Mind Reading Tricks Revealed
You might be wondering how mentalists do the sealed envelope trick. You may be looking to perform this great prediction magic trick yourself, so let’s take a look…
How do mentalists do the sealed envelope trick in 15 seconds…
The seal envelope trick is in a class of tricks know as billet reading. Where billet reading is also referred to as “One Ahead” reading. With the sealed envelope trick, the mentalist appears to know what’s inside an envelope. To demonstrate their clairvoyant powers, the mentalist selects the uppermost envelope from the stack or envelopes. The mentalist pretends to mind-read the contents of this first envelope. This is typically done by holding the envelope to their head which creates the clairvoyant effect. Of course they don’t know what’s in the first envelope. So they instead announce aloud a memorised statement. To fully understand how this trick is done, please continue to read.
Sealed envelope trick explained
The envelope trick is a mentalist effect where the performer pretends to have clairvoyant powers. These so-called powers are used to read messages on folded papers or messages inside sealed envelopes. This style of mentalism or magic act is also known as Billet Reading.
Billet reading has been around since the mid to late 18-hundreds. The sealed envelope trick or billet reading was first popularised by American medium Charles H Foster. But it was magician Theodore Annemann who brought the trick into the magic world by including it in the mentalist’s journal The Jinx.
With the sealed envelope trick the mentalist appears to know what’s inside an envelope. After asking the audience to write down words on a piece of paper, they are asked to seal this paper in an envelope. The mentalism then selects the uppermost envelope from the stack of envelopes. They then pretend to mind-read the contents. This is typically performed by holding the envelope to their head, as it helps to create the illusion of mind reading or clairvoyance. But they don’t know what’s in the first envelope, so they instead announce aloud a memorised statement instead.
Usually for this trick to work there’s a “plant” in the audience who cries out that what’s just been announced is what they had written down or similar. The first envelope in the stack is opened to confirm what the audience member has just revealed. But in reality the mentalist is simply reading the next persons words. When they put the next envelope to their head as if to clairvoyantly read the message, they announce the message from the previously opened envelope. This continues until all envelopes are opened one by one.
Sealed envelope prediction trick revealed
If you would like to learn how to perform this trick and learn in detail about how this works, you might want to take a look at the book The Purloined Thought.
This book is renowned as being the best and most exhaustive work on billets. The book includes details on the history, the methodology and the techniques on the use of torn billets in the mentalist’s art of thought reading.
This book comes in both hardcover and in an unbound form. It starts with an in depth study of the history and evolution of the Center Tear. If you buy this book you’ll have enough on on billets than you could ever use in a lifetime.
The book’s Thirteen Chapters include:
- Initium or the introduction and the beginning or history.
- Blue Ribbon Effects.
- Facts.
- Prophesy.
- Qanda Central.
- The Covert Tear.
- Tear And Read Methods.
- The Young Lions.
- Pyramid Power.
- Sans Tear Methods.
- Pre-Torn Missives.
- Sealed Messages.
- The Day Of The Sit-Tores.
There are contributions in The Purloined Thought from Rudy Hunter, Al Baker, Ted Karmilovich, Ray Hyman, Bob Cassidy, Richard Osterlind and Dai Vernon. Whilst admittedly this is an expensive book, it was limited to 200 copies. So once these have gone, you may not be able to get your copy, unless they are re-sold on eBay or similar. If you’d like to take advantage of this limited offer to grab the hardcover version or the unbound copy, please place your order here.
If you would like to learn how to do amazing mentalist tricks that will make your friend’s jaw drop, look at the Master Mentalism course.
Master Mentalism is an in-depth course that will show you the secrets behind most of the popular mentalist magic tricks there are.
In just a short time after learning from Master Mentalism you will know exactly how mentalists do what they do!
For a ridiculously small investment on your part you will be learning some fantastic mentalism and magic skills. These skills will not only make you the life of a party, but they will set you on your way to become the next famous mentalist!
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If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about mentalism or magic, I will try to answer them (or specifically about how do mentalists do the sealed envelope trick), please comment below with your questions.
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