Particle System

Emails
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 How to Memorize
the Particle Stack
“A philosopher should remind himself, now and then, that he is a particle pontificating on
infinity.” —Ariel Durant

Hey there. Joshua Jay here and I’m genuinely excited to take you on this journey
into the Particle System. As you probably know, part of the system we’ll explore
uses a memorized deck. This is the first in a sequence of training emails that will
help you understand and commit the stack to memory. This is the longest email;
after this, the emails will be quite short.

First things first: if you want to use the stack trainer, a web app, you can access
it here: https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/stack-trainer/

Second, our Facebook group is now live. I encourage you to join it:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/462134833177580

You’re receiving this email because you’ve decided to use a memorized deck.
Great, great decision. It was the best decision I have ever made in my card magic
journey.

You are, perhaps, a little intimidated by how one can memorize an entire pack
of cards and never forget it. You’re not alone there, but I speak from experience:
it’s much easier than you think, and I’ve broken it down for you in manageable
chunks.

If you really put your mind to it and didn’t have to juggle a job and a family and
other things, It would take five days to memorize this stack; three if you work at
Week 1

it. After that you’ll be able to use it forever.

We won’t be pushing quite that hard. Instead, let’s aim to memorize ten cards per
week. You can, of course, jump ahead. But at a minimum, let’s aim to memorize
ten cards per week.
I’ve read all sorts of mnemonic devices designed to help magicians memorize the deck. Juan
Tamariz offers five ways: auditory, visual, muscular, conceptual, and “security.” Simon Aronson
offered an association method, pairing each card with a silly image, and linking those images
in your mind. There are apps, too, that quiz you on segments of the stack as you learn them.

Here’s my advice. Just sit down and do it. I found myself at a family gathering while in the
midst of developing the Particle Stack. My little cousin, Michael, was studying for a history
test on the American Revolutionary War—names of generals, dates of battles, Congressional
acts, all sorts of facts and figures written on both sides of a stack of notecards. “Hey, Michael,”
I asked, “how many notecards are you memorizing for that test?”

“About a hundred or so.” For one class. For one test. He’s fourteen. You can do this.

Okay, let’s get started. To begin with, here’s the stack.

You’ll notice some features immediately: the Aces and Kings are on top and bottom, and the
Sevens are together in the center of the deck. The colors alternate, and all adjacent values add
up to 14 or 15. There are many, many, many other hidden features built into this stack, but we’re
getting way ahead of ourselves.

For now, let’s get you set up with the only tool you really need to memorize the order: a deck of
flash cards. Take an old, red pack and arrange it in Particle Stack (see the order above). Then
write the stack number of each card on the back in big bold black marker.
Now take the first ten cards and use those for this coming week:

1. Ace of Hearts
2. King of Spades
3. Ace of Diamonds
4. King of Clubs
5. Two of Hearts
6. Queen of Spades
7. Two of Diamonds
8. Queen of Clubs
9. Three of Hearts
10. Jack of Spades

You can memorize ten cards quite quickly—in a matter of minutes—but resist the urge to keep
going. Instead, just hone in on those ten cards. Recite them in order, then in reverse order. Then
shuffle the packet and recite the cards for each stack number. Then flip the cards over and recite
the stack number for each card. Shuffle the cards and put them in order. I can’t tell you anything
in this section that isn’t common sense: you have to know the stack cold. You have to know the
cards above and below every card, and you have to be able to recall these things instantly. Each
day (or hour, or lunch break) drill yourself on these ten cards. Mix them face up and face down
so you are quizzing yourself simultaneously with stack number and with a card’s value.

If you want to jump ahead in a few days, start to integrate in the next batch of ten. But it’s also
fine to just work on these ten. In a week’s time I’ll email you again to check in, and I hope you’ll
have the first ten cards committed to memory.

Good luck!

Joshua Jay
 The Three
Shortcuts to
Memorizing the
Particle Stack
“Particles are the most remarkable things in the world because they’re the building blocks
of everything. [They] transcend space and time…and are predictors of the future. Par-
ticles are the closest things we know to real magic.”
—David Henkle, Unraveling the Cosmos

Welcome back. Did you memorize the ten cards from the first week? Yes? No?
Kind of ?

Regardless of your answer, it’s okay. It’s early enough that if you didn’t quite get
the ten cards down cold, like we talked about, you can still catch up and memorize
the first twenty cards this week. Twenty cards in a week is still doable. And if
you did do your homework, this week is going to be even easier.

Why easier? Glad you asked. I purposely left out the very best part of memo-
rizing the Particle Stack. There’s a pattern to this stack that will allow you to
calculate a card’s position quite easily. Think of this pattern like training wheels.
In a couple weeks this pattern won’t matter to you because you’ll be so familiar
with the stack that you’ll know it backward and forward. But in the meantime,
this formula will help you calculate a card’s position.

It’s simply this: pairs of cards are always one card apart. From last week’s list of
Week 2

cards, you know this to be true: the Two of Hearts is 5. The Two of Diamonds
is 7. The Ace of Hearts is 1. The Ace of Diamonds is 3.

Beta-testers for the Particle Stack all made a similar observation: that they were
able to memorize this stack “twice as fast” since all pairs of cards are coupled
together. It’s a “memorize one and remember the other free” scenario, since re-
membering one card of a pair makes the other almost automatic. In other words, the two red
Aces are at positions 1 and 3; the two black Tens are at positions 14 and 16. When you’re less
sure of the order, knowing that these pairs are always one apart is a helpful crutch. There are
other crutches, too. All the black cards are even and all the red cards are odd; the suits all fall in
CHaSeD order (beginning with Hearts). You’ll eventually need to know every card and stack
number instantly, but as you’re learning it’s helpful to be able to work out a card based on its
value, color, and suit.

Memorizing a deck isn’t particularly fun, but I’ve discovered it isn’t particularly unpleasant
either. Like solving a puzzle or playing a sport, it requires your complete concentration. And
with a task this easy, you’ll see instant results. This makes the time pass quickly.

I’ll make one final observation and then we’ll move on. I’m always struck by how some magi-
cians weigh their time. They wince at the idea of spending ten hours in the service of memo-
rizing a deck; at lectures the most common question I’m asked is whether memorizing a deck is
really worth the serious time involved.

The average American watches in excess of four hours of television per day. That means that
if you replaced just three days of Netflix with work on this stack, you’d have it memorized for-
ever. So the question isn’t whether this tool—a memorized deck—is worth the time. For most
of us, the question is whether this stack is worth more to you than three days of television. And
the answer, of course, is that it depends on the quality of the TV shows you watch.

Okay: it’s almost time to start working on the second group of ten cards. In fact, if you want
to skip the section below, feel free. But the next section will tell you quite a bit about the com-
position of the Particle Stack. I think you’ll find this helpful when you’re memorizing it.  

Shortcuts
There are three shortcuts that will drastically shorten the time it takes you to memorize the
order. Put any deck in Particle Stack and read through these key points until they’re clear in
your mind. Then start memorizing.

You can easily determine any card by the card next to it. The entire stack runs in CHaSeD, or-
der, but starting with a Heart: Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs. And all pairs next to each
other add up to 14, except for pairs that start with Clubs, which add up to 15.

A few examples will make this clear. Suppose you spot the Ten of Spades. The card after any
Spade will always be a Diamond. And since all pairs add up to 14, you subtract ten (the value
of the Ten of Spades) from 14. This is four. You know the next card is the Four of Diamonds.

Consider the Eight of Hearts. It’s a Heart, so you know the next card will be a Spade. And 14-
8=6. So the Six of Spades follows the Eight of Hearts.
Now let’s consider a Club, since pairs that start with a Club-card total 15, not 14. If you spot
the Six of Clubs, you know a Heart will follow. And since a Club is involved, you subtract the
glimpsed card from 15. 15-6=9. The Nine of Hearts follows the Six of Clubs.
All suits run in order, four cards apart. If you ever get stuck on a card, you can always calculate
its position based on the cards before and after.

One example should suffice: if you can’t remember the stack number of the Three of Hearts
(9), you can simply think back to the position of the Two of Hearts (5), and add four. Red cards
are in ascending order and black cards are in descending order, but all cards run in numerical
order, four cards apart.

All mates are two cards apart. This was already mentioned, but I’m told by editors and early
adopters that this is a helpful crutch to keep in mind.

Let’s consider the red Twos. If you can’t remember the position of the Two of Diamonds, per-
haps you can remember the position of its mate, the Two of Hearts. If you remember that the
Two of Hearts falls fifth, you can easily calculate that its mate, the Two of Diamonds, is two
cards away, at the seventh position. As ever, remember that the cards are in CHaSeD order so
you can always determine which one comes first. Hearts before Diamonds, Spades before Clubs.  

Your Next Task…

…is to memorize the next ten cards:

11. Three of Diamonds

12. Jack of Clubs
13. Four of Hearts
14. Ten of Spades
15. Four of Diamonds
16. Ten of Clubs
17. Five of Hearts
18. Nine of Spades
19. Five of Diamonds
20. Nine of Clubs

My preference is to set aside cards 1-10 for the moment and learn these ten in the same way:
drill them face up, then face down, then mix the cards face up and face down so you can drill
stack numbers and card values together. Then, set the cards aside and try to recite these ten
cards in order.

Once these cards are memorized, shuffle the two groups of flash cards together and drill on all
twenty cards simultaneously. It’s frustrating at first because you may find yourself forgetting
cards that you knew just a few days ago. This is normal. Don’t beat yourself up. Just keep at it.
Drilling yourself a lot at separate times is much better (and more enjoyable) than setting aside
hours and trying to do it all at once.

Keep it up, and let’s pick up this dialogue one week from right now…when you have all twenty
cards memorized.

You can do it!

Joshua Jay
 You’re nearly
halfway there...
“There are no particles. There are only moments in time.”
—Khalid Masood

Welcome to Week Three. I’m hoping that this email is met with excitement as
we’re about to pass the halfway point in memorizing the Particle Stack. Perhaps
these first two weeks have flown by, and you haven’t put in the time you wanted
to.

That’s okay. There’s still time to catch up. But I have to say: if you can’t catch up
by next week, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to finish your journey with us. As
I mentioned previously, it’s possible to memorize a deck in just a few days, but
this requires many hours of intense work. The more memorizing you put off, the
more you’ll have to do. But it’s still a manageable workload to get cards 1-30 this
week. I believe in you–seriously. I’ve helped many of my friends memorize this
stack. Some took to it instantly. Others needed a little more hands-on encourage-
ment. But they all pulled it off, and are now enjoying a whole new world of card
magic.

So here’s your week three assignment: cards 21-30.

21. Six of Hearts

22. Eight of Spades
23. Six of Diamonds
24. Eight of Clubs
25. Seven of Hearts
26. Seven of Spades
Week 3

27. Seven of Diamonds

28. Seven of Clubs
29. Eight of Hearts
30. Six of Spades
This is an easy week because four of these cards are basically automatic: the four Sevens. You’ll
find out how we use these four Sevens together when you read the big book. But for now, all you
have to do is remember that they fall in CHaSeD order, starting with Hearts. You know this,
because all cards are in CHaSeD order starting with Hearts.

By now the memorization should be getting easier for two reasons. First, memorizing things is
like shooting foul shots or running a 5k or cutting a mango: it gets easier with practice. You’re
getting better at the Particle Stack, but you’re also getting better at memorizing the Particle
Stack.

Second, you now know (or should know) some of the shortcuts we’ve talked about in previous
emails. You know that every pair of cards is one card apart. And since you know the suit order
is Hearts, Spades, Diamonds, Clubs, you can calculate any scenario. For example, if you blank
on the Three of Diamonds, you should recall that the Three of Hearts is 9. So the Three of
Diamonds must be 11. If you don’t know what comes after the Jack of Clubs, you know it will
be a Heart because a Heart always follows a Club. There are little clues along the way that will
help you piece the stack together.

Now, you don’t want to have to rely on those clues, so try to get all of these cards down cold.
But rest comfortably knowing the training wheels are there if you need them.

See you next week. Good luck.

Joshua Jay
 Drills and Tips
Particles are the fundamental building blocks of our universe. They are among
the smallest elements of matter, but taken together they form something incom-
prehensibly large: they are everything. That means that the deck of cards next
to you is made of particles. So is this page.

So are you.

(From a part of the introduction to The Particle System that I eventually edited
out of the book. Just seemed…a little too grandiose.)

Hey there.

If you’ve memorized thirty cards so far, congratulations. You’re not only more
than halfway there, but the hard part is behind you. Thanks to the formulaic
nature of the stack, the rest of the cards are going to fall into place very, very
quickly. For every card you memorize, its mate is “free” because you know it’s two
cards away.

Here’s a tip that will make drilling more effective. For starters, go over the cards
in order a few times before you quiz yourself. You’re not being graded on this, so
for now, it’s better to familiarize yourself with the list before you start quizzing
yourself. You’ll have better results and reinforce your knowledge of the cards
before each practice session.

After this refresher, start your practice sessions like this: separate out the groups
of ten: 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, and 31-40. Drill yourself with each subgroup first.
You’re likely to do pretty well because this is how you’ve learned them. Then,
start mixing them together the way you mix cookie dough: fold in 1-10 into 11-
20. Drill it backward, forward, face up, face down, and mixed. Then fold in 21-30,
Week 4

and try that for a while. Finally, fold in this week’s set, 31-40. It’s not going to be
perfect at first. That’s okay. You’re learning something new, and you’re investing
in a tool you’re going to use for the rest of your life.
Here is the next group:

31. Eight of Diamonds

32. Six of Clubs
33. Nine of Hearts
34. Five of Spades
35. Nine of Diamonds
36. Five of Clubs
37. Ten of Hearts
38. Four of Spades
39. Ten of Diamonds
40. Four of Clubs

Talk to you next week!

Joshua Jay
 The Final Push
We’re here, at last. If you’ve come this far on the journey, you might just be on
the brink of memorizing an entire deck of cards. Some of you may even be done
already, if you chose to work ahead. And for some of you, time might have gotten
away from you and you’re not quite at pace. That’s okay, too. Maybe this is the
email that will help motivate you to get back on track to memorizing these cards.

There are 12 cards this week instead of ten, but in a sense, this is the easiest
bunch. Here’s why: among many, many other features, one of the things built
into the Particle Stack is that it’s a Stay Stack. That is, the values from the top
down are exactly the same as the values from the bottom up. You already know
the first card is an Ace, the second card is a King, and so on. Well, the last card
in the stack is also an Ace. Second to last is also a King, and so on. That may help
you visualize where we’re going.

Here’s the last list:

41. Jack of Hearts

42. Three of Spades
43. Jack of Diamonds
44. Three of Clubs
45. Queen of Hearts
46. Two of Spades
47. Queen of Diamonds
48. Two of Clubs
49. King of Hearts
50. Ace of Spades
51. King of Diamonds
52. Ace of Clubs
Week 5

By now you can see clearly how the order is formulated: the four suits zip forward
and backward in the deck. In other words, the red cards are in ascending order
from the top down, while the black cards are in descending order. Knowing this
means that you can calculate any card in the deck by the cards around it. If you
can’t remember the stack number of the Six of Hearts, you might remember that
the Five of Hearts is 17. You simply add four (since any suit is every fourth card) and you know
that the Six of Hearts is 21.

Here’s an incentive to finish memorizing the stack. Next week I’ll be sharing three routines
from the book that you can do immediately with your newly-memorized deck. So…see you then.

Joshua Jay
 A Whole New
World
Welcome to a whole new world. When you start reading The Particle System (or
perhaps you’ve started already?), you’ll uncover lots and lots of pathways to put
your stack to use. But let’s take a moment and just enjoy your journey so far. You
put in the time and accomplished something that a vast majority of magicians
will never do: memorize an entire deck of cards. Round of applause for you—se-
riously. With this work put in, you’ll find that simply knowing the stack unlocks
all sorts of miracles not possible with a shuffled deck.

Happily, the road from here is pretty gratifying. There’s some more prep you’ll
want to do on the deck, but that comes later. Memorized deck magic is typically
pretty light on sleights, as it relies on tools you already have at hand: namely,
knowing the order of all the cards.

Of course, I prefer and hope you’ll read The Particle System in order, but if you’re
looking for a couple things that you can use right away with your newly-memo-
rized order, here are three suggestions:

“Think as I Think” p. 167. This will put your stack skills to work in a trick that
requires only a top change, and results in finding two thought-of cards under
seemingly impossible conditions.

“Particle Pair” p. 170. This unusual trick has a lot going for it: it’s quick, entirely
in the hands, and maintains the order of the stack. And it exploits the position of
the mates in the deck, and will help reinforce this feature unique to The Particle
System.
Week 6

“Memorized X-Ray” p. 68. If you’re looking for a trick to fool people (especially
magicians) right away, this is it. I love this effect, which is mostly a credit to the
original Ben Harris/Steve Shufton original. But incorporating it into a memo-
rized stack eliminates any chance of failure.
This will be the last in this series of emails. But let’s stay in touch. Join me in the facebook
group dedicated to the Particle System. Let me know how you’re doing, and how I can help.

Best to you,

Joshua Jay