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Hi gang,

As you may have read in some of my other posts I have started getting into the mentalist side of magic, I allready have the Mind2Mind DVD by Marc Paul, Mind Magic by Marc Lemezma, and 13 Steps to Mentalism by Corinda will be delivered tomorrow. I am wanting to know of which material, (books or DVD's) that are concidered essential reading or watching. I tried an effect from the Marc Paul DVD where I write a prediction based on the specky guessing which of my hands a coin is in when I put them behind my back and swap it around, this is done 3 times and at the end I pull out my wallet and show them only 1 piece of paper in there with the prediction, stating the number of times they got it right, and which coin they choose, and the date of the coin. This was a very strong effect when I did it, and therfore an area I wish to develop further.

I have heard of the "mentalists' handbook" is it any good? is that the real title? and where is it sold?

Any advice that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Leighton

Mind, Myth and Magick by T.A. Waters is an expensive, but excellent book which is well worth getting. 800 pages and some really impressive effects in there.
It covers practically everything.
Also, check out the book 'Sleight of Mind'. www.sleightofmind.info
This has some NLP based stuff and basic hypnosis/suggestion in it and is well worth reading.

I've got Banachek's Psi Series DVDs (darned expensive, but well worth it) and they are great. He has put a lot of material on there, and the large majority of it is very powerful, especially the metal bending. He has several techniques for it on the third DVD (I think), some of which include the metal bending in the spectator's hands.

Another standard is Annemann's Practical Mental Magic.

Have you read over the sticky about becoming a Mentalist?

Other than that visit the Bob Cassidy web site and read what he calls the "39 Steps to Mentalism" along with ALL of his materials. From there you should be equiped enough to decide what direction you want to take things; the abilities your character will have, the venues you can work (notice I said "can work" not "wish to work") and begin cultivation from there forward... my strongest suggestion being to study the most everything from Banachek (especially the Psychological Subtlties series and his DVD collection "PSI Series")

The last thing I'll piont you towards is going to be A.) Billet Work via both the Millard Longman DVD on ACIDUS NOVUS as well as the new Allen Zinng MASTER BILLET COURSE. B.) refers to the art of being a Reader of people... I'm not talking about Cold Reading, profiling or any of that c*** (not the best) but actual COMMUNICATION techniques that will aid you in the psychological work you need to use in cultivating solid mentalism and too, as someone who can effectively and efficiently size up a total stranger within 60 - 90 seconds and more or less tell them their life's story. Though this is a life-long course of study, it will prove to be your most valuable and practical "skill"

In the old days they said you needed to know a code/mnemonic system which is not easy for many of us, not to blow my own horn but the formula my EASY READING course offers can be applied in multiple ways across the board in creating the kind of mnemonic that's tailored to you and how your brain works vs. all this associative stuff the other courses talk about and the use of abstracts.

Plan on investing most of the next five years into actually developing the skills and knowledge base needed for becoming a solid mentalists vs. being another packet trick wannabe.

hairyfreak wrote:I've got Banachek's Psi Series DVDs (darned expensive, but well worth it) and they are great. He has put a lot of material on there, and the large majority of it is very powerful, especially the metal bending. He has several techniques for it on the third DVD (I think), some of which include the metal bending in the spectator's hands.

The metal bending is volume 4. Volume 3 is psychological thought reading. I think the best ones are the last two but the first two are to get you started in mentalism

As far as Metal Bending is concerned you'll want Steve's PSYCKINETIC SILVERWARE video for the good stuff but, I really don't recommend focusing on that until you know the basics around mentalism or else you will more than likely find yourself seriously embarassed.

Thank you all very much for the great responses (but you knew I would say that ) There certainly is a lot of stuff for me to look into now, and that is exactly what I wanted plus Corinda got delivered this morning.

Craig Browning wrote:Have you read over the sticky about becoming a Mentalist?

I have not been able to find that yet, so I will keep looking for that thread and try the search function again.

Craig Browning wrote:Other than that visit the Bob Cassidy web site and read what he calls the "39 Steps to Mentalism" along with ALL of his materials. From there you should be equiped enough to decide what direction you want to take things; the abilities your character will have, the venues you can work (notice I said "can work" not "wish to work") and begin cultivation from there forward... my strongest suggestion being to study the most everything from Banachek (especially the Psychological Subtlties series and his DVD collection "PSI Series")

I will google for Bob Cassidy and trawl throught his site, also Banachek's products might get some of my money next month.

Craig Browning wrote:The last thing I'll piont you towards is going to be A.) Billet Work via both the Millard Longman DVD on ACIDUS NOVUS as well as the new Allen Zinng MASTER BILLET COURSE. B.) refers to the art of being a Reader of people... I'm not talking about Cold Reading, profiling or any of that c*** (not the best) but actual COMMUNICATION techniques that will aid you in the psychological work you need to use in cultivating solid mentalism and too, as someone who can effectively and efficiently size up a total stranger within 60 - 90 seconds and more or less tell them their life's story. Though this is a life-long course of study, it will prove to be your most valuable and practical "skill"

In the old days they said you needed to know a code/mnemonic system which is not easy for many of us, not to blow my own horn but the formula my EASY READING course offers can be applied in multiple ways across the board in creating the kind of mnemonic that's tailored to you and how your brain works vs. all this associative stuff the other courses talk about and the use of abstracts.

This is very helpfull and I will give all sugestions my full attention, after I read through Corinda's book a few times. Is your course on "Easy Reading! redily available from good magic suppliers?

Craig Browning wrote:Plan on investing most of the next five years into actually developing the skills and knowledge base needed for becoming a solid mentalists vs. being another packet trick wannabe.

Time is someting I am not short of at the moment, I have just aquired a whole load of free time, so 5 years seems a fair price. I can allready do packet tricks (but so can any wannabe), but nothing could be compared to the reactions I got when I was able to guess the exact amount of loose change a friend had in his pocket. I wrote the prediction on a little pad before he got the money out of his pocket

I prefere to drag an effect out with play acting and story telling, it has realy helped to build the suspence of even the simpelist of tricks. The point being I do not wish to be a wannabe.

Metal bending is somthing I have been asked to do for people, but untill now I have steered clear from that, I ordered Autobend Silverware last week (after being seduced by the Abraxus review), I am not sure what to expect when it arrives.

leighton wrote:I have not been able to find that yet, so I will keep looking for that thread and try the search function again.

Just in case you can't fin it, it's a sticky in the support and tips section. Or you can click on this link which will take straight to it! http://talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic11429.php

Thank you Mahoney,

That sticky is answering a whole heap of questions that I have asked and might have asked! A huge thank you to Craig for compiling such a great resourse.

I am off to read read read