you mentalist experts out there to help fine-tune this effect?

Or is it a drawer-trick?

Thanks,
Frank

Hey Frank congrats on that effect

I really like that idea. Actually knowing that the spectator changed his mind is even more powerful than knowing what he eventually thought of.

Now, if there was only a sure fire way...

-Frank G.

Keep the ace on top of the deck, the king on the bottom, and a pinkie on the 7 H.

If you're right, show the card nice and slow.

Top-palm or bottom palm the other cards to a pocket and say "I was also projecting this card. Were you thinking of this card and then changed your mind at the last minute."

If you miss, say, "You look like the kind a guy who would say ______," and do some cold reading and forget about it.

The effect far outweighs the miss.

Asmayly

There's a good discussion of this kind of thing in Richard Osterlind's "Dynamic Mysteries".

Hi Frank:
The late Al Koran was a believer of a kind of suggestion and power. He put a card , any card (!) into his wallet and looked every morning at it. After a few days(Koran said) he could ask a spectator for any card and the one in his wallet was named very often. Koran wrote himself:

"This is a feature. A headline effect. No way to tell in print how to do this. You just do it , and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it and do it. And one day you can do it. If you hit...DO IT AGAIN. If you miss...do an OUT and QUIT!"
(source: Lecture Notes of the Fantastic Koran).

Think of it!

ESPecially and MAGICally

TED LESLEY

A friend of mine does a simple force of a card. He then pretends to name that card using body language. you know the type of routine where he asks the person to say out loudly 1-10 jack -queen. He then reveals the value of the card. He then says outloud the suits looking for any "minimal cues" changes in facial expressions. then reveals the suit.

He is a coporate trainer. He told me the other day that a really bizzarre thing is happening. He has showd this simple effect to a number of groups. He said that they are are doing it legitimatly and are getting a success rate of 50-60%

Don't drop it, keep with it. Have some outs handy, they say the Jack of Diamonds is named often also. I haven't had much luck with the Jack of Diamonds, but I do know where it is. It is actually fun to fish your way around. What you did was a real winner but you must be ready for some fancy moves. Good luck.

Just came across this antiquated thread while looking for some of Mr. Lesley's comments.

Having used the Brainwave and Invisible Decks over a longer period of time, I'd have to say the most often called card is the four of hearts. (Does that say something about my performance?) Indeed, I've considered (and now may well begin doing it) getting hold of a four of hearts forcing deck and loading the blasted things in every pocket and various locations about the performance area just in case...

Who writes about the frequency and psychology of randomly (?) named cards?

You must be working for a lot of magicians, they often pick fours and sevens.

In "X" by Knepper, there is an effect titled "Insinuated Double Prediction." This may read a little odd, but in this one, you predict an incorrect choice as well as the correct choice by the participant. It's not quite what you describe, but it gets at the same type of thing and the method guarantees success every time. The correct choice and the incorrect choice are the only cards, from another deck, that you have in an envelope that is in front of the participant the whole time. The wrong choice is marked to show that you knew it would be the wrong one.

Years ago I used to carry the Queen of Hearts in my outside, upper jacket pocket. I'd ask the lady to "name a card, not the Ace of Spades, that's too easy" and she'd usually say the Queen of Hearts. You get the idea.

I thought about this today for some reason and it got me wondering. Has anyone done and published any research on the topic of most named random cards?

Where is this discussion? I can't find it.

In Kenton's The Secret he goes some way into how to approach this too...might be worth checking out.

We could do our own survey here on line! Okay, think of a card. What was it? - I got the eight of clubs.

Years ago I read something about commonly named cards in a David Blain's book (for the public). Derren Brown also goes into it a little in Pure Effect, and there is plenty of stuff on t'interweb in you look hard enough.

Needless to say, suggestion and psychological forcing can greatly work to your advantage if you play around with it. I am working on something at the moment where I get one spectator to take a series of playing cards (about 10) of the top of a shuffled (:))deck, only to have a second spectator name them all, not always bang on, but always near and often bang on.

As a second survey, I'd be interested to know which cards people have had the most success psychologically forcing, particularly their own creations. Mine are below (a few aren't my own):

Ace of spades, Queen of hearts (Yawn!), 3 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 2 of Hearts, 5 of Diamonds, 4 of clubs (a beauty, PM me for info), A Black Queen, A Red Number.

I thought about this today for some reason and it got me wondering. Has anyone done and published any research on the topic of most named random cards?
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in `psychological subtleties` (banachek)page 55 is a list! and an extra list for women only!

Brown uses The MindPower deck in PURE EFFECT for his SMOKE routine, however he also provides the method for a deck switch instead of a gimmicked one albeit using the same forcing principle as the MindPower Deck...

brown provides his designated outs within the patter.