Easy Mentalism

“So the mentalist\’s first skill is to study and understand body language.
” – Austin Hackney

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There’s no doubt that the branch of performance magic known as ‘mentalism’ is undergoing something of a renaissance these days.

In part that must be to do with the success of new wave mentalists such as Derren Brown making their presence felt on prime time TV. In part, many modern audiences want something cutting edge – they don’t want bunnies from hats and pick-a-card routines as they are too obviously ‘tricks’.

I’m glad mentalism’s making a comeback as it’s one of the most high impact techniques in any magician’s repertoire. As a magician not afraid to share ‘secrets’ with novices, I also know it’s something anyone can learn with a little practice once they know what those secrets are.

But let’s get one thing straight from the start: mentalism is as much a magic TRICK as any other. It might seem almost mystical in its effects – and you certainly want it to if you’re performing it! – but it is just a series of clever psychological techniques and close observations of behaviour and, in all honesty, some simple gimmicks and tricks that have nothing to do with psychology at all, that enable a mentalist to create the illusion of psychic powers.

It’s only disreputable performers that make fraudulent claims of ‘real psychic powers.’ Fortunately the best modern practitioners such as James Randi, Penn & Teller, Derren Brown, have denied their false claims and exposed their methods time and again.

So what are these secrets that enable mentalists to apparently understand your secret thoughts, read your mind and even control what you are thinking?

If you’ve some experience in magic you won’t be surprised that the secrets are simple once you know what they are! There are fundamentally three aspects to mental magic over and beyond the gimmicks, sleight-of-hand, gadgetry and so on that are the stock in trade of all mentalists just as they are cardists or coinists (yes, even Derren Brown is just a trickster!) Any bluff about NLP and other such systems is mere smoke and mirrors. He knows what he is doing!

That said, there are some psychological skills that have an application to a specific kind of mentalism, so let’s take a look at those here:

The Three Basic Psychological Techniques of Mental Magic

1. Reading Body Language.

- There is a lot of literature out there these days about body language and how to interpret it but the basic idea underpinning it all is that people tend to express their thoughts and feelings not only consciously in what they say but also unconsciously in the way they move, look, stand and respond physically. And these ‘non-verbal messages’ often tell the truth even when the person is verbally lying. So the mentalist’s first skill is to study and understand body language.

2. The Power of Suggestion.

- It is no surprise that Mentalism first came to popularity amongst audiences and performers in the 1940s when there were great advances being made in the still young science of psychology. One of the practical applications of this was the development and refinement of hypnotism. Effective hypnotism can be summed up as ‘relaxation and rapport’. Once your subject is relaxed and trusts you, you are able to suggest ideas and thoughts to them which they are more likely to accept as their ‘defences are down.’ There is nothing mystical about hypnotism and I am doubtful of the various exaggerated therapeutic claims made about. However, it is, properly understood and practiced, a powerful bit of ‘psychological kit’ to have in your mentalist tool box. When people are suggestible, they are also more likely to reveal information to you without knowing it. This is the power of suggestion. So the second skill for the mentalist to study is hypnotism.

3. The Laws of Perception.

- In many ways this is one that all magicians must study to some extent as it is essential to many forms of misdirection, but it applies in particularly interesting ways to mental magic. Knowing how the human brain tends to read, categorise and recall information is very important. But don’t worry, you don’t need a college degree in neuroscience to pick up what you need to know! The main areas for you to look at are how visual perception works, how people think verbally and in images, the process of long and short-term memory and so on. However, you cannot perform mentalist effects using this knowledge alone. It is simply that this kind of knowledge can be useful in making the effects more convincing. So, the third skill for the mentalist is to learn how to understand how the subject is perceiving himself and the situation.

And those are the fundamental skills in a nutshell. Obviously a detailed analysis of all of these is beyond the scope of an article such as this. Fortunately, there’s some good literature out here on all of these subjects and some great books about mentalism itself. Any reputable magic bookshop will have one or two good titles worthy of study.

Here is some suggested reading: ‘Tricks of the Mind’ by Derren Brown; ’13 Steps to Mentalism’ by Corinda and ‘Practical Mental Magic’ by Theodore Annermann (this is an excellent book by a great magician and will particularly surprise people who still cling to the hope that mentalists never have anything up their sleeves!).

If you don’t have time to study in that kind of depth, don’t worry! You can still learn some simple yet very powerful mentalist routines that are well-established and highly effective and will work for you after only a little practice if you follow the system of the routine. Great mentalism tricks to learn and perform even as a novice are spoon-bends, card predictions and the powerful ‘book test’ tricks. Any of these can be found from good magic dealers or if you prefer a visual demonstration and explanation, as a video download – an increasingly popular method for learning magic of all kinds as you can actually see and hear what’s going on – watch again as many times as you want, like having a personal teacher who never gets tired! If this is an option that interests you, then you might like to look up ‘Mindbender Book Test’, ‘Thought Transmission’ and ‘Emotion’ here.

Whether you want to pursue mentalism as a serious side of your pro routine or just get a couple of stunning tricks under your belt to amaze your friends, I wish you every success with your ‘mental magic’!

Do You Want to Discover the Secrets Behind Mind Reading Magicians? Click Here to Download Mind Reading Exposed Right Now:

==> www.mind-reading-tricks.com/go/exposed/

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Austin is a performing magician, entertainer, theatre practitioner and writer of many years standing, always keen to share his experience and encourage the novice. His website, is a great free resource for magic tutorials, articles, visual guides, eBooks and more.

Austin specialises in coin tricks and manipulation. Having worked in ‘the real world’ all his life, he is gaining a reputation on the web. Austin has a passion for magic tricks and has always been keen to teach and support the novice.

He finds his website is proving an excellent medium for reaching out to aspiring magicians across the globe and offer them the best teaching not only in learning magic tricks but, importantly, learning how to perform them well. If you want to learn magic tricks well, go there now: www.magic-tricks.ws

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“Levitation has been one of the most puzzling and not possible things to reach and when this is done at street-level in front of many onlookers, it could be a sight to behold.” – Christopher Lam

“There are three aspects to mental magic: gimmicks, sleight-of-hand and misdirection.” – Austin Hackney

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These tips for performing mind reading tricks should help anyone new to the art of mentalism get off to a pretty good start. There are many misconceptions about this branch of the magical art, so I’d like to start by clearing those up. First of all, despite the necessary mystique surrounding mind reading, it’s something anyone can learn with a little practice once they know what the secrets are.

And the second thing that we really need to get clear at the outset is that no one can really read anyone’s mind. That’s a fact. Mind-reading is a magic trick just like any other magic trick and the techniques used in mind reading are essentially the same as those used in any other form of magic trick. Namely, sleight-of-hand, misdirection, gimmicks, stooges and so on. There are no psychic powers. Anyone who claims to genuinely read minds or have psychic abilities is either a liar or deluded. Mind reading or ‘mentalism’ as it is popularly known is simply a ‘performance persona’ for these tricks.

It might seem almost mystical in its effects – and you certainly want it to if you’re performing it – but it is just a series of clever psychological techniques and close observations of behaviour and, in all honesty, some simple gimmicks and tricks that have nothing to do with psychology at all, that enable a mentalist to create the illusion of psychic powers.

It is little wonder that all the mind-readers and mentalists that I have ever heard of or met (apart from that wicked phoney Uri Geller – one of the worst magicians I’ve ever seen) are all debunkers of ‘psychism’ and the miraculous. Why? Because they know how it’s done! Think of James Randi, Penn and Teller and Derren Brown, for example. The truth is that only the most despicable low-life would stoop so low as to take advantage of people’s trust and misfortune for their personal profit. Witness any number of TV ‘psychics’ for examples of this. Okay, rant over. So we know we’re dealing with a performance art, not a mystical one and it’s just for honest fun, not for taking advantage of the gullible.

So what are these secrets that enable mentalists to apparently understand your secret thoughts, read your mind and even control what you are thinking?

There are three aspects to mental magic: gimmicks, sleight-of-hand and misdirection. I’m afraid that’s it. Antone who was looking for psychological secrets for manipulating people thoughts; time to laugh at yourself for being so taken in! The techniques of mentalism are the same as all other magic tricks. Any bluff about NLP and other such stuff is all just part of the act.

So, get some mind-reading tricks tutorials and learn these tricks (video tutorials are an excellent way to get started) and bear in mind these tips for performing mind reading tricks:

1) There’s no need for a huge repertoire: 5 decent tricks is plenty. Just choose five good tricks and learn them to perfection.

2) Know Your Character – Mind reading involves a,lot more bluff and misdirection than most magical disciplines because it play-acts at mystical powers; having a strong magical persona or character part can often really help induce the right atmosphere and sense of credulity.

3) Tell a Good Story – This has nothing to do with once upon a time but everything to do with leading your audience up the proverbial garden path! Every mind-reading trick has to have its story, its false premise. It could be that you claim ‘conversation with the spirits’ or maybe ‘focussing mental energy’ or as is more acceptable these days (because its pseudo-scientific language sounds more plausible to a modern audience) ‘clever psychology’ ‘muscle reading’ or ‘neurolinguistic programming’. Whatever nonsense it is, know what it is, beef it up and stick to it. Under that cover, you can switch cards, check the mirror, get the signal from the stooge etc.

4) Only Do It If You Know How – Mind-reading is once again very popular and everyone wants to get on the band wagon. There’s plenty of room aboard, just make sure that you know what you’re doing. If you don’t get the story right, the bluff, well then it’s going to look just like any other magic trick (…because it is). It’s all in the act.

5) Practice – This follows on from the last tip and is always true: you cannot do enough practice and many professional magicians will tell you that they don’t feel happy with a trick until they’ve performed it hundreds of times!

That said; if you don’t want or need to go into that kind of depth, there are other options to get started. There are some cool mind reading and mentalist routines that are powerful and effective and will work just a little practice if you get a good tutorial. Things like spoon-bends, card predictions and ‘book test’ tricks are excellent places to start. Nothing helps like a good visual demonstration and explanation. That’s why increasingly I recommend video downloads as a trick-by-trick method for learning magic. You can see and hear what’s going on and get a real handle on the presentation and routine rather than just the trick. You can also rewind, pause and so on as often as you like. If this is an option that interests you, then you might like: Mindbender Book Test, Thought Transmission and Emotion as tricks to get started. These and more are all available from the Video Tutorials page of The Magic Tricks Homepage.

I’m sure you’ll find these tips for performing magic tricks useful and if you get yourself some video tutorials you’ll be off to a great start. I have to say, that mind-reading really is one of the most enjoyable kinds of magic trick to perform. Enjoy it!

Do You Want to Discover the Secrets Behind Mind Reading Magicians? Click Here to Download Mind Reading Exposed Right Now:

==> www.mind-reading-tricks.com/go/exposed/

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Austin Hackney is a performing magician, entertainer, theatre practioner and writer of many years standing, always keen to share his experience and encourage the novice. His website, The Magic Tricks Homepage is a great free resource for magic tutorials, articles, visual guides, eBooks and more. If you want to learn magic well, not just a huge number of tricks but solid performance skills, the site is well worth a visit. You can download magic video tutorials here which is a great way of learning and building a repertoire.

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“How did I make them so sure it could not have been the simple act of three predictions? Well – the amazing thing about humans and mentalism is this – we all tend toward the most unlikely solution IF it is explained and sold in a convincing way!” – Graham Edwards

“The word anchor comes from NLP whereby when you get an emotional response from someone, whether it is being happy, sad, excited, positive, negative etc.” – Adam Davies

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Lets get something straight before we continue. When I talk about using NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) in mentalism and magic, I’m not talking about using it in some sort of way to use psychological mind control like some ‘mentalism professionals’ claim they are using.

I’m not talking about when they ‘say’ they are using it to influence your decisions when picking a card, a box or just about anything. This isn’t actually possible. Don’t be fooled by the professional mind reader’s or mentalist’s false explanation for a trick. You cannot control people with NLP to the extent they say they do. This just isn’t possible.

So now we’ve made that clear lets talk about a method where you CAN use it in a magic tricks. This is to make a crowd reaction stronger. This stuff actually works and will subtly add to your mind reading effects.

I’m talking about using NLP ‘Anchors’.

So what is an anchor?

The word anchor comes from NLP whereby when you get an emotional response from someone, whether it is being happy, sad, excited, positive, negative etc. you anchor that emotional response with touch (kin-aesthetic anchor), sound (audio anchor) or vision (visual anchor). You can then bring about that emotional response by activating the anchor you set.

Here’s an example:

If you casually touch someone’s knee every time they laugh, after about the 8th time, you can touch them on the knee when they aren’t laughing and they will get a feeling like they want to laugh. You could also use a different type of anchor like a word with a different tone of voice (audio anchor), or a hand gesture (visual anchor) as a more subtle way of anchoring. Or, you can even use them all at the same time to leave a stronger anchor.

This can be abused and it already has been by pick up artists worldwide by using anchors to trick the opposite sex into thinking they have a stronger bond with the person than they really do. If you choose to use anchoring for that reason that is your business but I take no responsibility for your actions.

So how can you use anchoring in magic and mentalism?

There are numerous ways to do this and it really deserves its own book but I will share with you one method..

It’s quite simple, every time you perform a trick and the audience reacts with amazement (you need to do a good trick by the way – I recommend an Ultimate Mind Reading trick of course;-)..) you need to anchor that response. If it’s a one on one setting, you can casually touch the spectator on the shoulder every time they react with amazement. Otherwise, if there’s a bit of a crowd, you could bang on the table and say a word like “Jesus!”. This will anchor the emotional response of amazement with the crowd.

You can then bring them to a feeling of amazement more easily if after every trick you bang on the table and say “Jesus!”.

This is a subtle way of adding to your mentalism and mind reading tricks and the best anchors are by creating your own which you feel comfortable doing yourself.

Have fun.

If you would like to learn how to perform jaw dropping mentalism visit mind reading tricks:

==> www.marktse.com/cb.php/mindread/mrtb/

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“Many mind tricks are more than just tricks. They are creative techniques for tapping into the power of your mind. They entertain, but they also have more practical uses. A good example is the “pupil trick.”" – Steve Gillman