Imagine:
The magician hands a business card to a spectator as he says to them "My assistant's number and name is on this card. I'm giving this information to you now because if I gave it to you after the selection, you might think I have 52 numbers or 52 names prepared, one for each possible outcome." With this said, he promises never to touch the business card again.
The magician then introduces a deck of cards, spreading it face up in front of the spectator. The spectator can see that all cards are present and that there are no duplicates.
The magician invites the spectator to point to any card in the face up spread. Whichever card they choose, it is removed from the face up spread and isolated off to the side. At this point, the magician squares up the face up spread, turns the deck face down, and gives it a few cuts as he says to the spectator "I want you to lose your card anywhere into the deck. Simply slide it into the deck anywhere you want while I look away." So the magician places the deck down in front of the spectator and turns away. (Before turning away, he also promises never to touch the deck again.) Then, the spectator does as instructed.
Once the spectator has buried their card into the deck at a point of their choosing, the magician turns back around to face them. He says "I have no idea where your card is right now. But, in order to make it more fair, give the deck as many complete cuts and as many riffle shuffles as you want." The spectator does this. (They really can riffle shuffle as many times as they want. There is no restriction.)
After the shuffling, the magician asks the spectator to call the assistant's number from the business card - the spectator uses their own phone for this. But, before the call, he tells the spectator to make sure that during the call he (the magician) doesn't make any sounds (whether verbal or non-verbal), that he sits silently as a ghost. Once they've understood this, they are asked to make the call.
The assistant answers the call and says "I want you to name the cards top down from the shuffled deck. When you name your card, simply think 'stop'. But then continue naming the rest of the cards. I will try to receive a telepathic impression when you think 'stop'." The spectator does that - and, after they're done, the assistant reveals the name of their chosen card without asking any questions.
Some important conditions of note:
- The deck that is used for the effect, it contains no duplicates. So the spectator has a completely free choice of any card in the deck.
- After a card is selected (in the manner described above), the spectator really can slide that card into the deck anywhere they want.
- After the spectator slides their card into the deck and subsequently shuffles the deck, the magician never touches the deck again.
- When the spectator calls the assistant, they do so using their own phone (which the magician never touches at any point in time).
- The number and name of the assistant is given to the spectator at the beginning of the effect before the selection is ever made.
- During the call, the magician sits silently as a ghost. He doesn't make any verbal sounds and he also doesn't make any non-verbal sounds.
- There are no electronics or other devices involved. So the magician doesn't use any sort of hidden electronics or devices to secretly communicate the name of the selected card to his assistant.
- There is no secret helper / third party involved.
- The assistant could be located across the world from where the magician and the spectator are located. So this is a long distance telepathy effect.
Since the illusion of remote telepathy is created under test conditions, I decided to name this effect Over the Phone Telepathy: On Steroids.
1st edition 2023, PDF 11 pages.
word count: 3893 which is equivalent to 15 standard pages of text
