ESP Deck (Giant) by Sam Dalal

Effect: A standard ESP (Zener) deck consists of five sets of five symbol cards. The designs are a circle, a star, a cross, a square and a set of 3 waves.
Each design can be considered a numeral which is designated by the number of lines used to draw the design. For convenience the cards can be numbered as follows : “1” – circle, “2” – cross, “3” – waves,. “4” – square, and “5” – star.
ESP cards were designed by Dr. Joseph Rhine at the Parapsychology laboratory of Duke university for testing Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) and mental telepathy, way back in 1927. The cards were normally used in two different types of tests.
In one type of procedure, a demonstrator or a machine would shuffle the deck and deal out cards one at a time. A signal, often a ringing bell, was given as each card was dealt. The identity of the card dealt was not known. These tests were for Clairvoyance. Contact between two human minds was not a requisite for their success. A person acting as the receiver was separated by a screen or a room from where the cards were dealt. The receiver attempted to identify the designs. A series of several runs were made and the correct hits were tallied. By comparing the score of a series of runs with the probable score of random “flukes” (five in twenty five), it was determined whether or not the person possessed ESP.
The other type of test was performed by two people, often in the same room, to test for Telepathy. In the two person test, one person turned up cards from a shuffled deck and concentrated on the design. The second person attempted to duplicate the design by “reading the first person’s mind”, (as a test of Mental Telepathy). The scores were compared with average scores determined by the laws of probability to determine if Mental Telepathy existed between the two people.

There are many excellent effects devised by Mentalists to simulate these original tests, which can be performed with the standard ESP Deck, and several other routines can be adapted from standard Playing Card effects.

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