The next phase of the trick is just as easy as the first: And because there aren’t many countries that start with the letter D, the majority of people will choose Denmark. Then ask them to think of a country that begins with their letter (remember, everyone’s letter is D). Tell them to stop when they reach their number… which you already know is number 4, so it’s the letter D. Next, ask your spectator to assign each letter of the alphabet a number: A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, etc. It’s just one of those strange mathematical principles. No matter what their original number was, their final answer will always be 4. Now… here’s the really cool part that only you will know: You then ask them to add the digits together. It’s a simple trick that you can do with an audience or even just one friend.įirst ask your spectator/spectators to think of a number between 1 and 10, then multiply it by 9. We all remember this one from school right? Now we’re onto the good stuff learning some mentalism tricks or effects as some prefer to call it. Well I’ve given you 3 great suggestions for reading materials, but I’d be doing a disservice to you the reader, if I didn’t share at least one or two simple ‘tricks’ with you. I’ll be discussing more books in a future post. This book contains 67 mind reading tricks, of which many are perfect for the absolute beginner and most require no prior preparation, and they all involve easy to find everyday objects.
This book is fantastic reading material for beginners as well as those who are already experienced in mentalism, it’s cram packed full of ploys, techniques and effects. Practical mental magic by Theodore Annemann Unlike traditional magic books don’t expect to learn many effects you can just go out and perform, 13 steps is going to take quite a bit of study on your part. Here’s 3 books I suggest that will help get you started:Ĭonsidered by just about everyone in the community as the bible of mentalism. Next you’re going to want to read some mentalism books, Max Maven, The Amazing Kreskin, Uri Geller, Richard Osterlind, Lior Suchard, Lior Manor, Oz PearlmanĪnd of course the legendary Derren Brown. This is pretty self-explanatory, just type “Mentalism” or “Mentalist” into the search bar and watch clips of performances. Whilst it is generally accepted that the first recorded mentalism act was performed in 1572 by a magician named Girolamo Scotto, mentalism can probably be traced back even further than this to tales of seers, oracles and prophets which can be found in the Old Testament and in works about ancient Greece.Īgain I thoroughly enjoyed this show and it inspired me in so many ways. I personally feel this makes mentalism much more exciting not only to watch but also to perform. In this way, mentalism plays on the senses and the spectator’s perception or understanding of reality in a different way to conjuring techniques utilized by performing magic. Whether they’re about various so-called psychic abilities, photographic memory, being a human calculator, the power of suggestion, NLP, or other skills which the mentalist claims to possess. This uncertainty about the limits of what is real, may lead individuals in an audience to reach different conclusions and beliefs about the mentalists’ claims. In 2011 Corinda's Thirteen Steps to Mentalism was republished in the Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists.Mentalism has the ability to invoke belief and imagination, and when presented correctly allows the audience to interpret the given effect as some kind of real phenomena or at least provide enough doubt in the mind of the spectator to suggest that the act of mentalism is actually somehow possible to achieve without trickery. Mentalists such as Derren Brown, Larry Becker, Lee Earle, Richard Osterlind and Banachek have relied upon Thirteen Steps To Mentalism for their own mental illusions. Waters' Mind, Myth and Magick, it is considered standard literature for any magician, mentalist, or student of stage magic who wishes to incorporate psychic entertainment into their routine. Together with Annemann's Practical Mental Effects and T.A. The book has detailed information regarding cold reading, hot reading, the construction and use of such devices as the swami gimmick, billets, and billet pens. The book describes various techniques used by mentalists to achieve what appear to be psychic phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, extra-sensory perception, telekinesis and the ability to communicate with the dead as a medium. The book is now considered by most magicians to be a classical text on mentalism. It was originally published as thirteen smaller booklets as a course in mentalism and was later republished as a book in 1961. Thirteen Steps to Mentalism is a book on mentalism by Tony Corinda.