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While there are so many explanations of a mentalist, a mind reader, someone with supernatural abilities, etc., truly understanding the art of mentalism takes more than just a mere outside look, it's an experience.

If you want to learn mentalism it is very easy once you get to know how the whole mind-reading rhythm develops. Mentalism has been extensively researched by many in attempts to understand, but most of them don't realize that everyone has all the ingredients of becoming a truly great mentalist.

When it comes to mentalism, there are a few skills to focus on manipulation; skills of observation, decoding, and complete attentiveness to be able to manipulate.

These skills help a mentalist pick up most of the information about you. Look at magicians, detectives, illusionists, how do they manage to trick and lead you to tell them what they want? All these people are playing with your mind using the same skills I've mentioned. To get a clearer picture of that, let's get a definitive look into how to become a mentalist and where to start.

1. Improving Observation Skills

Observation

This is the first place where everyone begins their journey. You have to learn to see more than meets the eye.

You need a greater understanding of the various ways in which people communicate non verbally. With this knowledge, you are able to coordinate your questions to get exactly what you're after. Improve your observation skills by learning the following.

Learn Micro-expressions

Micro-expressions are the simple but very effective ways through which we communicate our feelings. If you pay close attention to people there are body movements made when they are talking. For example, when you find someone lying they'll sort of pick their nose, scratch the back of their heads, or break the eye contact.

These are the things you need to read. You can find books on this subject or you could enroll in a course.

Observe Yourself

A great place to start is learning about your own body language. How do you feel when you are talking about different topics? How do you react to different people, emotions, and words? Observe yourself in a mirror as you think about a number of subjects.

Try to remember a wonderful moment that got you really happy. Visualize the whole scenario in your mind and then look carefully in the mirror at what changes have occurred in your face and body. Then do the same thing with a sad event and anxiety and you'll be surprised.

Using yourself as the first guinea pig helps you to understand others since our bodies act similarly.

Observe Others

You need to also look at how other people behave. While our bodies act the same, these actions are expressed in different ways.

Some people will clench their fists when angry, others will bite their lips, and others will grind their teeth. Look for, learn, and study these reactions. This will help you know which reactions are seen in certain kinds of people and how to use this information with the other skills you will learn.

2. Sharpening Decoding Skills

Decoding is just that. Decoding what someone means when they say something else. It's learning to observe body language and decode what they truly mean to say, but aren't. Learn how to understand the meaning and feeling behind people's words. This helps you discover a lot of things about the person..

More often than not, we tell more about ourselves than we realize in what's unspoken.

Decoding

Be a Great Listener

If you want to truly hear, you need to become a master at listening. Concentrate fully and try to pick things up from the subject you are listening to. Also, you will have to train your mind to be fast. You will need to listen but have the ability to interpret fast so that you can lead the communication when it's time.

Detect Lies

Lies are told when someone wants the situation to fit in with their own satisfaction or when they are not really sure of what they are talking about. In this case, you should be looking to know why people don't want to face the truth. This is to help you in situations where you will be dealing with people who are hard to read their expressions.

To do this, you should observe the sequence of their speech; how they get their words to develop. There is a certain point a liar reaches where that sequence is broken and lies start to reveal themselves in a very deep and hidden way. Once you know what to look for, it's not so hidden anymore. It becomes a redflag.

Ask Guided Questions

A good way to learn truth is to ask questions that lead people to the truth that you are after. Starting off topic, but using the questions to lead to your desired end. This is a slow process.

A good example of this is to have them talk about their best memorable moments and then all of a sudden you turn them into a sad moment. The difference between the two should help you know, comparing to what you are talking about at that particular moment, if they are lying.

Actually, this is what all mentalists do to make predictions of what you'll think even before you say it, and they tell you upfront, which turns out to be correct.

3. Manipulating the Situation

Lastly, you will then be using observation and decoding to help manipulate people into giving you hints about their lives and using that information.

So how do you get to manipulate people to give away their own secrets? How do you get them to spit out what you want, but make it appear like you were actually reading their minds?

Make Quick Educated Guesses!

In all our lives there are those common things that we all go through, love, sadness, happiness, and grief. There are also things like names and appearances of people that are alike. So if you can use this “link” to stage your performance, you can work perfectly.

To give you a good example, you can have someone whose mind you are reading tell you a bit of their information if you just make a brilliant guess on something like, “I'm seeing an old man seated on a chair.” That's a good guess which is general. Many people are living with their parents or grandparents, which works in this case.

They also could have traveled to see their parents or are living with old people in their locality. Now, if you can leverage this, they'll tell you everything about that person and you can make another wise guess to keep more information coming.

Later on, you will use all what you've gathered to make them believe you read their minds.

But as you do this, you will need to:

  • Be very confident – Don't make guesses with signs of uncertainty. You should do it while smiling briefly and still have your face looking directly at them to show surety. People don't want very accurate information, they only need leads for them to subconsciously give away what you need.
  • Be a Natural – Playing you will help with convincing them you are sure of what you are saying. Don't try to imitate any mentalist you know because you might slip off and sell yourself away.
  • Put On Mentalism – Something else you will need to take much keen on is the things that mentalists to really bring out that feeling of mind reading.

Things like touching the hard of the person you are reading, placing one hand on their heads, the other on the shoulder, and feeling their pulses among others. These will help you put on the show perfectly.

Final Thoughts

Being a mentalist doesn't require special energies and capabilities, you can use the simple skills you have to their fullest potential, and manipulate the person you are reading will be enough for them to be convinced.

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