What Is A Mentalist Magician?
What Is A Mentalist Magician?
How possible is it that someone could slither into your mind and unlock some of your deepest thoughts, even personal social media passwords? That’s mentalism, or at least, that’s what the mentalist magician wants you to think.
To put simply, a mentalist magician is someone that uses their deep understanding of human psychology to trick the audience into thinking something is happening. One of those happenings is extracting a thought or memory that they couldn’t have known before.
It’s truly an interesting topic and this article will explore it further, explaining what is a mentalist magician and many other details. Read on!
What Is Mentalism
As mentioned in the introduction, a mentalist magician employs different psychological tricks to read a person’s mind. Interestingly enough, most of their reading is accurate, and that’s because it’s based on some set of fine skills.
These skills include acting, body language, and stagecraft, but it doesn’t work on everyone. Sometimes, the performer has to masterfully scout the audience to gauge their level of susceptibility in order to effectively manipulate their emotions and thoughts.
The result is an audience struck with awe and comments such as “oh my god! How did he know that?!” It’s also worth noting that while mentalism is commonly used for mind-reading, some claim to be able to talk to the person’s dead relative, but that is a controversial side of magic.
Types Of Mentalists
For full transparency on the topic, let’s explore the different types of mentalist magicians that are available today. There are three types and they include Magicians, Psychics, and large performers.
Let's check out each:
Magicians
Some, but not all, magicians use mentalism techniques when performing their sleight-of-hand tricks. This helps them further immerse the audience in the performance and convince them that their minds are being read.
There are also simpler occasions where the magician merely plants someone or people in the crowd and chooses them at random. He then performs a trick or two which they go along with, thereby convincing the crowd to be more invested in upcoming performances.
Some might call this “fraudulent”, but it’s part of the entertainment process. According to the great James Randi, “Real magic is fake and fake magic is real”.
Psychics
Psychics are the controversial side of magic as they’ve garnered severe criticism from different sceptics. Nevertheless, these types of mentalist magicians have the ability to connect to the afterlife and interact with the souls of people that passed away.
While some magicians explain their abilities as supernatural, others point out that they merely have a strong understanding of the human mind. They also use the power of suggestion to get clues from their audience and then make a seemingly accurate reading.
The most common term for this technique is Cold Reading. It involves reading a person’s body language as the psychic makes suggestions about their hopes and dreams. The type of reaction will determine the magician’s next question or statement, often leading to a satisfying experience.
Large Performers
Finally, there are large mentalist magicians that perform for a large crowd or show like the famous Darren Brown. Their trick often involves guessing numbers, names, phrases, and even personal details with surprising accuracy.
To make it more interesting, the magician may even ask them to write it down on paper to ensure they don’t change their mind and agree with the guess out of pressure.
Common Mentalist Tricks
Undoubtedly, mentalists are impressive, especially for reading your mind with such high accuracy. But how do they do it? There are a lot of tricks, but let’s cover the main three; sleight of hand, cold reading, mind-reading, and the power of suggestion.
Sleight Of Hand
Anyone who’s looked into understanding a magic trick has come across the term, sleight-of-hand. This is a technique that involves fast hand movement to conceal, swap, or manipulate the magic prop faster than the audience can detect.
So, during the performance, the audience cannot see every process of the trick due to the magician’s speedy hands. Another factor that makes this trick successful is that the magician redirects their focus so they don’t pay complete attention as the magic happens.
Cold Reading
Cold reading is a more popular mentalist trick that takes time to master but is incredibly effective at making people think you read their minds. It involves throwing out subtle suggestions and also watching for body language cues.
So, when they suggest the first syllable of a name, place, or number that the subject may know, their reaction will tell the magician whether to continue or make adjustments. Note that all these happen within milliseconds.
The Power Of Suggestion
This is a more “invasive” form of mentalism where the magician forces a mental image or idea into the subject’s head subconsciously. This is done through subtle suggestions combined with some extra tricks, leading the person to think the thought was their own.
Once implanted, the magician begins his routine then slowly reveals the thought in the person’s head, leading to amazement. But in reality, the magician placed the idea there. Very impressive!
Difference Between Magician And Mentalist
In simple terms, a mentalist magician entertains people with illusions just like any other magician, but is more strategic. They use mathematics, psychology, hypnosis, clairvoyance, etc., it’s a lot of thinking!
On the other hand, a magician makes illusions that focus more on the trick with less calculation and strategy than a mentalist. More importantly, the magician focuses on the visual aspect of the performance while the mentalist is preoccupied with the subject’s subconscious.
Many magicians will also argue that becoming a mentalist takes a lot of years to master the various mental tools. They have to observe body language, understand various topics, learn how to ask loaded questions, perform subliminal suggestions, and many more.
Ultimately, it’s a lot of work to become a mentalist magician, which is probably why they are rare.
Conclusion - Contact Magical Katrina
Mentalist magicians are the “spookier” side of performance magic as their skills can burrow into your mind and uncover some interesting details. But finding one might be tricky due to how much effort it takes to learn.
In this case, let Magical Katrina help you. Katrina is an award-winning female magician that has received global accolades for impressive performances.
Contact Magical Katrina today. Let's help spice up your event.