I think I might have a 9 year old mentalist on my hands

Tower of Lunatic Meat

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Sep 27, 2014
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Texa$, with a dollar sign
My daughter and I were going over our magic boxes the other day and she told me something that I’m not sure how to approach:

She wants to be able to read minds.

I tried sussing out if its more mental magic she was going for or mentalism.

We tried a few tricks I had that operated more along the lines of mental magic. She thought they were ok, but she wants to read mind and divine thoughts/info/etc.

So I’m thinking, “great! ‘Book Tests’, Darren Brown, and Max Maven! I have no idea what I’m looking for!”

Here’s the thing: I’m a big prop guy who is TERRIBLE at reading physical and verbal cues. So I have not given ANY thought into mentalism because I would give the whole art a black eye.

My daughter on the other hand, would not.

So with that. Can anyone suggest any resources, books, ...not sure if “tricks” is the appropriate terminology for what mentalists do; but what could I show her or what could I get to further see if this is what she wants to do? And if she does bite into it, how do I help further along a pint-sized mentalist?
 
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WitchDocIsIn

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Sep 13, 2008
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Ever heard of Ray Singson? This is his daughter: (I'm not positive that post is public, but I hope it is)

Mentalists don't do tricks, they employ systems. But that's beside the point.

The more I think about this, the more interesting it gets.

So, here's what I would recommend: Ignore most magic sources. Let her learn to trust her "intuition" (Which I put in quotes because I think of "intuition" as just trusting the unconscious mind's ability to process information without being consciously aware of it). Treat it like a game - hide something in one hand, have her guess which hand it is. Try to teach her to be observant - stuff like asking her how many hats are in a room without looking around, that sort of thing.

Oh! And if you really want to help her feel like a super hero - help her learn memory systems now. The Memory Arts by the Trustmans is my favorite source, personally. If she starts working on those memory systems now she'll be an absolute beast when it comes to exam times. Check this out:
- Steve Harvey's histrionics aside, she's incredible. The Memory Arts is the first book I've read that both supplies other resources to learn with, and also gives full imagery to help learn the system. It also has the benefit of being created by people who are not extremely egotistical and rude to other creators.

You can also pick up a book on Muscle Reading and help her learn that - the mechanics of it are simple and it is also something that can be done as a game. I learned from Full Contact Mind Reading, but that one can be pretty pricey unless you catch Jerome during one of his financial crises. I've got Psychophysiological Thought Reading on the way and I'm sure that will be a perfectly good source as well. It goes well beyond just locating something that's been hidden - I've used it to duplicate simple drawings before.

And if she maintains interest and really wants to get into the nitty gritty stuff - FACS. Facial Action Coding System. Ekman's work on reading microexpressions to identify emotions. You can get the software that trains you how to read these expressions more and more quickly.

"Real" mentalism is about developing skills of the mind and body. Stay away from tricks unless she wants to be a performer - just help her learn the skills the tricks are imitating.
 

RealityOne

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Nov 1, 2009
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The question is whether she wants to provide the illusion of mentalism or employ authentic systems to actually try to develop psychic like skills. If it is the former, then Christopher is right on point.

If she wants to provide the illusion of mentalism, open up Mark Wilson's book and check out the Cross Cut Force (in the card section); the Three-Way Test (and the other effects in the mentalism section) and Tic Tac Toe (in the Reputation Makers Section).

I know about 13 steps to mentalism although I never read it..

13 Steps is not the best place to start. Get Annemann's Practical Mental Magic and Fulves' Self Working Mental Magic. There is a lot of good stuff in those books. However, you will have to read them and curate them for her.

@ChristopherT - I'm not sure if others can see the video of Ray's daughter on Facebook, but it is priceless. Thanks for sharing.
 
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WitchDocIsIn

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Sep 13, 2008
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However, you will have to read them and curate them for her.

Oh, yeah, I never really said that explicitly but you would be basically learning at least the basics of each skill and teaching her through using the skills. Miagi style.
 
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