Mentalism

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Theatrical poster for a mind-reading performance, 1900 Mind-reading-Russell-Morgan.jpeg
Theatrical poster for a mind-reading performance, 1900

Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes special effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means", [1] natural human abilities (i.e. reading body language, refined intuition, subliminal communication, emotional intelligence), and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Mentalism is commonly classified as a subcategory of magic and, when performed by a stage magician, may also be referred to as mental magic. However, many professional mentalists today may generally distinguish themselves from magicians, insisting that their art form leverages a distinct skillset. [5] Instead of doing "magic tricks", mentalists argue that they produce psychological experiences for the mind and imagination, and expand reality with explorations of psychology, suggestion, and influence. [6] Mentalists are also often considered psychic entertainers, [6] [7] [8] although that category also contains non-mentalist performers such as psychic readers and bizarrists.

Some well-known magicians, such as Penn & Teller, and James Randi, argue that a key differentiation between a mentalist and someone who purports to be an actual psychic is that the former is open about being a skilled artist or entertainer who accomplishes their feats through practice, study, and natural means, while the latter may claim to actually possess genuine supernatural, psychic, or extrasensory powers and, thus, operates unethically. [1] [9] [10]

Renowned mentalist Joseph Dunninger, who also worked to debunk fraudulent mediums, [11] captured this key sentiment when he explained his impressive abilities in the following way: "Any child of ten could do this – with forty years of experience." [5] Like any performing art, mentalism requires years of dedication, extensive study, practice, and skill to perform well and perfect.

Background

Much of what modern mentalists perform in their acts can be traced back directly to "tests" of supernatural power that were carried out by mediums, spiritualists, and psychics in the 19th century. [12] However, the history of mentalism goes back even further. Accounts of seers and oracles can be found in the Old Testament [13] of the Bible and in works about ancient Greece. [14] Paracelsus reiterated the theme, so reminiscent of the ancient Greeks, that three principias were incorporated into humanity: the spiritual, the physical, and mentalistic phenomena. [15] The mentalist act generally cited as one of the earliest on record in the modern era was performed by diplomat and pioneering sleight-of-hand magician Girolamo Scotto in 1572. [5] The performance of mentalism may utilize conjuring principles including sleights, feints, misdirection, and other skills of street or stage magic. [16] Nonetheless, modern mentalists also now increasingly incorporate insights from human psychology and behavioral sciences to produce unexplainable experiences and effects for their audiences.

Mentalism Techniques

Suggestion: This technique involves implanting an idea, thought, or impression in the mind of the spectator or participant. The mentalist does this by using subtle verbal cues, gestures, body language, and sometimes visual aids to influence their thoughts. For instance, asking someone to "think of any card in a normal deck" automatically plants the general idea of a playing card in their mind. Similarly, asking them to "visualize the card clearly in your mind" can put the image of a particular card in their imagination.

Misdirection: Also known as diversion, this technique aims to divert the audience's attention away from the secret method or process behind a mentalism effect. Magicians and mentalists frequently use grand gestures, animated movement, music, and chatter to distract attention from a sneaky maneuver that sets up the trick. For example, a mentalist may engage in lively conversation while secretly writing something on his palm. Or he may dramatically throw his jacket on a chair to cover up a hidden assistant in the audience.

Cold Reading: This technique involves making calculated guesses and drawing logical conclusions about a person by carefully observing their appearance, responses, mannerisms, vocal tones, and other unconscious reactions. Mentalists leverage these cues along with high probability assumptions about human nature to come up with surprisingly accurate character insights and details about someone. They can then present this as if they magically knew the information through psychic powers.

Hot Reading: This refers to the practice of gathering background information about the audience or participants before doing a mentalism act or seance. Mentalists can then astonish spectators by revealing something they could not possibly have known otherwise. However, doing hot readings without informing the audience is considered unethical. Ethical mentalists only do hot readings if they explicitly disclose it, or do it for entertainment with the participant's consent.

Psychological Manipulation: Master mentalists have an in-depth understanding of human psychology which allows them to subtly manipulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. They use verbal suggestion, social pressure, visual cues and mental framing to influence perceptions and reactions. This lets them guide participants towards the responses, outcomes or choices they want. For instance, a mentalist may hint that choosing a certain number will lead to something positive.

Dual Reality: This principle involves structuring a routine to present different experiences to the observer versus the participant. For example, a mentalist may have an audience member pick a "random" card that is actually forced by the mentalist's assistant. The participant believes they freely chose any card, while the audience knows it's manipulated.

Subtle Artistry: The most skilled mentalists ensure their performances seem completely natural, organic and unrehearsed even though they are carefully planned. They structure their acts, patter and effects to come across as pure luck, coincidence or chance rather than as clever illusions or tricks. This 'invisible' artistry maintains the mystique around mentalist performances. [17]

Performance approaches

Styles of mentalist presentation can vary greatly. In this vein, Penn & Teller explain that "[m]entalism is a genre of magic that exists across a spectrum of morality." [9] In the past, at times, some performers such as Alexander [18] and Uri Geller [19] [20] [21] have promoted themselves as genuine psychics. Other famous mentalists, such as Joseph Dunninger and Michael Gutenplan, have stated that their skills were human, but the result of extensive practice and study. [5] The style of Theodore Annemann has been described as "that of an ordinary person, with extraordinary powers." [22]

Some contemporary performers, such as Derren Brown, explain that their results and effects are from using natural skills, including the ability to master magic techniques and showmanship, read body language, and influence audiences with psychological principles, such as suggestion. [3] In this vein, Brown explains that he presents and stages "psychological experiments" through his performances. [23] Mentalist and psychic entertainer Banachek also rejects that he possesses any supernatural or actual psychic powers, [24] having worked with the James Randi Educational Foundation for many years to investigate and debunk fake psychics. [25] He is clear with the public that the effects and experiences he creates through his stage performance are the result of his highly developed performance skills and magic techniques, combined with psychological principles and tactics. [24] [26]

Max Maven often presents his performances as creating interactive mysteries and explorations of the mysterious dimensions of the human mind. [27] He is described as a "mentalist and master magician" [28] as well as a "mystery theorist." [29] Other mentalists and allied performers also promote themselves as "mystery entertainers". [30]

There are mentalists, including Maurice Fogel, Kreskin, Chan Canasta, and David Berglas, who make no specific claims about how effects are achieved and may leave it up to the audience to decide, creating what has been described as "a wonderful sense of ambiguity about whether they possess true psychic ability or not." [31]

Contemporary mentalists often take their shows onto the streets and perform tricks to a live, unsuspecting audience. They do this by approaching random members of the public and ask to demonstrate so-called supernatural powers. However, some performers such as Derren Brown who often adopt this method of performance tell their audience before the trick starts that everything they see is an illusion and that they are not really "having their mind read." This has been the cause of a lot of controversy in the sphere of magic as some mentalists want their audience to believe that this type of magic is "real" while others think that it is morally wrong to lie to a spectator. [32]

Distinction from magicians

Professional mentalists generally do not mix "standard" magic tricks with their mental feats. Doing so associates mentalism too closely with the theatrical trickery employed by stage magicians. Many mentalists claim not to be magicians at all, arguing that it is a different art form altogether. [6] [5] The argument is that mentalism invokes belief and imagination that, when presented properly, may allow the audience to interpret a given effect as "real" or may at least provide enough ambiguity that it is unclear whether it is actually possible to somehow achieve. [33] [2] This lack of certainty about the limits of what is real may lead individuals in an audience to reach different conclusions and beliefs about mentalist performers' claims – be they about their various so-called psychic abilities, photographic memory, being a "human calculator", power of suggestion, NLP, or other skills. In this way, mentalism may play on the senses and a spectator's perception or understanding of reality in a different way than conjuring techniques utilized in stage magic. [34] [2]

Magicians often ask the audience to suspend their disbelief, ignore natural laws, and allow their imagination to play with the various tricks they present. They admit that they are tricksters from the outset, and they know that the audience understands that everything is an illusion. [35] [2] Everyone knows that the magician cannot really achieve the impossible feats shown, such as sawing a person in half and putting them back together without injury, but that level of certainty does not generally exist among the mentalist's audience. Still, other mentalists believe it is unethical to portray their powers as real, adopting the same presentation philosophy as most magicians. These mentalists are honest about their deceptions, with some referring to this as "theatrical mentalism". [36]

However, some magicians do still mix mentally-themed performance with magic illusions. For example, a mind-reading stunt might also involve the magical transposition of two different objects. Such hybrid feats of magic are often called mental magic by performers. Magicians who routinely mix magic with mental magic include David Copperfield, David Blaine, The Amazing Kreskin, and Dynamo.[ citation needed ]

Notable mentalists

Historical figures

Mentalism techniques have, on occasion, been allegedly used outside the entertainment industry to influence the actions of prominent people for personal and/or political gain. Famous examples of accused practitioners include:

In Albert Einstein's preface to Upton Sinclair's 1930 book on telepathy, Mental Radio , he supported his friend's endeavor to test the abilities of purported psychics and skeptically suggested: "So if somehow the facts here set forth rest not upon telepathy, but upon some unconscious hypnotic influence from person to person, this also would be of high psychological interest." [40] As such, Einstein here alluded to techniques of modern mentalism.

See also

Related Research Articles

Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. during a line of questioning. Cold readings commonly employ high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, then emphasizing and reinforcing chance connections and quickly moving on from missed guesses. Psychologists believe that this appears to work because of the Barnum effect and due to confirmation biases within people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uri Geller</span> Israeli-British illusionist and self-proclaimed psychic (born 1946)

Uri Geller is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other illusions. Geller uses conjuring tricks to simulate the effects of psychokinesis and telepathy. Geller's career as an entertainer has spanned more than four decades, with television shows and appearances in many countries. Magicians have called Geller a fraud because of his claims of possessing psychic powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derren Brown</span> British illusionist (born 1971)

Derren Brown is an English entertainer, mentalist, illusionist, and writer. Brown began performing in 1992, making his television debut with Mind Control (2000). He has since starred in several more shows for stage and television, including Something Wicked This Way Comes (2006) and Svengali (2012) which won him two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment, as well as The Experiments (2011) which won him a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Programme at the 2012 awards. Brown made his Broadway debut with his 2019 stage show Secret. He has also written books for both magicians and the general public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Maven</span> American magician and mentalist (1950–2022)

Max Maven was an American magician and mentalist whose performances were considered erudite and intelligent. He is ranked as one of the most influential mentalists of all time, and one of the 100 "Most Influential Magicians of the 20th Century" by Magic Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billet reading</span> Mentalist envelope trick

Billet reading, or the envelope trick, is a mentalist effect in which a performer pretends to use clairvoyance to read messages on folded papers or inside sealed envelopes. It is a widely performed "standard" of the mentalist craft since the middle of the 19th century. Billet is the French term for note or letter, referring to the rectangular shape of the paper.

<i>Thirteen Steps to Mentalism</i>

Thirteen Steps to Mentalism is a book on mentalism by Tony Corinda. It was originally published as thirteen smaller booklets as a course in mentalism and was later republished as a book in 1961. The book is now considered by most magicians to be a classical text on mentalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul W. Draper</span> American book editor, stage magician, author

Paul Draper is an anthropologist, academic, and an award-winning mentalist, magician, and film maker. As an anthropologist and communications expert specializing in the cognitive science of religious beliefs, he has lectured at Fortune 500 companies and universities. As the creator of the show Mental Mysteries, Draper blends his academic background as an anthropologist and communications expert with the arts of mentalism and magic. Draper performed live streaming shows during the COVID-19 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscle reading</span> Technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject

Muscle reading, also known as "Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. The performer can determine many things about the mental state of a subject by observing subtle, involuntary responses to speech or any other stimuli. It is closely related to the ideomotor effect, whereby subtle movements made without conscious awareness reflect a physical movement, action or direction which the subject is thinking about. The term "muscle reading" was coined in the 1870s by American neurologist George M. Beard to describe the actions of mentalist J. Randall Brown, an early proponent of the art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Dunninger</span> American mentalist and magician (1892–1975)

Joseph Dunninger, known as "The Amazing Dunninger", was one of the most famous and proficient mentalists of all time. He was one of the pioneer performers of magic on radio and television. A debunker of fraudulent mediums, Dunninger claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander (magician)</span> American spiritual author and magician

Claude Alexander Conlin, also known as Alexander, C. Alexander, Alexander the Crystal Seer, and Alexander the Man Who Knows, was an American spiritual author, vaudeville magician who specialized in mentalism and psychic reading acts, dressed in Oriental style robes and a feathered turban, and often used a crystal ball as a prop. In addition to performing, he also worked privately for clients, giving readings. He was the author of several pitch books, New Thought pamphlets, and psychology books, as well as texts for stage performers. His stage name was "Alexander," and as an author he wrote under the name "C. Alexander."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Jermay</span> British magician and mentalist

Luke Jermay is a British magician, mentalist, and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Berglas</span> British magician and mentalist (1926–2023)

David Berglas was a German-born British magician and mentalist. His secret technique of locating a particular card within a pack has been described as the Holy Grail of card magic. He was one of the first magicians to appear on UK television.

<i>Conjuring</i> (book) Illustrated book by James Randi

Conjuring is an illustrated book about conjuring, or magic, by James "The Amazing" Randi, who himself was a magician and escape artist. Drawing on his extensive knowledge and experience in the field, Randi offers a series of brief biographies of a variety of noteworthy magicians and their unique styles, including Harry Houdini, Chung Ling Soo, Harry Blackstone Sr., Harry Blackstone Jr., Howard Thurston, and many others. He also provides an overview of several genres of magic such as stage magic, escapology, and mentalism, and of specific tricks such as the bullet catch. Reviews of the book were mainly positive.

Axel Hellstrom was a German muscle reader, mentalist and stage magician. He redefined the art of muscle reading to such an extent that this technique, also known as "contact mind reading" and "Cumberlandism", is now best known by the name "Hellstromism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banachek</span> English mentalist, magician, and thought reader (born 1960)

Banachek is an English mentalist, magician, and "thought reader".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magic (illusion)</span> Performing art involving the use of illusion

Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close-up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Edward</span> American mentalist, magician, author and skeptic (born 1951)

Mark Edward is an American mentalist and author. He has written books on mentalism, séance theory and production, including Psychic Blues published in 2009, where he discusses working for the Psychic Friends Network. Wilson has appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer in such diverse programming as ABC's "The Con", A & E's Biography: "Houdini, the Great Escape", NBC's "The Other Side" and "Psychic Secrets Revealed", The Sci-Fi Channel's "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles", The Discovery Channel's "Forces Beyond", and on two episodes of The Learning Channel's "Exploring the Unknown". His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode of Showtime's "Penn & Teller's Bullshit!" series entitled "Speaking with the Dead" helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002. He is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guy Bavli</span> Israeli mentalist and illusionist (1971–)

Guy Bavli is an Israeli mentalist, illusionist, actor and lecturer. He is known for being the first Israeli citizen to win an international magic competition in the United States. He owns the entertainment company "Master of the Mind", based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Webster (New Zealand author)</span>

Richard Webster is an author, ghostwriter, mentalist, hypnotist and magician.

<i>An Honest Liar</i> 2014 American film

An Honest Liar is a 2014 biographical feature film documentary, directed and produced by Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom, written by Weinstein, Greg O'Toole and Measom, produced through Left Turn Films, Pure Mutt Productions and Part2 Filmworks, and distributed by Abramorama. The film documents the life of former magician, escape artist, and skeptical educator James Randi, in particular the investigations through which he publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists. The film also focuses on Randi's relationship with his partner of 25 years, José Alvarez, who at the time of filming, had been discovered to be living under a false identity, calling into question "whether Randi was the deceiver or the deceived."

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