Eleusis is a shedding-type card game where one player chooses a secret rule to determine which cards can be played on top of others, and the other players attempt to determine the rule using inductive logic.

It can be compared with the card game Mao, which also has secret rules that can be learned inductively.

[2] The prophet takes on the role of judging valid and invalid moves; if the dealer catches them making a mistake, the prophet is overthrown and receives five penalty cards (with the player who made the play receiving no penalty cards for that turn, if the play was invalid).

After the fourth black or white marker is placed, any invalid plays result in that player being eliminated from the game,[3] and their hand remains intact for scoring.

Dealer's score is the smaller of the high count and the doubled card total.

In 2006, John Golden developed a streamlined version of the game, intended to assist elementary school teachers in explaining the scientific method to students.

It has the following differences: Abbott himself considered the variant a "great game", and referred to it as "Eleusis Express".