Mentalists are known as professionals who perform exceptional mind tricks for entertainment. Because of their seemingly psychic abilities, many people also think of them as magicians who can read minds.
The truth is that mentalists are more than just performers.
Sure, most of them successfully make money out of their professional antics. However, the skills they possess can be used outside showmanship.
The skills mentalists possess include clairvoyance, cold reading, foresight, hypnosis, misdirection, and telekinesis. Any skilled mentalist can easily apply these in their daily life.
Today, you will learn how to use mentalism in three ways. If you are just starting your journey toward becoming a professional in this field, you can practice regularly by doing any or all of these three.
1. Reading Minds
As a mentalist, you won’t actually be reading minds. It’s got everything to do with human predictability.
Body language
Body language is one of the many ways people communicate. Being skilled at observing people’s body language puts mentalists at an advantage.
For any performance, mentalists should pick the best person to read, because ultimately, it’s the participant that will enable the mentalist to pull off a good trick.
Don’t pick someone who looks too bubbly or excited, because they may throw you off or steal your spotlight.
Similarly, don’t choose someone who looks quiet, because they’ll likely fight off your “mind-reading” skills.
Pick a participant who is somewhere in between being extroverted and introverted, as they are least likely to distract you and highly likely to believe in you. Their reactions will make it easy for you to predict their succeeding actions.
Cold Reading
Cold reading is another trick used by mentalists as well as fortune-tellers. It is a technique that uses high probability guesses.
The trick is to use vague statements that will more or less apply to a person. It also helps to use contradicting sentences as they will likely reflect a person’s nature.
Also, analyzing a person’s body language, choice of clothing, hairstyle, and manner of speech will provide you with a great deal of information.
You will know if your guesses are a hit or miss depending on their body signals.
If they smile, nod, or raise their brows in agreement, you are most probably in the right direction, and you can continue to emphasize your statements.
On the other hand, if their body language suggests that you are wrong with creased eyebrows, for instance, you can quickly move in another direction.
2. Convincing People
If there’s one thing mentalists are absolutely good at, it’s persuading people.
They trick people’s minds using a variety of techniques to lead them on. They do this by carefully planting ideas in their heads, and in the end, persuade them into thinking that they have successfully guessed their thoughts.
Little does that person know that it was a forced thought.
Leading
In law, this may be referred to as leading.
In mentalism, however, the suggestions are not deliberate. The mentalist uses subtle suggestions by embedding certain keywords in his or her sentences.
For instance, if you want a person to think of a circle, you can casually mention items that have the shape of the circle, such as a ball or a plate. Or you can even subtly draw it in the air with your hands while you talk. You can also use words that sound like the word circle.
Their subconscious brain will pick that up and think of a circle. So if you ask them to think of a shape, you can “read their minds” and say the shape they chose was a circle.
Planting Ideas
Professional mentalists have perfected the way they plant these ideas in a person’s mind, and the simple gestures they do are always left unnoticed. Trying to catch them in the act will be almost impossible.
What blows everyone’s mind is how this trick successfully makes a person think that he or she has a choice. It will just look and feel natural and not at all contrived.
However, it’s the mentalist’s plan all along. What’s even cooler is the person doesn’t even realize that it wasn’t really his or her choice.
Persuasion
Persuasion is both an art and a practical skill that you will find useful in your everyday life. It can come in handy at home when you’re trying to convince your parents to get you something for your birthday. You may also use persuasive techniques at work when you’re working on closing a deal with a client or convincing your boss to give you a raise.
3. Interpreting Body Language
If you are practicing psychology, or if you simply like listening to your friends’ problems and offering advice, you can use mentalism techniques.
As a mentalist, you will not only learn to perform tricks, but you will also gain a deep understanding of human psychology.
You will learn how to interpret body language. And by carefully observing others, their facial expressions, lip movements, and other gestures, you will see them as if you know what they are going through.
Facial Expressions
As you may have guessed, this goes hand in hand with the above section on reading minds. When a person is telling you a story, their body language can help you determine whether they are lying or holding back some information. For example, a woman who cannot maintain eye contact and looks everywhere else may be nervous, or distressed, or both.
Lip Movements
The eyes are the windows to the soul, yes, but you can also know what a person feels by reading their lip movements. For instance, a person who always tends to cover their mouth may be lying. It will not always be the case, as a smile may not always be genuine.
Small Gestures
Other gestures that may be indicative of how someone is feeling include clenched fists, which means anger, crossed-arms, which indicate the person is defensive, and hands-on-hips, which is a sign of control and aggressiveness.
These aren’t one-size-fits-all interpretations, rather, they are guides that you can use to read people’s movements.
Conclusion
Mentalism is not just magic or performing art. It is a skill that can teach you more than you need to know about human behavior and psychology.
By being well-versed in the skills mentioned above, you can use mentalism in your everyday life and even in important circumstances.