Mentalism is a type of performance art which has increased in popularity during the last few years in part to more modern mentalists such as Criss Angel and David Blaine. This type of mental magic deals with using the principles of stage magic to present the illusion of hypnosis, mind reading, ESP, pre-cognition, clairvoyance and mind control.
Most of the mentalists acts can be traced directly to acts of supernatural powers that were undertaken by mediums, psychics and spiritualists during the 19th Century. The actually history of Mentalism however goes back even further. Girolamo Scotto a sleight-of-hand magician in the 1500’s was the earliest record of a mentalism act.
There are many different ways in wich mentalism as an act can be portrayed. Performers such as Uri Geller, and James Van Praagh, claim to actually possess supernatural powers such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, or telekinesis. There still remain some people who firmly believe that Geller and similar practitioners are actually demonstrating supernatural powers, but always there are scientists and skeptics who are ready to disprove such claims.
Many contemporary mentalists, such as Richard Osterlind and Derren Brown attribute their results to skills that are far from supernatural: rather the proficiency to read body language and to manipulate the subject subliminally through psychological suggestion.
Mentalists generally don’t combine “standard” magic tricks with their mental Acts. Doing so associates mentalism a little too closely with the theatrical trickery used mostly by stage magicians. Many mentalists claim that they aren’t magicians at all, arguing that it is a completely different art form altogether.
On the other hand, magicians such as David Copperfield, David Blaine and Criss Angel characteristically combine aspects of mentalism with their magical illusions. For example, a mind-reading stunt would also involve the magical teleportation of two different objects. Such fusion, is being referred to nowadays as ‘mental magic’.
Mentalism and mental magic often require performers to exude an authoritative, commanding and charismatic stage presence and sleight of hand.
But for those who are interested in the more mysterious and supernatural origins of mentalism,
there are two tests still in general use today which can determine if you posses the abilities of a mentalist or not. They are the book test and the living-and-dead test. In the former, a book is chosen at random by an a member of the audience and opened at a random page. The examiner would then concentrate on a word, sentence or paragraph of his or her choice. If the mentalist can read his thoughts, apparently using only “mental powers”, then he passes the “test.” In the living-and-dead test, the name of a deceased person is mixed in with the names of people still alive, all written on identical slips of paper. Apparently using mental powers alone, the mentalist must separate the living from the dead.
The mentalists we see these days are a far cry from their fore-fathers. Gracing the covers of magazines and tabloid columns and every t.v screen around. Most notably in the lime light are Criss Angel and David Blaine. But many are following in their foot steps and taking mentalism or mental magic to new heights. But nonetheless they continue to take our breaths away with their impossible to comprehend, visually confusing and awe inspiring mental magic. One thing for sure is, mentalism is here to stay.
Types Of Mentalism
Mentalism is an art that consists of 5 major categories. To become a mentalist one doesn’t need to master these abilities, although in the day they were regarded as very real. Mentalism nowadays is linked to stage magic and mental magic and is regarded as a performing art rather than superhuman feats. Although there are people people who claim that they posses these abilities, most of them are usually panned by critics who always come up with ways to disprove their so called powers. But nonetheless here are the 5 major branches of Mentalism.
Telepathy
The definition of telepathy or mind reading as it is generally called is the transfer of information on thoughts between individuals by means other than the 5 classical senses. A person who is able to make use of telepathy is said to posses the ability to read the minds of others. Telepathy, along with psychokinesis forms the main branches of para-psychological research.
There are four accepted types of telepathy. Latent Telepathy, Precognitive Telepathy, Emotive Telepathy and Superconscious Telepathy,
Psychokinesis
Translated directly it means “movement from the mind”. Many cases of psychokinesis have been reported but never have been proven. There like the other forms of mentalism it has been disproved time and time again. One famous case of psychokinesis was of a man named Uri Geller. who used to bend metal spoons through the power of his mind. He amazed TV audiences with his feats, and participated in experiments into telekinesis.
Extra-Sensory Perception
This is another branch of para-psychological, better known as ESP. Its defined as the apparent ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience. This idea of extra-sensory perception has been there since ancient civilizations. In most of the ancient cultures of the world this ability was regarded as ’second sight’ a direct line to the many different deities and gods.
Precognition
This is a very popular ability, most often possessed by characters of tv shows. People who claim to posses this ability have the power to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses. Like all the other types of para-psychological abilities precognition has still not been proven. Skeptics contend that the human memory naturally has a tendency to remember coincidences more often than other non-coincidences and thus individuals tend to remember more frequently when they were correct about a future event and forget the instances when they were wrong.
Clairvoyance
The apparent ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant. Clairvoyance like telepathy can also be broken down into sub categories, which are Clairsentience, which is to do with touching and feeling, Clairaudience which has to do with hearing, Clairalience which has to do with tasting, Claircognizance which has to do with knowibng and finally Clairgustance which has to do with tasting.
Yours Magically
Solomon
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