White Out By Atlas Brookings
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A young lady is brought onto the stage and asked to have a seat.
The mentalist then invites another participant on stage, who is asked to take a seat on the
opposite side of the stage. He fans open a deck of blue-backed cards, showing the faces
of the cards to the audience and both participants.
The mentalist then turns and asks the second participant to select a card, keeping it face
down and unseen. They are asked if they'd like to change their mind – and may actually
do so. Once arrived at, the mentalist takes this card and sets it down on a table set in the
center of the stage, between both participants.
The mentalist then apparently hypnotizes the young lady. In this state, the mentalist
suggests that she will be more open to demonstrating phenomenon of the mind. He then
asks the two participants to lock eyes with each other. After a moment the mentalist
interrupts this process and opens a red-backed deck of cards and displays them again to
the audience and both participants.
He then fans these cards face up in front of the "hypnotized" participant, asking them to
choose a card. The card they select is removed from the pack and shown to the audience.
At this point, the mentalist takes the blue-backed card from the table and shows that it
matches the red-backed card. The audience sees the match, the second spectator sees the
match, but when the "hypnotized" spectator is shown the cards, the blue-backed card is
consistently blank.
The mentalist explains that the fault lies with them – that their choice of words earlier
resulted in an inadvertent loss of memory on the part of the "hypnotized" girl. The
mentalist then sets the cards down on the table, brings the blue-backed deck back into
play, and shows the "hypnotized" girl the faces of cards, asking what she sees. She
declares them to be blank, at which point, the mentalist turns them around to show the
audience that they are normal.
The mentalist then brings the "hypnotized" participant out of the trance, and shows them
the cards, at which point the first participant agrees that they now have faces. He boxes
the blue-backed cards, and then takes the two left resting on the table and shows them to
the young lady. She agrees that they match and is given a round of applause as she exits
the stage.
