The Brain Wave Deck

This card effect of causing a mentally chosen card to automatically and instantly reverse itself in a deck, is probably the finest mental effect known today. It is not only the most subtle but also the most incomprehensible feat imaginable from an audience's viewpoint. It ha s tremendous possibilities when properly presented as a problem of mental coercion. One well known mentalist has garnered reams of newspaper publicity by using it as a long distance telephone test.

Effect

The performer tosses a card case containing a deck of cards onto the table, or hands it to someone to place in his pocket. The performer explains that he is going to make the spectator think of one of the 52 cards in the deck. To prove that the spectator will think of and name a certain card. the performer explains that he has already taken a particular card with a different colored back and has inserted it in the deck, but in a reversed position.

The spectator thinks for a moment and then names the first card that comes into his mind. Picking up the deck, the performer removes it from its case and fans the cards. In the fan but one card is reversed, and that one card is the very card just named by the spectator. It is removed from the fan and turned back up, when it is seen that its back is red whereas the backs of all the other cards in the deck are blue!