Vol#1 – Psychological playing card forces

Welcome

Firstly thank you for purchasing this document, please refrain from
sharing this. Enjoy it and be selfish - You know you want to.

Before we get to the introduction I would like to quickly talk about

what this series is about and what it is not about.

It is a series of ideas pertaining to particular areas of mentalism

- The areas I find interesting. It is an outlook on the way that I
do things and the opinions expressed in this pdf are purely my own
(or if there is a contribution made the other artists own) and
should be taken that way.

I am by no means saying that this is how it should be done. I would

really love to see your take on the materials portrayed in this
series.

This series will start with simple playing card forces

(psychological) and then move onto other areas of mentalism. I will
cover how to read someone (cold reading), drawing duplications,
billet work (which is something I have never talked about in depth),
how to create premise and tell stories and many other subject areas.

So here is the first in the series -

Introduction

I’m sat in the Ring ‘O’ Bells public house in Queensbury age 12, it
was the night I passed my 3000 meter swimming badge.

I was celebrating with a chip butty (for my American friends a fries

sandwich) and a panda pop (a small blue coloured soda) being
congratulated by all of my aunty Del’s friends the night I saw it.

By it I mean one of the most baffling pieces of magic/ mentalism I

had ever witnessed.

I had been performing card tricks on the locals and had a deck of
EMU playing cards sat on the table when I was approached by one of
the locals and asked if I wanted to see a trick. Of course I jumped
at the opportunity – Watching magic effects at the time was almost
impossible. My nan/ aunty didn’t drive so wasn’t able to take me to
shows and the only effects I had ever seen were the ones I had seen
on VHS which I had borrowed from the magic stall I worked at. The
chance to see an effect in person for me was as exciting as
Christmas coming!
He picked up the deck of cards went through them and laid one card
facedown. He explained that he was going to get me to guess the card
on the table – Yeah right I thought.

He asked me the colour of the card, the suit and finally the value -
no equivoque or procedure just as fair as fair gets. He was grinning
from ear to ear and asked me to turn it over, I did and you guessed
it – It was the card I had named!

It was inexplicable, unexplainable - incredible! It was like a

symphony of fireworks going off inside my head, I had nowhere to go.

You all know the feeling, that feeling of wonder, awe and shock that
reminds you why you got into magic in the first place.

I looked across the table, with a dumbstruck look on my face and

stuttered...HOW?

He said whilst walking away,

“A magician never reveals his secrets”.

I never did work out how he did it.

Years later I have finally got around to compiling a way to do this

for each playing card in the deck thus bringing everything full
circle.

Inside this booklet you will find an array of different ways to

psychologically force any playing card inside the deck, make it seem
like you have psychologically forced a playing card, performance
tips, premises and mechanical/psychological outs.

Peter Turner 2015

Frequently asked questions

Let’s start by answering questions about psychological forces;

What is a psychological force?

Also known as a psi force, psy forces, mental forces or a non-

mechanical forces.

The best way to describe what a psychological force is, is to

compare to a mechanical one.

Let’s take the ‘Classic force’ – for those reading that don’t know
the classic force, it is essentially a way of spreading the deck and
ensuring that whatever card you want the spectator to choose from
the spread they will. Whilst there is an amount of psychology
involved in the classic force, in a nut shell it is essentially
pacing the spread and pushing the card you want subtly into the
participant’s hands without them suspecting a thing.

Note** In short, the classic force doesn’t sound in writing as

beautiful as it is in performance so please forgive my brief
description of it.

A psychological card force relies on nothing more than subtle verbal

guidance, there is no deck of cards, they never take one out, they
simply think of it and you can choose how you want to reveal the
card.

Are psychological forces 100%?

The honest answer is no, but with practice you can be close – All of
these forces are carefully crafted in order to enable you to be as
close to being sure fire as possible. I have also provided outs so
that you never need to worry about these forces failing.

I also feel this is where the fun is, trying and seeing how close
you get. If at first you don't succeed all you have to do is try
again.

I often find with these type of routines the best out is the age old
line - "I think from that, I can see exactly how you think".

Then you move into something that you know is 100% sure fire. When
these do hit, you have inexplicable miracles that I guarantee people
will talk about.

The biggest lesson to garner from this subject is that it really

doesn't make a difference if these miss and not to worry because
you’re out is solid.
Do I need to practice to be able to do this?

Of course! Every effect, premise or script should be practiced to a

T. The only way to get good at anything is to practice it, the more
you do it, the better you will become at it. That is the real secret
to everything inside this booklet; you should be practicing whenever
you get the chance. I practice the scripts to all of my effects when
I am in the shower, in the car, I rehearse them in my head long
before I ever try and test them out on an audience.

One thing I hate is takeaway mentalism – too many advertisements

these days read “perform straight out of the box”. Whatever happened
to rehearsing?

Imagine a group of musicians who have never practiced solo or in a

group setting, placed together to perform a gig and you were trapped
in a room with them having to hear it. That is a very fitting
analogy of how people will feel when you don’t want to rehearse and
go out and perform from the box.

Take note – This is not the type of routine to practice on your

spouse, they have a way of purposefully being awkward and it doesn’t
make for good practice.

Can playing cards be used in mentalism?

This is the age old question, I have answered this question in the
past and I will briefly outline what I have expressed before – Don’t
worry I will keep it brief as I know you will want to get into the
content.

I think using playing cards in mentalism you have to metaphorically

change the relevance from the audience’s perspective in regards to
playing cards. Most mentalists think that as soon as you pick up a
deck of cards your audience are going to automatically assume that
you are doing magic tricks.

It all depends on the way you frame what it is you are performing,
in one of my earlier releases I released ‘Getting to know you’ A
tarot-esque effect using playing cards (cartomancy) not one person
would ever assume that was a trick because of its esoteric nature.
Read a few of the effects explained in here, I guarantee that your
audience will never assume what they experience is a trick.

So the answer to the question in brief is yes... Yes they can.

From the beginning

The biggest thing to remember with all of these forces is not to

look at the deck like 52 different cards (which they are) but 13
cards and 4 suits. When you can get this into your head it makes it
really easy to be able to force any playing card you require.

I am first going to outline a multitude of different ways to force

the suit for the playing cards. I will start with equivoque
(equivoque is a viable method that you can use as an out OR as the
main way to get someone to think of a suit being it that it is 100%).

After we have forced the suit this means that we are then only left
dealing with 1-13 which is when you think about it not really a huge
range.

Equivoque

This is the simplest way to force the suit, yet the least
imaginative - Great if you want to be sure fire.

There are many different scripts for the equivoque of the suit of
the playing card. This is the way that I do it and is in my opinion
the simplest and most logical.

Step one - decide upon the suit you want to force.

For the point of an example let me outline how to force the heart.

Performer: “I am going to tell you before we begin that this is by

process of elimination, there will be no ambiguity whatsoever and
whatever decisions you make we will follow.

[Remember to accent 'by process of elimination' so they clearly hear

you say it.]

First call out a colour - red or black?”

Participant: “Red”

If they choose red move on as they called that out as a selection.

If they choose black, then counter with

Performer: “Just to be fair and to reiterate, I stated this would be

by process of elimination so that obviously leaves the Reds. Do you
want to change your mind?”

Do not ask the last question if the person you are working with has
been difficult before this point. It is quite a bold question, most
people won’t change their mind so I don’t mind asking questions like
this, this is a key question we will come back to time and time
again. Chan Canasta (if you haven't seen his performances go check
them out on youtube as you would be mad not to it’s a lesson in
things like this).

You can slightly change the question - This is also something I use
frequently as it ensures no one will change their mind.

Performer: "Are you sure that is your decision, you can change your
mind if you don't think it was your own, feel free".

[Notice the word decision in that above sentence - NOT CHOICE.]

After the colour is selected move onto the next step.

You are essentially down to one colour - it is now about choosing

the option that works best for you to force the suit.

Performer: “We have hearts and diamonds take one of them from me”.

Obviously at this point if they say hearts it is a clean hit just

respond with

Performer: “Are you sure that’s the one you want?”

This is quite a bold question but I have never had anyone say no.

I would then reiterate the series of events slightly changing what

happened – Always try and think about where these principles can be
applied outside of playing card forces. This simple but elegant type
of principle can be applied to any are of mentalism. In short – Re-
cap is king!

Performer: "I asked you to choose a colour you said red, I asked you
to choose a suit and you said heart and I even offered you the
opportunity to change your mind. I don’t think this could be any
fairer. Had you chose black you would have been on a completely
different colour and therefore the outcome would have been entirely
different.

If they say diamonds not hearts, quickly counter with,

Performer: “You were asked to take one away and you decided to take
the diamond are you sure that’s the one you want to take away?”

Again this is quite a bold question but I have never had anyone say
no.

Performer: “Well that obviously leaves us with the heart, had the
series of events been different the outcome would have been
different, you were asked to choose a colour and you said red, you
were then asked to choose a suit you decided you wanted to keep the
heart. Had you chose black, which you could have done you would have
been somewhere entirely different”.
If you have each of these scripts rehearsed smoothly and you move at
a nice pace then no one is ever going to notice a bump with the
questions that you are asking.

Check out David Berglas' work on Equivoque, Mark Elsdon and Joshua
Quinn also have a series of interesting ideas using equivoque.

I have tried to stay brief while talking about equivoque as I don’t

want to take away from what this is really about.

The bolder approach

This is my favoured approach, try this out you will be surprised at

how cleanly this plays out.

The two most psychologically chosen suits are heart and club, by
killing one of them suits it practically forces the other.

Here is a couple of examples of how to kill a suit.

If you want to force a red card all you have to do is place a black
card on the face of the deck and casually flash it. As mentioned
above heart and club are the most frequently chosen, so if you place
a club on the bottom of the deck it will force a red card (a heart
more frequently) and if you place a heart on the bottom of the deck
it will have the reverse effect and will force a black (a club
mostly).

This has an added effect if you say while casually flashing the card
“I am going to try put a playing card in your mind”.

If you don’t want to use a deck of cards when performing and just
want to go for the reveal on a piece of paper/ billet you can always
verbalise a suit to kill it.

Here is an example.

Performer: “In a moment I am going to ask you to think of a playing

card, we will build it up nice and slowly in your mind aspect by
aspect but I need you to over visualize. For example if in your mind
you see a club, I want you to imagine it being ten times darker and
bolder for me. Clear your mind completely and let’s start”.

Obviously to force a black card you would replace the word club in
the above script for heart.

Try this it will surprise you how stable this is.

This seems innocent as you are just telling the participant what you
would like them to visualize and in doing that you are actually
upping the probability of you success rating.

Don’t be scared to get them to change their mind

This is probably something I take advantage of more than anything

else. I would recommend thinking about this.

Before you aim to force a suit (this is more tailored for the bolder
suit variations) casually drop in –

Performer: “I will even let you change your mind at any point”.

When it comes to them calling a suit out loud now. If they call the
wrong one out you can give yourself a second/ third chance by simply
saying,

Performer: “Where you have settled now is instinctive, you decided

that you were going to go for this suit, I don’t want you leaving
here thinking that I could have pre-empted this. Remember me saying
I was going to get you to say a suit and then get you to change it,
this so even you didn’t know what suit you were going to think of
and it is completely random”.

This means in theory you can at this point if you are not feeling as
bold or you are practicing move into equivoque.

Another favourite of mine is to get the participant to accidentally

blurt out the suit, then if it is the right suit you can go with it
and accept it as a fair choice if not you can say to them “No don’t
say it out loud just yet or you will make my job really easy just
think it”.

To get the participant to blurt the suit out all you have to do is
look at them and say “All I want you to do is think what’s the suit?”

Accent the “whats the suit?” so it sounds like you want them to tell
you and they will blurt it out.

Not Ed Marlo’s snap change

There are two approaches for this: one is the simple and effective
approach and the other is the bold approach. I will let you decide
which one you think I prefer.

Variation #1

This variation is something you will have to just try to see the
effectiveness of it. It is essentially a verbal subtlety that
ensures you know the order in which the participant changes their
mind. It is a clever take on “restricting without seeming
restrictive.”
The participant gets slightly less from this than the audience, but
it flies straight under the radar so I never worry.

Address the participant:

Performer: “To make sure you know the four suits, can you say them
out loud for me?”

Participant: “Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds.”

Performer: “In a moment I am going to snap my fingers, and every

time I snap my fingers I just want you to cycle through the suits.”

As you say the word “suits,” snap once close to your body, snap a
second time a few inches from the first time and then snap a third
and fourth time, each time a little farther than the last time you
snapped.

I understand that it is a very difficult instruction to understand

in text. Essentially you are non-verbally suggesting to the
participant: “Each time I snap my fingers I want you to move to a
different suit.”

Because you used a specific word in your scripting, the word “cycle,”
the participant won’t change the order of the suits they committed
to when they named them out loud (in this example I used CHaSeD
order). This means they will constantly go around CHaSeD order
(don’t worry, there is a video link in a moment).

For example, let’s say you want to force a Club and the participant
has said the suits out loud in CHaSeD order. Address the
participant:

Performer: “Visualise the first suit in your mind and get ready for
me to snap my fingers.”

This will let the participant know to think of the Club and that
when you snap they are to start stepping through the cycle they
chose.

Now all you have to do is snap count along in your head. Snap
(Heart), snap (Spade), snap (Diamond).

Go around as many times as you like. Slow down on the last few,
ensuring you stop on Club.

Remember, you aren’t saying the suits out loud.

When you do stop them on the Club and address the participant:

Performer: “Be 100% honest, you didn’t know you would be thinking of
a playing card?”

Participant: “No, I didn’t.”

Performer: “You didn’t know that you would be changing your mind in
the order you did?”

Participant: “No.”
Performer: “Therefore there is no way I could have known the order
in which
you would have decided to change your mind?”
Participant: “No.”

Look at how sneaky the questioning is: it will lead the audience to
believe that the participant could have changed their mind in any
order, when in fact they really couldn’t. If you are bold you could
make the participant promise that they will not change the suit and
then almost pressure them to admit they could have changed to any
suit in any order.

Before anyone takes the word “pressure” out of context, I don’t mean
instant stooge or control/manipulate; I mean use of clever questions
like the questions above.

At this point you can openly produce (in a non-magical sense) the
card you forced.

Additional idea

This is something that I have explored in great depth in The Book of

Demons. It is so sneaky yet completely forces the participant to
stick to the order that they chose.

It requires good audience management but is very simple; I have used

this in close-up for such a long time and I have never had any
problems.

Stand the participant away from the group so they are facing the
group of witnesses.

After the participant has called out the four suits and you have
explained they are going to cycle through them when you snap, face
the participant for a few seconds (ensuring the witnesses cannot see
your mouth).

When you snap the first time, mouth the word “Club,” then snap again
and mouth the word “Heart,” then snap and mouth “Spade,” snap and
say “Diamond” and then finally snap and say “Club.” NOTE: You would
be mouthing them in the order that they specified out loud.

Continue to snap and they will follow the order with no problems
whatsoever. This will ensure that they will stop on the exact suit
you would like. This is a very simple touch, but when you take this
principle and you stretch it, there are many wonderful applications.
Variation #2

The bold variation.

I cannot for the life of me explain how I do this, but I am accurate

95% of the time without having them say anything out loud.

I urge you to try it my way. See how it works for you.

I ask the participant to think of a playing card suit and then I

proclaim:

Performer: “Every time I snap my fingers I want you to change the

suit to whatever suit you feel you want to change to.”

I start to snap my fingers at a nice pace (one that feels

comfortable) and I close my eyes and think of the suit I would think
of.

I then start to slow down my snaps and I stop when I feel

I would stop on whatever suit it is I want them to stop on.

I find this somehow works; maybe it is that we are all similar as

human beings...I don’t know!

Natural selection

If you ask a women to pick a suit the likeliness is she will go for
the heart, a man will go for a club. This plays a massive favour in
making your choices seem so much fairer, I have realised that it is
nicer to ask someone to pick a suit and then jazz to get them to
change should it not be the suit you want them to choose (which I
will also outline below).

Let me give you an example of a context where this would play a big
part. Let’s say that someone has thought of a playing card then
removed that card from the deck and placed it face down on the table.
You know the card is the seven of clubs (I will detail this kind of
routine later) – I would then naturally point to a male to perform
the psychological force on knowing they would more than likely go
for a black suit. If the card that came out of the deck was red, I
would choose a women knowing that she would go for a red.

You could take this a step further let’s say a diamond comes out of
the deck and you have turned to a women to go for the suit. You know
the likeliness is she will go for a heart, instead of asking her to
call a suit out loud ask her to think of one.

When she says she is look at her for a second and then say:
Performer: “Stay with whatever colour you are on and change to the
other suit from within that colour”.

This will naturally force them to go for the heart.

What if they don’t? What if the female participant was thinking of a

diamond and then changed to a heart?

Well using language it is very easy to get your participants to go

back to their initial choice. Making someone change their mind is a
really, really easy thing to do.
Start by saying to the participant, “Would you consider yourself an
instinctive person, good at making decisions?” – No one is going to
say no at this point it is a very clever double bind.

Then all you have to do is simply ask:

Performer: “So do you want to stay with the suit you are on now, or
do you want to go back to YOUR (emphasise the word your) first
instinctive choice. It is essential that you leave knowing each and
every decision you make is yours and no one elses”.

This will almost always get them to go back to their original choice.
You can use the same logic for the blacks also.

Learning not to care

Learning not to care if the suit is slightly out is the most

important thing, remember this kind of thing IS something you can
repeat and getting the suit wrong the first time only makes it more
impressive when it hits the second time.

I often think that to the participant getting close is often more

impressive – If you open any routine like this: “With this I have no
control whatsoever, if you get even remotely close this will be
exciting for me”.

When they do get close act excited and like you didn’t expect it.

It seems more genuine and impressive for them to be close and not
bang on the first time.

It is also the same with the values, if you hit the suit bang on but
you are one out on the number I would never worry about it for the
reasons described above.
Al Baker – The finger knows and tells

This is not easy and requires a lot of practice but I think it works
so beautifully to work out what suit a participant is thinking about.
I would first ask them to think of a suit, ignore the value -

You have to ask the participant to hold their palm face up, you then
touch their index finger (with your index finger) and say, “this is
club”, touch their middle finger “heart”, ring finger “spade” and
finally touch their Pinky “Diamond”. I want you to think of the suit
of the card you are thinking of and which finger it relates to.

Then say,

Performer: “I want you to imagine that finger feeling different to

the rest of the fingers, imagine it standing out”.

This is where you will touch their fingers again with your index
finger, touch each finger in turn lightly and feel for the finger
that stands out as being different. Whilst tapping the tip of each
upturned finger gently repeat “Making that one finger stand out”.

With each person it is slightly different.

Some people will force their finger up; some people will make their
finger stiffer, some people softer.

Here are a few excerpts from Al Bakers work.

Once you think you have determined what suit you think the
participant is thinking of go through the deck and then take out the
value you want to force (with the suit that matches the
participants). Then you use the psychological force to force the
value.

Karl Scott has some incredible work on this, currently unpublished

but keep your eyes peeled as I promise you will love it!

Multiple outs

If you have decided on an indefinite value you want to force in

advance you could place three of the suits matching the value into
your pocket.

Let’s use the number Seven as a good example, place the club, heart
and spade into your pocket (Let’s pretend it is a breast pocket) the
face of the club would be closest to your chest, followed by the
heart, and then the spade. This ensures that when you pull the cards
out the back is facing the participant (giving you a ta-da moment)
leave the diamond inside the deck.
When you are in performance mode, run through the deck and find the
seven of diamonds and pull it out of the deck (back toward the
participant). Place the card into your pocket at the back of your
little stack.

While proclaiming “This is the card I am going to transmit to you,

let’s see how close you get”.

It really doesn’t matter what suit the participant goes for now, you
just pull the relevant card out of your pocket.

Think of this from the participant’s perspective, they have seen one
card go in and seen one card come out. This is by far the easiest
option and reduces the force down to 1-13 not one in 52.

Fishing for the suit before bringing out a card

Here is a technique I call the “But then you” principle –

This is a way to fish for the colour of a card someone is thinking

of –

Ask the participant to think of a playing card and feel free to

change their mind a few times.

This is where the principle comes into play.

Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card (pause) but then changed to
a red”.

That script is all you need in order to hit the colour 100% of the
time.

Look at it again.

Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card” (pause) – There is a very
important reason for the pause, if the participant reacts it is a
hit. You never counter with the rest of the sentence.

If the participant doesn’t react then you counter with, - “but then
you changed to a red” on paper this might seem obvious but in the
real world this plays perfectly. The timing here is super important,
you need to learn to pace this in such a way that it flows
unnoticeably. This will give you two hits not one making it more
impressive from the participants point of view.

This is not the only place that you can use this principle, any
outcome that has a 50/50 outcome you can apply it.

I would then use a guess for the suit or the wash principle.
The Wash Principle

The Wash Principle can be used verbally or physically. This

principle (when used wisely) will reduce your miss rating massively.
In this instance, we will pretend we are working with numbers as
opposed to cards.

Let's start with using the wash principle in a physical scenario.

We will imagine we are fishing for a number someone is thinking of

out of a series of numbers, just to give it a real world context
(like a pin divination). We have deduced that the last digit is odd
and is reasonably low (3 or 5).

Address the participant,

Performer: “Can you think of the last digit for me?

“Imagine drawing the number in the air; imagine seeing all the
different lines and the way the number is constructed.

Concentrate for me but don't say anything out loud.”

This is where you pick one of the odd numbers and start to draw the
lines in the air. (We will pretend we chosen 5.)

Start to draw the number largely in the air remember to draw it from
their perspective so you are in essence drawing it backwards.

Watch the participant’s face; if they react by starting to smirk,

you know it's that number! If not, wipe the air clean and shake your
head as though you are not seeing it clearly. Secretly we now know
if it is or isn’t the 5 and now I know it is a 3!

Even if you didn’t hit, you corrected yourself and therefore have
NEVER missed. The theatrics are beautiful here also as it really is
just two minds working in unison.

You can see how this would be useful if you are torn between two
cards when you are performing a psychological card force. I would
use this in comparison with several of the forces in this book just
to test for a sure outcome.

If you are using a deck of cards you can create a simple multiple
out to ensure the suit hits perfectly.

Let’s use the above example of forcing the value of seven.

All you have to do is get the colour of the card using the above
principle (lets for example say the card is red) – Cull the most
likely seven to the top (the heart) and the diamond to the face.
Place the cards face down and perform your psychological card force.

It’s now a case of asking them to turn over the top card or you
casually turning the entire deck over.

You may have started to notice there is a multitude of different

ways to achieve exactly the same thing; it is in all honesty
situation dependant. You can decide which set of techniques work
best for you once you learn how to jazz it becomes simple to force
the suit.

I would highly recommend checking out Michael Murray’s ‘Tombola

principle’ from his book ‘A piece of my mind’.

This is the perfect way to round this up when you get down to the
colour. It is so fair and so clean that it makes the process seem
impossible from everyone’s perspective. I honestly think it is too
good!

As you can see above there are a multitude of different ways to

force the colour and the suit, it is about learning to jazz and pick
the one that you feel is going to best for the job.

The Values

The values are not going to be written up in order; each value will
be present and accounted for. Some of the values are easier to force
than others and therefore I will outline them first and then the
other values after.

Piggybacking

This is the easiest way to psychologically force a playing card we

will be using one card to piggy back off of to force another. I have
used this technique for as long as I can remember –

The only technique I can think of that is remotely similar is

Springboard by Michael Murray (But I am sure as you read you will
see why they are different) – If you don’t know Springboard you
should check it out.

The easiest playing card to psychologically force is the 7 – When

asked for a number from one to ten that is the most frequently
chosen number. I want to practically ensure that someone goes for
that.

Here are a few ways to do that – And make it seem like they could
have chosen a picture card too. It needs to seem they could have
chosen any card from 1-52.

I mentioned previously about casually flashing specific cards on the

face of the deck to ensure they are not chosen. This can also be
done verbally if you do not want to use a deck.
In this instance let’s say I want to force the 7 of hearts.

I would place the 3 of clubs on the bottom of the deck.

As mentioned earlier, the black card will kill the black suits and
the 3 will kill the number three – You can however use one of the
other methods described for the suit so that you don’t have to worry
about using a deck.

Another method is to verbalise the 3 of clubs like this:

Performer: “In a moment I am going to ask you to think of a playing

card, when you do this I want you to see every single aspect of the
card in your mind. So let’s say for example you thought of the three
of clubs, I want you so see the suit in this example the club really
dark and bold in your mind and the number in this case the number
three really largely.

Clear your mind and think of a number from one to ten stick with it.
Have you got one?”

Participant: “Yes”.

Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you’d like change it to a picture card”.

[Watch carefully for the participants eyes - If they move then the
likeliness is that the participant is changing.]

It really doesn’t matter though as you could if you wanted just ask
if the participant is happy

Performer: “If you are happy, just say I am happy and we will go
from there”.

A thing to note also, probably the most important thing in this

entire booklet
is to learn how to up the probability of them hitting the card.

One way to do this is to ask them to verbalise their selection.

In the above example, I asked them to think of the number the

problem with this can be (if you are not comfortable) that they
change their mind if they verbalise it, it doesn’t give them the
opportunity to change their thoughts as they have to commit to it.

The way to perform the above force getting them to verbalise is as

such.
Leave the pack face-up on the table with the 3 of clubs on show.

Performer: “Name out loud a number from 1-10 obviously avoid 3

(point to the cards)”.

This is one process not two and makes forcing the number seven a lot
easier.
When you ask them to name a suit out loud now as you pointed to 3
earlier and said “obviously don’t go for that” - without you having
to say they will automatically assume that the club is also too
obvious and therefore avoid it also.

Let me explain why this will work most of the time, you have killed
off the number three, two is close to three as is four. You have now
restricted their choice from 1-10 right down to 4-10.

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 – 7 is bang in the middle and therefore the most

psychologically chosen.
I would also quickly like to add that if you were just stopping at
the 7 force (which is completely up to you and you didn’t want to
use piggybacking – Which is just about to be explained you can sway
the participant should it not hit).

To ensure you get them to seven it’s relatively easy if they are a
couple out either way. Before you go to force the number seven all
you need to add is this line.

Performer: “I will even give you the opportunity to go 1-2 either

way when you have made your choice”.

Now if they call out 5 6 8 9 – All you have to do is remind them

that you were going to get them to change (just like you did with
the suits). Here is an example.

If they went for 8 it is obviously one away from where we want them
to be. So just smoothly add –

Performer: “I did say I was even going to get you to change on

whatever number you settled upon one either way so that even you
didn’t even know what you were going to be thinking of. So what do
you want to do where did you stop 8? So it would be 7 or 9”.

Then you can be bold and let them choose, use Michael Murray’s
Tombola, use equivoque or my personal favourite is to get the other
people to vote and count the votes. If there are more for the 7
stick with it and use the mass vote if there are more for the number
9 simply say to the participant –

Performer: “Look at what everyone else has gone for, the number 9
which would suggest that, the number 9 is the more popular choice,
so it boils down to you. Do you want to go with everyone else’s
choice or do you want to go with the 7 and go against what everyone
else would choose.
The reason I am asking is I want this to be as random and fair as
possible”.

You can see here just how many opportunities I am opening for myself
to get back to that number, it is almost in essence like the trick
that can’t be explained.
I never worry about anything I just roll with it, I have learnt in
one way or another they will always end up where I want them to be.

Remember one thing though, ham up the process of everything else I.E
– The selection of the participant, get everyone to vote on someone
and then change their minds and then ask ask if it is fair and if
the group want to change. This gets them used to voting and making
selections and therefore when you want to have a slightly lengthier
process when it comes to the selection of a value or a suit it stays
congruent.

Seven is a really easy number to force and therefore it makes it an

incredible card to piggy back from.

Piggybacking is essentially that using the number seven to your

advantage. Let’s go back to the above force of the seven (the one
where they thought of it) – Directly after the line where you say

Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you want change it to a picture card”.

You can stop them ever going for a picture card very easily and at
the same time make it seem like they had the choice to if they are
wanting to.

Simply add to the end of the above sentence –

Performer: “If you don’t think what you are thinking of is a fair
enough choice you can if you want change it to a picture card. In-
fact (jump in before they have the opportunity to change), just go
up by one from where you are now”.

This will obviously force an eight (if they were thinking of seven).

Performer: “Now even you didn’t know that you would have been
thinking of this value, so there is no way I could of”.

They obviously have to agree.

You can use this for the rest of the values surround the number
seven.

I would never personally use this for more or less than three.

The reason being is that it seems a little bit strange of a request

when you ask them to go too far away from the original number they
were thinking of.

So this covers the numbers – 45678910 very easily.

I will outline other methods to force these cards also, so that you
are not just restricted to piggybacking in this way.
You can also use the number 7 to get someone to jump in the opposite
direction (just like you did with the three). By placing the seven
on the face of the deck you can use that card as the focus.

Say to the participant

Performer: I want you to envision, this number seven here for

obvious reasons we aren’t going to use that. But imagine jumping
back to another number, see it largely like the number nine bold and
vividly.

They won’t go for nine now as you have mentioned it and they will
jump back to a three or a four. Simply using the “but then you
principle” you will know exactly out of the two which one they went
for.

For those who missed it, here is a simple script to deduce which.
Performer: “With you I know you changed your mind, you went for an
even number (Pause) then changed it for an odd one”.

Obviously if they react at even I would go with it being a four and

you wouldn’t continue with the “Then you changed to an odd”. If they
do not react, you are quickly countering with “But then you changed
to an odd number”.

Now you know if it is a three.

This is another way to force the number 3 or the number 4; you can
from here piggyback and take the participant from this number 3 in
either direction.

As I keep repeating (and it will get old) it is about using all of

these methods in symphony to be able to get the participant to where
you want them to be. Obviously there are different ways to present
the ideas. Using the above force, you need to prime them with
questions before bringing the card out of the deck, the way to make
this seem entirely fair is to look at the participant at the start
of the effect and place one playing card on the table (facedown).

Then get to the point in the effect where you know what number they
are thinking of and proclaim:

Performer: “In fact I am going to change this, I think now I have a

better feel for the way that you think”.

Place whatever card you want to lead them to on the table.

If you think this is drawing too much attention to what it is that

you are doing then you don’t even have to place a card down until
you have got to the point where you know what number they are
thinking of, place the card down and then force the suit. Remember
this is not the only premise that you can apply with these
techniques.

I will get into talking about different premises later on.

The increment force

This force, as I am sure you will come to realise, is a lovely

little force.

There are a number of applications for this force. Let your

imagination run wild. I am currently exploring lots of applications
for this force and will detail my findings in my “Book of the demons”

Variation #1: The performer asks a participant to think of a

playing card.

Without any fishing the performer can name the thought-of playing
card, or if desired, have it as the only card in a completely
examinable wallet.

Variation #2: The performer asks a participant to think of any

letter of the alphabet—the participant never says this out loud.

The performer also says very little and only talks when he is
instructing the participant.

The performer then asks the participant to take that letter and to
think of a country that starts with that letter.

The performer is able to deduce the country.

Breakdown

This force can be used to force anything that goes up in increments

(or anything that goes up sequentially; i.e., 5, 10, 15), and more
than that it also teaches a valuable lesson

(I think) about how to take things that are not considered useful
within a specific art and, with a little bit of work and refinement,
make them incredible and totally practical.

The original concept goes back to the “stop force” or “timing force”
using playing cards. Don’t worry, this effect isn’t done using any
cards at all, but to understand how it works you need to understand
the timing force.

This is also referred to as the “stop force” or the “dealing force.”

To quickly refresh your memory, it’s the force where the performer
deals down the cards one at a time at a particular pace and the
performer asks the participant to say stop at any point, which
usually forces the sixth card.
The first thing I did with the force was to eliminate the cards and
to replace them with a beautiful invisible piece of theatre. I hope
you enjoy what I have done with it.

To start with I will explain how the stop force is done with playing
cards (after all, this is a great way to practice the pacing).

At first this will seem bold, but I promise once you have the timing
down, it is so easy and will work 99% of the time.

Take a deck of playing cards and place a force playing card in the
sixth position. When you are sitting with a participant, start to
deal down at a moderate pace.

When you have dealt two cards, look at the subject and say:

Performer: “just, say stop.”

(Say it in a tone that suggests that they should have known they
were saying stop. Their brain will freak out at this point and they
will say stop on the sixth card.

Get the pacing down, and once you have, you can force any number.
The card they stop at will always be four cards after you have said,
“Yeah, say stop.”

That is, if you want to force the tenth card, then use the stop line
after the sixth card and then they will stop on the tenth.)

Once you have gotten used to the pacing and you’re comfortable, you
are ready to practice the Increment Force. Here is the
scripting/difference between the Timing Force and the Increment
Force.

Performer: “In a moment when I ask you to think of something, it's

essential that you say nothing out loud.

“If I ask you to think of moving your arm, I don't want you to do it,
just think of it. Stay as inanimate as possible; don't blink, nod or
say anything out loud.”

(This may sound like overkill, but it's essential and it ensures
things go the way we want.)

Performer: “I am going to touch the air like this (tap a full stop
in the air). Every single time I touch the air like this (touch a
different spot in the air), I want you to imagine letters of the
alphabet going up in increments.”

Here we will give the participant a demonstration.

Touch the air while simultaneously saying, “A,” touch the air again
and simultaneously say, “B,” and repeat for C.
Whilst doing this, remember the pace of dealing down the cards as
the same pace is going to apply theoretically; it is like you are
dealing invisible playing cards into the air (without making a
dealing motion).

Performer: “In a moment I am going to do this without saying a word.

The only time I will say anything is if I want to give you an
instruction. It’s essential you count in your mind up through the
letters every time I touch the air. Do you understand that?”

This will force them to verbalise a Yes or nod their head. When they
do you want to remind them:

Performer: “Stay as still as possible and don’t say anything.

“Are you ready?”

Start to touch the air (implying the same pace as you would deal a
playing card onto the table).

After the second air touch, say:

Performer: “Just think stop.”

This will force the letter “F” (or somewhere in that very near
vicinity)—I rarely miss on this. Continue to touch the air but
increase the pace after a few letters, and when you have estimated
you have counted all the letters, wipe the air clean. The number of
touches really doesn’t matter as the participant stops counting
after they have Stopped on a particular letter.

(This will subtly suggest that you went through the entire alphabet
and the subject had the free choice to stop anywhere. More
importantly, this is beautifully theatrical.) Address the
participant:

Performer: “You are now thinking of a random letter, and neither of

us said anything out loud; everything was done in our minds alone.
Do you agree that letter was a completely free choice?”

Participant: “Yes.”

Performer: “I would now like you to think of a country that starts

with that letter. This ensures that there is no way I could have
somehow influenced you to think of a country, as fate decided what
letter you would stop on, and that ultimately helped you make the
decision on the country.”

I would like to remind you that you are not just limited to forcing
the letters in the region of the letter “F.” Here is an example of
how you could force the letter “I.”
Continue to touch the air until you point to the letter “E” and then
apply the line, “Yeah, think stop.” This would force the letter “I.”
The reason this works is it forces the participant to just stop a
few letters after the letter “E.”

If you wanted to force another letter for whatever reason, it’s easy
as long as you remember this line: “A few before.” What do I mean by
that?

I would go to the letter I wanted to force (let’s say we wanted K).

I would then count a few letters back, K – J – I – H, and that would
be the letter “H” and therefore that is the letter on which I would
apply the line.

The force for the value of a playing card would be done in the exact
same manner. I always force the Six of Clubs. I just apply the
forcing line after the number 2.

As you can see this force relies on the old timing force. If you
move the number up by one (when you say, you think stop wherever you
want) then they will stop one number later. In the example depicted
above you can see that I forced the number 6 after asking them to
think stop after I had called the number 3, if I had said for them
to think stop after the number 4 they would have stopped on seven.
For obvious reasons I would not ask them to think stop on seven as I
prefer the outlined method. I generally do this to force the number
5, 6 or 8.

Again stopping them on any of these numbers I can use these numbers
to piggyback 3 in any direction from these numbers.

So far we have covered a way to force the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and

10. Some of these numbers we can force in different ways.

The number 3 / 4

Forcing these numbers are as easy as forcing the number 7 – You are
just going to work in reverse, placing a seven on the face of the
deck (or verbalising a seven).

Performer: “Imagine that number seven really largely, in your mind

jump back to another number so if you went for 9 you would see it in
the air big and bold. For obvious reasons don’t go for that as that
is my thought not yours. Tell me when you have a number?”

Using clever questioning (outlined in this document) you can

determine which it is. As you can see there really is nothing much
to forcing these cards, they are very, very simple and you can
always piggyback off of these numbers to get to whatever number you
need to be on.
The eight / nine of clubs – Lloyd Barnes

This is a lovely little force created by Lloyd that will allow you
to force the eight/ nine of clubs.

Performer: “As a kid I used to go outside and look at the clouds and
be able to see all sorts of amazing imagery. Did you ever do that?”

Participant: “Yeah all of the time”.

Performer: “Have you done it recently or is it something that you

haven’t done for a long time?”

Participant: “It has been years since I last did it”.

Performer: “Well I am going to take you back to your childhood, I

want you to think of the simple drawing of a cloud and then think
about the first playing card that pops into your mind when thinking
about that drawing”.

Participant: “I have one”.

Performer: “For me, it is the three of hearts, I love the colours

and vibrancy and the number just pops out.
What was the first card that popped into your mind?”

The participant will more than likely be thinking of the number 8 or

the number 9 (cloud nine), it all depends on the subconscious
awareness. Try it, you will be amazed at how frequently this hits.

It is then up to you to choose a premise and how to reveal that card.

The hardest cards in the deck to force are the aces, I will cover
them last. The preference is to never have to force the aces and
therefore they could in theory be eliminated.

Let’s take a look at the picture cards, let’s start with the easiest
picture card to force – The Jack of Spades.
This is what you will use if you want to piggy back to get them to
go for a queen or a king later.

Performer: “Playing cards have been used for many things over the
years, they were used in cartomancy or tarot as it is more popularly
known, they were used for things that were a lot more esoteric than
just playing card games.
So excluding the aces think of what you would consider the most
mysterious card in the deck”.

Wait till the participant has committed to a playing card, then say,
Performer: “For me the three of diamonds would be the most
mysterious as it represents the magic number, the number of all
things strange. What do you consider the most mysterious card in the
deck”.

The participant will naturally most of the time go to a Jack.

You can of course test the water, and force them towards a picture,
should you think you have missed. This is as simple as saying,

Performer: “If you have a number card in mind think of a picture

card you also consider mysterious so you can change your mind
between the two of them. This really ensures as you were thinking of
more than one card that is even more impossible for anyone to just
be able to guess”.

The reframe is beautiful and you will find occurs commonly

throughout this booklet.

The notion of making someone change their mind to work in my favour

yet seemingly being more impossible for the participant is something
that fascinates me more than anything else in mentalism.

Then all you have to do is reign them into thinking of the picture
and you are almost home free.

To force the queen there are a few ways to do it, if you are working
with a female participant if you ask her to name a card out loud the
chances are she will go for this card. You can up the probability by
asking her what her favourite card is.

Another option is Rus Andrews DVD – Destination. On this DVD he

shares an invaluable series of techniques on how to force a playing
card.

I highly recommended it.

The number 2 / 5

These are relatively easy numbers to force. The trick with forcing
these cards is to focus on them being more difficult to guess (from
the participant's point of view) this makes them easy to force.

I have noticed that when I say to someone "I want you to think of a
card inside the deck but make it one you don't think I could just
guess and feel free to change your mind, so if you went for 8 for
example you would see it largely and clearly in the front of your
mind" - This forces the number two or the number five. It sounds so
simple, yet it is one of the most natural forces - This one is right
up there for me with the jack of spades and 7 of hearts force.
You have to use the questioning outlined, to gather which of the two
they have gone for.

You can also use this to force the number ten, if you know they have
gone for a low number (because you have used questioning) you can
then get them to jump to a higher number adding - "Again making it
one you don't think that I could easily guess" this will force them
to go for a 9 or a 10.

The Joker – Annemann

I am not 100% sure if this is original to Annemann but it was

certainly the first place I ever read it.

I have made a slight variation on the wording to up the hit rate.

This is short but sweet.

Performer: “Obviously the deck consists of 52 cards, red, blacks,

pictures and numbers I want you to think of any card and tell me
when you have it?”

Participant: “Yes”.

Performer: “If you don’t think this is a fair choice feel free to
change your mind, let the sceptic in you come out. Think of one you
don’t think I would ever be able to guess”.

By reading this you should see why it forces the person to think of
that playing card! Simple but sweet and effective.

The queen of hearts

This is a force that I think most people will know, it is a very

easy force to pull off and is probably the oldest force in this
entire document. This is when working with a female.

Performer: “I want you to imagine a deck of cards, imagine going in

and taking one card out, this could be your favourite (pause) or
you’re least favourite. Tell me when you have a card in mind”.

Pay attention to the pause, you are pausing there so they start to
think of their favourite card and then you add or your least
favourite as they have already started to think of their favourite
they are not going to change their mind.

I have never seen this sort of force done with the pause but there
is something really beautiful that you have just done.

You have now enabled yourself when the participant tells you that
they are thinking of a card you can now say –
Performer: “There is no way I could know what card you are thinking
of, it could be your favourite, your least favourite or one you just
selected at random”.

This makes it seem impressive from everyone else’s perspective.

Using piggybacking here you can make it even more incredible.

Let’s say you wanted to force the king of clubs –

When you have performed the force above simply say.

Performer: “Whatever card you are thinking of now, go up by one.

Then change the suit to one of the opposite colour that resembles
the shape of the one you are thinking of. So now there is no way on
earth I could know what you were going to think of because even you
didn’t know”.

As you can see this is a simple but elegant way to not make it seem
obvious from the audience’s perspective as the last card is the only
thing they will remember.

Aces

These are the hardest cards to force and also the least impressive I
would recommend staying away from forcing these cards. But I am
going to outline how you can force them should you ever need to.

The first way is to simply pressure someone to name the first card
that comes to mind. If the person is not familiar with playing cards
the likeliness is they will go for the ace of spades.

Another way to force the ace –

Performer: “I want you to imagine we are playing a game of cards,

this can really any game you desire. Obviously the rules for each
game are different and each card represents something different in
each game. I want you to imagine dealing yourself a card. This is
the card you feel is the card you need to beat me”.

Let them tell you they have.

Performer: “I don’t know what game you were playing and I certainly
don’t know what card you have dealt yourself, as I said all the
cards mean something different”.

This will usually force an ace.

A really blatant force of an ace is to ask someone to name a good

card.
Most of the time you are going to force the ace of spades, so don’t
try resist it if you are wanting to force a heart. Let them pick up
on the ace of spades and then ask them to ignore the suit and use
one of the techniques outlined to force one on them.

This seems so fair and natural.

Missing

If you are not particularly bothered about what playing card you are
forcing, here is a lovely force that is impossible to backtrack when
performed smoothly.

Have a deck of playing cards in your pocket, address the participant,

Performer: “As you know I am not a magician and don’t really know
any tricks, but I would like to try an experiment. In the 1920s they
used to test for psychic ability by transmitting playing cards
mentally.

If the receiver got close they would count it as a hit and that
would be enough proof to declare that the person was the real deal.

I want you to think of a playing card for me feel free to change

your mind a few times and tell me when you have one in mind”.

The deck is pulled out,

Performer: “There are a couple of cards missing from the deck,

before we start let’s just make sure your card is in there”.

Ribbon spread the cards on the table the wider you spread them the
better.

Can you see your card?

What will the participant do?

Look up and down the deck and then give you a yes! This will tell
you within about 7 cards the participant’s card.

This means that you know the area the card has come from, notice a
card from that area and remember it that will be your key card. Cut
to that card.

Pick up the deck and cut to that card, that way you have the region
of the card they are thinking of.

Then apply the “But then you” principle (described above).

Performer: “So what do I know about you? I feel you changed your
mind 2-3 times you went for a black card (pause) but then changed to
a red”.
Don’t move any of the cards just yet, just remember later to get rid
of the non-chosen coloured card from the stack surrounding your key
card.

This is where you need to look in your hand to be able to ask

questions, if they are all numbers then it’s definitely got to be a
number. If there is one picture surrounded by numbers the likeliness
is based on probability the participant has gone for a number, but I
would deal with it carefully with a clever question.

Performer: “Knowing you, you probably thought the picture cards were
too obvious (pause) and therefore

[Keep your eyes on the participant’s reaction they will tell you!
They will nod or say yes that they did think that if they are
thinking of a number. If they are thinking of a picture they will
sort of bow their head. The way they react dictates the way you are
going to end your sentence.]

If they nod or give you the green light mid-sentence (to tell you
that they are not thinking of a picture) finish the sentence with,

Performer: “You avoided thinking of them”.

If they bow their head and look like your assumption was wrong, then
quickly counter with:

Performer: “But you know that I know they would be too obvious so
you tried to double bluff me and went with a picture card”.

If there is only one picture in your little stack you know exactly
which card they are thinking of. If not this will eliminate the
picture card/ cards that are in your hand, either way you will know
if it’s a number or a picture and the colour of the card they are
thinking about.

This is not really the same as fishing as these are carefully

constructed sentences in order to be able to construct hits whilst
fishing – I call these “Guaranteed bites”.

The questions above dictate what cards are left in your hand there
should only be 2-3. Using clever questioning you should be able to
get exactly what the card is.

If you place your card in a stack then you don’t need to readjust
the order of the deck, you can just clock your key and then you
already know the cards around the stack.
Which means everything can be done mentally and you don’t need to
even touch the deck (other than to pull the deck out at the end to
reveal the card).
Another simple yet elegant force is a jump force, I use this all the
time and is my favourite card reveal/ psi force.

Performer: “If you are thinking of a red card change to a black,

black change to red”.

If you watch you will notice they will often verbalise when they
have done - telling you if they were first thinking of red or black.

Performer: “You are thinking of a number right?”

The likeliness is that they will be.

[It doesn’t matter if they are or they aren’t as in a moment you

will have a good cover.]

Let’s say that they have a number.

If you are thinking of a high number, change for a lower number

(pause)

Lucky lucky

This is a simple yet effective force that requires a time delay.

Before you move into this type of routine during for example a pin
divination – address the participant.

Performer: “What do I know about most people? Ask them to think of a

number and most of them will go for a 3, 5 or 7 due to it being the
most frequently favourite numbers”.

After slipping this into a routine, address that same participant

after the routines come to a close –

Performer: “I want you to take into account what you think you know
about people and I want you think of a playing card I couldn’t just
guess. The ace of spades or Queen of hearts might be too obvious.
Tell me when you have a card in mind”.

Now the participant is more than likely to avoid the pictures as

they are too close to the queen. They won’t go for 3, 5 or 7 because
you mentioned most people do.

That leaves 2 4 6 8 10 I have never had 2 or 10 called out, that

means you have reduced a deck right down to 4, 6 and 8 three values
out of a whole deck!

After forcing a suit, then combining this with a couple of clever

questions (as depicted earlier) you can easily work out what card it
is that the participant is thinking of.
This sums up something I have talked in depth about in the past
‘restricting without seeming restrictive’.

Implication in a different routine is what makes this routine work;

it seems to have a really beautiful feel to it this way. That is not
to say this can’t be performed stand alone.

If I am using this as a stand alone effect then I would use

something I call ‘negative questioning’ – Putting a doubt into the
participant’s mind.

You have placed a card on the table, six of clubs is perfect for
this.

Performer: “This is going to be a difficult one, I will tell you

that it’s not an obvious card like the ace of spades or the queen of
hearts, so here goes. Most people under pressure would naturally go
for a 3, 5 or 7, I am not saying this card is and I am not saying it
is not. Do you think it is a 3, 5, 7 or something else?”

This is beautiful and something I am exploring currently, asking

someone a question in a negative way to get a negative response. I
reckon with a little bit of thought the things that can be done with
this principle will be mind blowing – I am not there with it yet.

This sort of routine works because the focus is on the participant

succeeding and is not about you. Therefore the participant has no
reason to ever try and mess you up.

Practice

A really simple yet effective way of practicing this sort of stuff,

is to use a marked deck and ask the participant to remove the card
they are thinking of, that way if you feel you are panicking or have
forgotten where you are all you have to do is glance down and look
at the marking to back you up.

Once you have failed at this type of thing you realise that it is
not the end of the world, I feel without a safety net you will try
harder to make it hit.

Another thing I really believe is that if you believe it, so it

shall happen. Sounds really stupid but I think focusing on actually
sending that card to someone really ups the odds (not in a spiritual
or psychic way) but maybe our body language changes or people just
have a way of knowing.

Anyway what is the harm in trying?

Recommendations

I want to share a few recommendations for psychological forces/

psychological card reveals I use and would personally recommend as
they are super strong!

Derren Brown – 3 of Diamonds International magic lecture

Docc Hilford – 6 of Clubs Real Mind Reading

Rus Andrews – Destination

Ben Seward – Cog

Premise

This is the most important part of this booklet; it’s what you do
with these forces that make them special here are a few premises and
ways to perform using these forces.
Everyone has their own performing style and preference on how they
would like this type of thing to be perceived.

Think for a few minutes about what you would do with these forces,
think about how you would use these forces in context. I have
outlined a few ways I like to perform these routines I hope you love
them.

Twin telepathy

One participant thinks of a playing card the second one thinks of

one also both are asked to name out loud the card they are thinking
of and coincidentally they are thinking of the same card!

The main thing to remember here is to not use the same force on both
of the participants which is tempting as it seem the most logical
route.

With the first participant I would use the increment force and stop
them on the heart (if the second participant is female) club (if
male) so the first participant would be thinking of the six of
hearts (or clubs) I would then force the seven on the second
participant and use piggybacking to get them to go down by one.

In this type of routine it doesn’t matter if one goes for the heart
and one goes for the diamond. Or one goes for spade and one goes for
club. Just use the techniques outlined above to ensure that the
second participant goes for a suit of the same colour.

If you wanted to ensure that the first participant goes for the same
card as the second you could always use a marked deck, ribbon spread
it facedown and then ask the first participant to slide a card out
facedown and keep it face down.
Read the marking and then just force the relevant playing card on
the second participant.

With this type of routine, one participant is choosing a card

consciously and the second is choosing a card subconsciously (or
unconsciously) I think it makes for a great premise.
This type of routine plays out really strongly for a couple, just
ensure that you can indefinitely force the card before trying this
type of routine.

Bold

This is my favourite type of routine, one playing card is placed

down and the participant names a card it is flipped over and BOOM it
hits!

There are multiple ways to do this, one is to place it down at the

start of the routine and go for gold and frame the routine as
influence.

You can do this type of routine by getting the person to think of a

card use the above methods to test the water and then fish pulling
one card and placing it down.

In this context you can always use the age old one ahead should the
first card not hit and try to hit the second one.

For the people that don’t know what the one ahead is, let’s say I
have placed the four of clubs down and the participant has gone for
the six of spades I would then pretend to the participant that
everything has gone perfectly and then without turning the card over
I would then go through the deck pulling the six of spades out and
then aim to force the four of clubs again.

This will give me a second chance should I have failed the first
force.

Another way out of this situation is when they name the card out
loud, if it is the wrong card don’t worry simply go through the deck
and cull their card to the top and apply a simple top change. If you
are not mechanically that great then place theirs on the top of the
deck and ask them if they want to look at it.

They will obviously say yes.

Then simply apply a double lift.

Another out is the Santa Clause out, or more popularly known as

Burnt Memories
We will be using this in the context of asking them if they want to
look at the card or not, not in the context it is described here.
But you should fully understand how it would work in context after
reading this.

Take a billet and write on it:

“Some of the greatest things in life are best left a mystery”.

Fold the billet and then place it into a match box. Add two matches
to the box.

Place the small matchbox into your pocket and you are set.
Save this piece until it feels right, (for example at the end of a
reading or performance) turn to one of the females and address her.

Performer: “I feel with you, you really want to believe that

something outside of what we logically understand exists. Even
though you are constantly told it’s not possible, there is something
in your heart that just tells you that there are things out there.

If I could write down just one thing that would prove undoubtedly
that all of this is very much real, could you think of what that one
thing would be?

Whether it’s a name or a little sentiment, just something that would

completely confirm all of those feelings to be true”.

Participant: “Yeah I have something”.

Hold the participant’s hand for a few seconds while just looking at
her - right into her eyes.

Performer: “You know they say that the eyes are the window to the
soul”.

Remove the matchbox, slide out the drawer and unfold the billet
ensuring that the writing on the inside is hidden.

Write on the billet –

To (INSERT PARTICIPANT’S NAME),

Then sign the bottom of the billet.

Fold it back up and slide it back into the box.

Performer: “(insert participant’s name) there is only one thing

separating you from believing in all of this.
One of the worst situations to be in in life is when the heart and
mind have opposing viewpoints and there is a conflict of interest.
This is for you. But before you even contemplate opening it I want
to tell you something that is going to be life changing, no matter
which path you decide to take.

Before you make that choice let me tell you a story.

I grew up on Queensbury council estate (the ghetto to everyone

outside of the U.K) and as a kid because of the people we associated
with we always believed we would amount to nothing. Because of that
one of the things I held in such high regard, which might seem silly
now was Santa clause. I loved Christmas. I probably believed for far
too long.

I behaved every single day just to have a definitive effect on that

one day. One afternoon in December I got my guitar and went around
to my friend Christy’s house for band practice and as I came through
the door Christy asked me what had got me so happy.

I told him that it was Christmas soon and Santa was going to be
visiting and he looked at me and said you do know Santa is not real
right?

I smiled and replied yeah of course I know but inside I was torn. He
had stripped away the only thing that made me feel a sense of wonder.
I left and went home and I was destroyed.

I realised as I matured that there is only one thing actually

stopping Santa from being real. That thing is belief. It is the one
thing that stops the greatest things in life from being real.

You may be wondering why I told you that story. The reason being
that it leads to this moment, where you get to make a choice.
You can take the box, slide out the piece of card and open it,
potentially risking it being wrong and if it is wrong you ruin this
moment for yourself.

Or,

You can give me the box back, just knowing that what I have written
is correct completely and there is no need to look at it because you
just know it is right and you will ultimately have a beautiful story
to tell of this exact moment for the rest of your life.

If they give you the box back, take out a match and strike it on the
side of the box and then burn the billet.

Think about the power this piece has psychologically. People might
open the box and read the content, they will feel bad that they did
and that is a massive lesson in itself.

For the people that don't open it, think of how powerful that is! It
is the stuff legends are made of and the box will become an amazing
part of their life and a story that they will tell whenever they get
the opportunity. Truly something that will last a lifetime.
Additional idea

This is something I use in the very last phase of my Acaan (there is

usually three phases).

I have the participant shuffle the deck of cards, mix them to their
hearts content name a card and a number and then deal down to that
number placing the card at that number face down away from the rest
of the deck.

I collect the rest of the cards up and proceed to tell the story
from above.

At the end of the story I replace the last bit with.

Performer: “You can turn the card over and risk me potentially being
wrong and ruin this moment for yourself or you can believe with all
of your heart that, this card is the right card. Pick it up and
place it back inside the deck without looking and you will always
have a beautiful story to tell of this exact moment.

Note** If they do decide to look at the card, tell them to slide the
card towards their chest and keep the outcome private no matter what
it is, so the mystery is left alive for everyone else.

Ask them to place it to their chest and peek at it.

When they peek say the words:

Performer: “Amazing, right?”

Smile at them at the same time as saying it.

Then take the card from them placing it inside the deck.

I have come to find that based on luck the card can be there and I
promise you, you will never get a reaction like it if it hits. If it
does not, because you have asked them to leave the mystery alive for
everyone else, everyone will always wonder if it was the right card.

Rarely people tend to turn over the card and the finish is one that
is super powerful.

I had the pleasure of finishing with this phase in Vegas onstage

with Jeff McBride and when I hit the end note of the story everyone
in the room gasped. Jeff placed the card inside the deck without
looking stood up and bowed at me.

That to me was a complete testament to how strong this piece was for
lay people and performers.
The Journey

In spirit of the last offering (Burnt memories) I would like to

share a little story that took place in Blackpool 2013.

This effect is also mentioned in my write up of the lecture I gave

at the magic circle – Although this was never meant to be an
effect... More an affect!

I was sat in Blackpool 2013 (might have been 2012) and after just
holding court in the Ruskin, a young chap called Daniel approached
me and very boldly proclaimed that he didn’t believe the legends
that he had heard that surround me.

At the time I had just finished performing the billet-less name

guess, d.o.b revelations, pin code materials and the whole prop-less
area of mentalism were something that performers were just starting
to take seriously and look into. I’m not saying it was a new concept
the idea of psychological mentalism - just one for the most part
undiscovered because of the belief of impossibility.

I had the year previous been doing these sort of effects over skype
and internet communications and had a complete admiration for such
things and it was refreshing to be able to hold court and showcase
them to my peers.

Back to the young chap, after making such a bold statement I told
him that I think he is missing the point. Mentalism is not about
fooling people with nothing – or fooling people with something, it
is about creating a moment that will last a lifetime.

He didn’t understand the point I was making and I told him I would
share with him what I meant but it would cost him 51 playing cards.
He handed me his deck of cards and I shuffled them and without
looking selected a card from the center of deck and placed it inside
the card box.

I was careful not to flash any of the other playing cards and
pocketed them.

I instructed Daniel to not open the box and to change his mind
through as many playing cards as he would like.
When he was watching other people perform take a few seconds to
change the card he had in his mind, when he went to the toilet
change his mind, when he stood at the bar waiting for a drink change
his mind, on the walk home to his hotel change his mind, before he
went to bed place the card box on the bed side table and change his
mind and when he woke up first thing in the morning change his mind
one more time and then slowly as he possibly could open the box.
I told him that whatever card he was thinking of would be inside the
box.

With that Daniel left with a look of disbelief on his face.

As soon as Daniel left a few friends of mine were sat at the table
and looked at me in disbelief also. How are you going to do that?
They asked.

I will tell you the answer after I finish the story.

The next morning I approached the Winter Gardens (where the

convention is held) it was a very cold morning and I saw Daniel
stood at the doors.

He ran towards me with a look of disbelief on his face and said to

me he had waited for nearly two hours to see me.

The card he thought of was the card inside the box!

My friends couldn’t believe it and the people he shared the tale

with I doubt they believed it.

I could end the story here and never tell you what I told my friends
after Daniel left that night and it would always be just a story.
One more moment where someone has a tale to tell that is so
impossible it couldn’t be true.

I won’t leave the story there as I feel there is a very valuable

point to be made. The kind of point that separates good mentalism/
magic from the bad.

This is of course just my opinion and who am I to say what is good

or bad, all I can share is my experience.

This is what I told my friends after Daniel left.

“It is not about it hitting, it’s about the fact that when everyone
else is performing tonight Daniel will be thinking about the card in
the box, when he goes to the toilet he will think about the card in
the box, when he walks home it will be in his thoughts, the last
thought he has when he goes to sleep is that playing card and then
the first thing on his mind when he wakes up and the few seconds
when he is slowly opening up the box is real magic. His brain doing
acrobatics saying “No way, no way, no way”.

The journey that got him to where he is going, the hit on the end is
merely just the end of the journey not nearly as important as how
they got there and what they felt in between. That is the real magic.

Anyway... I might just be the luckiest son of a bitch and the card
lands. Who knows? With that I slowly sipped a few more whiskies and
chatted the night away. I will leave you to decide if it was just
luck or something more, it sure meant I didn’t have to share the
secret (if there was one) to anyone then...
But that is a tale for another time. I really hope you understand
the value of this story.

Conclusion

As you can see there is a lot of fun to be had with using playing
cards in this context it really makes it seem so impossible. Also if
you are using the ‘reading the participant’s mind ploy’ it really
makes you seem like you would have a godly ability to play cards.

Don’t be put off by the amount of work required to force playing

cards it is a great skill to have and one that has taken me a long
time to get to what I would consider a good standard. I always felt
under confident at conventions, being it that I am not good
mechanically. The forces in this book helped me get over that and
gave me the ability to hold my own.

If you guys have any psychological forces that you would love to
share or would love adding in the revised version of this document
email me –

Peterturnermind@hotmail.co.uk

I am always interested in fresh ways to do things.