$295, Regular / $395, Deluxe, available from MurphyMagic Studio and in shops
“Nothing ages as quickly as yesterday’s vision of the future,” film critic Richard Corliss once said. In fact, magicians have long been fascinated with high-tech secrets for their effects, but we never dreamed that our use of technology would be in the form of apps, buried into the impossibly high-tech devices we all hold in our hands. For well over a century, one trick that seemed to attract various technological solutions has been the Spirit Bell, a small bell on the performer’s table or in an upright stand that dings once for yes and twice for no—apparently the work of invisible ghosts who are anxious to convey a message. What can you do with a Spirit Bell in 2025?