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Suggestion psychology of the kind Luke Jermay specialises in is a useful and very open subject that applies to every form of magic, in fact you're using it at a basic level every time you employ misdirection.

(from the Derren Brown Seance thread by Quicksand Kerry Devile)
I like that. I've been thinking along those lines for a while. I would really like to use some of the more psychological 'subtelties' in my magic without necesarilly calling myself a mentalist. These are the books on my 'to get' list to assist in that:


Psychological subtelties - Banachek
Building Blocks - Luke Jermay
Pure effect - Derren Brown
Leading with your head - Gary Kurtz

As well as some non-magic books that I think will help in that area:

Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life - Paul Ekman

Book of Tells - Peter Collett (body language)

The Psychology of Persuasion - Kevin Hogan

Making Thoughts Visible: The New Psychology of Body Language - Geoffrey Beattie

Everyday Mind Reading: Understanding What Other People Think and Feel
William John Ickes (psychology of intuition and empathy)

I have a limited budget at the moment so it woill be a few months before I've read all these books - but I'll review them as i go along (those that haven't been reviewed already)
Is there anything else that you would recommend for reading along these lines?

Great stuff. I think it was about time I start some of this stuff, psychological and mentalist effects without being a mentalist. I think mental magic is what blows people away, freaks them and leaves a lasting impression on the spectators mind. Taneous to me that list looks like a good list of books to read, I'd go for it. Good luck on this path!

Have you read Absolute Magic by DB?

In it he covers his performance style and a whole load of other useful stuff and I think you would find it useful in your quest!!

Good luck and I look forward to the reviews.

I feel that I would like to move into mentalism, but have decided to leave it for a few years as far as really performing it or putting it into my occasional paid act. At the moment it seem that, due to the large amount of exposure that mentalism is getting, everyone is jumping on the bandwagon.

I know that most people only ever see a couple of magicians, and as far as closeup and parties and suchlike are concerned there are far more magicians than mentalists but I feel guiltily sheep like whenever I see someone do mentalism and think "ooh, I should do that"

Can i add another book to that list. i reviewd it ages ago here..

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic2674.php

"Monsters And magical Sticks-Theres no such thing as hypnosis"

Its about NLP, hypnosis and the such and really gets you thinking about the way people interact with other people and the way people react to objects. If youv e read about anchors in the Pure Effect youll be amased how many anchors you have yourself without realising and how they can be utilized. Derren only touched the tip of the iceberg. Im on my second read and its more fascinating and thought provoking as the first time i read it.!

please someone buy this for a hard done by bussiness man waiting for his first booking to come in and a broken exhaust to fix i can pay by the instalment plan please please please.

Taneous (and esteemed colleagues),

I completely agree with the books and comments made above. I REALLY love these types of presentations and methodologies and have incoporated some of these into my performance work. These presentational "angles" fit my educational background and performance style. I have released these in several ebooks, pardon my audacity to post these here, but it seems appropos.

They have been reviewed at other magicians forum extensively and at online-visions.com. One is a compilation of routines, the other is a routine based on the work of Ekman.

http://www.watersmindworks.com/book_releases.html



With Regards,

Sean

Though considerably out of date there is an encyclopedia of how Psychology is exploited by magicians by SHARPE (check Hades Publishing in Canada) that still offers a few worthy nuggets of thought.

The FACS materials offered by Ekman & Company is priceless but will require a good year + of your life in dedicated focus, to really appreciate. If you are that dedicated you may want to dig into Forensic Psychology and it's cousin "Criminal Psychology/Profiling"

Of course long before now there were those yesteryear masters sharing within the inner-circles of the craft the same things now given "new life"... amazing how what was old and forgotten seems to seep up from the ashes every few generations, looking new and pristine, don't you think?

Don't pass up Kenton Knepper, the master himself! I have these three books of his and can't praise them enough:
Kentonism
Twists and Trances
Miracles of Suggestion

You MUST also get his Wonder Words CDs. They're horribly expensive, but there's years of learning in there. I managed to pick up a second-hand set for about half price (which was still more than I could afford, but never mind).

Luke Jermay is virtually a disciple of Kenton Knepper, and his 7 Deceptions is very very good. I haven't managed to get hold of Building Blocks yet, but it's on my wish list.

I'm also looking hard at Kenton's:
Mystery by Association
Secrets of Indiscretion
Q
X

Apart from that, look for books dealing with:
perception and cognition
body language, interpreting emotion
hypnosis (modern works only, say from the 1970s onwards)
the subconscious mind and subliminal communication
Check your public library for this sort of thing. At least you can have a read of them before deciding whether you want to pay for a copy of your own.

I'm personally not much taken by NLP, but there are those who swear by it.

Derren Brown's Pure Effect is extremely worth reading, but not so practically useful as the above.

Robbie wrote:You MUST also get his Wonder Words CDs. They're horribly expensive, but there's years of learning in there. I managed to pick up a second-hand set for about half price (which was still more than I could afford, but never mind).

They are going (or possibly have gone) out of 'print', or so I understand. Get 'em while you can!

I'm also looking hard at Kenton's:
Mystery by Association
Secrets of Indiscretion
Q
X

Indirection!

The first three are excellent. 'X' has some really nice ideas, but it's not as strong as the other three, in my opinion. In fact, I'd suggest you get them pretty much in the order you've listed, Robbie.

I don't think Q or X would be as applicable to this thinking as INDIRECTION and Mystery by Association (both, being favorites of mine). Q is an interesting premise but more a utility thing than psychological ploy. It's a brilliant principle that fortunately hasn't been over popularized... then again, there are many who avoid Kenton's materials for various reasons, the biggest being the "if" factor followed closely by the sense of paying too much for the rewording of what's already been said; I can understand the cold feet this causes and at the same time, I'm glad it exists in that it means fewer folks are learning about and applying these marvelous, subtle bits of psychological nuance.

Absolute Magic by DB is must read to understand this