Is mentalism a real thing?
Mentalism was certainly made more main-stream when the show “The Mentalist” came out with Patrick Jane played by Simon Baker. But is there such a thing as a mentalist?
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A mentalist is an individual who appears to have supernatural powers, or someone who appears to be able to read your mind, or seem to know facts about your personal life they shouldn’t know. Famous mentalists are few and far between and to be good at what they do, they must be great at observational skills, reading body language and have the ability to observe minute detail about their subjects.
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Is there such thing as a mentalist?
The simple answer to the question “is there such thing as a mentalist?” is yes absolutely mentalists exist.
But let me clarify this answer, when I say mentalists exist, they don’t actually have psychic powers, they can’t actually read your mind and they don’t posses the ability of ESP or telepathy.
The famous mentalists I talk about in this article are all performers who create the illusion that something more powerful is at work, when in fact it isn’t. The better the mentalist, the more you’ll be stunned into thinking they can actually read minds or that they actually have psychic powers.
Mentalism is a performing art and in most cases famous mentalists like Lior Suchard, Derren Brown and Oz Pearlman perform on stage in front of huge audiences.
More Reading: Famous Mentalists To Emulate (How They Became Famous)
Practitioners of mentalism who are known as mentalists, demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. For example, Derren Brown’s name is synonymous with the art of psychological manipulation. But he is also known for sticking people to their seats in his audience at theatres and at home in front of their TV’s too.
More Reading: How to be like Derren Brown (Did Derren Brown study psychology?)
Whereas Lior Suchard performs miraculous predictions, he influences his audience’s thoughts and appears to read minds.
Lior Suchard’s skills in mental manipulation has possibly made him one of the most sought after mentalists in the world; no less! He has even had Leonardo DiCaprio comment “Holy $%#&! That was just awesome.” Plus Barbara Streisand say “I knew I was in the presence of someone extraordinary.”
If you go to his website, you’ll see he’s even been used for Israeli airline Elal for their new safety video. Their video combines optical illusions with mind tricks. But it begins with a card trick to make you watch the video through to the end…clever. Here’s the Elal video:
You know you’re successful or should I say famous when you appear on the backs of seats in an aircraft in front of millions of passengers!
More Reading: How can I be like Lior Suchard? (Train to become a mentalist performer)
How do you become a mentalist?
If you are looking to become a mentalist, then you will need to work hard and perfect your mentalism techniques and skills.
Studying mentalism has never been easier than it is today. There are plenty of mentalism books available on Amazon, some written by Derren Brown himself.
Plus there’s a very special mentalism course to download from the internet. But I suggest you begin by reading blogs on mentalism like this and watch YouTube videos too. However, at some stage in your journey to become a mentalist, you’ll need to invest in training too.
If you’re looking to master mentalism and to become a professional mentalist, I suggest at least one course, plus read at least 2-3 mentalism books on the subject. But then you need to practice, practice and practice. Don’t be afraid to fail, as failure is your route to success!
More Reading: Master Mentalism Course (I Want To Learn Mentalism)
Key steps to become a mentalist
As I mentioned at the end of the last paragraph, you need not to be afraid of failure. A big part if this is to trust in your judgement and trust your gut, as mostly it’ll be right. You just need to listen in.
So here’s a snap-short of what you need to do to become a mentalist:
- Turn your observational skills to on.
- Look for kews from others that most people miss.
- Make snap, educated judgments and trust the judgment you make. The more you do this, the better you’ll get and don’t be afraid of getting it wrong.
- Look for physical cues in your subjects, like dilation or constriction of their pupils, where they point their eyes when they think about a question, their heart rate and rate of respiration all give clues to what they are thinking. For example, positive memories lead to pupil dilation, whereas a negative memory will lead to a constriction.
- Learn how to detect lies, for example is your subject being inconsistent in their verbal vs their non-verbal behavior, like verbally saying yes and shaking their head saying no. Pay attention to the way someone is sitting, what they do with their hands, fingers and feet and what part of their body they touch.
More Reading: How To Study Mentalism (To Become A Professional Mentalist)
There’s much more to learning mentalism than this and this article would be way longer if it explained everything about becoming a mentalist. But this is a taster and to direct you in the correct route to learn yourself.
More Reading: Mentalism books for beginners (Can it be done from a book or PDF eBook)
Mentalism Books (What are the best books about mentalism to buy)
How do you become a mentalist?
If you would like to learn how to do amazing mentalist tricks that will make your friend’s jaw drop, look at the Master Mentalism course.
Master Mentalism is an in-depth course that will show you the secrets behind most of the popular mentalist magic tricks there are.
In just a short time after learning from Master Mentalism you will know exactly how mentalists do what they do!
For a ridiculously small investment on your part you will be learning some fantastic mentalism and magic skills. These skills will not only make you the life of a party, but they will set you on your way to become the next famous mentalist!
I hope you enjoyed this article about is there such thing as a mentalist
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 is there such thing as a mentalist), 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 to become a mentalist!
More Reading: Mentalism Tricks For Beginners (#5 Simple Secrets Revealed)