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The Book
”Sleight of Mind – Suggestion and Mind Control: The Mentalist’s Toolkit”
2nd Edition (2005)
Ian Harding and Martin Nyrup
ISBN 87-990481-0-8

Cost
£34.95 (www.magicshop.co.uk)

Difficulty
This book is not an easy short cut for the teenage mind control wannabe. Rather, it is a training manual for the serious student of mentalism.

Review
If you’ve ever wondered why some patter goes down better, why you seem to get more cooperation out of some spectators, and why you get more astonishment out of some audiences, you might be interested in this book. It forms a concise guide to the principles underlying neuro-linguistic programming as it applies to Mentalism.

Opening my copy, and I bought this book rather than simply asking the publisher for a review copy, I found two scribbled signatures, both in blue but decidedly different biro ink. Could this be a signed copy? If either author is reading this, I’d be interested to know.

The book starts with the basics, such as gaining rapport and reading how a person thinks about reality. It moves on to discuss how to read the signals a subject might give you unconsciously that indicate various emotional states.

It then moves on to a tutorial on how to create and fire anchors (creating and pushing buttons). A great example here is how to anchor the amazement at the first effect and use it to augment the amazement felt at the second, and so on. Anchors really are amazing things, and the book references people like Brown and Banachek as users.

Making a subject feel relaxed quickly not only makes them respond better to an effect but makes them more open to suggestion, and so a discussion about chakras and relaxation points follows. This is not something you find in many books on mentalism and is a testament to this title’s depth of knowledge.

But then we’re into the main course: suggestions, and how to implant them. Here laid out are various ingenious techniques for imparting thoughts to a willing subject along with sections on hypnotic induction, the handling of subjects and advanced methods of presenting suggestions.

Finally, there’s a short section on NLP in real life, and even a final warning: Even those skilled in such subtleties are susceptible.

Overall
There's a lot of hype surrounding NLP at the moment, but seeing it done peoperly is astonishing. You must read this book all the way through and understand it to get the most from it, but if you do, you could create supernatural powers, start an old-style religion, a cult or even an evil empire. You could certainly create a better mentalism act!

Those learning to use NLP in their acts will find both instructions and working examples. Already knowing the techniques involved, I was interested in the uses this book has found for them. Considering some NLP courses charge £100s for information not even directly applicable to Mentalism, £34.99 sounds like a reasonable price to me.

Believe me, you’ll never watch a commercial break in the same way again after reading this book…

This is a great book i've read through it twice now and though I'm not really a mentalist I do try and use a bit of suggestion when it comes to cards rather than just force the things all the time. There are some very good theories and a couple of good effects thrown in as well. In short well worth a read

i've got some question:
is ths book suitable for beginners in metalism?
does the book teach any tricks ?

nikyas wrote:i've got some question:
is ths book suitable for beginners in metalism?
does the book teach any tricks ?

Yes and no!

It's really about how to use aspects of NLP and hypnosis. I'd say that it depends on your definition of beginner, but it's basically an explanation of how to use suggestion. It doesn't realy go into what you might use that skill for.

...tomo, ive read the bandler books on Milton (1&2), training trances and a couple of others...and Trance this by Kenton Knepper...

..is it still worth a purchase?

Yeah, definitely. It's NLP and hypnosis as applied directly to mentalism rather than in a more general sense.

Great review and looks wonderful Tomo! I have been reading straight NLP books, so this one looks a great find indeed.

Cheers!

According to a flyer I got from trickshop.com, Harding and Nyrup have a new volume on developing a convinvcing performance for cold reading called "Tradecraft".

I've had this for a couple of days now...its superb...very nicely broken down...

I've just ordered Geist...

you can find a review of Tradecraft here: http://www.magicweek.co.uk/magic_review ... eading.htm

and buy it from here:
http://www.trickshop.com/main.html

Ah! You've just reminded me about the other thread where I got Geist and Tradecraft mixed up! I'll go and correct myself

Tomo wrote:The Book
Opening my copy, and I bought this book rather than simply asking the publisher for a review copy, I found two scribbled signatures, both in blue but decidedly different biro ink. Could this be a signed copy? If either author is reading this, I’d be interested to know.

After reading this review, and other info I've found on the T'interweb, I went out (or rather sat in my compfy computer chair) and bought both this book and 'Geist'. I was more than pleasantly suprised to find that both have the same signatures scribbled in the front. In 'Slight of Mind' they are both in blue in (albeit different blues) and in 'Geist' one is in black and the other in blue.

I tried to share my delight with friends and family but nobody seems to care much. I'll show them........I'll show them all!!!!

On a related subject I'm off to see Derren Brown tonight. Any tips on how to get my copy of 'Absolute Magic' signed???

Strep wrote:On a related subject I'm off to see Derren Brown tonight. Any tips on how to get my copy of 'Absolute Magic' signed???

Become a "stage door johnie?" He seems to be quite happy to chat and sign after gigs.

Very nice review. Mentalism just seems so difficult though! On the note of DB, damn you! I wanted to go but I have Uni exams for the next two weeks. So I probably won't be on here much (Heehee...depends whether I get my cups from Siege [did you get my PM btw?]). Have fun with DB. Do tell if he is as cool as I imagine, his memory techniques from the Tricks of the Mind are paying dividends in my learning of amino acids!

I read this book. I pondred over it . I took all the words and decided I didnt get it. I tohught to myself hmm hokum. What a waste of £35 , of I went to lock some ones hads...and failed. Hmm I thought scratching my head.

So of I went and seeked out info on this type of thing mainly Ormond McGills book. And then it Made sense. To echo the other post this is not and I mean not going to make you a master of suggestion by its self you need to study other things. This will give you a good idea but its not stand alone. Firstly seek out some hypnosis books then work your way up to this.

Thanks for the review guys, i was really interested in this, but i think its above my current skill level at the moment. I'll definatly come back to this later