“Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you: You start thinking about a friend and—suddenly—the phone rings, and it’s that very friend. Or how many times has it happened that you’re with a relative or a friend at a gathering, something particular takes place, you look at each other, and instantly both of you know exactly what the other is thinking?”
Several audience members raise their hands, remembering those moments.
“Well, something like that has happened to the writer Craig Sinclair ever since she was a child. From a very young age, Craig felt she could perceive things, anticipate events. Once, as an adult, she suddenly felt the impulse to draw a fork. Shortly after, her brother came home from a dinner with an injured hand—he had accidentally stabbed himself with a fork. This continued over time and, together with her husband, Upton Sinclair (the Pulitzer Prize-winning author), she decided to test this ability in the most scientific way she could. The result of this research was recorded in a book called Mental Radio, for which the foreword was written by none other than Albert Einstein.”
The magician calls a spectator to help and explains that they want to repeat the same kind of experiment the Sinclairs used throughout their investigation: the duplication of drawings.
“The exercise went like this: Upton locked himself in his study, took a sheet of paper, made a drawing, then wrapped it in dark paper and placed everything inside a sealed envelope. His wife, meanwhile, stayed in her room, lying down, trying to perceive something. Sinclair continued working until she called him. Once together, they compared their drawings. Sometimes the match was undeniable; sometimes partial—she captured the idea but not the form, or the form was incomplete; and sometimes there was no resemblance at all. They produced 295 drawings: 65 were absolute hits, 155 were partial hits, and 70 were misses. Let’s see how we do.”
The magician takes an envelope from their pocket. Inside it, there is a piece of aluminum foil, and inside that, a blank business card.