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’!
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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