The Zancig Code
To quote Wikipedia, “To this day, the Zancig Code, also known as ‘Two Minds With But a Single Thought,’ is considered by many professional mentalists to be the most dauntingly complex two-person communication system of its type ever devised.” (source). Well, here it is and you can try it out, if you have the willpower to learn it (and a partner that’s willing to learn it too!)
This is the basic two-person verbal code as it was used over 100 years ago. Like most routines of this nature, one person (generally a man) interacts with the audience and the other sits on stage, blindfolded (generally a woman). The man walks around and “asks” questions, but is really “telling” the woman what’s going on. As she interprets the code, she then “answers”. Properly performed, it seems like she’s the one with psychic powers, even though he’s the one feeding her all the information she needs.
I’m providing the main crux of the code here for you, but not an exhaustive list for one simple reason: as you work through it you’ll quickly start to understand how it was organized, and you can apply it as you like.
Letters of the Alphabet
As there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are 26 corresponding short-words used to identify a given letter.
I=A, Go=B, Can=C, Look-D, Please=E, Will=F, Quick=G, Then=H, Now=I, Favour=J, Tell=K, See=L, Well=M, I next=N, Go next=O, Can next=P, Look next=Q, Please next=R, Will next=S, Quick next=T, Then next=U, Now next=V, Favour Next=W, Tell next=X, See next=Y, Well next=Z
In asking for a given letter say:
I want the letter=A, Go on give this letter=B, Can you give this letter=C, Look at this letter=D, Please give this letter=E, Will you give this letter=F, Quick give this letter=G, Then give this letter=H, Now give this letter=I, Favour this letter=J, Tell this letter=K, See this letter=L, Well this letter=M, I next want this letter=N, Go next give this letter=O, Can you next give this letter=P, Look next at this letter=Q, Please next give this letter=R, Will you next give this letter=S, Quick next give this letter=T, Then next this letter=U, Now next this letter=V, Favour next this letter=W, Tell next this letter=X, See next this letter=Y, Well next this letter=Z.
In giving letters, wherever you need to repeat it say, “do” or “next”. For example, “I want the letter” means A, but if you were to say “I do want the letter” means AA.
Numbers
For numbers, you use the previous code identifiers but you insert the word “number” in it to identify the specific number.
I=1, Go=2, Can=3, Look=4, Please=5, Will=6, Quick=7, Then=8, Now=9, Favour=0. That would look like this in the form of a question:
I want this number=1, Go on give this number=2, Can you give this number=3, Look at this number=4, Please give this number=5, Will you give this number=6, Quick this number=7, Then this number=8, Now this number=9, Favour this number=0.
To repeat a number say, “next” as with letters in the code. For example, if you want the number 33, you’d say, “Please next, give this number.”
Months
Just as with a standard Julian calendar, each month is give a corresponding number from which you can identify it using the “numbers” part of the code.
January=1, February=2, March=3, April=4, May=5, June=6, July=7, August=8, September=10, October=10, November=11, December=12.
Days of the Week
Starting with Sunday, the days are given a number too.
Sunday=1, Monday=2, Tuesday=3, Wednesday=4, Thursday=5, Friday=6, Saturday=7.
An example of how you can use the month and days of the week would be, let’s say, to ask someone their date of birth. They whisper it to you and you’d ask a question that used the code provided. Such as, “Quick, can you give me the month and day?” If you look at the code, “Quick” stands for the number 7, so the month would be July. The word “Can” stands for the number 3, which would be the third day. So the answer the person on the stage would give you would be “July 7th”.
Years
For specific centuries, you can attribute any word or two words to correspond with whatever you like. The Zancigs used the following: Try=1700, Well=1800s, All right=1900s. You would need to pick something for the 2000s; I use “Oh”, which they originally used for 1911.
Money
Let’s say you borrow a coin from someone and you want your partner to identify the kind of coin it is, you’d use these:
Here what is this=Money
Here I=A silver dollar, Here go=Half dollar, Here can=Quarter, Here look=Dime, Here please=Nickel, Here then=One cent, Here favour=Gold dollar, Here now=A paper dollar, Here tell=Five dollars (paper), Here see=Souvenir coin.
Depending on your currency, you’ll want to modify this code. But I wanted to include it as it was back when they performed it. If you wanted to use it, you’d say something like, “Here now, what is this?” The answer would be A Paper Dollar. For dates, you identify the last two digits like this, “All right. Now Please, what is the date?” The answer would be 1995.
By now, you should be starting to understand how the Zancig code was organized. You want to apply the same concept to other things.
Names
When it comes to names, assign a number to a given name. Pick common ones such as James, John, Joe, Mary, and so on. If you want to identify a man’s name you insert the word “Name”, which means it will be male. If you
Physical Items
Assign a number to common articles, such as mobile phones, a coin, a pen, a book, a coat, or whatever.
Colours
You can apply words or numbers to colours, such as Red=1, Blue=2, et cetra. Or ask a question using the previous examples.
I want the colour=Red, Go the colour=White, Can you give the colour=Blue, Look at the colour=Black, Please the colour=Brown, Will you give the colour=Pink, Quick the colour=Green, Then the colour=Yellow, Now the colour=Gray, Favour the colour=Purple.
And the List Goes On
You should recognize the sentences used previously at this point. So it’s easy to apply these to other things:
I want the country=England
I want the metal=Steel
I want the jewel=Ruby
I want the star sign=Cancer
Or whatever is assigned to that word and ordered as you like them. Each sentence can be used like this; each word identifies a number and each code “thing” (ie colour, metal, whatever) has an associated number. It is certainly daunting, but not all that complicated. You can see how over the years as the Zancigs perfected this, how they’d be able to wipe people out. It’s for that reason heads of state asked them to perform in private venues. You never know, get this kind of routine down and you may be sitting in front of the Queen at a private reception some day.
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