Have you ever felt like performing a few magic mind reading tricks to predict what the other person might think accurately? It’s a fun way to get attention at a party and socialize. While you might think most of these tricks are based on deductive reasoning and a lot of work is required to learn them, you’ll be surprised to find out that isn’t the case!
Almost all of the mind reading magic tricks you’ll be reading about today follow a specific pattern you must follow to force every individual to think of the same answer.
Top 8 Most Easy Mind Reading Tricks
You can master some easy magic mind reading tricks with a bit of practice and a crowd around you. However, if you fail too often, nobody will want to guess a number for the 100th time. Take your time, and try to read people as best as possible to offer them an element of surprise with a bit of mentalism magic. So, let’s dive right into it.
Gray Elephant in Denmark
This is one of the most classic magician mind tricks, and you might’ve encountered it before. It’s a simple mental trick that relies on mathematics to guess the number the other person is guessing. No matter what number the person selects, they will ALWAYS end up with the number 4. Here’s what you’re going to do:
- Ask everyone to guess a number between 1 till 10.
- Instruct them to multiply it by 9.
- Add the digits together, and then subtract 5.
- The final answer will always be 4; you can say it to surprise everyone!
- You can extend it by asking your audience to associate the number four with an alphabet.
- Naturally, they will end up with the letter ‘D’, the fourth letter in the alphabet.
- Ask everyone to think of a country that begins with the letter they’ve just thought of.
- Most of them will think of Denmark.
- Ask them to think of an animal with the second letter of that country (which would be E).
- At this point, everyone will think of an elephant.
You can now floor everyone by saying that they are thinking of gray elephants from Denmark!
Triangle Inside the Circle
Similar to how we just forced everyone to arrive at the same conclusion with gray elephants, we’re going to do the same with this mind reading trick, but this time with shapes.
- Ask your audience to think of a shape that’s like a square but not exactly a square.
- As they do this, try to discreetly make shapes with your finger, which will subconsciously force them to think of a triangle.
- At this point, everyone will most probably be thinking of a triangle.
- Now, ask your audience to draw a shape around the shape they’re already thinking of.
- To this, they will come up with a circle.
Three of Diamonds
For this specific cool mind reading trick, we’re going to allow a participant to pick a card. What we want to do is force them to pick the Three of Diamonds.
- Start by showing them a deck of cards and ask them to pick one at random.
- As you do this, start moving your hands in the shape of a diamond while talking.
- Create a random topic of conversation, and pretend you’re naturally gesturing.
- Subconsciously, they will be forced to pick the three of diamonds.
Red Hammer
The ‘Red Hammer’ read minds trick relies on fast answers and gives others no time to think of ‘too specific’ answers. What does that mean? Well, by default, if we’re answering a lot of questions in quick succession, we will only say things from the top of our heads. Neatly enough, when you ask someone to think of a color and a tool, they’re going to resort to a ‘Red Hammer’.
To do this, ask your audience questions to which EVERYONE knows the answer:
- When is Halloween?
- What’s 2+2?
- On which continent is Germany?
Get everyone to answer the questions loudly, and once their brains are thinking fast, you can ask them to think of a random color and a tool. When you say ‘Red Hammer’, your guess will correlate with most people in that crowd.
‘Reading’ Minds
For this easy mind reading trick, you will need a partner who’s in on the trick. We suggest pulling someone aside and instructing them to clench their teeth in accordance with the number that another individual tells them.
- Ask someone in the group to quietly tell your friend a number between 1 and 20.
- As they do this, put both hands on your friend’s temples.
- Feel the number of times their muscle tightens.
- This will let you know the number that was just whispered to them.
1089 Trick
Here’s how mathematicians got the ladies with this cool mind reading trick—the infamous 1089 trick. No matter what three-digit number someone selects, they’ll ultimately end up with 1089 through this easy mentalism trick.
- Ask the participant to take out their phone and open up a calculator.
- Then, tell them to think of any 3-digit number, and then say that they can even go for three different digits entirely (If they do so, it guarantees that the trick will work)!
- Let’s say that number is 369.
- In the next step, ask them to reverse that number (it becomes 963).
- Tell them to subtract the number bigger in value from the smaller one (369 subtracted from 963).
- Now ask them to reverse the number (495) they just got from subtraction (594).
- They will now have to add the two numbers.
- Once they’re done, you can say “1089” is the number they guessed.
It always works! Unless the person you’re doing this with doesn’t know how to use a calculator, it renders all that effort useless.
The Rainbow Ruse
The Rainbow Ruse is very famously known when it comes to mentalism magic, and this mentalist trick involves using a very broad stroke to predict details about someone.
Depending on how much the audience believes you is ultimately determined by how good your ruse is.
For example,
“I think that you like to stay organized but often like to reward yourself with a bit of laziness.”
These are two statements, either of which can be true for any given person. To someone else, it may sound like you’re telepathically grabbing onto their aura and learning about these traits from their personality. In reality, it’s just something that’s true about everyone.
The Crystal Ball Trick
It’s time to become a gypsy with this cool mind reading trick. To do this, you’re going to need a pen or pencil along with a small piece of paper. The crux of the trick is that you’ll draw a crystal ball on the paper beforehand and hand it to the volunteer. Ask the person to write a number down in it, and once they do, tell them to fold it so you can’t see it. Without looking at it, simply tear the piece of paper up.
What’s the secret sauce behind this trick? Well, let us explain how you can shock the person you’re doing this with. Keep in mind that the paper has to be folded in a square and once you have it with you, you will tear the paper in half and do so again after turning it sideways. REMEMBER the direction you’re tearing the paper in.
Once you’re done tearing it to shreds (not literally), unfold it, and make an attempt at distracting your audience. By remembering the pattern in which you tore the paper up earlier, you’ll be able to piece together what was the number that was written down.
After figuring it out, announce the number to your audience and bam! You’ll need to practice the ‘tearing’ part a few times in order to guess what the other person wrote down correctly.
Conclusion
As it turns out, mentalists just understand psychology well enough to be able to utilize it as entertainment for people. Even you can learn how to become a mentalist if you learn how to mislead people into thinking of YOUR answer. By accurately guessing what people think, you can catch them off guard with your ‘telepathic skills’, while in reality, you’re just performing a few easy mind reading magic tricks.
FAQ’s
How do you learn mentalist tricks?
In order for you to become a successful mentalist and perform cool mind reading tricks, you’re going to have to acquaint yourself with psychology either through reading or just interacting with people more by devising a few experiments on your own. With practice and observation, you’ll be able to gradually improve at surprising people with your answers.
What tricks do mentalists use?
The most powerful tools in a mentalist’s belt are misdirection and subtlety. By using these, mentalists can make an audience believe that they possess the gift of foresight, mind reading, or clairvoyance.
How do you learn mentalist tricks?
There’s no definitive method or secret that allows anyone to read each other’s minds. Mentalists and magicians will often fool you through the power of suggestion. You might think that you had a thought independent of any external variables, while in fact, all of it was just mere suggestions. Just keep practicing with a few close friends, and see how well you can improve. Once you’ve tried it out on a close circle of friends, it might be time to impress a group!
What is the trick to mind reading?
Mentalism reads your mind by subtly forcing individuals to continually eliminate any other thoughts and think exactly what they need you to think. While it might look like they’re reading your mind, they’re just reading your behavior to purposefully manipulate you.
How do magicians read your mind?
Definitely! Mentalism magic tricks are a skill, and practitioners have to use their extensive knowledge regarding human behavior in order to read minds and entertain an audience. To accurately predict what other people think, it’s very important to devise brief tricks that work for a general audience in most circumstances.
Who is the most famous mind reader?
If you’re well-versed in the world of mentalism and magician mind tricks, you’re probably aware of Lior Surchard, the most famous mentalist and magician who has been all over the 8 continents with a massive fanbase. His work really is a piece of art and we recommend you check him out to see how he has achieved his level of confidence when performing with an audience.
