Mentalist

Mentalist, noun. Someone who uses mental acuity, hypnosis and/or suggestion. A master manipulator of thoughts and behavior.

If you have been watching the tv show “The Mentalist” then you will be familiar with this description of a mentalist, but this doesn’t give a very clear picture of what a mentalist is, what a mentalist does, or how he does it.

A mentalist is traditionally a person involved in a branch of magic called mentalism, which concentrates on mysticism, psychic abilities, mind reading, and the supernatural.

Mentalism usually involves displays of apparently paranormal abilities, which may involve communicating with the dead, making predictions of the future, or, in modern mentalism the ability to influence people to exhibit certain behaviour with the use of suggestion or instant / conversational hypnosis.

Modern mentalists like Derren Brown appear to use NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), Hypnosis, Suggestion, and other psychological techniques in order to manipulate their subjects actions, and to use body language, eye accessing cues, and other techniques to read their minds.

Whilst their are some incredibly clever techniques (that we’ll be covering on this website) to manipulate how people act, and to uncover what they are thinking, much of a typical mentalists performance is nothing more than traditional conjouring techniques cleverly wrapped up, and presented as, psychological manipulation.

This website will explore both sides of the mentalist, giving you an insight into the trickery employed by some mentalists, but will concentrate more heavily on the psychology, NLP, persuasion techniques, body language, cold reading, and hypnosis techniques that most people find especially interesting.

We will reveal where you can find the most comprehensive information covering each topic, and how you can acquire the same skills yourself.

You will find that the ability to influence people through conversation and suggestion, to read body language, and to understand the psychology of how people behave is an extremely useful skill to possess.