Mentalism: psychic mysticism or art form of the magician

What brought me back to the art of conjuring, as a Christchurch mentalist and magician, was seeing the incredible performances of Derren Brown on his television shows.

Spiritists, psychics, and magicians have existed for centuries in many cultures and eras. It is difficult, if possible, to separate them by definition.

Even today psychics and their associated types, clairvoyants, spiritists, palm-reading astrologers, etc., present themselves as psychic animators.

However, what is common to all members of this group are their methods, all interchangeable and all using tactics that have been taken over or investigated, discredited and ultimately adopted by the more commonly known members of the conjuring art. as magicians.

In recent times, these methods have also been studied by neuroscientists, in order to understand how they work and have the effects they have on people who think apparently rationally.

This has led to a greater understanding and, in many cases, the refinement and development of new techniques by magicians to perform seemingly impossible feats of power.

There are magicians who embrace and claim that their powers are the result of some psychic connection, however, there is another group that makes it very clear that their abilities are the result of abilities and understanding of how the mind can be deceived due to the way in that evolution has shaped it; the neuroscientific approach.

Both groups use the same or similar methodologies, however, the last group prefers to be honest and state that it does not use the phenomena of the spiritual realm.

There is also another group, within this group, that claims to have no connection with the psychic realm, but that claims a strong use of psychological and neuroscientific principles.

However, they use the deflection techniques, special utilities, and other methods of the conjurers’ art to perform their feats of wonder.
Removing the apparent mystique from these feats diminishes the value of the experience.

In my opinion, and in that of countless people who have followed artists like Derren Brown and the Canadian magician Spidey, the answer is no.

I myself am much more comfortable with the neuroscientific approach as an explanation (using the conjurer’s methods) to introduce effects that entertain and provide viewers with a memorable experience.

The claimants of the spirit world are openly and, although they may claim otherwise, knowingly lying to their audience, while the magician is admitting this deception from the start.

In my experience, as a Christchurch magician, I have found that this admission makes no difference to the entertainment value of the performance.