Easy Mentalism

“If you are a magician or an aspiring magician then you really should add at least some mentalism effects to your routines.” – Austin Hackney

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Mentalism is arguably the most popular and growing form of magical performance around today. It’s also one of the areas that seems most frightening to novice magicians because of the mystique surrounding it. Of course, that mystique is all part of the act and once you know the insider secrets behind what really goes on in most mentalism tricks and routines, you’ll find that it is no more (or less) demanding to learn than any other kind of magic trick.

The power of mentalism tricks and routines lies essentially in two things:

one is that it appeals to the fundamental hopes and fears of the human mind. Just think how perennially popular are ghost stories, psychic readings, U.F.O. sightings and anything which suggests that there is ‘something more’ to life than the humdrum of daily experience.

another is that of all magical traditions it does most to mask its true techniques in a cloud of mystery and misinformation.

However, what really distinguishes a mentalism trick from any other simple magical effect is the presentation style and context. The techniques are almost all the same as the fundamental magic techniques of any other branch or style of magic.

Quite simply, the mentalist proposes that the feat is performed by either ‘psychic’ powers or, more commonly these days, by some clever ‘psychological’ techniques. Most magic tricks make no such claims. Everyone knows that the effects are achieved by ‘sleight-of-hand’ and misdirection. The key to understanding the magic of mentalism is to realise that the claims to ‘psychic’ powers and ‘psychological’ techniques are merely a case of smoke and mirrors; they are merely elements of the stage persona of mentalism. In fact, most mentalism routines use gimmicked props, ‘sleight-of-hand’ and misdirection in just the same way as other magic tricks do!

This might disappoint some people who want to believe that there is something mystical going on but if you want to perform mentalism then you really need to know!

Derren Brown, one of the most famous mentalists working today and one who presents his mentalism as ‘clever psychology’ has actually been quite candid about the trickery he employs. For example, he performed a routine which, incidentally, he didn’t invent (I believe that it came from the great mentalist of the last century, Theodore Annemann) on the UK television show, Richard & Judy in which he claimed to plant a letter in the presenter’s mind through clever psychology when it seemed that she had a free choice to mentally choose any letter of the alphabet. In fact, it is an old routine and relies on a gimmicked thumb tip with a small pencil lead concealed in the end of it. So how did it work?

He asked the presenter to think of a letter, any letter but not R or J because that would be too obvious and hold the letter clearly in her mind. He then took a piece of paper and appeared to write on it with a pencil that he then discarded. He then placed the paper behind his back and asked her to reveal the letter that she had chosen. he next produced the piece of paper and there, written upon it was the selected letter!

In fact, he didn’t actually write anything the first time. The paper was blank as he held it behind his back. Once she had told him what letter was, he simply wrote it on the paper with his thumb gimmick before revealing it.

The reason I give you this example is not in any way to undermine or expose Derren Brown – who is an excellent performer and rightly admired. It is just to give one example of how easy, in fact, mentalism can be. What is really required is a lot of guts and again a good handle on the traditional techniques of manipulation and misdirection.

If you’re a magician or an aspiring magician then you really should add at least some mentalism effects to your routines. The public appetite for these tricks is insatiable. There are many good books available and especially useful, downloadable video tutorials that are a great place to start.

You Want to Discover the Secrets Behind Mind Reading Magicians? Click This Link to Download the Ultimate Mind Reading & Mentalism Manual Right Now:

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

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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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“I usually throw in a mistake after 2 or 3 amazing tricks then quickly follow up from the mistake with another incredible trick.” – Adam Davies

“Magicians don\’t pretend that they really have psychic powers.” – Austin Hackney

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Card Tricks are some of the most popular magic tricks that there are and equally mind-reading effects are increasingly popular, so why not combine the two and learn ow to do mind-reading tricks with cards? Not only are you tapping into the two most popular kinds of trick, but there are some simple card techniques that lend themselves naturally to the performance of mind-reading effects.

So what card tricks techniques lend themselves especially well to mind-reading effects?

Well, first of all let’s be clear what a mind-reading effect actually is. It is when a magician appears to ‘read’ or ‘see’ the thoughts or an image in the mind of a spectator. Of course, this can’t really be done and it has been scientifically demonstrated often enough that people who claim to have ‘psychic powers’ are either lying or deluded and that all the effects that people experience with them can be easily explained scientifically. That doesn’t, sadly, stop it being big business. There’s always someone unethical enough to try and make a buck from the gullible or the needy.

Magicians who do mind-reading tricks, however, fall into a different category. Magicians don’t pretend that they really have ‘psychic powers’. We know it’s a trick, we say it’s a trick but we all join in as if it was a mystic event for the fun of it. The real techniques behind mind-reading are the same as any other magic trick: misdirection, props, gimmicks, sleight-of-hand, stooges in the audience, smoke and mirrors!

So, what card effects can we use in mind-reading? The three main ones that come immediately to mind are the ‘card force’, the ‘marked or spotted card’ and ‘the controlled shuffle’. You could also use ‘palming’, ‘switching’ and any number of other sleights but to keep it relatively simple, let’s just focus on those first three.

A ‘card force’ is when the magician controls the card that a spectator chooses, seemingly by a free or even random choice. There are many techniques for achieving the force, some of them simple and others more subtle and complex. We won’t go into them here but the point is that clearly if the magician can secretly force a card on a spectator then he can very confidently ‘predict’ what the card is or ‘read the mind’ of the spectator as they concentrate on the image of the card to seemingly ‘divine’ what it is. This, simple as it is, can be dressed up with patter and other business to make a very powerful and baffling number of effects of the ‘mind-reading’ variety. You can learn card force techniques from reputable books, websites and your local magic club.

The ‘marked’ card technique is also quite straight-forward in principle. The magician allows the spectator a genuine free choice of card but then marks it out in some way, so it can be located again even if he hasn’t seen its face value. The card can be inverted, scratched or crimped, for example. Under cover of some misdirection, the kind can then be secretly viewed. Then the magician can go on comfortably to read the spectator’s mind in whatever elaborate and acted-up way the trick requires!

The final method we’ll look at here is the ‘controlled shuffle’. In this technique, the magician allows the spectator a free choice of card and then, as the card is replaced into the pack it is shuffled in to give the impression that it is thoroughly lost in the deck but actually the magician has used the technique to guide the card through the pack to wherever he wants it to be – usually the top or bottom of the deck from which point it can easily be glimpsed and then ‘mind read’ or predicted.

If you already do some card tricks and are familiar with these techniques then you can start straight away to build mind-reading routines using the skills you already have. If not, then it’s worth your while learning this basic card techniques as they’ll open up endless possibilities for you and are not difficult to learn with just a little practice. You can learn them from books, other magicians, some websites and, of course, downloadable video tutorials.

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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“Reading minds can also be as simple as taking note of the words used and the language that is preferred.” – Steve Gink

I just discovered a brand new manual where lots of hidden mentalism and mind reading secrets are revealed.

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This is a manual for complete novices who had never done a trick in their lives AND for the professionals who were looking to take their magic to the next level and wanted to add incredible mind reading tricks to their arsenal.

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– The strongest trick you can perform with a pack of cards
– How to REALLY stop your pulse and freak out your friends
– TV Mentalism Finally Revealed
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==> www.mind-reading-tricks.com/go/mindread/

To Your Mind Reading & Mentalism Success,

James Jack