Thomas Baxter – A Card merely thought of

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A Card Merely Thought Of…

Several years ago, Mentalist Thomas Baxter offered an ebook version of his notes on the think-of-a-card theme for sale on a very limited basis, for a very short period of time. After that, the notes were withdrawn from sale. In the ensuing years these notes have become much sought-after by students and collectors, including some of the most successful performers on the planet. Now the author has agreed to finally publish these notes in an expanded, hard-cover book format, making them again available to the Mentalism and magic communities.

A Card Merely Thought Of… describes the history and methodologies behind one of Mentalism’s strongest plots – The Divination of a Spectator’s Thought-of Playing Card. The focus of this work is the use of a normal, non-stacked, non-gaffed pack of cards to determine cards merely thought of by the participants. Imagine it… a card not touched, removed, cut-to or peeked at with a thumb break. The card is merely thought of and remembered. To the audience, this is real mind-reading.

Included in these notes are a thorough analysis of the Erdnase variations of “Think of a Card”, with further examination of the published thoughts of others who have worked with the concepts, such as Vernon, Dingle, Berglas, and Bowyer.

The author’s own discoveries and work on the ‘Think of a Card’ theme are clearly described with photographs and illustrations. Along with the history and theory behind the techniques, several full presentations are explained, including:

Fish Fry for Two

Imagine the audience’s reaction as you spread a normal, shuffled pack of cards slowly and fairly in front of two different participant’s eyes, asking then to just THINK of any card that they see. You immediately remove two cards from the pack, and the participants jaws drop… You’ve read their thoughts.

ThoughtControl

One spectator just THINKS of any card in the pack. A second spectator IMMEDIATELY tells the first which card they are thinking of. No stooges, instant or otherwise. Both are astonished, with no sense of how this could be possible.

Smythled

Two participants merely THINK of cards in a shuffled pack. The Performer cuts the pack into two face-down piles. He turns over the top two cards, face-up onto the table, and continues to deal the top cards from each pile face up, simultaneously onto the table, asking each participant to call “stop!” when they see their card arrive. To the amazement of all, both participants call stop at exactly the same time, both of their thought-of cards appearing at exactly the same time!

Separate But Equal

An extremely direct and clean ESP Card Match-Up routine.

…and Much More, including contributions from David Alexander, Hector Chadwick, Mick Ayres, and Sean Waters.