Billet reading is a mentalist effect in which a performer pretends to read messages sealed inside envelopes by clairvoyance. It is accomplished by having the performer learn one of the answers beforehand, often through a plant, so he or she can read the other messages in advance. The performer then pretends to confirm the message from the plant is in the first unopened envelope with the final envelope actually being the one from the plant. The effect can give the impression of mind reading. Billet reading is usually performed as an entertaining parlor trick by magicians and mentalists. Psychics and mediums often use the trick to demonstrate their alleged supernatural abilities.
Famous quotes containing the word reading:
“There are women in middle life, whose days are crowded with practical duties, physical strain, and moral responsibility ... they fail to see that some use of the mind, in solid reading or in study, would refresh them by its contrast with carking cares, and would prepare interest and pleasure for their later years. Such women often sink into depression, as their cares fall away from them, and many even become insane. They are mentally starved to death.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)