Any mindreading effect should look and feel like real mindreading. If not, what´s the point?
A simple card trick can be the real thing and the best propless effect can look like nothing. All depends.

Best

I looked at my repertoire and found out al of my effects that are presented as mindreading look like real mindreading. It's not because of the effect, it's because I act as if I was reading minds.

Of course, it's easy for me because I read minds for real, but I know that's not the case for everyone

Real mind reading happens into the spectators' mind. If you can make it happen, with your persona, skill and credibility, mind reading is a fact for the audience. I've performing close-up mentalism profesionally, in hotels, daily for more than 10 years, I've bent more than 15,000 spoons (yes, I keep a record) and performed the PCT more than that; and I can state, that if (as Richard Osterlind says) if you beleive that you are doing it, MIND READING ACTUALLY HAPPENS!

1. Psychophysiological Thought Reading
2. Muscle Reading
3. Contact Mind Reading
4. Cumberlandism
5. Hellstromism
6. Dynamite Mentalism/Sherlock Strategy
7. True Telepathy
8. Touching on Hoy
9. Train Tracking

I think Peter Turner's name guess and Isabella's star is the closest thing I saw to real mind reading. And I think the question is clear and has all the sense.

Train Tracking is a real as it gets

'Sponge Ball / Which Hand' combo !
Has, to be a Blue Sponge Ball tho ...

Al Pacino.

And now back to regularly scheduled programming.

For insight:
1) Card Calling.
2) I don't, they do.

For everyone else:
1) Each effect in the show.
2) Because context reigns.

Mel Gibson
What Women Want





Topic Reply
In my opinion, most all effects can look real until you know too many.

I'd second the nomination for cold readings. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen a friend of mine do these one-on-one (or at least in a small group). I've found that some people -- esp. those in their 20s -- really get into it and more or less believe it. I've never seen it tried in front of a crowd. (Sounds like a recipe for trouble anyway).

I suppose the big-audience version would be the effect where you collect an object from six different people and then do a watered-down cold reading based on each object. I can't think of the name of this right now.

Recipe for trouble?

I disagree.

This is how most if not all Q&A are done.

Sorry, Lord of the Horses. What I wrote was very confusing. Let me try again:

1. Q and A in front of an audience can be amazing. (In fact, that might be my new vote for "closest to real mind reading"!)

2. Personal cold reading where you hold the person's hand or palm and tell them things about their personal lives can be *incredibly* powerful. You just don't want to want to expose all this stuff in front of a crowd. Like you said, the "crowd version" of this is Q and A, which can be great.

Btw, I think when people first read about cold reading in a book, they underestimate how powerful is can be. When you see an expert do it, it is eye-opening.

P.S. For some reason, I have to spell out "Q and A". If I put in an ampersand, it gets posted wrong (in preview). Weird.

Thanks for the feedback. I am not surprised that many effects described here are propless. Great discussion!

Regards,
Mike

I need to quote a medium I once heard ..She said... "You are the guys giving psychics a bad name!" referring to mentalists ... I'm hoping she was referring to "Bad" mentalists, but honestly guys... Some of it looks really bad..... Some of it looks hokey ... If you are doing a crappy job then just don't do it. You need to be 100% committed to making it REAL or it hurts everyone.

Slim- Let's celebrate. I agree with you one-hundred percent!

I agree too. When was the last time all 3 of us agreed? Let's celebrate together!

Regards,
Mike

The question will be more interesting if it was about how could we make mind reading effects feel as what laymen perceive as a real mind reading as much as possible?

Certainly demonstrating mind reading is awesome and is entertaining. What follows is So What?

Mediums and psychics reveal information for it to be used. Emotional components are involved. Mentalists ( i.e showmen ) use surprise, suspense and various presentational ploys along with charisma and stage presence to elicit similar reactions. Laymen think mind reading has occured, whatever they think that is. It is this flexibility that allows them to *believe* things once framed as mind reading.

If someone wants to do it for real. Like really, for real. Well, that's what neuroscientists are doing.

One thing that makes phenomena like real mind-reading easily debunk-able is that you'd expect those who *read minds* to get more insight about it. If you could detect bacteria using some lab staining techniques but you'd expect a guy who claims to be able to see them for real in action without any staining to give some interesting insights about them.

If someone claims to do the real thing (s)he'll never do that which is why ( to my mind at least ) its easily debunk-able. Good for mediums that they're claiming the ability to just listen to whatever the dead spirit is saying.

Mentalists can't give more insight for real obviously, that's the job of various academic disciplines. Good thing though that laymen, just like mind reading, got no idea what insights are

IMO

- Feras

The "most real" ever saw was "In Silence" by Arnold Furst in which he orchestrated a volunteer assistant to read the mind of several spectators without ever saying a word to her or them.

The most real for the audience I have ever done is Contact Mind Reading where I am able to drop their hand and continue.

The most real for an audience of magicians is FalconEye

The most real for me has been HarpSway in which I control a multi-bob pendulum held by another person from a distance, i.e. no physical contact with anything or saying a word

- not long ago, a young woman got frightened (in a good way) when I told her where she had been on holidays. She wanted to stop thinking so I wouldn't read her. That kind of reaction is not rare. That was with a CT.
- Two days ago, I tested on magician friends a new method for my book test. The guy playing the part of the spectator got goose pimps! He told me it felt so real! (Yeah, I felt veeeery happy and proud ). My book test is maybe the effect for which people who know me (i.i. don't believe I really can read minds) tell me the most it felt real! Obviously, my book test isn't "propless"
- The effect I perform the most is maybe my own "direct read". It's two-phase: first I ask a woman to freely and secretly think of a card and then I proceed to read her and reveal the card, secondly I ask her companion to randomly pick a card and from his reactions I guess his card too. Since the first time I performed it, I myself have been surprised at how strong this simple piece hits! It's not rare people ask me for a seance after that (I decline). I do it with my Lynx Deck, that's not propless either.

I could go on like that for a while but it would look like I'm a boring show-off (I hope I'm not boring! )

I don't believe looking real is a matter of visible props or not. Ever.

...

But I'm for real.
Maybe the solution to that whole prop thing is to be real too?