A stranger walks up to you, makes small talk, and offers to read your mind. Two minutes later, he guesses the name of an ex you haven’t been in contact with for quite some time. Crazy, right?
If you have been to a magic show or seen a mentalism performance at least once, you’ve most likely seen this trick a couple of times. It could be the participant’s cat’s name, a number, or any random word, and the performer guesses it right with absolute certainty.
Well, you can do it, too.
Sure, you’ll need to practice hard, but if you’re just starting, you can make do with some simple tricks.
Today, we will share with you 3 easy mind-reading tricks with words you can do right now. I know you’re eager to learn them, so let’s get on with it!
3 Easy Mind Reading Tricks With Words
The 3 tricks with words we’ll talk about here are:
- The Book Test
- Grey Elephant from Denmark
- A Reflector, a Napkin, and a bit of Acting
The Book Test
What is it?
A book test is a common mentalism trick that demonstrates the performer’s clairvoyance or telepathic skills.
The mentalist flips through a book without looking at the contents, stops at a random page, and guesses a word, a phrase, or even a sentence.
The book could be a real one or a prop, but anyway, the idea is that the mentalist guesses the correct word from what could be tens of thousands.
There are many ways to do the book test trick.
You could start by asking a participant to take, for instance, the last word from a book page. From there, you can use the magic of mathematics to create a pattern that will lead the participant to a predestined page.
However, the simplest way to do the book test is to select a page in advance and place a small bookmark or any tool.
In this video, DJ simply inserts a coin and holds the book firmly by the spine to make sure the coin doesn’t fall. Now, when he flips through the book, the coin makes it automatically stop at the designated page.
Sometimes, though, your audience will be suspicious and might ask to check the book after. If so, you will need to use a sleight of hand.
Timing is integral when doing the book test trick.
In most cases, the performer will ask the participant to say “stop” to signal their page. If you don’t practice your timing, it will look off if you suddenly pause at a page before the audience even tells you to stop.
It also helps to use a book that is neither too thin nor too thick.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
I’m sure you can’t wait to perform for your friends now but keep reading first because we have two more fun tricks to learn.
Grey Elephant from Denmark
What is it?
Grey elephant from Denmark is a common mentalism trick. It relies on probabilities by using predetermined answers people choose all the time. This trick will help make your participants believe you have mind-reading skills.
How to do it?
- First, tell your participant to pick a number between 1 to 10.
- Ask them to multiply it by 9 and add the digits of the resulting number.
- Then, tell them to deduct five from that number.
- Instruct them to assign a letter to every number, such that 1 is A, 2 is B, and so on.
Now, whatever number your participant chooses, this calculation will always lead to the number 4. Thus, the resulting letter will always be D.
- Ask them to think of a country that begins with the letter.
- Then, tell them to think of an animal that starts with the succeeding letter of the country they thought of.
- Finally, ask them to think of the animal’s color.
Now, you can reveal to them that what they have in mind is a grey elephant from Denmark.
How does it work?
Well, it’s all thanks to patterns and probabilities.
Math is interesting. You can add, subtract, multiply, and divide different numbers and end up with the same result. But math is also confusing, and it throws most people off, so they fail to recognize the patterns in simple calculations.
Now, people think of the most common thing when the choices are limited.
For instance, there are only a few countries that start with the letter D. So most people will choose Denmark – unless they are geography nerds and think of Djibouti first.
The same principle applies to the elephant as it is the most common animal that begins with the letter E. And of course, an elephant is colored grey.
A Reflector, a Napkin, and a Bit of Acting
What is it?
Reading participants’ minds by guessing a word they’ve written on a piece of paper is another common mentalism trick.
The mentalist asks a participant to think of a word and write it on a piece of paper. He then takes it without peeking, tries to have a feel, attempts to read the participant’s mind, and then guesses the word like magic.
How does it work?
Now, for many seasoned mentalists, this can be a fairly easy trick to pull. However, if you’re just new to mentalism, you can use a few props that will help you “miraculously” guess the word. And the good news is, these props are readily available to you.
This video by Jay Sankey demonstrates how he did the mind-reading trick by using a paper napkin and a phone, which he refers to as the shiner.
In this trick, the phone served as a reflector, which allowed him to see what had been written on the napkin because of the light that bounced off the locked screen. Other potential “shiners” are glass-covered tables and butter knives.
He couldn’t have pulled the trick successfully, though, if he didn’t have good acting skills.
Acting is essential in mentalism because it works great for misdirection. This is a form of deception where the mentalist distracts the participant and shifts his or her attention.
In Jay Sankey’s video, he uses his acting skills to describe how impossible it is for him to see the word written on the napkin. The participant, in turn, focuses on the napkin, while Jay gets his chance to peek at the written word through his phone screen.
Conclusion
If you are just starting out as a mentalist, you can use these 3 easy mind reading tricks with words you can now right now.
These mind-reading tricks can be useful in learning other mentalism techniques.
They are also great ways to understand human psychology and how it can work to your advantage in performing acts.
Practicing these easy tricks will lead you to more complicated ones later on.
So, what are you waiting for?
Try one or all of these on your friends and family and see the amazement on their faces!