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I got into magic a few months ago (as i have probably stated about 20 times but anyway) but have been doing card tricks mainly. I am now interested in trying mentalism but don't have a clue where to start, I normally buy books so any advice on good books for beginning mentalism would be appreciated, Thanks in advance.

Probably one of the best books would be 13 Steps to mentalism as a lot of the stuff in there is used by the big names in mentalism and magic today. For a review and other info check out http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic2054.p ... =mentalism

I'd start by asking why you want to do mentalism. Is it because you think you can get strong reactions without lots of work, because it's trendy, because you really think it would suit your style, or something else? You've only been doing magic for a matter of months, so how do you know?

Mandrake's suggested a very good starting point, if you really do think it's the best way forward for your magic.

presumably you already do predictive card tricks, ( is this your card?!!), so before investing in books etc, why not see if you can taylor your present reptoir towards a mental presentation

Well as much trying lots of different types of magic as anything else. I know this is the stupid way to go and im probably trying to go to quick but at least when I slow down Ill have a lot of books to work from, I suppose its better then spending lots of money on tricks. Also it will be useful to add some mentalism to my repoitoire. I think the 13 steps of mentalism ill probably end up getting and then ill have RRTCM, BMCM and this which should give me a pretty could outlook on cards, coins and mentalism.

If RRTCM and BoBo's don't bore you to death as they did me

I started out with Royal Road and ETMCM and enjoyed them for a while. When I was doing the close up stuff I could see in peoples minds that they knew it was just a trick. I then decided to have a look at Max Maven's set of DVDs and was immediately impressed. I then went on to get hold of Richard Osterlinds Mind Miracles set, 13 steps to Mentalism book (which is the bible IMO) and have been performing mentalism exclusively ever since.
I don't do anything else now and the audiences love it. I personally think that mentalism is probably the only form of magic left which leaves the audiences asking themselves whether or not what they have just seen is real!!
Don't forget though, Mentalism is all about the performance and the patter. These are the things that really pull off the routines!!

Good luck with it!!

i am totally new to magic. and very much interested in mentalism, but not for being a performer or learning the rest of magic. all i want to do is learn it so as to possibly understand what people are thinking (if thats really possible) or persuade people to say/do something i want them to.

i know its not a really the true essence of a magician, but it all sounds very useful

where am i best learning this?

where am i best learning this?

Not sure if it's the best but a good start is to read through the topics and postings on a forum such as this. There are lots of postings about mentalism and we can probably answer some questions and give tips where we feel we can help. We can't give out secrets so please don't ask for those, you'll have to buy that information and it's a worthwhile investment so be ready to shell out some cash! Learning magic can take a lifetime so there's no need to rush - just work on one or two effects at a time until you can do them well then add others to your routine. This skill will stay with you for a very long time so you need to acquire it right in the first place. If you have a magic club or society nearby, why not have a word with them and see what they offer?

By the way, a forum name instead of --------- etc would be a very useful item.

all i want to do is learn it so as to possibly understand what people are thinking (if thats really possible) or persuade people to say/do something i want them to.

I'd say you were in the wrong forum.

You will get more help from sales books and books on NLP rather than magic resources.

all i want to do is learn it so as to possibly understand what people are thinking (if thats really possible) or persuade people to say/do something i want them to.


I'd say you were in the wrong forum.

I agree. Whilst some mental magic uses suggestion, most of it doesn't really work like that.

If you want to try and control peoples minds learn hypnotism. If you want to make people 'think' you can control them, then mentalism is for you.

cheers for feedback.

thanks. as to the last comment, thanks... i kind of see knowledge as an asset and the more i have the better. you never know when you could have used it.

how on earth will you identify yourself if a bunch of forum members ever meet up?
"Hello, I am –––––––––––––––––– , --- for short.
But you can call me steve."

And when you leave in a hurry do you say, 'Sorry - must dash'?

suddenly the words " Line up" , sound dirty