The Lexicon Phenomenon by Al Mann

Please keep in mind that you only get the instructions, not the Reader's Digest Enrich Your Word List booklet, not the ungimmicked Webster's New World Dictionary and no prompter cards. However, the instructions will allow you to adapt this effect to any dictionary in any language.

This 1976 Al Mann Exclusive is widely regarded as one of his most ingenious book tests. From an "Enrich your vocabulary" list inside the covers of a dictionary, two spectators secretly agree to think of one of 400 word pairs. Each thinks of one of the words, looking it up in the dictionary to be certain of its meaning. The mentalist does not know the word pair they chose and does not handle the dictionary. He may be at some distance from the spectators as they look up the words. But once they have ascertained the words' meanings, he is able to tell them what they are thinking! Nothing written down, nothing to hide. To preserve the secret, he had the instructions printed by two printers in different states, so that even they would not know the secret! Al Mann knew the value of a good idea, and this is one of his best.

This is not cheap but the cleverness of this secret justifies the price. Al wanted to keep this exclusive to only serious performers. He writes: "The Lexicon Phenomena test was presented at the M.A.E.S. convention in Atlantic City in 1977. It stunned the audience but no one believed what they saw. They said that the spectator was a confederate. In Columbus, Ohio, a lady fainted while mentalist Bobby Hughes performed his expert presentation of the Lexicon Phenomena. The system used in the Lexicon Phenomena test has already been applied to a number of foreign languages..."