How to Become a Mentalist: A Step-By-Step Guide

I’m going to do a quick mentalism trick and guess why you clicked on this article:

You want to learn how to become a mentalist.

That’s impressive, right?

No?

It’s fine, that’s not real mentalism anyway.

But jokes aside, if you’re looking to learn more about becoming a mentalist, you’ve come to the right place.

Today we’re going to walk you through a step-by-step on how to become a mentalist.

From preparing, performing, and learning more about the art years down the line.

We’ll also show you a few easy tricks you can do to kickstart your journey as a mind-blowing mentalist.

Let’s dive in!

What is Mentalism?

The first thing you should know about mentalism is that it’s not magic.

It’s a performing art that uses a mentalist’s heightened observation skills to “read” a person’s mind and influence their decisions.

Mentalism combines psychology and mental tricks to give off the illusion of clairvoyance.

But really, the entire thing is just part performance and part relying on the subconscious cues your subject is telling you.

You’d be surprised that many people use mentalism in everyday life.

Investigators use it to read criminals, and magicians use it for spectacle.

You can even use it to learn more about the people closest to you.

That being said, how can you become a mentalist?

What are the steps you need to take to become one?

A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Become a Mentalist

Mentalism looks easy in theory, but it’s a whole other thing in practice.

Don’t worry, we’re here to walk you through it!

Our step-by-step guide is divided into three parts:

Preparing for Mentalism

Improve your observation skills
Practice makes perfect
Get help from your friends and family
Learn to communicate and ask questions

Performing Mentalism

Pick the best person to read
Remember to relax
Perfect the art of subtle suggestion
Believe in yourself

Learning More Mentalism

Read more books and watch videos on mentalism
Don’t stop learning
Connect with like-minded individuals
Invest in yourself

These steps aren’t a set of rigid rules you have to follow meticulously.

Think of them as guidelines for beginner mentalists, so they get to build a foundation on the craft.

Let’s get right to it!

Preparing for Mentalism

We’re sure you’re excited to perform in front of a crowd and bask in the dazzled faces of your audience.

But just so you don’t freeze in front of everyone, you had better be prepared.

Here’s what you need to do:

Improve your observation skills

It’s useless trying to be a mentalist if your observation skills are subpar or even nonexistent.

Everything about mentalism works because the mentalist can assess the person just by a simple look.

How did you think the great detective Sherlock Holmes solved all of his cases?

It wasn’t because he got lucky or the police and his right-hand man John Watson were there to help.

It was because he had a keen eye that sweeps across the crime scene for a misplaced lint, a chip on the floor, or a slight bruise on a body.

That’s not magic — that’s the power of observation.

Using keen observation skills as a mentalist will let you:

Interpret a person’s body language or physical cues
Detect their lies and take note of their tells
Predict what they will do next

If you’re observant, every glance will tell you a lot about a person.

The slight changes in their facial expression will clue you in on what they’re thinking — they don’t like this trick, they doubt you, they will pick this card, etc.

A person’s physical cues are little details you can “read” about them.

It will tell you if they’re closed off, they’re shy, outgoing, and all sorts of different personalities.

Look for signs like nervous fidgeting hands, where they keep looking at, or even the dilation of their eyes.

Interpreting their cues will help you get into their headspace and determine what they like or what they’ll decide.

Once you tell them what’s on their minds or perform your trick, they will be bamboozled that they didn’t know how you did it.

And all you did was observe them.

Practice makes perfect

There’s a reason this quote is considered “old but gold.”

Like with every skill in the world, you have to put in all the hours (and the failures) to be good at it.

Don’t expect yourself to be 100% perfect the first time.

And don’t beat yourself up if you’re unsuccessful too.

Being good at mentalism won’t happen in a snap of a finger.

Even the most outstanding mentalism mentors and magicians had to go through lengths of practice to perfect their art.

Just think of it as learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.

You think it will be difficult and tricky, but once you get the hang of it — learning how to balance, adjusting your speed, hitting the brakes properly — it’s a skill you’ll never forget your whole life.

Practicing your techniques and tricks is the only way to hone your skills in mentalism.

Get help from your friends and family

Practicing is useless if you don’t have anyone to practice on.

Now that you know mentalism relies heavily on keen observation and spotting a person’s “tells,” you can use this newfound skill on your friends and family.

Try observing them (without being too creepy!).

What are the signs that tell you they’re irritated? Happy? Sad?

Do they scratch their heads? Cross their arms?

An agent who worked with the FBI for 23 years shared that the first step in reading a person is to “create a baseline.”

This will help you identify “different quirks and patterns of behavior.”

But of course, you’re not about to interrogate criminals with your mentalism skills.

Once you get an idea of how a particular person behaves, that’s when you can adjust your mentalism tricks on them appropriately.

Learn to communicate and ask leading questions

I’d hate to break it to you, but if you aren’t exactly a great communicator, your mentalism efforts might go down the drain.

A considerable part of mentalism is learning how to influence others by persuading them.

Ergo, communication is vital.

As a mentalist, you have to gather all the info you got from observation and channel it into persuasive communication.

Whether that’s done subtly or boldly, both require a smooth talker who has a way with words.

But don’t be scared if speaking is not your forte.

Like I said earlier, practice makes all the difference.

Besides, you could have a lot of fun seeing how people react to different things you say.

And this includes asking leading questions.

This is a helpful trick that helps mentalists fill in the gaps in their knowledge.

Remember, mentalism isn’t actual clairvoyance.

You have to push your spectator into the right direction with vague questions that give an illusion that you’re reading their minds.

Using your observation skills, you can easily determine what to do next.

Performing mentalism

Now that you know the basics of preparing for mentalism, you’re ready to try them out.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to perform in front of a crowd of strangers right away!

Take things one step at a time, starting with…

Pick the best person to read

Don’t expect your mentalism tricks to be successful all the time.

There are mishaps too, often involving close-minded people.

This is why you must pick the best person to read for your mentalism tricks.

Scan a crowd and find your perfect spectator.

Again, this requires keen observation skills (I’ll never tire of saying that!).

If someone is crossing their arms or keeps silent off to one side, chances are they’re not too interested in what you’re doing.

They will resist your “mind-reading” powers.

On the other hand, if someone is too loud, bubbly, and excited, they might throw you off.

Or worse — steal your thunder.

And you can’t have that!

Pick a person that’s in between the two.

One who is willing to participate but not too excited and not too aloof either.

Scan for that person in the crowd with a body language that’s easy to read.

Relax and go with the flow

Would you want to watch a jittery mentalist that looks so nervous like his whole career depends on this one trick?

Of course not.

You want a mentalist that’s cool, one that looks like they can honestly read your mind with just a single glance.

Keeping things natural will help your audience feel at ease.

Engage with them, crack jokes. This is where being a great communicator comes in.

When you finally deliver the blow for that trick, they will be even more amused because you looked so cool doing it.

Perfect the art of subtle suggestions

If you want to be a mentalist, you better learn how to plant an image into someone’s mind perfectly.

There are various mentalism techniques you need to learn down the road, and one of the most important ones is the art of subtle suggestion.

When you want someone to think of a triangle, you can subtly trace triangles in the air or shape them with your fingers.

You can even casually mention pyramids of Giza, or slices of pizza.

So when you perform your trick, the person will automatically think of a triangle.

And there you have it — mind read.

*Mentalism mic drop*

Believe in yourself

All of that practice will go to waste if you don’t have the confidence to fuel it.

Mentalists should always carry themselves with confidence, especially during showtime.

Your presence of mind is as significant as the belief that you can pull off the mentalism trick you’re about to do.

And remember, your audience can sense if you’re uncomfortable or unsure, and then they will be the ones thrown off the trick.

It’s not about what you do that captivates an audience, it’s about how you do it.

Having confidence is so important that it creates an illusion for people too.

Heck, even the most unqualified people get elected to be government officials just because they’re oozing with confidence.

If everything goes well and you smoothly wow the audience with your mentalism trick, pat yourself on the back.

Your confidence helped you pull that off.

But if things don’t work out, you can still walk away from the situation in stride and with dignity intact because you’re confident you can still practice that skill.

Learning More Mentalism

If you want to be a great mentalist, you don’t just stop learning how to prepare and perform.

You have to think further into the future too.

This is why to keep your mentalism skills sharp, you need to…

Take mentalism online courses

Thanks to the internet, you get a near bottomless resource for any topic you’re interested in all in one click.

There are several mentalism courses you can take online.

International Open Academy has a Mentalism and Mind Reading course for €99.00 or roughly $120.

You get to learn the basics of mentalism, mind-boggling tricks, and various psychological-based techniques to impress anyone.

Udemy’s collection of Mind Reading courses is also a great resource.

They start at $13.99 and feature lessons on Card Mentalism and Pro Mind Reading Tricks.

You can also check out Reed’s £10 ($12) course on Mentalism and Mind Reading which contains 30 hours of lessons.

The lessons range from introduction to mentalism to impromptu magic tricks.

Whatever you do, keep learning new tricks and techniques if you want to be a great mentalist someday.

After you think you’ve mastered mentalism techniques for beginners, you can start doing intermediate and advanced ones.

But if those are intimidating for you, remember to take it easy.

You can still dip your toes into other techniques for fun.

For example, you can even try your hand at hypnosis, astrology, or even palm reading.

Invest in yourself

Reading books and watching videos on mentalism is a great part of investing in your knowledge.

But what about other aspects of your craft?

If you’re dead set on becoming a mentalist, you have to invest in a few other things as well.

Invest in your persona, for one.

Unlike magicians, mentalists don’t rely on sleight of hand tricks.

Mentalists captivate their audience by words; that’s why an important step is to be a great communicator.

How will you present yourself?

Are you the mentalist that stays mysterious and quiet but asks all the right questions to create that illusion of mind-reading?

Or maybe you’re that chatty and friendly mentalist that slings an arm around your “target’s” shoulders or makes everyone laugh.

When you’ve got a persona, your audience will most likely resonate with you and remember you.

You should also invest in your mentalism props.

Although mentalism is primarily about “reading” a person, sometimes props help demonstrate a trick best.

Get yourself a good deck of cards and maybe a magic wallet too.

Ultimately though, it isn’t about what you do, it’s about how you do it.

Lastly, you should also invest in yourself as a mentalist.

Reading and watching videos can only go so far.

At some point, you’ll need training and seminars if you want to get better.

Look up mentalism events in your city and sign up for the next one.

It’s a great way to meet other mentalists and create a support system of like-minded individuals.

Connect with like-minded individuals

And speaking of like-minded individuals, to thrive in mentalism, you have to be part of a circle with the same interests.

Otherwise, who would you turn to when you don’t know how to perform a trick or understand mentalism principles?

Having friends and family to support you is cool enough, but fellow mentalists or at least enthusiasts are a game-changer.

You can look up mentalist groups online or find out if your city has a magic community.

An advantage of knowing other mentalists and magicians is that you can have a foothold in the industry.

You can learn in person from the experts, and you can use your knowledge to become better at your craft.

That’s basically it!

Now that we’ve covered the easy step-by-step guide on how to become a mentalist let’s look at the important techniques in this craft you should learn.

Essential Mentalism Techniques You Should Learn

Expert mentalists have a range of techniques up their sleeve.

Mentalism, after all, is not just observing people and jumping to conclusions from there.

It’s an art that uses combinations of psychology and observing people to read their minds.

Cold reading

You can stretch your “observation muscles” by doing a cold reading on anyone.

Cold reading is easy since you just have to make vague assumptions to let your subject think you can read their minds.

With this technique, you study a person based on their body language, gestures, facial expressions, and maybe their fashion sense too.

In other words, observe everything about them on a surface level and start assuming things about them based on what you see.

You can lead with assumptions like “Someone very dear to you is suffering right now,” or “Recently you’ve had a rough time at work.”

Those sentences should be vague enough to apply to most of the people on earth.

Here’s a great example of Orson Welles when he pretended to be a fortune teller through cold reading:

Misdirection

If observing is the ultimate skill of a mentalist, misdirection is the ultimate weapon.

Misdirection is subtly manipulating your “target’s” mind so you control the outcome of the situation.

You plant ideas in their head without them knowing while directing them away from what you’re doing.

An example of misdirection is getting your “target” to say a particular keyword by constantly mentioning things that will remind them of it.

If you want them to say “red,” you can mention Christmas, Valentines, or even Mars.

Shape projection is also another form of misdirection.

This works by sneakily shaping or tracing in the air the particular shape you want your “target” to say.

For magicians, their version of misdirection is sleight of hand.

You think something is happening in one corner, but the magician uses it as an elaborate misdirection trick to distract you.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is another essential (not to mention cool) trick for mentalists.

It’s a mind-control technique where the mentalist controls a person’s subconscious, which, in turn, influences the person.

To understand how this trick works, you have to dive deep into the relationship between a person’s conscious and subconscious minds.

You have to understand a person’s subconscious, which is always a bit tricky since we’re all different individuals.

But once you understand how to tap into one’s subconscious, you can control them and make them do what you want.

Of course, this isn’t the total hypnosis you see in movies.

It’s still a handy trick to make the audience laugh by making your “target” do or say funny things.

Hypnosis could also be directing a person to say what you want them to through the power of suggestion.

Hypnosis is not magic.

If anything, it will teach you a lot about science and the psychology behind a person’s thinking and actions.

Who knew mentalism could be so educational, right?

Lip Reading

Sometimes professional mentalists rely on lip-reading to pull off a trick.

They tell an audience to think of a thing and visualize it in their heads. They will ask the people to repeat the word in their minds over and over again.

Chances are, one of the audience will soon be unconsciously mouthing the words softly.

The professional mentalist has to single out the person who does this and read their lips.

Rookie mentalists can take a seat, this technique is challenging, but it’s not impossible to master.

You just have to harness every bit of concentration and pay attention to your subjects.

If you learn how to read a subject’s lips, it will be a huge advantage for you.

Easy Mentalism Tricks to Try for Beginners

Now that you’re aware of everything you need to know to become a mentalist, plus you’ve brushed up on essential mentalism techniques, it’s time to try your hand at different tricks.

You can start with mentalism tricks for beginners.

We’ve listed down 3 of the best ones you can try on your friends and family for now.

Once you’ve perfected these, you can read more easy mentalism tricks you can do to blow everyone’s minds.

Gray Elephant from Denmark

One of the easiest and most famous mentalism tricks is the Gray Elephant from Denmark.

It uses a combination of a quick math formula and relying on a person’s predictability.

The steps are pretty easy to follow for your subject.

Ask your subject to think of a number between 1 and 10
Without telling you out loud, make them multiply that number by 9 (x 9)
Their answer should have two digits. Let them add those two digits together.
Still, without telling you, they should subtract 5 from the answer (- 5)
Tell them to assign the one-digit answer to each letter of the alphabet (1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C)
Ask them to think of a country that starts with that letter
Now tell your subject to take the second letter of that country and think of an animal that starts with that letter
Finally, ask them: ‘What is the color of that animal?”

The answer will always be Denmark, Elephant, and Gray.

And that is how you blow their minds with mentalism.

But really, the secret to the trick is that no matter which number they think of between 1 and 10, after all that math computation, the answer will always be number 4.

From there, the letter D will be assigned, and most people will think of Denmark.

Most people will also think of “elephant” as an animal that starts with the letter E.

Think you can try it out on your friends?

Three of Diamonds

This next one is another basic mentalism technique beginners should master.

The Three of Diamonds uses mentalism techniques like misdirection and shape projection.

It will only work if you successfully plant the shape and number in the subconscious of your subject.

Famous mentalist Derren Brown performs the trick under 25 seconds in this video:

What he did was pretty simple.

To perform the Three of Diamonds you have to ask your subject to think of a card in their mind.

While they’re thinking, you have to suggest that they think of the three of diamonds subliminally.

You can do this by:

Shape projection through tracing patterns of a diamond in the air or on the table
Make them think of the number three by suggesting they think of a card that’s “a little lower” or a “lower card.”
You can also gesture in threes with your fingers to plant the number three in their head.
Or say sentences like “Imagine the shape in the middle of the card,” so they think of three diamonds in a row or “Imagine the shapes here, boom, boom, boom” coupled with an action for every boom.

We’ve mentioned confidence is vital in performing mentalism tricks, and this one is no exception.

You have to believe in yourself that you can pull this off!

Triangle Inside a Circle

Here’s another handy trick that can help you practice shape projection: the Triangle Inside a Circle.

The TV show The Mentalist does an excellent execution of that in this clip:

The steps are simple:

Make your subject think of a shape, like “a square but not a square.”
And then another shape “around” that shape

Just like the Three of Diamonds, you have to use misdirections in the form of shape projection and subliminal suggestions.

While you’re asking them to think of a shape, sneakily make triangles in the air or trace them anywhere.

As for the circle, the mere mention of the word “around” should guide them into thinking of a circle.

That’s just three of the best and easiest mentalism tricks you can try on your friends or family.

Remember, to execute these well, you have to practice your delivery and do them with confidence.

Is Learning Mentalism For You?

Now that you know all these steps and tips, I bet you’re excited to start your journey to become a mentalist.

You won’t become an expert mentalist overnight, but that’s what practice is for.

It’s also essential that you include mentalism practices in your daily life.

Try applying everything you’ve read so far about observation and watching people.

Not only will it help you conform to the mindset of a mentalist, but you’ll be surprised it can help you interact with people in different situations too.

Finally, remember to take your time and enjoy the entire process.

Learning mentalism should be a fun and exciting experience.

Why don’t you go ahead and start right now?

Let us know in the comments why you want to be a mentalist!