Image: ©Universal Pictures
(continued from Promises, Premonitions, and Purposeful Misinterpretations)
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. —ALBERT EINSTEIN”
There are individuals in our world who possess the simple inherent ability to understand the behavior of their friends and neighbors with such pinpoint accuracy as to make one believe they are actually reading minds. Though few and far between there are examples of people in this world who have honed this intuitive ability in pare with theatrical conjuring, illusionary stage magic, and showmanship to deliver incredible feats of extraordinary psychic ability. An intuitively empathic person, generally from childhood and before any formal training, may master this astounding ability to tell someone what is on their own mind.
Though the skills may be passed on by teaching, as Lior Suchar (one of the most recently famous of these influential and sensitive sorts of people) says: “It’s like learning to play piano, sure you can learn the keys and notes but not everyone is going to be Beethoven.”
The ability to appear to read minds is only surpassed by their less pronounced and very much “sleight-of-hand” ability to influence entire crowds of people to let themselves be put under control. Using simple suggestion, hypnosis, and sometimes subliminally loaded settings or props (and a boatload of showman’s secrets and magician tricks) the professional mentalist will demonstrate how they can control and command their volunteer to commit to certain actions. In the large stage act of Derren brown for instance, after using hypnotism and suggestion, his subject which he has made feel like a “colossus” towering above the stage, reaches in a closed box and perceives a large soup ladle to be a simple kitchen tablespoon. In one hour long special he convinces a man that he is immobilized and cannot speak, wherein the man will only follow commands and respond to the sound of a bell. In another feat on a popular daytime television program Lior Suchar passes out large white paper cards and markers and asks the audience to quickly draw a simple drawing, which maybe only takes 5 seconds, after which he accurately predicts (largely due to seeds of influence he planted by suggestion) the exact drawing that every member of the audience has made, which was a “star”. (later it is revealed that Suchar had been using examples of symbols, shuffling the flash cards in order that spelled out the word star)
The power to influence and control others behavior coupled with the amazing ability to read the body language and facial expressions is augmented by a vast understanding of basic human psychology and behavior. A mentalist will often be able to deduce, quite like Sherlock Holmes, who a person is by asking them specific questions and not only hearing the answers but putting those answers in context of their volunteer’s own understandings and perceptions of the world around them.
In the late 1500s Girolamo Scoto, one of the first known mentalists and an Italian Court conjurer, had made such an impression on King James, performing before James and Elizabeth, that Scoto was included in “Daemonologie” which was James’s philosophical paper that centered on Witchcraft, Witch hunts and trials such as those recently (at the time) undertaken in Scotland, and included subjects such as Vampires and Werewolves. He wasn’t referenced as being any of the more ominous creatures described above, and his name wasn’t mentioned, but he was referenced as an “Italian at court who does wonderful tricks upon the cards”. One other reference describes his juggling act before Queen Elizabeth.
In the modern world we face a sort of influence and suggestion problem every time we see a commercial or a campaign ad. Every time we watch a well written and calculated speech and whenever we scroll down the face of our smart device searching for that day’s news. There are statements or questions, as simple as they appear to the reader, built to deliver a perception that wasn’t even being discussed and make the reader believe that they were the ones who invented to notion in their own minds. There are the games people share designed to gather intelligence about the public, specific things such as age and gender and location of upbringing (Your band name is the word listed next to the first letter of your name and the first letter of the state you were born in). There are yet other questions and commands designed to test audience compliance (raise your hand emoji if…). While not all of the people engaged in this sort of posting are malign, any audience should beware handing out information that may be used to further triangulate them.
While there are many firms offering business and campaign solutions using several of these techniques coupled with machine learning, that isn’t what this article is about. I would consider many of those techniques closer to “Hot Reading” Which I wrote about, here
Generally, three steps ahead of their audience, the “mentalist” is not only deducing what someone might be thinking but has already influenced those thoughts or beliefs to enter the subjects mind. There are several elements of mentalism which extrapolate well to the world of confidence trickery, but also to modern advertising and especially to engagement on social media where it is clear watching these amazing performers that all of us have been using the term “influencer” very, very, loosely.
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I’ve see the positive side of hypnosis while working with my Psychiatrist to live better managing chronic pain & help my Minsomnia. But hypnosis or subliminal suggestion has to remain in the hands of a professional with intention is only to help.
Subliminal messaging in advertising or being used by anyone with bad intentions is always a concern.