I am now one of a small handful of people in the world to have witnessed Thomas Baxter’s “A Dianoetic Rage” in person. No one but Tom knows the secret. I can attest to this being the best rendition of “51 Faces North” I’ve ever seen, or frankly can even imagine. It most definitely meets all of Stewart James’ conditions. It appeared exactly as it should have. It was incredibly direct, and fooled everyone in the room. We are all reeling from the experience. I hope I never learn the secret. The legend is most definitely real.

Ben

Did you get to deal the cards?

And was the card stopped at turned over directly?

So jealous.... I'd love to see it!

I'm well jel.

Would love to see this and persuade Baxter to spill the beans.

I'd just love to see it.

Here is exactly what happened. There were about seven magicians sitting around a table. We were at Wunderground Magic Shop in Clawson, MI. Tom insisted on a borrowed deck. Several of us offered ours, but Tom asked the shop owner for a brand new, sealed deck. Tom asked me to designate any person to take part. I randomly chose Kasey Logan. Tom insisted on never touching the deck. The shop owner handed Kasey a brand new, sealed deck of cards, still in the cellophane, right off the shelf. TOM DID NOT TOUCH THE DECK EVEN ONCE. He asked to borrow my pad of paper, and openly wrote the name of one card, in full view, and allowed everyone present to see it. Kasey finally got the cards out of the box, which was tossed aside. Tom asked her to remove the jokers and advertising cards. She did so, and then Tom asked her to thoroughly shuffle the deck. She did this. No one else but Kasey had any physical contact with the deck.

Nothing intervened here other than Tom verbally describing the conditions of “51 Faces North”. He then told Kasey to deal cards one by one, face up onto the table, stopping whenever she wished. She dealt several, and stopped. Tom asked her if she was sure, and if she wanted to change we mind. She did, and dealt more cards. Once again, Tom asked her if she was sure, and AGAIN she changed her mind. She kept dealing. Throughout all of this, the predicted card had not appeared.

Trying to be difficult, Kasey eventually stopped dealing at card #50. So she had three cards in her hand. Tom actuallly gave her the option of confinuing if she wanted to. She said no this time. Tom asked her to deal the next card face down onto the pile already dealt, and then to deal the final two on top of that. Every card was seen except for the openly predicted card. The face down card was still visible, as it happened near the end of the deal. Tom told Kasey to turn it over. It was the exact card that Tom openly wrote down.

This is my exact recollection of what happened.

I only wanted to know one thing, so I simply asked Kasey, “Did you just experience the exact same effect as I did?” She answered yes, and I believe her. I wanted to rule out stoogery.

I’m not leaving anything out.

That sounds great. Tom is a brilliant creator!

I miss his posts here.

This thread would probably get much more discussion in "the worker".

Lets not forget that a sealed deck its not necessarily a deck that was never unsealed. With that in mind, even if that was a special deck provided by Tom still don't know how exactly would he accomplish the described effect.

Well well. Either Tom Baxter has the greatest OP of all time or everyone was in on it except Ben.

The name Dianoetic Rage - I think it's suggesting that the effect destroys the intellect.... Not sure exactly. Dianoetic loosely means 'Intellectual'....

Wow. Beautiful! Simply beautiful. What a great experience, Ben...

Thanks sounds like a once ina lifetime experience. That is a gift.

Was it Mr. Annemann who said something to the effect of (paraphrasing, could not find the exact quote), "I would use 99 people to fool one, if that was the goal. There had better be a darn good reason to fool that one."

I’d be flattered if it were worth a coordinated effort among so many people just to fool me. It would mean that a lot of people care! However, I think Tom has a legit method for this. But I’ll be ***ed if I have any clue.

Well, you are an active and respected member at the largest magic forum. Also, being known for mentalism with cards. If the goal is to create a legend, you'd definitely be a good choice.

I would have had my suspicions totally allayed if you had been the one dealing, but the apparent choice of literally anyone there except you is a bit suspect.


However, if it's real that's really great because no matter how much one knows, there are still mysteries.

This is probably a good candidate for letting the mystery be. A Dianoetic Rage indeed!

This is intriguing and got me very curious. Under those circunstancies, physically, there are only 3 possibilities on how it can be accomplished. I'll send you a pm to ask you two little details.

That’s how I’d prefer it to be. It would suggest that there are things about card magic that have yet to be discovered. I just made the point with a colleague recently who was acting dismissive about the Gilbreath Princilple. I reminded him that reasonably modern card magic had existed for hundreds of years before it happened to occur to one single person in the 20th century.

This is such a great story! Reminds me of the first time I saw a mind power deck in use, I couldn't wrap my head around it. Learning the secret was bittersweet. Thanks for sharing!

Just a couple of notes, here.

I didn’t use Ben to deal because he’s my friend. People would have accused him of being a confederate. He wasn’t. I had not met any of the others present at the event until just then.

I didn’t ask the store owner for a new, sealed deck. I asked to borrow a deck of cards from anyone present. George Tait was standing at the counter, and he picked up a new, sealed deck and tossed it on the table.

Ben had a free choice of who to select to shuffle, deal, etc., and no, I didn’t stooge the group.

I’ve shared the workings of this with someone. After I’ve gone, they might reveal my method. Until then, I’m happy that people enjoy the mystery.

P.s.: Those who claim to know, don’t.

T. Baxter

Magnificent stuff. It's great to know there are still some mysteries left that can genuinely astonish even the most knowledgeable people.

Hear hear.

This is interesting because I was just considering of doing an episode of my podcast on legends/mysteries in magic and mentalism, and 51 FN is the first thing that came to mind.

Serendipitous....