Easy mentalism tricks revealed for you to try first when learning mentalism
Mentalism has been around for hundreds of years and mentalists have been using mind control and deception techniques to fool people.
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The theory behind mentalism tricks is easy to follow. Plus some of the mentalism tricks are easy to learn. But some take more practice and skill, where patience is key. After that it’s down to you to put your spin on the mentalism trick of your choice. The tricks themselves don’t take much time to do, it’s the showmanship that counts, which is probably 90% of the performance.
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How does a mentalist do it?
But before we look at some mentalism tricks you can learn, how does a mentalist do it?
The answer to this question does depend on the type of mentalism the mentalist is performing. But in general, mentalism involves the deception of their audience in some way or other.
This deception comes in the form of either trickery, which means they deceive you using what is essentially a cleverly performed magic trick. Or they are using some form of suggestion.
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Mentalism tricks revealed
So let’s take a look at a few mental tricks and reveal what’s behind these amazing feats. Mentalists appear to have a sixth sense. Some even think they are psychics.
However, whilst mentalism is extremely clever and some techniques take years of practice and training, there’s nothing but mind games going on. Mentalists are not mind readers, they do not possess ESP or psychic abilities. Mentalism is all about mental ‘play.’
The most popular of all mentalism skills is mind reading. But before I talk about the techniques, here’s a trailer from the movie ‘Now You See Me.’
This movie demonstrates many mentalism tricks. At the beginning is a card trick, which is more of a magic trick than mentalism.
After the card trick you see hypnotism using the rapid hypnosis technique. In this same hypnosis scene the character is also demonstrating mind reading techniques combined with body language reading.
Next is a scene on a boat where the next trick is to bend a spoon. Most people consider spoon bending as a form of mentalism too.
More Reading: Master Mentalism Course review (Includes the features and the Pros & Cons)
Mind reading – This mentalism trick can be either through suggestion or using trickery
Minding reading, or the appearance of mind reading, can be achieved in three ways. This can be done using suggestion, or by using whats called cold reading and through body language reading.
Mind reading using suggestion
Mind reading using the skill of suggestion is not actually mind reading. All that has happened is the mentalist has ‘planted’ the idea in your subconscious mind using the power of suggestion.
This suggestion have come in many forms, with one method to use hand movements and shapes along with the careful use of words.
Mind reading using cold reading
As with mind reading through suggestion, the mentalist isn’t actually mind reading at all. Many people in the audience will even think the mentalist is a psychic.
But what is actually happening is the mentalist is using the same techniques employed by psychics and clairvoyants. By using very general terms and words that could apply to anyone, this can be misread as mind reading.
Mind reading using body language reading
The other technique used by mentalists to read minds is through the power of body language reading.
The mentalist is reading the signals give off through body language, which underlie a persons thoughts, feelings and emotions. But this isn’t actually mind reading.
Hypnotism – Performed through using hypnosis and suggestion
Hypnosis is a good starting point to learning mentalism. Derren Brown started his career learning hypnosis.
This provides a good ground of understanding the mind and the conscious and subconscious minds.
Derren Brown early mentalism career began with hypnosis
A short interview of Derren Brown with Richard Dawkins. He talks about his early mentalalism career when he started out with learning hypnosis.
Hypnosis rapid induction and disarming the critical factor
Hypnotism always looks quite impressive if done using the rapid induction method.
This is done by interrupting the conscious mind’s critical factor. The critical factor is the conscious mind’s sentry or guard to the subconscious. If this can be interrupted and therefore have its guard taken down for a split second, then sleep can be induced.
The critical factor is usually interrupted using by pulling on someones arm, taping them at the back of the head or this can be done on their forehead too.
With this technique care needs to be taken, as the head and neck is a very delicate area. You need to know what you are doing,so see proper training in this before you attempt the technique.
Here’s an example of this technique in action. Notice how Marc uses various methods to interrupt the critical factor and conscious mind, but all are performed with a very rapid, but safe movement. Except for the guy at the end, which is quite funny.
Spoon bending
Mentalist and illusionist Uri Geller was made famous through his ability to bend spoons.
He was so clever that most believed he could really bend spoons. He had people all over the world taking spoons out of the cutlery tray (myself included) trying to use their mind to bend a spoon.
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I hope you enjoyed this article about mentalism tricks…
If you’d like to buy this course, please follow this link here: Master Mentalism Course – To learn mentalism in 30 days
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your journey to become a performing mentalist or magician (or both). Please comment below. Please also share your experiences, both good and bad.!
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about mentalism or magic, I will try to answer them (or specifically about mentalism tricks), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about mentalism for you to read and learn about this fantastic skill.
Have fun and enjoy your journey!