I wish I was a mentalist too!

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

No, not another Asperger's thread...

Last night I went to see 'mentalist' Marc Salem doing his show "Mind Games - Extra" in Kilburn. He's a fat, bald, American, who worked for a long time on Sesame Street, and claims to have worked with law enforcement as an expert witness in court rooms. His show is along similar lines to Derren Brown's work - apparently reading people's body language, tone of voice and so on in order to know what they're thinking, as well as a few feats of memory.

I came out of the show astonished, but also sceptical... One trick was thus: He asked everyone if they liked spy novels - someone stuck their hand up, he went on a bit and then asked a few members of the audience for letters to make up the code name of a hypothetical spy - it ended up as PAT. Then he asked someone for a place for their secret rendezvous - they said Birmingham, and someone else for the date. Then he asked me to name a time for the rendezvous. I thought I'd be clever and say the time that I thought it was at that moment - quarter to nine. (Turned out I was wrong and it was nearer to nine o'clock). But then he asked me if I was wearing a watch and I said no, then told me to change my mind about the time I was thinking of - I didn't. He asked other people for a couple more details, then came the big reveal!
He got someone on stage to take an envelope out of his front pocket, which was sealed, open it and read it out. All the details were correct. I was astonished!

He did a few other things that seemed incredible - while blindfolded he determined the first four digits on a banknote produced randomly from the audience... he called out people's names and knew what they were thinking at that point... and the most amusing moment of the evening was when he went up to a kid and said "You're thinking of ice-cream" and the kid yelled out "YES!!" very enthusiastically!

Obviously I was rather taken aback... by I couldn't shake the feeling that there were underhanded tricks going on... stooges, or secret earpieces, or him secretly writing things after knowing the answers. Obviously he makes no claims of supernatural ability or mind-reading, but some of his tricks were just impossible. But at the same time, I came out thinking "gosh I really must read up on this stuff and try a bit myself!". Has anyone tried reading up on and trying 'mentalism', or if it is all a swizz, know how it's done?

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Well watching a few of Derren Brown's bits it's all done by the power of suggestion and subconsciously planting ideas in people's minds. Well more complicated than that, but I think that's the basic premise.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Well watching a few of Derren Brown's bits it's all done by the power of suggestion and subconsciously planting ideas in people's minds. Well more complicated than that, but I think that's the basic premise.

Yes, I realise that's the basic premise, I just want to know if it's actually true!

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Well it's either that or he really can SEE INTO YOUR SOUL! Which of course is bollocks.

[Steve Lampkins]

I think he was on the Howard Stern show a few weeks ago, and as not much was prepared, he bombed.

[surreal]

It is a fascinating area - some friends of mine got sent on a course by their boss to help them learn to read body language, and I did some myself when I had sales training.  Came in handy when working on the shopfloor - basically as you're pitching to the customer you subtly mimic the way they're standing and their body movements, then at the point where they're interested and giving off buying signals they will subconciously start mimicking *you*.  Useful to know if someone is really paying attention...

There is also the thing of where you look when you're trying to remember something vs when you're making something up, its all to do with the hemispheres of the brain.

Regarding predicting the answers of things, one I always remember is:

The first number you think of between 1 - 50

Spoiler alert

37

[close]

Works a great deal of the time if its said quickly (may not have with you tho you smug bastards)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

49. Though I did change my mind almost immediately from my first number which was thirty something.

[Bingo Fury]

Shit, 37's exactly the number I thought of. Why the fuck would that be?

[jonno]

He got someone on stage to take an envelope out of his front pocket, which was sealed, open it and read it out. All the details were correct. I was astonished!

So the envelope was only produced after the choices had been made? It's easy to predict stuff that's already happened, the trick is making it look like you predicted it *before* it happened. Whatever time you picked would have ended up in the envelope. If it had been on a table, in full view throughout, and not touched by him then it would have been really astonishing.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

So the envelope was only produced after the choices had been made? It's easy to predict stuff that's already happened, the trick is making it look like you predicted it *before* it happened. Whatever time you picked would have ended up in the envelope. If it had been on a table, in full view throughout, and not touched by him then it would have been really astonishing.

I do agree that it would make a lot of sense if that was how it was done, but I can't see how he could have written down the answers during that time. I would like to see the trick again, knowing how it would end...

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Think of a vegetable.

Spoiler alert

carrot

[close]

[ziggy starbucks]

I can guess what Mr Analytical is thinking of right now

Spoiler alert

poo

[close]

[Borboski]

Shit, 37's exactly the number I thought of. Why the fuck would that be?

Yep, 37 was the first number i thought of, then I changed to 33.

I must say Derren Brown's book out at the moment is a lot of fun, he goes into quite some detail about his methods.  He's also refreshingly critical of Neuro Linguistic Programming as a load of old nonsense, bar a couple of inital books in the 70s.  It's amazing that some people are just incredibly suggestible.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Say milk.

What do cows drink?

Spoiler alert

Ziggy Starbucks' semen, if he's got anything to do with it

[close]

[Pseudopath]

Yep, 37 was the first number i thought of, then I changed to 33.

I thought the original question was supposed to be "Think of a number between 10 and 50, where both of the digits are different". This obviously reduces the number of possibilities. People tend to avoid multiples of 5 or 10 (as two have already been mentioned in the question) and also seem to stray away from even numbers. So most people end up picking a number roughly between 10 and 50, containing two odd digits, which leaves 31, 37 and 39. They then probably discount the former and latter options as they're too close to 30 and 40.

Or I may be talking complete bollocks.

[TC Raymond]

Guess who I'm thinking of right now?

Spoiler alert

Spencer Tracy

[close]

Admit it, you did not see that coming.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Think of a vegetable.

Spoiler alert

carrot

[close]

I don't know why, but my instant reaction to that was "cat"

[TC Raymond]

Whose tits would I like to jizz over right now?

Spoiler alert

Templeton Peck

[close]

Clue - not Simon Cowell's.

[Marvin]

I do agree that it would make a lot of sense if that was how it was done, but I can't see how he could have written down the answers during that time. I would like to see the trick again, knowing how it would end...

With a trick like that you have to ask why is every detail done. You say he got someone up to take an envelope out of his pocket, why didn't he just take the envelope out himself, which would be more normal? In this case probably because the assistant was a stooge who wrote down the information before palming the envelope.

Think of a jungle animal:

Spoiler alert

You probably thought of a lion, even though they don't actually live in the jungle you idiots.

[close]

[klaatu!]

He did a few other things that seemed incredible - while blindfolded he determined the first four digits on a banknote produced randomly from the audience...

Did he actually come into contact with the banknote? I saw Paul Zenon do a similar trick a few weeks ago on Countdown - he basically used slight-of-hand to swap the note for one of his own.

[Eight Taiwanese Teenagers]

Did he actually come into contact with the banknote? I saw Paul Zenon do a similar trick a few weeks ago on Countdown - he basically used slight-of-hand to swap the note for one of his own.

That is actually what I assume. Problem being that he didn't know whether it would be a £5, £10, £20, €20 even as he was already blindfolded....

[Cack Hen]

Pick a number between 1 and 1,000

Spoiler alert

333.

[close]

[waynew]

I dont want to spoil anything for anyone but seeing as you asked....

Me and the missus went to see Derren Brown's live show last month and she got picked for one of the "mind-reading" tricks.

Derren asked if anyone in the crowd had a book or magazine with them to choose a page at random and then read the first paragraph on that page repeatedly as he would be choosing someone at random later on in the show.   A few minutes later a man (one of Derren's assistants) gave my wife a book and asked her if she minded taking part in the show.  He asked her to choose a page at random and then read the first few lines from that page to get familiar with them (he made sure he saw the page number she had picked before he left her to it). He then told her Derren would be asking her some questions later on in the show.  When Derren later asked for anyone who had been reading to stand up the assistant ran to my wife with a microphone (there were other people nearby who were reading as well). Derren then asked my wife to pick a word from the first line of the page she was looking at and then asked if it started with an S and then correctly guessed the word.  Not surprising really! 

Don't get me wrong.  I know there is no such thing as mind reading and I do think that Derren is a master of his craft but it does feel a bit disappointing when you find out how a trick is done.  I have no idea how he does a lot of his stuff and I'm sure that if I found out I would be just as disappointed.