I just recieved an e-mail that claims to have originated with David Copperfield and it says he can read my mind. It shows five playing cards. It asks you to think of one card in the selection, then after a flash show it tells you what card you thought of. I picked the jack of clubs, which is what the e-mail said I picked.
I know a computer can’t read my mind and David Copperfield is likely busy with something else. I just want to know how this works because I hate being tricked.
I’d have to see the email to tell you. Can you forward it? There’s a number of these types of tricks, and all of them that I’ve seen involve eitehr manipulating your original choice somehow, or perfoming a set of steps designed to lead the magician to your choice.
this was goin’ around a few years ago. It’s a fairly decent illusion.
I’ll give you a hint. Look (and note the specifics) of each of the five original cards. All of them. Then do the same with the five new cards (including the one you picked).
Note them very carefully, not just the one you pick.
But David Copperfield can do magic. I mean, Claudia Schiffer married the weasel without a gun at her head…
Taking Kalt’s suggestion…
Yeah, I got the forward. This was a nicer-looking version of one I saw a few years ago. If you still can’t see how it’s done after taking Kalt’s suggestion, I’ll tell you 
Alright, I didn’t get it, Kalt. How is it done?
None of the cards you see after your card is “taken” is the same as any of them from when you first picked it.
the trick can be found here: http://www.infodump.com/magic/
Answer: ALL of the cards (in step 3) are different. That’s why no matter what card you pick, it will be gone.
you didn’t pay attention 
Oh, duh. I would have seen it if I weren’t tired.
It’s not supposed to be obvious. It’s quite a clever illusion, considering.
Yea, the trick is getting you to think so much about the card you did choose that you forget about the ones you didn’t… it gets almost everyone the first time.
This trick works in real life, too. Try it like this: put the king of clubs and the queen of spades on the top and bottom of a normal deck, respectively. Then show a person the king of spades and the queen of clubs (the ‘reverse’ cards, in other words - use a little showmanship to disguise the fact that you chose the cards yourslf). Tell that person to look at them and put them back in the deck, anywhere. Then take that deck, press it between your thumb and forefinger, and swiftly “throw” all the cards into your other hand (or to the floor), still pressing. This way, the top and bottom cards will remain in your hand: the king of clubs and the queen of spades. Most of the time (and I do say most of the time) your victim will not realize that they’re not the cards he chose.
MoneyMensch writes:
> I mean, Claudia Schiffer married the weasel without a gun at
> her head…
Copperfield and Schiffer were engaged for a while, but they weren’t married. They broke up and she married somebody else. She just had a baby, incidentally.
But MoneyMensch was left with the illusion that they were married.
Now, that’s showmanship!