Name a flower?

Here’s a deceptively neat little mind trick that is a real fooler. All you need is a pen and a postit pad.

Find a friend or family member (we’ll call them Alex) who you wish to impress with your skills in precognition, this is the ability to predict future events ahead of time.

Write ROSE on the top piece of paper, unseen by Alex. Tear it off, fold it up and tell Alex to place the paper in his pocket for safekeeping.

Now ask Alex to name any flower, tell him he has a completely free choice. If he names ROSE, ask him to remove the paper from his pocket, open it up and, wow, you’ve predicted his thoughts. This is the ideal outcome.

So, I hear you ask, what if he doesn’t say ROSE? This is where the devious trickery comes into play. Let’s assume he says DAFFODIL. You now state, “Ok, I’ll write that down”. With the postit pad held towards you so Alex can’t see the writing, you pretend to write DAFFODIL but actually write ROSE! Scrunch up the paper and place it on the table or in Alex’s hand.

Ask for another flower. Let’s say Alex says TULIP. Again, write ROSE in the pretense of writing TULIP, scrunch up and place with the other piece. Continue this until he says ROSE (he will soon enough) and, of course, genuinely write ROSE on a sheet and place it scrunched up with the others. You’re aiming for a minimum of four pieces of paper, so if they say ROSE after one or two continue until you have four.

Now, as far as Alex is aware he has four or five pieces of paper with different flowers that he named; in reality they all say ROSE. Ask him to choose just one. He does. You take back the other pieces and dispose of them in your pocket.

Ask him to open the piece he chose, it will, of course, say ROSE. Ask him to remove the piece you gave to him right at the beginning and look at the shock on his face when he discovers you predicted his thoughts.