Photograph by Sam Murphy

You say you don’t believe in ghosts? Well, my little brother didn’t either — that is, until I showed him how I could catch one in a handkerchief, and he watched with his own eyes as it struggled to escape.

The secret to the illusion is amazingly simple: sewn into the hem of the scarf is an L-shaped wire with a little kink in one end. After strategically folding the scarf, pressing down on one end of the wire makes the other end lift, causing the scarf to rise, and eyes to pop.

There are variations on the haunted handkerchief setup, but the effect is always the same — some small borrowed object (or an alleged ghost) is folded into a scarf on a tabletop, and if the audience “concentrates” hard enough, the scarf will mysteriously rise!

I bought the gag at a little magic shop in Hollywood in the late 1970s, and it never failed to astound visiting relatives. With my kids showing an interest in parlor magic, I set about to reproduce the levitating scarf. Here’s how to make one.

Make: 83