Mentalism & stuff...

[Ady01]

Hello theory11 comunity,

Recently i started to train myself in the mentalism part of magic and i'm kinda stuck.
I found some good stuff like the "This is Mentalism" DVD series by Rich Ferguson and other little stuff here and there, but i also encounter lots of other kind of mentalism like guessing people's birthdays and things like this.

The point of this thread is: I would like you guys to give me some names of good mentalism tricks/DVDs.
I would also like you guys to give me some names of good methods of forcing words/numbers/objects/anything, but please don't point me to obvious things like "Think of a number, now substract the oposite of it, now add it to something, now substract again and you get 1089. This is a totally random number!".

Thank you very much for your help !

[RealityOne]

There is a difference between mental magic and mentalism. Mental magic is magic with a mentalism based presentation - mind reading a forced card, B. Smith's Frequency using a dual attention patter, etc. Mentalism is the exploration of the powers of the mind (or as is more recently in vogue the powers of pseudo-science like NLP or reading body movements). So there are not "mentalism tricks" -- that would be mental magic.

As to your question of getting a number of ways to force "anything" -- it really depends on why you want to force it. If it is to just force something so you can guess it -- check out Mark Wilson's Complete Course for the magician's force. Anything else depends on the routine. In real mentalism, there are no sure fire forces, rather you have a good percentage chance with a number of "outs."

If you are looking for more mental magic, check out This is Mentalism 2 and Boondock Mental. Mark Wilson's book has some great stuff -- I often use the Tic Tac Toe effect for children's shows.

If you are looking into mentalism, you will need to get books. Start with Anneman's Practical Mental Magic or Fulves' Self Working Mental Magic. Then on to 13 Steps. Then check back because those three should take you a year to master.

Also, check out Alex's (Steerpike) blog HERE and Craig Browning's e-Book HERE.

[Craig Browning]

Leave the DVDs alone and actually learn the basics. So as to get a rounded overview you might want to look at this FREE PDF and from there, pick-up the primary foundation tools; 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda and Annemann's Practical Mental Magic.

UNDERSTAND that Mentalism is a kindred art form to magic and not one in the same and that 90% of what you see people doing now days under the header of being "Mentalism" AIN'T! It's either mislabeled Bizarre Magick or what we call Mental Magic; routines that are obviously tricks even to the mind of the laity. Mental Magic is far more commercial because it is seen as "safe" simply because it looks like a TRICK whereas Mentalism, when executed properly, leaves the observer with no sense of logical explanation, even the trained mind can be seriously fooled when faced by a solid student of mentalism

There are two chief schools of thought within this arena as well; the Older (original) mode of approaching Mentalism leaned heavily on the esoteric with many acts being billed as demonstrations in Telepathy or Clairvoyance, etc. By the mid-20th Century the antics of Joseph Dunninger took route giving us the first phase of Modern Mentalism which gave us a more analytical sense of perspective. Though this had existed for a great number of years, it would be Dunninger that would take the idea into the modern era followed by Kreskin who seriously commercialized the approach under the guise of being a Paranormal Researcher.

With the advent of David Blaine & Criss Angel in the mid-1990's Mentalism was quickly bastardized so as to include a huge amount of Bizarre Magick that was mis-labeled as such -- Stigmata being a prime example -- but then the real insult is when young people refer to David Copperfield as being one of the greatest "Mentalists" in history . . . "sigh"

Shortly after Blaine & Angel hit the scene Derren Brown surfaced in the U.K. and added the jaded elitism that so common of the Brits when it comes to supposed intellectual superiority and the imposition of "rationalism". While Brown was the first to slap the believer in the face and in essence mock them via his demonstrations, he was certainly the new example of such; Penn & Teller (Penn specifically) being the poster kids of this style of abuse and public insult or as some of us look at it, the Evangelists of Atheism. The promotion of an attitude and approach that is costing the whole of magic presently, when it comes to public trust and general public image. While you may not have a sense of personal spirituality you may want to look at the fact that you're the minority and it's kind of dumb to piss in the pool in such a case.

This "New School" of Mentalism sacrifices many of the proven tools that have been used within the industry for decades, such as Home PSI Parties, working Lectures & Workshops, and most especially the act of doing Readings. Quite boldly people in this mode of thought have stated that their agenda is to do away with the more esoteric ties the craft has known over the past 130 ish it's been around. Which means they wish to neuter the art and make it nothing more than magic tricks; a for certain opposite from where Mentalism has been for a very long time, the chief psychological dynamic of Mentalism being to invoke belief vs. suspension of belief such as we find in traditional magic.

BTW. . . I'm one of the few characters in today's Mentalism world that will give you this better rounded sense of perspective. Not because I'm the only one that sees things in said manner but because I'm one of the few that's willing to be the paddle boy, the others having grown sick & tired of the constant harassment and arguments offered by those that simply don't get it.

[eostresh]

I'd start with Annemann
http://www.lybrary.com/practical-men...ects-p-94.html
http://www.lybrary.com/202-methods-of-forcing-p-96.html

Then Check out Cassidy
http://www.lybrary.com/fundamentals-p-562.html

If you are up for some real devious tricks check out Peter Turner's stuff
http://www.lybrary.com/snap-a-treati...-p-129810.html

[Ady01]

Thank you so far for your responses. Now i understand the difference between mentalism and mental magic and i can say that mental magic is what i really wanna know. I'm just 17 years old and i have to finish school and stuff before i can learn something like true mentalism ( as it seems from the description above ) so i just want some "mental magic" tricks. You know.. different applications for the one ahead principle and other stuff like this.

As far as "forcing anything" goes, I want to force anything in order to guess it for a mental magic trick. I want some clever ways to force words from books or other written material laying around. Again, i don't want something like "Think of a number, now multiply it by 2, add 10, divide by 2, substract your initial number and you're left with 5".

[goatears]

Jay Sankey's Hemispheres is a great DVD on Mental Magic. I highly recommend it, in my opinion one of Sankeys best DVDs

[_maximus]

I'd just like to second RealityOne's recommendations. I dip in and out of mentalism and my go to books are Corrinda's 13 Steps to Mentalism, and Anneman's Practical Mental Magic. Richard Osterlind has also made a DVD of 13 Steps, but it's pricey!

You'd also do well to develop a sense of humour so that, in the event of a public discussion resulting in everyone with whom you share a nationality being branded commonly jaded and elitist for a projected presumption of intellectual superiority, you can appreciate the irony of that statement and dismiss it quite legitimately as blatant nonsense; a hopeless manifestation of latent xenophobia informed by a pernicious discontent.

[goatears]

You'd also do well to develop a sense of humour so that, in the event of a public discussion resulting in everyone with whom you share a nationality being branded commonly jaded and elitist for a projected presumption of intellectual superiority, you can appreciate the irony of that statement and dismiss it quite legitimately as blatant nonsense; a hopeless manifestation of latent xenophobia informed by a pernicious discontent.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahaha! I love this post!

[RealityOne]

As far as "forcing anything" goes, I want to force anything in order to guess it for a mental magic trick. I want some clever ways to force words from books or other written material laying around. Again, i don't want something like "Think of a number, now multiply it by 2, add 10, divide by 2, substract your initial number and you're left with 5".

Check out Rich Ferguson's Tagged - it has a lot of good methods even if you don't make the word appear on the spectator's arm. Also, check out Nate Kranzo's Diction - it isn't a force, but you know the word or sentence on the selected page (I saw Nate perform this with two books, the dictionary and a book called Whoogles).

[joelmawhinney]

I would check out some of Richard Osterlind's stuff and Banachek's if you are really serious about moving forward in mentalism