By Way of Conclusion - The Secrets of Mentalists.

A great many books and websites deal with mentalism and mentalists. The meaning given to the definitions seems to vary randomly, sometimes referring to a person gifted with real... extrasensory powers, and sometimes to a magician-artist performing skillful tricks and clever methods to entertain an audience.

Today, a stage mentalist is someone who appears to possess paranormal powers in order to accomplish feats during a performance. He must be a genius at decoding, possess powers of observation, and have a highly developed ability to notice the smallest details. To do this, he uses techniques that allow him to analyze, influence, and even unconsciously direct the behavior of others.

He does not need to have any particular gift. He does not need to believe in it, because with body language, no conviction is necessary for it to work; it is enough simply to look at and observe the other person. He does not need to be a psychologist; he only needs a little memory to remember certain gestures and read the unconscious of those around him.

So how do “gifted” mentalists manage to exist and have their talents recognized? By creating ingenious new experiments that stand apart from the clichés too often borrowed by the multitude of practitioners, and by pushing back the limits of what is possible. Mentalist magicians such as Derren Brown, Dynamo, David Blaine, or Criss Angel appear to the public as true supermen.

But the true function of a mentalist is, at the very least, to convince his audience that he really is a mentalist! The whole art of being credible and influencing others will come from his confidence, his work, and his multidisciplinary knowledge.

It is not a matter of intelligence or appearance, but of his ease in the performances he carries out and his ability to listen, because people generally say far more than we think. The mental experiments we have revealed to you throughout these chapters are not merely illusion; make good use of them, and they may also help you and help others in the search for self-knowledge.

If, during an experiment, you manage to suspend your audience’s desire to understand, to create a timeless interlude, to overturn their certainties, then you will have succeeded in your mission. You will be able to be proud of having taken one or more people on a journey into the deepest part of their minds. A journey they will never forget...

So, is mentalism an illusion? A reality? Chance? The paranormal? Magic? In the end, it does not matter, because the truth is not in the artist’s hand, nor even in the spectators’ minds: it lies in the power of our brain... and of our heart!

And so ends this book, which we hope will have taken you on a journey through your mind, to that place where paradox and enchantment meet.

Never reveal the secrets you have acquired with so much effort. Remain mysterious, so that you may always awaken your own curiosity and that of your spectators.

Bring a personal touch to your presentations, become more original, draw inspiration—but never copy. And most importantly, avoid mystifiers and other gurus! Take your experiments seriously, but do not take yourself too seriously.

Mentalism is like life; remember this quotation from Fontenelle:

“Do not take life too seriously; in any case, you will not get out of it alive!”

In the 1960s, the mentalist couple Myr and Myroska became famous by presenting this experiment: blindfolded, Myroska guessed what her partner and accomplice Myr had in his hand. An object, lent by the audience—an identity card or a piece of jewelry, for example—was described in detail by the telepath.

Unlike certain mentalists who seriously claim to have paranormal powers, Myr and Myroska always ended their show with the famous line:

“If there is no trick, it is wonderful; but if there is one, admit that it is even more wonderful!”

Enjoy your practice!