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When people think of mentalism, they think of a mysterious performer reading someone’s mind and predicting the future. When you hear “magician,” you automatically picture a guy in a colorful outfit performing at a 4-year-old birthday party or a kid trying out his magic set on his parents. When people think of magic tricks, they think of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, making a silk change color, or your uncle’s mathematical card trick that he teaches you. While it is believed that magic tricks are explained by some sort of sleight of hand, in mentalism, it seems like the performer might be able to do it for real. Magic is for the eyes mentalism is for the mind. MENTALISM is a branch of MAGIC the only distinction between the two is the type of tricks performed. Fortunately for them, mentalism type tricks make it seem like they have mental or intuitive abilities, and skills beyond imagination. Many magicians get into “mentalism” because they are too lazy to practice. Mentalists that are skilled sleight of hand artists are hard to come by. The majority of mentalism doesn’t require much technique at all. THIS IS COMPLETE NONSENSE! At least for MOST mentalists. It is thought that mentalists possess advanced memory capabilities, use intuition, hypnosis, mind control, suggestion, and manipulate spectators through psychological subtleties. Most people believe that mentalists are experts at influence, misdirection, and reading body language. Mentalists consider what they do to be the “adult version” of magic. This has led to the creation of a separate branch of magic called mentalism. Kiddie magicians must perform visual magic for the kids to understand, they cannot perform any tricks that seem to “focus on the mind.” So all tricks of the “mind” are untainted by kid’s magicians.
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Since the tricks for young children don’t have to be foolers, and there is no distinction between kiddie and adult magicians, magic has gotten a bad reputation. Though this mindset is changing, many magicians still perform magic in a silly way for 3-year-olds. Unfortunately, magic is usually considered entertainment for kids.
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In our world of skepticism, people want to believe. I do not claim to have any psychic powers there are enough people who do that for me. So why are mentalists thought of with such high regard? Some mentalists are good, and some are magicians with little or no talent. Please know I say that with the utmost respect, I do magic and mentalism tricks for a living and love it. Mentalists are nothing more than magicians performing magic tricks. Is mentalism real? No! Not even a little bit. Practitioners appear to demonstrate telepathy, telekinesis, mind-reading, psychokinesis, communications with the dead, clairvoyance, displays of extraordinary powers, precognition, and ESP. Mentalism is a branch of magic performed by mentalists or, ‘psychic entertainers,’ where the artist focuses on the mind, and seems to possess highly developed mental or psychic abilities. Plus, you will learn some incredible mentalism you can perform yourself. Mentalism leads spectators to believe that the performer has heightened mental and intuitive abilities. Mentalism magic tricks have to be psychologically convincing to be effective. Mentalism magic tricks include telekinesis, mind-reading, predictions, feats of memory, rapid mathematics, metal bending, psychic vision, and ESP. Mentalism magic is the performance of magic tricks that focus on the mind. Though the two areas are perceived differently, mentalism is just a type of magic. Most people believe mentalism and magic are not the same. I have been performing mentalism magic for over 20 years.