Is your mentalism too strong?

[Ocelotl]

Today I heard through the grape vine that some people liked a lot of the things I performed, but that the more direct telepathy related effects I did made them feel uncomfortable. Has this ever happened to anyone here? Or perhaps the spectator had a negative reaction in real time? What can I do to stop this from happening, other than just not doing mentalism?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

If someone is uncomfortable, then either A) it's just something they're innately uncomfortable with, or B) Something about your presentation felt invasive or like it was crossing a line.

You can make changes to your presentation, but you can't stop what someone thinks innately.

So ... be more charming, I guess?

 

[Ocelotl]

It's hard bc I heard this through the grape vine, though no one seemed uncomfortable in the moment I was doing anything... the effect I did was a center tear where I had someone write down the name of someone. I did some cold reading before reading the billet. I also did a pocket writing book test.

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

People will rarely say you're making them uncomfortable in the moment. That would be rude.

It's also possible they thought more about it later and then found it uncomfortable.

But in short the issue is still the same - either they are innately put off by such things, or the presentation put them into a negative head space.

 

[RealityOne]

To figure this out, the question you need to answer is why they were uncomfortable. What was the instruction you gave them for writing down the name and what was the nature of the cold reading? I could see someone becoming uncomfortable if they wrote down the name of someone who has died and the reading is about their feelings toward that person. Similarly, I could see someone be uncomfortable if you had them write down the name of the first person they fell in love with and the reading explored that relationship while their spouse or current significant other was there. Essentially, it isn't the power of the effect, but rather how personal the presentation is.

 

[Ocelotl]

I believe I said to write down the name of someone they knew who I didn't know, and someone who wasn't even their fb friend or connected on social media in any way, so that no one could know who that person is. In my CT routine I never take the billet right away, I do some cold reading to dilute the importance of writing the name down. The person they were thinking of was an old friend they hadn't seen in 20 years who was his mentor. I am positive this person was not uncomfortable given he asked me to do it in the first place and was smiling the whole time, even thanking memail for encouraging him to reconnect with this person. I think it may have been another person watching this who was uncomfortable.

 

[RealityOne]

Without knowing the "why", there really isn't anything you can do. From the description, it just sounds like the person was uncomfortable with the idea of mentalism.

 

[Ocelotl]

It took me by surprise... I have never known that to happen before. I have only seen people who merely are not interested in it, or magic etc. Perhaps if they were super religious and such a thing crosses a boundary on principle.