Know as Long Distance Telepathy, this effect has always been one of great appeal, but it hasn’t been exactly practical and useful for the performer who entertains mostly in the home and more or less along impromptu lines.

The older methods are fairly well known to the profession: (a) by writing in the pocket and secreting in a fountain pen, (b) an impression pad, (c) and John Booth devised a method where the metal container for a pencil eraser is removed and the message hidden there. Other methods have appeared but generally not straightforward enough for practical use.

I have developed what I consider the perfect method as far as the onlookers are concerned. There are no impressions, no messages in pens or pencils, and nothing to palm or hide. It is direct and to the point with no pocket fumbling, and while bold to the nth degree, that very boldness seems to be what gets it by.

The medium, or psychic is led to another room. Someone of the audience now names a card, another names a city, another a number of three or four figures, and another may count the keys on his key ring, etc. About four items are sufficient. Without apparent contact or through material means, the medium reveals the details.

A small scratch pad and pencil are used. The smallest kind of pad sold in Woolworth stores is just right. Beforehand, take one sheet and fold it once one way and twice the other into a billet form of about one half inch by two. Have in coat pocket with pad alongside.

Have the medium taken from the room. Now ask someone to think of and name any card. As they do this, take the pad from the pocket with your left hand, tear off two sheets, the first being tossed to the table and the second held in right hand, and put the pad back into the pocket, second-finger palming the dummy billet there. Make the remark “We’ll keep a check sheet on all of this” and proceed to jot down the name of the card on the paper in hand. In the same way, the other items are selected by spectators and jotted down.

At the finish of three or four, lay the pencil down, and while you state that the medium is at a distance and concentrating upon this particular room and its happenings, fold the “check sheet” up into billet size, finger switch for the dummy, and drop it carelessly on the table in front of you. Look around and choose someone who hasn’t yet taken part to go to the medium and ask for her most vivid impressions. Then say “Here, take this other sheet, and the pencil.” Pick up the sheet, fold it into billet shape, finger switch for the one palmed, and give the spectator both paper and pencil.

The medium receives the objects and asks that she be left alone for a minute to see more clearly! She reads the contents of the billet, copies it onto another paper in a sort of narrative form as though she were writing a note to someone, folds the same way, and gives it to the spectator, accompanying him back to the main room. She keeps the original billet in her right hand.

When these two return, the performer picks up the “check sheet” (?), opens, and apparently reads out the items, saying “Those are the things thought of in here while you were gone.” And to the spectator “Will you read aloud the impressions that our medium received?” He reads his paper and the impressions are found to be correct. In the meantime, the performer has unconcernedly crumpled up his blank sheet from which he read the items by memory, and dropped it into his pocket. He can finish by taking the medium by hand as she regains her seat, and thus secure the genuine “check sheet” which may be carelessly tossed onto the table so both papers are there for any possible check up. However, this last safety guard is optional and seldom if ever necessary.

It is very effective to have the medium get picture impressions of the thoughts rather than a plain statement of what it is. For instance, if Philadelphia were thought of, she could merely get a “picture” of marching soldiers with red jackets and a bell being carried around through the night.

That would be plenty, and make the test very convincing.