CURSE OF SCOTLAND
Jon Racherbaumer
This is based on Jack Carpenter's “Fate Or Free Will?” published in Labyrinth - Number One (1994). After studying Carpenter’s method, I asked myself, “Since the subject is coincidence or synchronicity, why not permit the spectator to seemingly determine the outcome?” This is my answer.
Set-Up: Remove the four Sevens and place the Reds Between the Blacks. Hold the packet face down and reverse the two Red Sevens in the center. Place it on top of the deck.
Method: Shuffle the cards and retain the top four cards without inadvertently exposing the reversed Sevens. Say, “Shuffling cards is a trivial example of disorder and chaos. If someone selects a card, he or she is apparently exercising free will. But if we leave everything to chance, the outcome is frequently strange.”
Hold the deck face down in your left hand and riffle-down the outer left corner with your thumb. Say, “If cards are riffled like this and you impulsively say 'stop,’ the outcome is undetermined.” Have someone say stop, then cleanly lift the cards above the stop-separation with your right hand. Flip them face up onto the left-hand cards and say, “You could have stop me on any one of these cards.”
Spread the cards between your hands until you reach the first face-down card. Say, “Look at the possibilities! Notice the mixture and lack of order!” Separate the spread at the face-down card and take all the face-up cards in your right hand. Thumb off the face-down card to the table and explain: “Let’s use the card you stopped at, a card presently unknown and randomly chosen. You chose when to stop, but you didn’t choose this card. It was a matter of chance.”
As you utter this patter, press down on the outer left corner of the left-hand cards with your thumb. Because of the face-up Seven second from the top, you can easily obtain a left pinky break under the top, two cards. Replace the right-hand spread and square-up. Immediately lift and flip all the cards above the break. The top, three cards are: Black 7 - Red 7 (face up) - Black 7.
Ribbon-spread the deck without exposing the reversed Red 7 and ask the spectator to point to a card. Say, "Here you’re actually making a choice. You’re exercising free will.” Slide the selection out of the spread and temporarily leave it face down on the table. Scoop up the spread and casually perform a straight cut.
Turn the deck face up and hand the selection to the spectator face down. Ask him to insert it into the center part of the deck. Say, "Leave your card face down and protruding. This is your second exercise of free will.” Openly slide the selection so that it is side-jogged for half its width. Pretend to estimate its position and add: “It looks like you placed it about twenty-seven cards from the face. Did you consciously intend to place it there?”
Ribbon-spread the deck face up and say, "Let’s take a look.” The side-jogged selection is concealed under the spread (thanks to the Nyquist Jog Concealment) and the Red Seven is revealed between the Black Sevens. Say, "You placed your card between the Black Sevens. I wonder if this means anything?”
Slide out the Black Seven and disclose it, saying: "How fortuitous!” Point to the face-down prediction-card and say, "You know what to do” When the fourth Seven is revealed, say: "Is it fate, free will, or is there a hidden order to chaos?”