The Piddingtons

The Piddingtons were an Australian mentalist duo made up of Lesley and Sydney Piddington. Their act featured interactive mindreading using word associations and a form of telepathy where one would receive thoughts from the other while blindfolded on stage. The Piddingtons gained fame through 1950s radio and television appearances.

Nakul Shenoy

Nakul Shenoy is an American mentalist who combines magic, psychology, intuition and humor in his performances. Notable mindreading stunts include drawing hidden pictures and guessing words written by audience members. Shenoy has appeared on television shows to demonstrate his psychic entertainment skills.

Rob Zabrecky

Rob Zabrecky is an American mentalist and magician known for offbeat acts blending gothic horror elements with mental magic. His skills include apparent telepathy, psychic readings, communicating with spirits, and precognition. Zabrecky performs regularly at the legendary Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Docc Hilford

Docc Hilford is an American mentalist who focuses on incorporating psychology and human behavior in his routines. Known as “The Mind’s Eye,” his act often includes displays of telepathy, psychic readings, lie detection, and hypnotism. Hilford has published numerous books on mentalism and even runs an online mentalist school.

Glenn Falkenstein

Glenn Falkenstein is an American mentalist specializing in trade show entertainment. His interactive presentations showcase skills like telepathy, lie detection, psychic readings, and predicting outcomes. Falkenstein uses magic, psychology, non-verbal communication and statistics-based tricks in his corporate act.

Tony Andruzzi

Tony Andruzzi, known as “Neil Kileen,” is an American mentalist known for headline predictions, blindfolded vision stunts, and other feats of mindreading. His career has spanned over 30 years performing on television, cruise ships, and theaters across the world. Andruzzi uses magic, prediction, psychology, and humor in his interactive performances.

Haim Goldenberg

Haim Goldenberg is an Israeli mentalist known for mindreading stunts like identifying words written by audience members on concealed slips of paper. Much of his career has been dedicated to debunking psychic frauds through public demonstrations. Goldenberg combines magic and psychology in his performances.

Ted Annemann

Theodore Annemann, known as Ted Annemann, was an American mentalist most prominent in the 1920s and 1930s. Annemann specialized in thought reading stunts, telepathic mind control, and predictions. He was known for his bold, fast-paced performances and prolific writing that educated generations of mentalists. Annemann helped expand interest in mentalism through his work in magic […]

Michael Gutenplan

Michael Gutenplan is an American mentalist known for highly visual presentations and ability to read body language. His fast-paced act often includes psychic readings, duplication of drawings, and shocking predictions about audience members he just met. Gutenplan has performed at Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle.

Jerome Finley

Jerome Finley is an American mentalist who emphasizes intuition, hypnosis, and ritual in his act. Finley’s serious style involves demonstrations of telepathy, psychic abilities, divination, and lie detection through a combination of magic methods and interpersonal skills. He has performed extensively across the United States.

Nina Kulagina

Nina Kulagina was a controversial Soviet psychic and mentalist who claimed telekinetic abilities enabling her to move objects with the mind. While widely studied, the legitimacy of her abilities was questioned. Skeptics attributed her demonstrations to sleight of hand instead of supernatural powers.

Luke Jermay

Luke Jermay is a British mentalist known for mindreading presentations that blend magic, suggestion, psychology, and showmanship. His skills include predicting events, identifying objects hidden by audience members, and revealing personal details about volunteers. Jermay has published best-selling books on mentalism and released instructional DVDs.

Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall

Alexander J. McIvor-Tyndall was an influential mentalist around the turn of the 20th century. He performed demonstrations of clairvoyance and mind reading in front of large audiences. McIvor-Tyndall exposed many fake spiritualists while advocating for mentalism to be studied as a natural phenomenon.

David Berglas

David Berglas is a British mentalist known for pioneering close-up mentalism on television in the 1970s. His act features impressive demonstrations of telepathy, psychic abilities, lie detection and predictions. Berglas has famously refused to reveal the magic methods behind his storied routines.

Bob Cassidy

Bob Cassidy was an American mentalist known for pioneering psychological mentalism tricks and authoring influential books on mentalism. His acclaimed act incorporated techniques such as muscle-reading and psychological forces to create stunning displays of mindreading. Cassidy emphasized creating mentalism routines that were both powerful and natural in presentation.

Alain Nu

Alain Nu is a French mentalist known for clever television performances involving telepathy, prediction, memory feats, lie detection and psychic readings. Nu uses psychology, suggestibility and statistics to achieve his mindreading wonders that have amazed audiences worldwide.

Tony Corinda

Tony Corinda was the professional name of British mentalist Marvin Berglas. He authored pioneering books on mentalism, revealing psychology-based techniques, principles, and presentation methods. Corinda is credited with legitimizing mentalism as an artform distinct from traditional stage magic.

Richard Osterlind

Richard Osterlind is an American mentalist known for his influential writings that instruct magicians on incorporating mentalism techniques. His acclaimed stage act showcases skills like clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition through interactive mind reading routines with the audience. Osterlind has also released many books and DVDs teaching mentalism.

Marc Paul

Marc Paul is a German mentalist known for bold public prediction stunts like guessing headlines weeks in advance and identifying the unknown authors of books. He has also demonstrated telepathy on live television by having partners duplicate his drawings remotely.

Burling Hull

Burling Hull was an American mentalist known for publishing cutting-edge books in the 1920s that revealed psychology-based mentalism techniques to magicians. His writings educated serious students of mentalism for generations on fundamentals like blindfold reading and spirit slate writings.

Erik Jan Hanussen

Erik Jan Hanussen was an Austrian mentalist and clairvoyant performer who toured Europe in the early 1900s. He performed apparent feats of telepathy, mindreading, psychic abilities, and prediction. Hanussen claimed to have genuine supernatural powers but also drew skepticism over the stage magic methods behind his tricks. He became famous for predicting Adolf Hitler’s rise […]

Jason Suran

Jason Suran is an American mentalist who emphasizes the psychology of deceit and reading body language. His interactive performances test his lie detection and mind reading skills with audience participants. Suran has been featured in media outlets like the Huffington Post and Forbes.

Wolf Messing

Wolf Messing was a Russian mentalist and psychic entertainer who gained fame in the Soviet Union in the mid 1900s. His act consisted of stunts like mind reading, influencing thoughts and actions, and predicting future events. While controversial, Messing impressed audiences including Stalin through displays of telepathy and psychic powers.

Chrissy B

Chrissy B is an American mentalist who performs for theaters and event productions across the country. Her act highlights her intuition skills, including displays of telepathy, lie detection, psychic readings, and revealing of secrets. Chrissy B has opened for famous magicians like David Copperfield.

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro was an 18th century occultist, alchemist and mentalist who performed throughout European high society. He claimed psychic abilities like clairvoyance, telepathy, and healing powers but drew skepticism over the stage magic methods behind his tricks. Cagliostro pioneered many mentalism techniques despite accusations of being an impostor.

Oz Pearlman

Oz Pearlman is an American mentalist known for his clever and engaging interactive performances involving mindreading, prediction, influence, and psychic abilities. Pearlman was a finalist on America’s Got Talent, which helped launch him into professional theater and corporate performances.

Keith Barry

Keith Barry is an Irish mentalist, magician and hypnotist who won fame through television specials in the 1990s and 2000s. His skills include mind reading, influencing choices and implanted thoughts, and predicting events. Barry combines magic, suggestion and psychology to achieve his mental feats.

Dunninger

Joseph Dunninger, known professionally as Dunninger, was an American mentalist who peaked in popularity during the 1930s and 1940s. He performed numerous feats of mentalism and hypnosis on stage and on radio programs. Dunninger’s signature tricks involved identifying hidden objects and prediciting headlines in newspapers. He insisted his abilities were genuine psychic powers.

Guy Bavli

Guy Bavli is an Israeli mentalist and entertainer best known for original mind reading stunts performed on television. His skills include identifying objects hidden by audience members, duplicating drawings, and revealing personal details about volunteers. Bavli uses psychology, prediction, and trickery in his precisely executed routines.

Al Koran

Edward Doe, known by the stage name Al Koran, was a British mentalist and magician. He was most active in the 1950s and 1960s as a performer and author of books on mentalism, cold reading and magic tricks. Koran’s act emphasized both suggestion and clever trickery, astonishing audiences with headline predictions, mind reading, and psychicIllusions. […]

Paul Brook

Paul Brook is a British mentalist known for interactive mind reading stunts where he reveals audience members’ thoughts, duplications their drawings, and makes improbable predictions about their lives. His television appearances have made Brook one of the UK’s most recognized mentalists.

Maurice Fogel

Maurice Fogel was an American mentalist known for his vaudeville and theater shows during the early 1900s. His act consisted of apparent feats of telepathy, including revealing audience members’ thoughts and identifying objects hidden in envelopes. Fogel blended sleight of hand with psychology to make his mentalism routines entertaining. His legacy helped popularize mentalism in […]

Chan Canasta

Chan Canasta was the stage name of British mentalist David Solomon. Active in the 1950s, Canasta gained fame for public stunts like blindfold card readings and thought transference tricks with BBC radio listeners. He made frequent television appearances with his mind reading act.

Michael Weber

Michael Weber is an American mentalist known for mindreading stunts like duplicating drawings made by audience members while blindfolded. He has performed extensively on international stages, in casinos, and on television, including shows like America’s Got Talent. Weber uses magic, psychology, and suggestion in his highly interactive performances.

Colin Cloud

Colin Cloud is a Scottish mentalist known for highly energetic performances combining comedy, magic and mind reading demonstrations. Notable stunts include revealing audience secrets and predicting headlines in newspapers torn up by audience members. Cloud gained fame through appearances on talent competition shows.

Tim Conover

Tim Conover is an American mentalist who emphasizes imagination, psychology, and intuition in his performances. His interactive act involves mind reading games revealing the thoughts, memories, and even dreams of audience members. Conover has performed extensively across the United States, including entertainment venues on the Las Vegas strip.

Anna Eva Fay

Anna Eva Fay was an American mentalist active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. She performed in vaudeville and theaters, demonstrating telepathy, clairvoyance, psychic predictions and communication with spirits. Fay’s combination of magic methods and dramatics thrilled audiences, though skeptics challenged the validity of her psychic claims.

Kyle Johnson

Kyle Johnson is a mentalist from Long Island, New York who performs an interactive mind reading act across the United States. Blending magic, psychology, and humor, he astounds audiences by revealing their thoughts, replicating drawings, and making precise predictions about their lives. His act has been featured at the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood.

Freya

Freya is a British mentalist who delivers energetic mind reading performances incorporating magic, psychology, analytics and audience participation. She is known for her precise guesses about minute details of a person’s life after asking them just a couple quick questions. Freya has toured internationally and appeared on television programs.

Angela Funovits

Angela Funovits is an American mentalist who emphasizes the psychology of deceit. Her act often involves duplicating drawings, revealing secret words, and making shocking predictions about audience members she just met. Funovits has performed extensively on cruise ships, theaters, and corporate events across the world.

Thomas Bends

Thomas Bends is a German mentalist known for his mind reading performances on television. His act usually involves displays of telepathy where he replicates audience drawings or reveals their secret thoughts. Bends has made appearances on shows like The Next Uri Geller and Penn & Teller: Fool Us.

Roni Shachnaey

Roni Shachnaey is an Israeli mentalist who uses the art of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) to read people’s verbal and non-verbal cues. He then makes shocking revelations about audience members he just met, like revealing their hidden thoughts or predicting their actions. Shachnaey performs regularly in Europe and the Middle East.

Ehud Segev

Ehud Segev is an Israeli mentalist known for his appearances on television programs where he showcases mind reading, prediction abilities, and influencing skills. Segev emphasizes the human psychology and body language cues behind his tricks. He has performed internationally, including shows in New York City.

Peter Turner

Peter Turner is a British mentalist who combines magic, suggestion, psychology, and intuition in his act. He is known for performing accurate psychic readings on audience members he just met. Turner has done world tours and made television appearances on shows like America’s Got Talent.

Chris Cox

Chris Cox is a British mentalist who creatively incorporates comedy and improvisation into his interactive mind reading act. Cox makes predictions, reveals thoughts, and guesses personal details about audience members. He has toured widely and made television appearances on shows like Britain’s Got Talent.

The Amazing Kreskin

The Amazing Kreskin, born George Joseph Kresge on January 12, 1935, is an American mentalist who became popular on television in the 1970s. His signature move involves finding hidden objects while blindfolded. Kreskin has headlined world-wide and has appeared in numerous television shows performing his mentalism act. He also hosted a full hour television special […]

Banachek

Banachek, born Steven Shaw on November 30, 1960, is a British-born mentalist who now resides in America. His shows focus on psychic entertainment involving mind reading, telepathy and precognition. Banachek has worked with famous magicians like David Copperfield and Criss Angel and has made many television appearances. He is notable for exposing psychic frauds and […]

Marc Salem

Marc Salem, born on September 16, 1950, is an American mentalist known for his highly intellectual, interactive mind reading performances. He incorporates techniques from magic, psychology, and neuroscience in his acts. Salem has performed at theaters and colleges all over the world, and also works as a researcher in the field of nonverbal communication. He […]

Gerry McCambridge

Gerry McCambridge, born on March 31, 1973, is an Irish mentalist, magician and memory expert. He is known for his mind reading performances that combine sleight of hand, mentalism, psychology and showmanship. McCambridge uses his skills in body language reading to make precise guesses about audience members he has just met. He has performed internationally […]

Lior Suchard

Lior Suchard, born in 1982, is an Israeli mentalist, magician and entertainer. He performs mind reading feats where he guesses intricate details about audience members he just met or divines their secret thoughts. Suchard’s performances incorporate music, comedy, improvisation and audience participation. He gained fame from his shows in Israel before bringing his act to […]

The Clairvoyants

The Clairvoyants are an Austrian mentalist duo made up of performers Thommy Ten and Amelie van Tass. Their act features a blend of magic, mind reading, psychology and showmanship. The duo gained popularity through appearances on talent competition shows like America’s Got Talent, where they impressed audiences by revealing hidden words, numbers and objects. They […]

The Zener

The Zener, made up of performers Psych and Zen, are an Italian mentalist duo that blend magic, mind reading, technology, and comedy in their acts. They gained fame by winning Italy’s Got Talent in 2019 and have since performed on international stages. Their interactive style involves reading minds, predicting events, and influencing choices.

Jon Finch

Jon Finch is an American mentalist, magician, and mind reader. He specializes in highly visual and interactive performances that astonish audiences. Finch’s skills include telepathy, predicting future events, and identifying thoughts and memories. His unique “hands-off” mentalism style has entertained audiences across the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland. Mentalist Jon Finch combines magic, […]

Equivoque

Equivoque, or “Magician’s Choice,” is a psychological technique used in mentalism, and by some magicians, to give the illusion of a free choice when, in fact, the outcome is controlled by the magician.

Forcing

Forcing is a technique used in magic to give the illusion of a free choice when the outcome is actually predetermined.

Billet reading

Billet reading is a collection mentalism techniques where the performer is able to reveal information written on a piece of paper (billet), apparently without seeing what the spectator has written.

Peek

A peek is a secret method used by mentalists to gain information, such as the identity of a chosen card, without the knowledge of the spectator.

Cold reading

Cold reading is set of techniques used by mentalists to imply that they know much more about the person than they actually do.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a state of human consciousness involving focused attention to achieve a trance-like state, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion. In magic, hypnosis is often simulated or used as a part of mentalism routines.

Hypnotists use induction techniques to induce a trance state characterized by heightened suggestibility, a reduced sense of self-awareness, and an altered perception of reality. Induction techniques include progressive relaxation, guided imagery, or direct suggestion.

Suggestion

Suggestion is psychological technique used to guide thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, often employed in hypnosis and mentalism. In magic, suggestion can create illusions of mind control or prediction, adding a layer of mystery to the performance.

Through subtle suggestion, the mentalist seemed to predict the spectator’s choice.

Mesmerism

Mesmerism is the therapeutic application of hypnotism, named after Franz Mesmer who proposed the concept of “animal magnetism.” Mesmerism involves a trance state in subjects through nonverbal hypnotic methods such as fixed gazing.

Micro-expressions

Micro-expressions are brief, nonverbal facial contortions that reveal a person’s emotions and intentions. Micro-expressions last for only a fraction of a second and often go unnoticed by the average person. In mentalism, understanding and interpreting micro-expressions can be used to create the illusion of mind reading or clairvoyance.

“Mentalists and psychics notice ideomotor responses, and even micro-expressions, to help them gain insights into their clients’ thoughts and feelings.”

Nonverbal cues

Nonverbal cues involve communication methods other than words, including gestures, body language, facial expressions, eye contact, and tone of voice. In mentalism, understanding and interpreting nonverbal cues helps to know the thoughts of the participant.

Showmanship

Showmanship is the skill of making an artistic performance engaging and entertaining, crucial in the field of magic. Showmanship involves charisma, stage presence, and the ability to captivate an audience. A great showman can turn a simple trick into a memorable spectacle.

The magician’s showmanship turned the simple card trick into a crowd-pleasing spectacle.

Mentalism

Mentalism is the performance art of creating illusions of mind reading and other mental feats. Mentalism is a performing art in which practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, principles of stage magic, and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, precognition, clairvoyance, and other similar phenomena.

Mentalist

A mentalist is a performance artist who performs tricks and illusions associated with mental powers, such as telepathy, mind control, predicting the future, and other mental feats. A mentalist is a performer who uses psychological techniques and tricks to demonstrate mental feats beyond the ability of ordinary people. Mentalists seem to be able to read minds or predict the future, present mind reading, psychokinesis, precognition, clairvoyance, and other similar phenomena.

Psychic phenomena

Events or interactions seemingly influenced by the mind beyond the scope of established physical laws. These phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis, are staples of magic and mentalism.

Psychic phenomena refers to a broad range of mental activities claimed by practitioners of mentalism (as a performance art) as being supernatural or mystical. These activities include communication with discarnate entities, perception of past lives and distant events and the manipulation of physical systems by paranormal means.

The mentalist’s act was based on demonstrating various psychic phenomena.

Telepathy

Telepathy is the ability to transmit thoughts or information between individuals without the use of senses or physical interaction. In magic and mentalism, telepathy is often simulated through clever techniques and psychological manipulation, adding a layer of mystery to the performance.

The magician’s telepathy trick, guessing the card the spectator was thinking of, amazed the audience.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is the ability to see things hidden from the eyes. This ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception is called clairvoyance.

“She closed her eyes and, using clairvoyance, described the contents within the opaque box.”

Precognition

Precognition is the ability to anticipate future events or be aware of something before it happens, often employed through the use of magic or illusions by mentalists, magicians, or illusionists. Precognition is a psychic ability allowing perception of events before they occur.

The mentalist used precognition to predict the audience member’s upcoming promotion.

Divination

Divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the unknown, or foresight into the future, through supernatural or magical means. Divination is sometimes used to find hidden objects.

The mentalist used divination at the beginning of his show to surprise the audience with statements about them he couldn’t possibly know.

Telekinesis

Telekinesis, or psychokinesis, is the psychic ability to move or manipulate objects with the mind, often featured in magic and mentalism acts. Telekinesis is also knows as psychokinesis.

The magician’s act of telekinesis, making a pencil move without touching it, left the audience stunned.