As the world continues to fight off this global pandemic, people are finding more and more ways to make traditionally in-person things work via other media.
In a previous article, we talk about how you can successfully perform mentalism tricks through Zoom and other video conferencing platforms. Today, we’ll be teaching you how to do mentalism over text message: how to trick someone through SMS.
Let’s get started!
Tips on How to Trick Someone Over Text
As you might guess, performing mentalism tricks over text can be more challenging than doing tricks over a video call. There’s no visual element that reinforces your trick to your audience — all you have to rely on are your words.
Here are some tips to consider before doing mentalism over text message tricks.
Choose the right person for the trick
Treat this the way you would any other mentalism trick, which is to look for the best candidate.
The best candidate isn’t necessarily the person that gets over-excited to receive text-type mentalism tricks nor is it the person who is skeptical and cynical. Find someone who is a little bit in between the two spectrums.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short and Simple)
Avoid texting blocks of paragraphs to your subject — instead, practice K.I.S.S. and limit your messages to one or two sentences for each block. Long texts may annoy and/or discourage your subject from participating any further.
Be wary of the words you use
Just like every other mentalism act, a script is needed for text-type mentalism to ensure that an effect goes smoothly and successfully. This means using all the right words at all the right points in the conversation. A single slip in syntax could mean the unraveling of your entire trick!
Don’t be scared to use emojis
The reason why mentalism over text messages is so difficult is the fact that nobody really knows the emotion you’re trying to communicate. Mentalism relies largely on a subject’s emotional state, and if you don’t know how to manipulate that through text, your trick might not be as effective.
So, make sure to use emojis when possible — but also, be mindful that you don’t overdo it.
Accept mistakes then move on
As you may already know, not all tricks work on everyone. And practice doesn’t always result in a perfect performance. If you fail at a trick, accept your mistakes, take note of any improvement points, the move on. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to redeem yourself the next time.
3 Mentalism Tricks You Can Do Through SMS
Now that we’ve covered the various tips needed to perform mentalism over text messages, we can move on to learning simple tricks you can try out.
Below are three (3) mentalism tricks you can do through SMS, even as a beginner:
If you haven’t already learned these tricks, here’s how you can perform them.
Red Hammer Trick
You start off by asking your subject a series of questions that will subconsciously influence their mind to confirm your “prediction.” This prediction will be kept secret until the last question is asked.
Have your subject answer the following:
- What day is Christmas?
- What number is between 1 and 2?
- What are hamburgers made of?
- What side on the road do they drive on in Europe?
Once you’re done asking these questions, tell your subject to think of a color and tool. But tell them not to reveal it to you just yet.
After they’re done thinking, give them your prediction. The answer “red hammer” is almost always correct.
How this works
It all has something to do with the way the questions are posed and delivered. It fires up specific parts of the brain that influences people to give the most common answer. In this case: red hammer.
Now, to make this trick work over text, send all the questions at once, including the part where you tell them to think of a color and tool. Make them answer it all but only send the answers to the questions.
After that, send another text saying you know what color and tool they thought of. Then, reveal that it was indeed a red hammer.
Red Hammer Trick with Numbers
There are other ways to deliver the red hammer trick. This one involves numbers and simple mathematical equations.
Ask your subject to solve the following equations as fast as they can:
What’s 2 + 2?
123+54
34+54
56+76
86+89
65+70
Once they’ve answered everything, ask them to think about a color and a tool.
Studies show that around 98% of people would answer Red Hammer and only 2% would think out of the box.
The Number Mind Reading Trick
To start, text your subject to think of a number between 1 and 50, with BOTH numbers being odd and non-repeating. Tell your subject not to mention the number to you but to visualize it in their head.
After a while, make a prediction by texting them a number. The answer is almost always 37.
How this works
When you tell your subject to think of a number between 1 and 50, that are BOTH odd and non-repeating, it eliminates a lot of possibilities, limiting your subject to only several answers.
First off, you eliminated even numbers by telling your subject that both numbers should be odd.
Second, you’re also telling them that BOTH numbers should be non-repeating, hinting that they can’t choose a one-digit number. So the digits one through nine are also not plausible.
What is left now are 13, 15, 17, 19, 31, 33, 35, 37, and 39. Most people go for the number 37.
Just try it out!
The Bottom Line
While doing mentalism over text messages can be difficult, there are several ways to work around these challenges and still get the same effect as if you were performing live. All it takes is a little preparation and planning to make sure that your trick is a success.
Scripting your trick in the most powerful way possible will also help your chances of pulling off a great stunt. Just remember not to overdo it, or else you risk getting discovered too early.
Lastly, remember to just have fun with it. Not all tricks will work on everyone, so train yourself to accept failure like a champ and move on and improve for the next time.
Good luck!