Magic and mentalism. For the past few months I have been teaching my son new Jedi mind tricks.

Creative minds in the field of magic and mentalism constantly find better ways to deceive the senses.

When it comes down to the basics in magic, it only has a few principles that make Sylvia Browne and James van Pragh so effective in front of an audience. It’s the same things that make David Copperfield and Lance Burton seem capable of making things disappear and reappear before your very eyes.

One principle is that of misdirection.

For example, I perform a card “trick” (it’s an illusion) in which a selected card disappears from the deck and appears under a plate, surrounded by strangers and with no friends to help.

I’m not an expert on sleight of hand.

I just practiced the elements of this effect over and over again, hundreds of times. All the success or failure of the illusion rests in a second moment in which everyone’s eyes must be away from the plate.

Someday I am sure that I will be discovered about this illusion (it is really magical to have not only mind reading, but also telekinesis at the same time!). I’m not that good.

Misdirection is the critical factor in many “tricks” and “illusions” of magic.

The ability to know how your human brain will react and respond to your instructions … every time … or close enough to every time that you will never be seen as anything but amazing.

There are a few other factors in magic that can be used to make something appear out of nowhere. Concealment, for example.

Concealment comes into play in many illusions and magic tricks.

The better it can be hidden, the more amazing is the illusion.

Like these elements that give you the pieces to create and design a magic trick, you can also use generalizations about how people will react in certain environments, to certain stimuli.

Magic IS persuasion.

Persuasion can be magic.

In both magic and persuading, you * must * know what people will do in specific settings and be able to predict those behaviors or actions.

You have to be operating with a high level of certainty as an expert persuader and as a magician. (I’ll spare the argument that they are the same … they are close enough.) I know very few people who are extremely persuasive and who do not have a great interest in magic.

I don’t know of anyone in magic who doesn’t have a scientific mind … the ability to predict outcomes given a certain set of controlled variables … and to do it almost flawlessly … and the ability to reverse engineer RESULTS and BEHAVIORS and ACTIONS go back to causes of effects … because THAT is what a magician is.

The psychic also does this. They are simply false about the story they present.

Research is the foundation of the success of all magicians and all those who persuade.

Those who have the best information inevitably become the best magicians.

Those who understand what the audience will look at, look for, and what they will pay attention to will become teachers.

Those who create their illusions in a way that creates a natural flow of occurrences so that the audience always feels that everything that is happening … is happening naturally … they are the masters … here the audience suspends criticism and lower your defenses. Now they want to be part of the experience.

And the same goes for the master persuading.

However, a natural flow of events demands that the performer and teacher persuade them to work within the construction of how their audience thinks and feels. You have to know what they will look at and think and why. Only then can he create magic.

Successful persuasion is magic, and magic begins with understanding your audience.

It is absolutely necessary that the Master does not assume anything and put aside all instincts and intuitions.

Like the magician, if the salesperson or manager “follows their instincts,” they will fail.

Intuitively we know that, as parents, we have the greatest influence on the “outcome” of our children. Yes?

And obviously, a happy employee is a good, productive employee. Yes?

Certainly, if customers are more satisfied with the company than employees of the same company, you will earn more money … right?

Obviously 367 people are required in a room before you can GUARANTEE that two people will have the same birthday. But how many people are needed in the same room before there is a 50/50 chance that two people have a common birthday in the room? 183?

And when you put two quarters up, side by side, touching each other so that Washington looks directly to the left at both coins … now you flip one coin while remaining in contact with the other coin. You rotate 180 degrees. (Going from 9:00 to 3:00.) Washington is now head down (so to speak) and looking right at a coin and looking left in the motionless corner. Right?

The answer is, of course, that instinct is not very helpful. In fact, the people who follow their instincts turn out to be the failures of life.

183 people are not required in a room for there to be a 50/50 chance that two people will have the same birthday. How many does it require? 2. 3.

That is all. Mentalists and magicians are all aware of this and when they find themselves in a room of 40 people the odds are overwhelming that two out of 40 share the same birthday … thus capable of creating the illusion of coincidence, synchronicity … when it’s nothing like that.

People are very predictable because they think with their gut … which is why they are 50 pounds overweight and as long as people advocate, “follow your gut” or “follow your gut” they will be easily fooled. manipulated and create a large audience for magic.

The two rooms? It would seem logical that if you carefully rotate the coin 180 degrees while touching the other coin, without slipping, the rotated coin would now be upside down.

But no, the intuition is completely wrong again.

Both coins are once again heads to the left. The spinning coin is actually upside down when it is at the 12 o’clock position (turned from the 9 o’clock position).

As parents, you have a very modest stake in the destiny of your children. Not including genetics, the most significant factor is your friends. Then his school teachers … oh, and then you’re finishing last.

If your customers are happier with your company than your employees, you are probably losing money or not making what you could be.

Oh, and happy employees make better, more productive employees? No. On average, the opposite is true.

Common sense and instinct can be great at some things … but they’re pretty useless for thinking.

People “think” in “general rules.” They make wild assumptions that in the moment “feel good” based on their instincts and little else.

Understanding how people think and what they will think is critical to being a master of persuasion.

If you ignore how people actually process information, how they behave, what they think in various settings and circumstances, and follow your instincts, you have no chance of effective persuasion.

Know how people think and what they feel. Everything else rises or falls on this first hidden principle.

Next week, we’ll see more hidden principles of persuasion.