An essay on creating mentalism, and thoughts on it

May 7, 2012
36
0
After some further thinking I've decided to edit this post and delete the essay, I'm just not comfortable posting it at this point in time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
To perform Mentalism one must exude confidence. I'm not trying to belittle you, but showing this lack of confidence when it comes to your CURRENT perspectives on the subject arguably reveals that you are uncertain as to what is what within this side of the craft, either due to a lack of experience or study or both.

Mentalism is a very unique side of magic with a handful of tangents -- spin-off elements that are related to it but not directly a part of it such as Mental Magic, Seance Work and certain aspects of Bizarre Magick. Not all Mentalists do "shows", there are many that make their living working in the shut-eye market as Readers and Lecturers as well as those that do the Self-Empowerment type talks. Hypnosis and heightened memory are also forms of Mentalism, which is something a lot of us tend to forget but realizing such things helps us recognize just how big this arena is and how demanding it can get.

I point this out in that I can see how such a huge subject can prove overwhelming and difficult to accurately review within reasonably condensed thoughts. My attempt at this resulted in this pdf, which in itself, isn't really complete even though it is more inclusive than 99% of what has been written on the topic over the past 25 years or so.

I would encourage you to share your thoughts as you originally planned to do. It is important that we get feed back on what we think in order for us to grow. I don't think you'll see any kind of flame fanning and I'm confident that you will get a stronger sense of support and "belonging" as a result.
 
May 7, 2012
36
0
I saved it on word before, enjoy

I would be glad if you took the time to read this, this purely sums up everything I think and believe about creating magic and mentalism, how mentalism can change you forever, and how ideas are simply fragile things. This essay is the story of my journey through creating magic and mentalism, and how my mind and its creativity has evolved and brought new outlooks on life through creating. This essay will be written in such a way of purely pouring ideas onto paper with editing for errors laid over top.

I'll introduce myself first in much detail, as I believe my background has an essential part in how my thoughts and ideas work. I won't let my age deter your thoughts on this essay, so I shall keep my exact age disclosed.

I'm a young creator normally creating propless and purely psychological mentalism. I get ideas once or twice a week, think about them for an hour or two deeply and then test them as soon as I can on friends and family. My ideas are almost always bold and extremely simple. Most magicians my age group get a bad reputation for posting secrets on youtube, having awkward presentations, and creating ideas that to them seem revolutionary, but are really nothing new at all and are normally created just for the sake of creating. (example: very angle sensitive color changes). Now, I won't say all people my age are like this, I believe that there are lots of brilliant young magicians out there who simply get lost in the masses of those you aren't as great. I had always been a creative kid, so after about a year or so of doing magic, I began to output my creativity into my magic. When I started creating magic, it was for all the wrong reasons. All of it was for the purpose of being the next "magic celebrity" or just to be noticed on THE WIRE. Under this mind set, my creations were impractical, and I never actually used them in the real world, I would perform quite regularly and I just stuck to what I was doing and never used the things I created. As months went on I stayed in this mindset, but soon I discovered mentalism. I had done mental magic before, but never really mentalism. Even as I bought mentalism manuscripts and books, digging deeper the subject, I was still in the same mindset. Many months later, I began developing my own mentalism, for a certain reason I'll explain here. I was extremely picky when came to mentalism, I really only performed about 6 or 7 routines from the things I bought, simply because if the method didn't entice me I wouldn't perform it (that's changed now). Also, for the obvious reason, it was free. As I began to create mentalism it began to change everything about me. I was a deeper thinker; it let my creativity flow better than ever before, my ideas were AMAZING, and it made me a much happier person.

Enough about me and more onto my thoughts on mentalism. Mentalism it mostly everything I’ve ever been interested in, packed into a perfect golden gift box. Deception, psychology, the way people work, our minds work, the things I’ve been interested since I’ve been a little kid. Mentalism allows ideas to come easier to me and allowed me to realize the fragility of ideas. Once I realized that ideas are nothing more that thoughts, concepts, feelings, and beliefs. That they aren’t tangible or physical things, they are completely and utterly products of creativity. Once I reached this truth, it allowed me to reach ideas better, be able to relax easier, have the ability to control myself in any situation, and changed the way I solve problems. It seems so amazing that a simple idea can blossom into a beautiful deception that leaves concepts in our spectator’s minds that are different from those they experience on a daily basis.

To me, mentalism seems so much more impactful than magic, the presentations that are put forth in mentalism have so much more flexibility in the way they leave the moments in our spectators than in magic. Mentalism can make our spectators laugh and forget the stress or problems in their lives, or shake them to their core and evolve their thoughts and beliefs forever. There also seems to be an aspect of professionalism in mentalism, they don’t see you as somebody who knows a “few tricks”, they see you as someone who truly has a gift, psychic or entertaining. Within that professionalism there seems to be an aspect of realism as well, this is the reason people use mentalism to convince people of their “powers” , instead of sleight of hand magic (I don’t suggest convincing people you’re psychic). When I perform mentalism I don't want the people I'm performing for to necessarily be thinking how I did it, but focusing more on the ideas and presentations that I gave to them. I want these presentations and ideas to leave them pondering their life, how they can be a better person, how they have so many unique things about themselves that I might have led them to realize. I'll always have a special place in my heart for sleight of hand magic, but I feel like mentalism is a more valuable gift to my spectators than regular sleight of hand magic.

And with that I close my essay, that you for reading.
 
May 7, 2012
36
0
To perform Mentalism one must exude confidence. I'm not trying to belittle you, but showing this lack of confidence when it comes to your CURRENT perspectives on the subject arguably reveals that you are uncertain as to what is what within this side of the craft, either due to a lack of experience or study or both.

Mentalism is a very unique side of magic with a handful of tangents -- spin-off elements that are related to it but not directly a part of it such as Mental Magic, Seance Work and certain aspects of Bizarre Magick. Not all Mentalists do "shows", there are many that make their living working in the shut-eye market as Readers and Lecturers as well as those that do the Self-Empowerment type talks. Hypnosis and heightened memory are also forms of Mentalism, which is something a lot of us tend to forget but realizing such things helps us recognize just how big this arena is and how demanding it can get.

I point this out in that I can see how such a huge subject can prove overwhelming and difficult to accurately review within reasonably condensed thoughts. My attempt at this resulted in this pdf, which in itself, isn't really complete even though it is more inclusive than 99% of what has been written on the topic over the past 25 years or so.

I would encourage you to share your thoughts as you originally planned to do. It is important that we get feed back on what we think in order for us to grow. I don't think you'll see any kind of flame fanning and I'm confident that you will get a stronger sense of support and "belonging" as a result.

I do agree mentalism requires much confidence to perform, but I'm not performing here. Not trying to sound arrogant, but I consider myself having more than just the basic ideas and principles of mentalism. Although, those ideas and principles may be nice, but you need to be able to sell presentations to your audience, so that's why I started out with magic first before digging into mentalism. I do consider myself a confident and entertaining performe. I have never really been scared to perform like I know many other people do sometimes, of course when performing for strangers the approach can seem daunting to myself sometimes, but to me it's actually pretty easy from there.
 
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
So how old are you?

More importantly, how long have you been studying Mentalism; what books have you actually studied? Which authors?

I understand your enthusiasm and the whole ego thing with it comes to what you can accomplish with Mentalism . . . it's powerful stuff! BUT, your inexperience shines through in this essay as does your lack of focus. . . and I'm not trying to be mean here, I just want you to know that there is a lot more to it than you're perceiving at present, which is why it is so hard for young people to pull off Mentalism . . . especially if you are trying the Derren Brown/Psychological Approach with things; you're simply too young to have the training required for making such claims e.g. your presentation will be questionable at best when it comes to working a real audience. Believability is what makes Mentalism work and you must offer a convincing cover story or claim that you can support and hold to as a constant.

I'd strongly encourage you to read that pdf I gave the link to and then sit down with your Corinda & Annemann books. We can move on from there; you seem to have the desire but now you need to work on the discipline and focus.
 

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
I think your essay is thoughtful and well written. It gives a good sense of the journey you've taken. The only criticism I have is that it seems a bit overstated - that is, your words make you seem better than you are. I attribute that to your writing style and your pride in how far you've come.

Based on your essay, I have some suggestions and some questions. This is meant to push you further.

1. Be humble. A friend of mine likes to say that we are all beginners... no matter how long we've been doing this or how much we know. We improve by recognizing that we don't know it all and by listening and thinking. Also, be aware of your weaknesses. Knowing them is as important as knowing your strengths.

2. Keep working on foundations. It is easier to learn than to invent. That raises the first question - what materials do you have?

3. Perform. That is the only way you get better. More than that, perform the same material for different audiences.

4. Share. Post the scripts for your routines or find some folks you trust to share those with and get feedback. Tape your performances and do the same with them. This leads to my second question - what do you perform? Really, I'm asking you to back up the claims you made with proof that you do what you say you do. Showing someone is much better than telling someone.

EDIT: I just saw Craig's post. We are on the same page.

Addendum: I wasn't focused on your age, but now that Craig mentioned it... I think there are strategies through scripting that can accommodate your age (or lack thereof). If you would like some help, PM me.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Dec 18, 2007
1,610
14
64
Northampton, MA - USA
NOTE ON THE AGE THING. . . there are many ways around the age but the biggy centers on what the claim is one is making; you cannot claim to be an "expert" at NLP when your 15 or even 19 years of age. The same applies to the Psychological explanation; you simply don't have the time invested into living life to claim any form of "expert" or "specialty" knowledge that can stand up under scrutiny -- the lie isn't believable, so to speak.

Yes, there are many ways around said conundrum, I've shared several on this and E forum both, more than a few times.

Again, I want jbroski to understand that I wasn't out to rip him apart; I can seem brash and blunt but it's not for the sake of being mean but rather constructive. R1 is far more gentle (most of the time) when it comes to language and offering a more cushioned retort. Nonetheless, I'm always available to serious students and I do believe you are serious, you just need some direction.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results