Modern Magic Manual Online - Magic Lessons
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5. MARVELOUS MEMORY

Effect. Spectators call the names of any persons or objects, and they are written down on a blackboard with the numbers from 1 on in consecutive order. The total number of such objects may range from twenty-five to fifty or more, yet the operator, with his back to the blackboard, names the whole list from start to finish (or the reverse way); and, on any number being called, he will name the object at that number or, the object being called, he will instantly call the number at which it stands in the list.

Method. Such a performance induces the popular belief that the operator is endowed with a marvelous memory. Such, however, is not the case. No special power of memory is required but simply the application of a mental trick, the association of ideas. In the first place, certain words are associated with particular numbers and the objects called are then associated by mental pictures with the word that represents the number attached to that particular object.

The first step, then, is to learn the numerical alphabet which follows:

The clues will enable anyone to memorize the list in a few minutes. By combining the letters, any required number can be indicated; for example, l-l represents 11, 1-n 12, m-m 23, f-n 52, and so on.

The next step is to make up a list of words by adding vowels to consonants of the number alphabet, thus: 1. Ale. 2. Hen. 3. Emblem. 4. Arrow. 5. Ivy. 6. Bee. 7. Tea. 8. Shoe. 9. Key. 10. Lass. And so on.

These are given merely as examples. The student can choose words to suit himself; for instance, LioN might stand for 12, NuN for 22, MuMmy for 33. It must, however, be understood that the system is strictly phonetic, the sound of the consonants only being considered.

When the number words have been thoroughly memorized, all the operator has to do, when the objects are called and listed on the blackboard, is to associate each one with its appropriate number word by making a mental “picture of the two in association—and the more absurd and grotesque the picture, the more easily it will be recalled. For example, suppose the first thing called is Elephant. You have already pictured a huge glass of Ale in your mind’s eye, so you add to it an Elephant sitting on its haunches about to pour the Ale down its mouth with its trunk. Later, when you are asked to name the object at number 1, you mentally picture the glass of Ale and at once you see the Elephant quaffing it.

Again, suppose number 2 is Clock. Picture a Hen sitting on a nest opposite a Clock, timing herself laying an egg. When 2 is called, you picture the Hen and at once you see the Clock; whereas if Clock is called and you are asked its number, you at once recall the picture of the Hen timing herself laying eggs.

A vivid imagination is of more assistance than a retentive memory in performing the feat and, of course, it is just as easily applied to a hundred objects as to twenty or thirty. It is a good plan not to use more than thirty objects, because of the time taken up in writing a longer list. After all, the intention is to be entertaining, and any tendency to become tedious or long drawn out must be carefully avoided. A sure and rapid treatment of thirty objects will be found to create more interest and wonderment than the employment of twice that number, entailing the taking of twice the length of time.

The act can be worked singlehanded by having a spectator write the names on the board, but it is more effective to work it with a lady assistant. As in the blackboard tests already explained, you blindfold genuinely, and seat your assistant back of the blackboard and to the left. When you invite the spectators to call the objects, first call the number and then repeat the object as you write it on the board, thus giving your assistant time to form the necessary mental picture.

When the list is completed, you may have her call off the objects rapidly in order from 1 to 30, then backwards from 30 to 1. Next invite the spectators to call any numbers and she names the objects, or vice versa. Strike out each object, as called, until the whole list has been gone over. By using the couplet already given in this chapter (“Eight kings threatened to save . . .”) the medium is enabled to call the objects that you apparently pick out at random. Of course, when you arrive at a court card you point to a blank space.

Finally, by using a trick blindfold you can invite a spectator to point to any number, and the medium will call it and the object. This is a mere matter of signaling with the left fingers, as has been explained already (see page 287).

Mastery of the system will repay the student handsomely. There is no apparatus to carry, you are ready to perform the feat at all times, and it is always received with enthusiasm by the largest and the smallest audiences.

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