So lately I have been trying to include some mentalism into my routine. I tend to favor effects more like predictions and limited mind reading. I also have some interest in NLP and hypnotism, but that is well beyond my level of skill at this point.

I've been reading through 13 Steps (I plan on rereading a few things), have a swami (Don't like using it), and an impression pad.

So my question is this . . . why does mentalism seem so easy? I hate putting it that way, since I realize there is ALOT to presentation. It makes me think one of three things. Either I just don't enjoy performing mentalism and should consider it a negative insertion, that I am horribly screwing up being convincing (I get way too many people wanting repeats, reaching out to grab stuff, and generally a lack of the "wow" factor), or it's style and character that are getting in the way.

Rather than ask how can -I- fix it, I'll ask if any others have had this issue, and how did you fix it?
Are there any essential character "traits" for being convincing?
How fast would you say an effect takes? (I get the drift that the presentaions take longer than I am doing)

-ArchAngel_G

Could you please clarify? You say it is easy and then say that you are not getting the reactions you want and people are grabbing for your stuff. If people are getting grabby then you are either flaching your gimmicks or tipping people off to the fact that you are using gimmicks. That would imply that, at least for you, mentalism is not easy.

also people wanting to check stuff dosent mean its not impressive, just some people want to examine everything. if what ur doing is gimmickless its fine but if not than i guess u need to make it look more natural

Mentalism is the art of etiquette, It is not simple if performed properly and takes a long time to master. The reason you are not getting the results you desire is because you must be making logical errors.

the pad? there shouldn't be no reason to examine the pad, why would any lay subject look for gimmicks (when they don't know they exist for one) and in somewhere as innocent as a writing pad?

A. Because you are over emphasizing the need for everything to be checked maybe? so psychologically people after examining one thing start checking for gimmicks in everything,

'please verify the pen is a normal pen' (subject thinks well what would be wrong with the pen, can there be things wrong with the pen? if so maybe there is something sneaky in the pad)

If you perform an effect well, the difference between magic and mentalism is that when someone watches a magic trick they know its a trick, when a thought is plucked out of someones mind or they were influenced to guess numbers that open a locked box and the image they had in their mind is sealed inside and they have held it the whole time makes them question if its real.

They leave wondering if it was suggestion, could he have tricked us? we guessed the numbers must be influencing and controlling our behavior. They look for explanations! where as a trick, yeah it wows them but they never look for an explanation as they know from the off hes going to trick us we don't need to find an explanation (for me it doesn't go as deep).

Ok to answer what you wanted to know about being convincing,

don't make outrageous claims if you have to make your explanations sound simple and acceptable, if they wrote a hidden word down and you some how guess it do not say

'YOUR EYES GIVE THE WORD AWAY'

But something like this,

'Startling I know, it's unbelievable but the technique is simple, it is an old principle used by charlatan psychics to make it look as if they guessed the name of a person that the client wanted them to contact.

The way it works is very simple, I ask you to repeat the word just in your mind, over and over then without knowing you move your lips very slightly and give away the name, once you have the first and last letters its not I'm sure you will agree hard to deduce what the middle few letters are.

I am totally honest about my dishonesty and I'm not psychic in the slightest and did not want you leaving thinking any otherwise thank you for helping me out'

NOW LET'S LOOK AT HOW THE SUBJECT WILL SEE IT.

We know that all we did is got an impression from the 'pad', but the subject has no reason to think about that as you gave her a fake explanation as to how it worked.

You said you were honest about your dishonesty (which is another lie) and you didn't want her leaving thinking you was psychic (putting the blame onto someone else) this is more reason for her to believe you as you are pointing out that people use this method (movement in the lips) to pretend to be something else and finally the most important part of all you gave her an explanation where she feels shocked that she gave it away in such a simple manner and wont question the credibility of the bull you just fed her.

credibility is not based on 'making' things believable, it's about pointing out things that seem so obvious upon reflection they must be believable.

Last thoughts - giving massive reasons instead of simple ones is a big NO! as you have to make excuses for your excuses

hope this helped

It was helpful. I honestly did much better when I slowed things down. Also I think I lack the credible bull****. I'll have to think up a better script before I try again.

You are right about the "tricks" things too, though not on the nose.

I think I got the right idea, thanks for the help.

-ArchAngel_G

EXCELLENT POINT, this is key!

The methods of mentalism are very easy but the presentation is extremely hard. You have to be a really good showman to get people to freak out with mentalism but it is a lot more impressive than magic...and more believable.

The reason people don't believe you is because of you need to learn persuasion techniques. You have to allow them to come to their own conclusions.

Lets say you used the pad and you know what name they're thinking of. Now you tell them, "look me in the eyes and trace the first letter of the name in your head but DON'T move your eyes." This bring their attention to the fact that you're looking at their eyes and they draw their own conclusion that you must have watched their eyes move.

It is the same thing as telling someone not to think of a pink elephant. You have to think of a pink elephant first in order not to think of it.

Your mentalism will only be believable if you allow them to draw their own conclusions.

Here are a couple of videos you can watch of me performing mentalism:
Stage Corporate Event... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV9D_2htpQw

Strolling Mentalism... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBBnJsq-9Sc

Benji 11 - nice videos

I got a bit of a teaser for everyone here, a riddle if you will;

ok, so when you are going to guess an image out of someones mind i'm sure 99% people will agree that they need to write something down at some point (unless you are using the house/tree/car force), if they are filming they needs to be preshow...

What if i told you I had a method where they don't write anything down, no pre-show and no stooges that is so simple.

1.could be any image in the world,

2.nothing is written down,

3.No peeks, tears or any need for data extraction,

4.no getting them to select images from packs of cards everything is done mentally,

5. and finally very simple to perform

No i'm not selling or promoting the effect, wondered if anyone had solutions as to how it could be done EZ hope you enjoy the book