What is ESP?
ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception, otherwise known as sixth sense, clairvoyance, telepathy or remote viewing and is casually known as a 'hunch' or 'gut instinct'. There have been many cases where, when using Zener Cards, a performer has managed to predict which card a spectator has chosen, however there is no concrete scientific evidence that ESP actually exists.
If you haven't seen Zener cards, this is what they look like:
Obviously, there are five cards: circle, cross, wavey lines, square and star. The idea of the excercise is that there are two sets of these cards, one set held by the spectator, and the other set held by the performer. The spectator is then asked to choose a card, and place face down on the table, the performer then predicts which card it is by doing the same. This continues until all five cards have been used at which point, both turn over their sets of cards to find that the prediction is accurate.
It is often the case that one of the following methods is used for this trick:
-Marked Zener Cards
-Suggestion and Conversational Hypnosis
Marked Zener Cards are exactly what they say on the tin. The faces of the cards are as above, however the backs are discretely marked so as the performer knows at a glance which card is which.
Conversational Hypnosis and Suggestion are often used in such a way, that when the trick is explained prior to performance, subliminal hints are used to effectively 'force' the chosen card. It is often the case that when this method is used, the cards are selected one by one and prediction shown at the same time, rather than the spectator choosing the order of all five cards, and then the performer trying to match them.
Marked Zener (ESP) Cards can be purchased below along with a couple of other suggestion. Take a look...