How to Do Mind Reading Magic

Hocus Pocus!

Magicians have been guessing numbers and the names of the dead for centuries, making their audience believe they were born with some unique psychic talent. Mind reading magic is not about psychic talent at all but observation and simple prop and audience setup. Magicians rarely work alone, and neither should you. So gather some loyal friends and get out there to start reading minds!

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Cards
• Pen

Instructions

Getting Started

1. Study up on a wide variety of mind-reading tricks and practice them regularly so you can execute them without fail in front of an audience.

2. Polish your powers of observation, as you will need to observe your audience in order to pick up subtle hints and clues to help you create a believable illusion.

3. Use dog eared props, like bent cards or slightly crumpled paper when asking audience members to pick a card or choose an answer that you will later guess. This pre-emptive measure will make it easier to find their card in the card deck or their paper in the answer pile.

4. Study the masters and keep your eyes peeled while they do their tricks. Nearly all magic, including mind-reading magic, is based on illusion, and learning how to keep the audience distracted enough that they miss what you are trying to hide.

A Sample Trick

1. Prepare six questions in advance. Five should be unique questions that would be impossible to predict. The last one should be simple and fairly easy to predict.

2. Choose an audience volunteer to help you demonstrate your incredible mind-reading powers.

3. Ask the volunteer the first question, and have him write it down and put it in a box or bowl. At the same time, appear to be concentrating hard in order to read his mind and pretend to write your prediction on a piece of paper and place it in your box. Instead, write what you think the volunteer's answer to the final question (the predictable one) will be. Then ask the volunteer to tell you the answer to the first question and indicate that you got it right, but don't show your piece of paper. For example, say the first question is "What was your first teacher's name?" and the last question is "What's your favorite sport?" The volunteer writes Mrs. Smith. You write Golf.

4. Ask the audience member the second question and have him write it down and put it in the box or bowl. Again, appear to concentrate and write down your prediction, but this time, write down the answer to the first question. For example, say the second question is "Where did you go on your last vacation?" You write Mrs. Smith. Ask the volunteer to reveal the answer. Remember it so that you can write it down on your next slip of paper. Continue in this fashion through all six questions.Here's how each round would look: In the first round, the volunteer's bowl has the answer to question 1. Your bowl has your best guess of his answer to question 6. In the second round, the volunteer's bowl has answers to question 1 and 2. You have answers to questions 1 and 6. In the third round, the volunteer has answers to question 1, 2 and 3. You have answers to questions 1, 2 and 6. In the fourth round, the volunteer has answers to questions 1, 2, 3, and 4. You have answers to 1, 2, 3 and 6. Round five, the volunteer has answers to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. You have answers to 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6. Round six, you both have answers to all six questions.

5. With great flourish and drama, ask your volunteer to draw his answers out one at a time and reveal them to the audience. After each reveal, show that you had written down the very same answer. It is possible that your answer to the final question will not match since you had to guess on that one, but the audience will be amazed that you got the other, harder, questions right.

Tips & Warnings

• Projecting confidence and performing dramatically are the keys to doing any type of magic. Perfect the art of illusion and you will wow your audience effectively.

References

• Free Magic Tricks
• Old and Sold