Welcome to System One

Imagine if you could force a spectator to think of a colour or a location, now

that would be pretty impressive!
OK, ok, I know, it’s fairly easy to do, especially if you have a Svengali pad or
similar.
But imagine if you could force a spectator to think of literally anything you
want, on the spot! No limitations on what could be forced. How impressive
would that be!
If I was to tell you, not only is it possible, but it is also easier to do than a
Svengali pad, would you believe me?
Well believe it, because System One can do that!
System One came about after wanting to force any item, any object, any word,
any location, anything onto a spectator, instantly.
If I was performing in a cocktail bar and I wanted to force a particular brand of
drink or cocktail, on the spot, I needed something that could do this.
If I was performing at a wedding and needed to force a particular song or film
at that precise moment, I needed something that could do this.
It had to work flawlessly, work 100% of the time and be ready to go at a
moment’s notice. No faffing about, no writing anything down, it had to be
clean and most importantly, work!
I think you would agree, that if this is truly possible, then the price of this
eBook is an absolute bargain. Well, I promise you, everything you have just
read is possible!
System One isn’t just a tool for forcing either, it can be built into routines, work
alongside existing effects, can be used in walk around situations, pre-show,
after show, mid show, predictions, drawing duplications, one ahead principal,
pretty much anything. It really is only limited by your imagination.
Want to know how to do this?
Well let’s get into it!
Phillip Shepherd
System One

Whilst System One relies on very simple techniques and methods already

in existence. When they are combined, as in System One, they become a

powerful tool that can be utilized anywhere. As such, credit must be given

in full to those that have created, expanded and built upon these

techniques in the past, in particular Michael Murray's Universal Force

and his wonderful book "A Piece of My Mind" which can be purchased at

www.mindfx.co.uk

"So, what does System One require?"

"What's the magic?"

"What's the secret ingredients?"

6 business cards.

''That's it?"
Yep, 6 business cards that you keep in your wallet all the time, ready to go.

"6 business cards"

Yep!

If you have 6 spare business cards, you will be able to use them to force
anything, onto anyone, at any moment.

(Don't worry if you don't use business cards, as I will be showing you an
alternative option later in the book).

Let's get into the secret.

The Secret
Take 6 business cards and write the numbers 1 to 6 on the back of them

(*They don’t need to be as fancy as this)

Next, mark the 6 business cards on the front of the business card in a way that
you can easily identify what value is on the back of the card. The markings
shouldn’t be obvious to anyone else. Marking video tutorial:

https://youtu.be/xSSPMIa-wfQ
As you have seen in the video, I use a small pencil dot in one corner for each
card, starting in the top left and working clockwise around the cards until I get
to the 6th card.
Also, you would have seen in the video that marked playing cards can also
work just fine, but I do prefer business cards, as in my opinion, to a spectator,
they seem “cleaner” than playing cards.
Now you don’t have to follow my marking system of course. In fact, you could
get business cards marked in the printing stage, which would work awesome.
But, if this is not an option for you, then a simple pencil dot works just fine.
These 6 numbered / marked business cards go into your wallet, and at any
moment, you are ready to go!
You can now force anything onto anyone.
The Mixing
System One is broken down into 2 parts for ease of understanding, the mixing
and the forcing. We will start with the mixing.
You introduce the 6 business cards out of your wallet and show the spectator
that they are numbered 1-6, you turn them facedown and mix them up. Once
mixed you hand them over to the spectator.
They are instructed to take the top card and place it onto the bottom of the
stack in front of you. They are to repeat this process as many times as they like,
but whilst your back is turned.
They are to say “OK” when they feel they have done this enough.
Once they say “OK”, you turn back around and tell the spectator to glimpse the
number of the very bottom card, the one closest to their palm, without letting
you see what number is written on it.
Before they do glimpse the card, you turn your back again as not to
accidentally see anything.
Once they have glimpsed this number, they are again to say “OK” and you
remind them not to forget this number.
With your back still turned, you ask them to mix the cards up completely and
to hand them back to you.
As soon as they hand them to you, you place them back into your wallet and
the wallet is placed back into your pocket. The business cards are now reset
ready to go again for the next performance.
So, the spectator has a random number in mind, between the numbers 1-6,
and with every intent and purpose it appears a completely fair way to select a
random number. It takes about 30 seconds in total, and there is no way that
you could possibly know this number as your back was turned away. But the
secret is, you do!
Let me explain how.
At the very start, when you introduced the 6 cards to the spectator, you show
them that they were numbered. They are placed in a particular order as shown
in these photos.

(Notice that they are stacked so that they are in order from the face. When the stack is
closed up, “1” should be on the face. When turned face down the “6” will be on top)

When we begin to mix the 6 cards in front of the spectator, facedown, we will
be mixing the cards using the Charlier shuffle which retains our stack.
Charlier shuffle video tutorial:

https://youtu.be/4_XW_YYV1P0

With this shuffle, the cards are always changing position, but will always retain
their stack. It is a very deceptive shuffle and looks like a mishap way of mixing.
It also means that whatever card is on top of the stack after doing the Charlier
shuffle, the card on the bottom of the stack will be the next in line.
For example, after the shuffle, if we spot our marked card on the top of the
stack is the “4” card, then we know that the card on the bottom of the stack is
the “5” card.
(*If it was the “6” card on top, it would mean the “1” card is on bottom of the stack due to
the sequence restarting.)
It doesn’t matter how many times our spectator moves a card from the top of
the stack to the bottom after we have mixed them, as long as we get to see the
mark on the top card, then we know the value of the card on the bottom!
(When in performance, if you cannot get the mark on the top card spotted, don’t panic!
Maybe the spectator’s thumb is hiding the mark or they are holding the business cards in a
way that makes it difficult to read the mark. Don’t worry, in the afterthoughts at the end of
the booklet I will cover a few ways we can get around this.)

When we do get our glimpse of our mark on the top card, we explain to the
spectator that they need to take a glimpse of the very bottom card of the
stack, the one closest to their palm. We also let them know that we will turn
around to not accidentally see anything.
But as you are now aware, as soon as we spot the mark on the top card, we
have instantly worked out the bottom cards value.
We are now in an excellent position to force anything!
Video link to explain everything so far:

https://youtu.be/WoDhv02acPY
The Force
So, we have mixed the cards and the spectator has moved cards from the top
to the bottom of the stack, numerous amounts of times. They have glimpsed
the bottom cards value and we now know the number that our spectator is
thinking of, but how does this allow us to force anything on them? Well this is
where the beauty of System One comes into play.

We use what I used to refer to as, the dynamic force, whereby the force
object changes position. At the time of writing this effect up I was unaware
that Michael Murray had already come up with this exact force years before
myself. His force was called "The Universal Force" from his book "A Piece of
my Mind", and its with his permission that we can now put to use this
wonderful force!

(As with many concepts in mentalism or magic, routines and ideas often
overlap, and principles evolve into new creations. Without a complete full
encyclopedia of past principles and effects its usually the case that creators
come up with the same ideas, totally by chance, thus was the case with this
force).
So, full credit for this force is given to Michael Murray (www.mindfx.co.uk)

So how does this force work?

In simple terms we alter our force to match their number. Trust me it’s a lot
easier than it sounds.
Let’s for example say that we know that our spectator is thinking of the
number “2” and we want to force the colour “red”.
We turn towards them after the business cards have been put away and we
say this:
“Ok you are now thinking of a completely random number between 1 &
6? ”
Let them agree, and continue with:
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of the colour
green”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of the colour
red”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of the colour
blue”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of the colour
yellow”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of the colour
orange”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of the colour
purple”

If we know they are thinking of the number 4, we would simply change our
force (the colour red) to fit into position 4.
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of the colour
green”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of the colour
yellow”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of the colour
blue”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of the colour
red”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of the colour
orange”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of the colour
purple”

DO NOT OVER LOOK THE SIMPLICITY OF IT!

You can see that we move our intended force, on the fly, into the position that
they are thinking. All the other colours are randomised and are of no concern.
We only need to ensure that our chosen force matches their thought of
number.
Let’s change it from colours to animals, and let us assume that the spectator
has glimpsed the number 5 and we want to force a horse.

“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of a dog”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of a rabbit”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of a cat”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of a sheep”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of a horse”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of an elephant”

Again, you can see that we have altered the position of our chosen force (the
horse) into position 5.
Acting is crucial to this step, it should appear as though you are making the
items up on the spot, a few “emmm’s” never go a miss. For example:
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of , emmmm,
say (PAUSE) a dog”
It should appear as though you are making up the animals or whatever your
chosen force item is on the spot. If you say it too regimentally, like a list, it can
come across that something is amiss.
Also notice the phrase “if you are thinking of the number”. Phrasing it like this
implies that they thought of the number. We want our spectator to separate
themselves from the business cards. We want to imply that they came up with
the number and that they could have thought of any number between 1 & 6.
(Technically they could have ended up with any number between 1-6, but a
little extra push from us doesn’t hurt.)
So now you should have a good understand of how System One works.
To break it down in its simplest of forms, it is this:
• 6 marked business cards, with the numbers 1-6 on the back.
• A spectator peeks the bottom most card after the cards have been
mixed & whilst your back is turned away.
• You know the number they are thinking of as the business cards are
marked & stacked.
• You then place your forced item, into the position they are thinking and
then force this item onto them.
Does it get any simpler?
How you reveal the chosen force item afterwards is totally unlimited!
Now that I have guided you on the working of System One, let me share with
you a couple of my full routines that utilise System One.
Final Destination
In this routine, we are not only going to reveal a location, but we will also be
revealing a colour, a smell, a sound, a taste and a monument.
Yes, all that in one routine, using System One.
So, we are going to begin the routine by replicating exactly what has been
described in the previous pages, the only difference is our force. Our force on
this occasion is going to be New York City.
Let’s assume we have mixed the cards; the spectator has moved cards from
the top to the bottom of the stack and you have got your glimpse of the
marked card on top. In this example let us assume that the spectator is
thinking of the number 3. We are now going to force onto them New York City,
in amongst other cities.
We would say:
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of the city,
emmm, London”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of the city,
emmm, Rome”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of the city,
emmm, New York”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of the city,
emmm, Paris”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of the city
emmmm, Berlin”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of the city,
emmm, Toyko”
(*you would obviously change the force position to match their thought of number)

We have now forced New York City onto them and we continue:
“I want you to imagine that you have won a holiday to this thought of
destination, really imagine you are there.
Sometimes closing your eyes helps to visualise it.
You are staying in one of the nicest hotels and you have decided to go
on an open top bus tour around the city.
Imagine you are on top of this tour bus, at the very front, and you have
been given a colourful map of the city that highlights some of the
landmarks and sightseeing hotspots, don’t say anything or give anything
away, but at the same time I really do need you to imagine it with 100%
sincerity.”
Give them time to imagine this taking place, and continue:
“I want you to imagine that the bus has pulled away, nice and slowly,
and you are standing at the front of the tour bus. You are standing
holding onto the handrail, and have uninterrupted views of everything
around you. Immerse yourself in the experience and really think about
what I am going to ask you.”
Again, give them time to settle into this. Don’t rush them, you want them to
really feel the experience.
“The first thing I want you to try and do is sense any smells, maybe the
smell of food, each and every city has its own unique style of food and
cooking. Try to pick up on a smell. If you can’t at the moment, just give
yourself time until you do, maybe you can see what is being cooked or
someone cooking, if you do get a hint or a whiff of something, don’t say
anything.”
Give them a few seconds to imagine the smell and then if they have their eyes
closed, ask them to open them. Look into their eyes and as serious as you can,
claim:
“I’m not sure why, but the smell I am getting is like street food, like
BBQ, meaty smell, almost like fast food, but I am not 100% sure. What
was it you could smell? Only tell me the smell, nothing else.”
Because they are thinking of New York, they should be imagining Hot Dog
stands or Burger stands. Smokey, meaty smells.
Let them tell you what they smell. In truth it doesn’t matter what they say or
how close we were as we are building the effect up for the grand finale. What I
find is that 9 times out of 10, the street food will hit and you get a positive
reaction. Sometimes the spectator will wander off into the China District or
smell the exhaust fumes from cars. But whether you “hit” or “miss”, it doesn’t
matter, mind reading isn’t a science and isn’t always 100% correct.
Continue with:
“Ok that was interesting and very strange that I was picking up them
smells, lets try something else. Close your eyes again and imagine you
are back on the top deck of the tour bus driving around this city. What I
would like you to do is look down and see if there are any cars, don’t
give anything away, look at all the vehicles and maybe their colours and
what vehicles standout.”
Pause for just a second or two and state:
“I have no idea why but I just got a colour come through to me and I
have no idea why. This may seem weird and don’t give anything way, but
I just got the colour Yellow come through, does this make any sense to
you at all?”
Because we are in New York and the taxis are normally yellow, then most
people link the yellow of taxis to this location.
They normal smile and nod at this point in agreement that yellow is a hit, but
we need to pull the effect back. We don’t want it appearing like we are putting
2 and 2 together to work out the destination.
So, if they do nod or smile (or if they don’t) say:
“That literally makes no sense to me at all, why the colour yellow would
be coming through to me like that. I think it might be the sun or
reflection or something. Anyway, lets carry on and see what else I can
pick up on.”
This is a great way to pull back the effect, we have gained our hit and made it
seem as though it makes no sense to us. The spectator will of course credit us
later when we remember it.
Next, we go onto the monument, and we continue with the spectator, saying:
“Ok, now I want you to imagine the bus is going to the most distinctive
landmark in this city, one that if anyone saw it, they would instantly
recognise it and know where they are.”
Because we have forced New York, I have found that there are 3 main
landmarks that get chosen, it is either, The Statue of Liberty, The 9/11
memorial site, or the Empire State building.
Now the great thing about all these landmarks is, they hold or did hold very
similar attributes.
• All are or were tall.
• All allowed people to walk up and down them inside.
• The view at the top is of substantial height.
• All are greyish in colour.
• All have a lot of history attached to them.
So, by wording the next part carefully we can gain a hit even if we don’t
mention the landmark. Let me show you do this by saying:
“I want you to imagine you have gotten off the bus and you are at this
landmark, maybe it’s a small monument or something tall, maybe its
very old, or modern. Imagine you get to see the whole of this landmark,
what it’s made from, what it represents, you get to experience it all. I
will see what I can pick up on, again don’t give anything away.”
We have primed our victim (spectator) now into imagining this landmark. We
continue:
“Ok the first thing I am feeling is height, I can’t tell if I am looking from
the bottom up or looking down from the top, but it is or was substantial
in height. Like huge. Not just a couple of stories high, this is vast. I can
feel wind rushing past me, and I can see people climbing up & down
stairs, there is people inside. It’s so large that it’s almost like a
monument. There are also people on the outside of the structure
looking upwards and some are standing in silence. This maybe because
of the what this landmark represents or the history behind the
structure. It’s also busy, in fact extremely busy.”
Now I will have to warn you here, if the spectator has thought of the 9/11
memorial, tread carefully. On a few occasions with the above reading, the
person has begun to cry. If this happens, think carefully how and when to
conclude the routine, you may find that you need to skip over the next few
steps and end straight way, declaring the city to be New York.
But If they are fine, continue by saying:
“Without giving anything away, is any of this making sense to you.”
Let them nod or smile and then ask them to imagine getting back on the bus.
“We are going to try two last things, I want you to try and hear the
sounds of the city, what noises are being made, roughly how loud it is,
can you hear anything in the background, be aware of any sounds.”
Again, give them time to visualise this and then say:
“Ok what I am picking up on is its loud, very loud. I can hear what
sounds like car horns, lots of people talking and chatting, a couple of
people are arguing. Can you hear them? There is also a busker playing a
guitar, can you also hear that? Wow this is loud. It’s a very active city.”
We are placing a few seeds in their mind at this point, trying to make them
hear what we are saying, buskers, horns, talking, arguing. We are 100% telling
them what to hear. Don’t be afraid to influence what they are imagining!
“OK, I think I know where this is, can you look up and see a flag hanging
from one of the buildings, I can see it too. This is Red, White and Blue,
it’s the, oh its clear, it’s the U.S flag, is the city New York?”
Let them confirm that you are correct and then say:
“Oh, there was yellow taxis, was that what you were seeing earlier?
That makes sense now.”
Another free hit!
What I tend to find is that the spectator will talk about their imaginary journey
long after the effect has finished. Its important to take this time to gain any
more free hits they might send your way. For example, if they said they were
thinking of the Empire State Building, say:
“Yeah that is what I was seeing, this huge tower, with people standing at
the top, looking out over the city, it makes sense now.”
There is nothing better in mentalism than freebies!
There you have it, Final Destination. We have maxed out System One by
leading our spectator on a path that was initially forced upon them, and we
have guided them into using different senses to maximise our hits. I hope you
enjoyed! Onto the next effect!
Two Grey Elephants in Demark
This effect is one of them tricks that is just super fun to perform. It allows you
to interact with the spectators and also fills you with joy in its sneakiness. I
absolutely love to perform this!
It takes the normal one ahead process, flips it upside down and turns it into a
drawing and word duplication.
We will be utilising the System One principal to turn the original “A Grey
Elephant in Denmark” trick into a killer!
Let me give you the spill!
Two spectators are asked to think of two different animals. The first spectator
is asked to visualise their animal in the form of a photograph.
The performer then tries to connect with this spectator and tries to pick up on
any information that he or she can interpret.
Slowly the image comes through to the performer and they begin to draw
what is being picked up on. Once completed, the drawing is folded and placed
into an empty envelope that is in view the whole time.
The second spectator is asked to not visualise their animal as a photograph,
but to see their animal as a word, to see the letters that make up their thought
of animal.
Slowly, again, the performer begins to pick up on the information and starts to
write down letters onto another piece of paper. Once completed, the word is
folded up and again placed into the envelope, along with the drawing
previously.
The envelope is then sealed.
The performer stands up and says his work is done!
The 2 spectators are a bit miffed, has the performance finished?
Do they open the envelope?
Eventually they decide to open the envelope to find that the performer has
indeed been successful with both mind reading feats!
Let’s get into the workings.
The workings
By using the System One principal, we can see how simple a drawing
duplication could be with one spectator. You simply force anything you like
onto them and then draw it.
But the great thing with this effect is that it uses 2 spectators and doubles the
impact!
We start exactly as before by showing one of the spectators the six cards and
then we mix them up (wink). We then let the spectator move one card at a
time from top to the bottom of the stack, stopping whenever they like. We
spot our mark on the top card before they glimpse the number that they
stopped on.
(In this effect we don’t take back the business cards at this point, we allow the
spectator to keep hold of them for the time being.)
We are now going to force an Elephant onto the first spectator by saying:
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Giraffe.”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Zebra.”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of, emmm, an
Elephant.”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Crocodile.”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of emmm, a
Parrot.”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of emmm, a
Monkey.”
We can see that their thought of number is the number 3 in this example. But
we would change the Elephant into the position that matches the number they
are thinking of, as previously explained.
So, we have now forced our first spectator to think of an Elephant. That was
easy!
We then get the first spectator to mix up business cards and then hand them
over to the second spectator. Our stack is now messed up, but no need to
worry, this is going to play into our hands.
Turn to the second spectator and say:
“Whilst I turn my back again, I want you to move one card from the top
of the stack to the bottom, stop whenever you like. Wherever you stop I
want you to glimpse the bottom cards value and remember it. After you
have this value locked into your mind, mix the cards up and let me
know that I can turn back around.”
What we have done is allow our second spectator to truly select a random
value and we have no idea what it could be. We have strengthened the belief
that this is a totally fair process and that there is no way we could know either
of the spectators thought of numbers. If they do try to look back to how the
numbers were selected, they will confirm that they mixed the cards and our
back was turned the whole time. What a nice bonus!
So, currently we have primed our first spectator with our chosen force, an
Elephant. And our second spectator, at this moment is thinking of a number
between 1-6, and we have no idea what it could be. But as you will see, we
don’t need to.
We mimic the process, exactly as before, by saying a completely different set
of animals with the second spectator.
“If you are thinking of the number 1, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Horse.”
“If you are thinking of the number 2, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Dog.”
“If you are thinking of the number 3, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Rabbit.”
“If you are thinking of the number 4, I want you to think of, emmm, a
Cat.”
“If you are thinking of the number 5, I want you to think of emmm, a
Bear.”
“If you are thinking of the number 6, I want you to think of emmm, a
Mouse.”
They are now thinking of one of these animals, but we have no idea what one.
We will use the one ahead principle to help us out.
We look at both spectators and say:
“Who would like to be read first?”
If they do say “the second spectator”, perfect! We can proceed. But If they
chose the first spectator (the one thinking of the elephant) then we need to
bluff it and read the second person first. It’s important we read the second
person first. We can do this by starting to read the first spectator and saying
something like:
“I want you to imagine your animal, as clear in your mind as you can.
Imagine it’s like a photograph in your mind projecting outwards, like you
can visually see it in your mind’s eye. Don’t give anything away. (PAUSE)
Ok, I’m being truthful, you’re not give me much at the moment, I will
need to do this in a different way with you. I am going to come back to
you.”
We have now pushed ourselves into reading the second spectator. This
process of choosing who is read first, eliminates any thoughts of the one ahead
principle being at play later on if anyone should suspect it.
Turn your attention to the second spectator, the one who is thinking of a
random animal, that we don’t know, and continue:
“I want you to imagine your animal, as clear in your mind as you can.
Imagine it’s like a photograph in your mind, projecting outwards, like
you can visually see it in your mind’s eye. Don’t give anything away.
Excellent! Really see it, make it as clear as you can. Ok keep that image
there, I am picking up on something, let me draw this. We will see how
close I am.”
We obviously haven’t picked up on anything and we have no idea what they
are thinking of, but we take a pen and a piece of paper.
(Make sure that the piece of paper is thick enough as not to allow the
spectator to see through it. Blank business cards work good in this situation.)
And we begin to draw. Now when I say draw, what I actually mean is, we begin
to draw the word “ELEPHANT”.
How do your draw the word elephant I hear you say!
Well, it’s easier than you think, you simply pretend you are drawing. In reality,
you simply write the word elephant. You start with the P in the middle, and
then draw lines of the other letters, alternating left and right until the word is
written onto the piece of paper. Once written (drawn) you turn to the
spectator and claim you think that your drawing resembles what it’s meant to
be. You then fold the piece of paper into 4’s and state that you now cannot
change your mind (if you are using a business card there is no need to fold).
Place the piece of paper into an envelope that is in your pocket, and place the
envelope onto a table, saying:
“I am now committed to that drawing, I cannot alter it or switch it as its
locked away inside the envelope. I must admit it won’t win any awards,
but hopefully you will be able to see what I was going for. For the first
time, can you tell everyone what animal that you were thinking of.”
Let the spectator reveal their animal and then look at them and say:
“Oh well, I was close, but not 100% perfect. You can take a look at what I
drew in a moment. Let me see if I can do this in a different way with you
first.”
Turn back to the spectator thinking of the elephant and say this:
“Now I want you to think of your animal in a different way, Not as a
photograph, but as a word. Imagine it spelt out each and every letter
between us. Nice and big. Think about how many letters this has. Count
them in your mind.
Ok, I think I am picking up on a couple of the letters, go to the middle of
the word and see what the letters are, excellent. Now go to the end
letter.”
Take another piece of paper or business card, and start to pretend you are
writing something down. What you are actually going to do is draw what our
first spectator said their thought of animal was. Let us assume in this example
they said that the animal was a Rabbit. We would draw something like this:
The key to this working is not to over think the drawing. Simplicity wins!

You are probably wondering that a drawing of an animal, instead of writing

down an animal, would be easily spotted by the spectator. No!

If you throw in a few, "No,

that letter isn't in there. I think I got these two
letters the wrong way around" etc. It goes completely unnoticed.
The spectator has no interest in what you are writing and wouldn't be able to
tell what you are writing.

At the end of the day you are trying to mentally pick up on a word that
someone is thinking of. How you do this isn't conventional, there is no wrong
or right way in the spectator's mind how this should happen.

You have now completed the drawing of the previous spectators chosen
animal, and in the envelope on the table is the word "Elephant".
What a great position we are now in!

We have completed the one ahead principle, but switched it up so that there is
no confusion who was thinking of what and we were reading the correct
person (wink).

Slide the Rabbit drawing into the envelope with the other business card, I
always like to slide it underneath the former so that it appears they are in the
correct position when they are taken back out, but this is 100% necessary.

Close the envelope up by pushing the flap inside and declare your work is
complete.

This moment is great, the spectators have no idea what to think, is the effect
over? Should we take a look?

Eventually, they decide to open the envelope and well, the rest is history.
Afterthoughts
That is System One, I hope you enjoy performing this effect, and hope it brings
you the same level of joy it brings myself.
To join the System One Facebook group where we share ideas and routines,
please click here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/403269035351398

The password is “rabbit”.

Just to get some ideas going, here are some extra thoughts that you might
consider. The number of business cards doesn’t have to be limited to only 6, in
fact it can be any number. In the past I have used 8 cards and even upto 10
depending on the situation or what I am forcing.
What if the spectator’s hand is covering our mark?
This rarely happens, and most times by a process of elimination you can
usually work out the card. But sometimes you will get an awkward spectator
that will place their thumb across the cards. The easiest way to deal with this is
in 2 ways depending on your situation. If you are at a table, simply ask the
spectator to place the cards onto the table, thus, getting your glimpse. Or the
second way, if you don’t have a table, simply pick up the cards from the
spectator’s hand and spot the mark. As soon as you spot the mark turn your
head away and raise the cards up to roughly eye level with the spectator, with
the bottom card showing, saying:
“Please remember this number, once you have it locked into your mind,
please take the cards off me and mix them up.”
After they have taken the cards and you hear them mixing them, turn back
around and take the business cards back and put them into your wallet.
Hopefully this has sparked some ideas and how you can put System One to
use. Join our Facebook Group for more super ideas!
Phillip Shepherd
Thank you to everyone who has aided in the release of this eBook, including
Scott Creasey, John Carey and Michael Murray (www.mindfx.co.uk)
[email protected]

COPYRIGHT NOTICE. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE REPRODUCED,

COPIED OR SHARED WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR.