Finally.. A REAL NLP Mind Reading Trick YOU Can Perform
NLP has been a bit of a buzz word for a good few years in relation to mind reading and mentalism tricks due to the likes of Derren Brown and Cris Angel.
The actual limits of NLP is only known to people who have actually studied it extensively, like myself. Limited is the key word, as people claim to use NLP for just about everything, but us people in the know, understand what you can and cannot do don't we?
That doesn't stop us saying we're using NLP when we're not, but sometimes it's nice to use some real NLP skills to perform our mind reading and mentalism.
So what NLP mind reading tricks are possible? Well I've already talked about how anchors can be used, but there are a few others too.
This one in particular isn't strictly NLP, but it involved reading subtle body language cues so I suppose it counts.
So here's the trick..
You show a spectator 5 playing cards, 4 of them are black number cards and one card is the queen of hearts. There are 2 versions of the trick you can use depending on who you perform it on. To one type of person you say that when they see the queen of hearts they are to think about SEX. To other people you just tell them to think about MONEY.
What you do is show them the queen of hearts first, tell them to think about sex/money. Get them to really think about it while they are staring at the queen of hearts. What this does is anchor the queen of hearts to that emotion.. I'll explain why in a moment.
What you do them is mix the cards face down and one after another show them each card and tell them to think about sex/money when they see the queen of hearts. When you show them each card, make sure you can't see the cards you show, but you need to be able to see their eyes.
Just by looking into their eyes, you can tell which card is the queen of hearts.. how?
Not by the reflection in their eyes. You can tell by their pupils dilating. When people think about sex or money. Their pupils dilate. When I say sex, I mean they need to really think of the act, and when they think about money, they need to imagine they have loads of it around them and to get excited.
So when you show them each card, watch their pupils and you will be able to tell which is the queen of hearts by when their pupils dilate (get bigger).
Try it out, it's a pretty decent little trick and you can even explain how you did it after. It's a good way to use as a build up to a really proper, stronger trick and to make them think you're a real body language expert.
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Why I Absolutely HATE Actors in Mind Reading Tricks
I don't often rant.. well I do, but this is something that really quite bothers me more than usual. The constant overuse of blatant actors on TV in mind reading and mentalism tricks.
You know the tricks, the ones that are stupidly impossible and have an obviously overreacting crowd and a pathetically enthusiastic volunteer. If you don't know what I'm talking about, stick on a Criss Angel television show and see.
These people are paid actors and are in on the trick, they have be in on the trick otherwise the trick won't work. These tricks are all for the camera and cannot work to spectators who are right up close to the mentalist. Now I'm sure a lot of you love Criss Angel but as far as QUALITY mind reading and mentalism goes, he's pretty darn poor.
I do believe there is a difference between and actor and a stooge in this case. To me, an actor is someone who has a big part in the overall effect of the trick and is usually pretending to be a volunteer. There are usually a crowd of actors too, all pretending to be amazed by some silly levitation. A stooge is someone who is involved in the trick but usually behind the scenes and doesn't broadcast their poor acting skills to the spectators but makes the effect look utterly impossible.
I understand some tricks need a stooge, but it's the overuse of actors that kill the real creative side of mind reading and mentalism. There is a danger of filming a whole show with actors as spectators and having no magic of real reactions and disbelief.
I love close up mentalism with real people. Nothing can beat the effect whereby the spectators are genuinely mystified by the mentalist. I don't personally love stooges either but I have and will always use them when I feel the need. I won't however use actors. Ever. I don't care if I've got a world famous television show. I'll never water down my effects with that nonsense. Derren Brown manages without it, so that's good enough for me.
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3 Ways To Use Rapport In Mind Reading & Mentalism
Having rapport with your audience is a must. I've laid out 3 ways you can use it to enhance your mind reading performance.
What Is rapport?
Rapport is a relationship. A pleasant feeling of mutual trust, affinity and friendship established through verbal and non-verbal means.
When performing to people you don't know, whether they accept you or not is an important factor in whether to effect will do down well or not. There's nothing worse than performing to someone who doesn't like you and wants you to fail. This can bring your mind reading performance to come crashing down and leaving you with a red face.
To make your mentalism and mind reading tricks really successful you need the audience on your side. To get them on your side you need gain rapport with them. I've listed 3 great ways to gain rapport.
1)Mirroring Body Language – a great way to gain report non-verbally is by mirroring the body language of the volunteer. Mirroring is basically copying what the other person is doing with regards to how you are seated, stood, where your hands rest, whether you are cross-legged, slouched, up-right etc. Now you don't want to make this too obvious so a great way to casually mirror the other person is just with small movements that mimic their hand gestures. When they scratch their head – you scratch etc.
2)Use The Same Words – another good way to gain rapport with someone is to copy their dialect, slag or metaphors. You will find when speaking with people that they will use the same words and dialect to describe things. A great way to gain rapport is by using the same words confidently when speaking with them.
3)Match their voice – this is a more advanced strategy and it's used by copying their tone of voice and their rhythm of speech. Some people talk quietly and with a fairly fast rhythm. It's your job to copy them without being someone you're not. If you are a loud and outgoing person and you are dealing with someone who is an introvert and fairly quiet. Take your lively ways a notch down or two. This will gain rapport with them in which you can then slowly get back to being who you are and they will follow suit comfortably.
These tips merely touch the surface on gaining rapport with someone but is a good starting point for any mind reader or mentalist.
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3 Ways To Use Misdirection in Mentalism & Mind Reading
Before I give you the 3 main ways of using misdirection in mind reading & mentalism tricks, let's get the definition of misdirection from Wikipedia -
"Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract their attention from another.
Misdirection takes advantage of the limits of the human mind in order to give the wrong picture and memory of a mentalism mind reading trick. The mind can concentrate on only one thing at a time.”
This is a very concise definition of misdirection and basically says what is is. But, how can you use misdirection in your magic tricks?
The mentalist/mind reader can use this to their advantage in a range of different ways. I've listed the top 3 ways.
1. To cover a move – For one on one mind reading tricks, this is really easy as you only have to distract one person. This can be achieved by asking them a question, the question needs to be built into the effect and be relevant to your mind reading abilities. The reason for asking a question is that the volunteer has to 'go inside' their mind to retrieve the answer. This is what will momentarily distract their attention where you can casually perform a 'move'. Most mind reading tricks are self-working and are based on pure showmanship and have very little moves so asking a question is usually all that is needed as the move is usually built into the trick to be casual and 'make sense'
For example - a body language 'mind reader' could ask the volunteer, “In your mind, when you recall past events in your life, do you mostly see your memories in colour or black and white?” This will cause them to 'go inside' their mind and will most likely not know the answer. This distraction will give you a chance to perform a 'move'.
2. To hide the method – You can use a form of misdirection whereby you give a false explanation to the phenomena they are apparently witnessing. This false explanation is very important in mind reading and mentalism magic tricks as it guides them away from the real method you are using. TV mentalists have built careers on false explanations – Derren Brown, David Blaine & Criss Angel use fake explanations in almost all of their tricks, whether they say it's real magic, conversational hypnosis or uncanny body language reading abilities.
3. To give them a false memory of the trick – This is a more advanced form of misdirection and is used by professionals. All professionals script their tricks and know almost word for word what they are going to say. The reason being is that they are carefully scripted to build suspense and also to leave the spectator with a false memory of what actually happened. It usually involves talking through what has happened but changing a slight detail. A basic version of this is asking the spectator to cut the cards but a little later on in the effect you will say, “Ok, so you mixed the cards..”, then later repeat what happened but change it to “so you shuffled the cards”. This is just a basic overview and it takes proper script writing of tricks and trial and error in what works and what doesn't. This is why the real magic is in the performance..
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