MENTALISM

Mentalism is 'grown up' magic - don't try it at a children's party, and be careful how you put it over to people you know to be superstitious!

With mentalism, you can convince people that you are a mind reader, can project thoughts into their minds or can predict their actions and choices. This overlaps into Card Tricks as many of these involve 'prediction'. It also includes PK - psycho kenesis; the ability to move things by thought alone.

My own first venture into this field involved projecting thoughts into the minds of the audience.

PROJECTING NUMBERS. This uses a statistical quirk - that most people, when asked to name a single digit number (i.e.; 1 to 9) will pick 7. Most people, when asked to name a 2 digit odd number, with no 2 numbers the same (not 22 or 44), under 50, will pick 37. Most people, when asked to pick a 2 digit even number with no 2 numbers the same,  between 50 and 99, will pick 68.

Combine this with the fact that most people when asked to write down the first thing that comes into their head when you say; 'vegetable' will write 'Carrot' and most when you say 'an animal that lives in the jungle' will write 'Lion' (even though they don't live in the jungle!), and you have the basis of a convincing performance.

As always, the 'patter' makes the trick. Make sure you don't attempt it for an audience of less than 3 - one of them is bound to choose the average for each question, 'though it might not be the same one each time.

When asking them to write down a number, pause before you give them the final bit of information ... 'An odd, 2 digit number with no 2 numbers the same (pause) between (pause) 10 and 50.'

This tends to clear their minds of any number they were thinking of and allows the averaging to work.

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