Can mentalists actually guess numbers/words using body language, expressions, cues & suggestions?

[abraar]

I've recently been looking into Lior Suchard and his performances like guessing PIN numbers or names.

He doesn't claim to have any supernatural/psychic powers (e.g. he can't read thoughts directly), but instead uses body language, facial expressions & non-verbal cues to guess what number someone is thinking of; or uses subtle suggestions, hypnosis/NLP to influence people's random choices.

Is this actually possible? I've seen some people claim that he is just using normal mentalism tricks (e.g. off-stage Acidus Novus peek).

I'm specifically looking at these videos:
Late Late Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkTko1EyL9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0h5ThceEw
Studio 10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJ2ivw2QvY
Kelly & Ryan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9LpcIg1Dkg
Bear Grylls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHdxSyXEQdM

The Kelly & Ryan video is particularly interesting because Lior asks Kelly to think of the name of her first kiss and she was confused and couldn't decide on a name herself. If Lior told her to write the name down off-stage, why would there be this confusion? Are they all faking it?
And on the Studio 10 video, Lior gets the first drawing wrong but then gets the next one right.

Would love to hear your opinions on it...

 

[RealityOne]

Would love to hear your opinions on it...

It is classic Mentalism.

 

[Matthew Mitchell]

By looking at your question, i can assume that you are new and don't know much. You can get the answer of this question very easily if you spend a little time looking at books about mentalism.

 

[RYNNOMU]

Such as......
Any recs for a beginner?

 

[WitchDocIsIn]

Yes it is possible in certain situations. No one I've seen that's "famous" does it that way, though, no matter what script they use claiming otherwise. They'd never risk it.

This thread has some of my recommendations: https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/where-to-start-with-mentalism.58299/

Also here: https://www.theory11.com/forums/threads/anyone-into-mentalism.52894/#!#post-487790

 

[RealityOne]

I'm sure these recommendations are included in @WitchDocIsIn's threads but I've also culled them from my prior posts. These are in the order you should read them:

Self Working Mental Magic by Karl Fulves. Don't be fooled by the title, there are a lot of great effects in this inexpensive book.

Practical Mental Magic by Theo. Annemann. Great to get to learn to think like a mentalist.

Introduction to Mentalism by Craig Browning - Free at : https://www.lybrary.com/an-introduction-to-mentalism-p-682145.html

Fundamentals by Bob Cassidy (https://www.lybrary.com/fundamentals-p-562.html)

Prism by Max Maven - Has wonderful routines

Principles of Mentalism by Richard Osterland

Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism

Switchcraft by Elliott Bresler - This is the Bible on billet work.

Psychological Subtleties Series by Banachek.

Ted Leslie's Paramiracles