Mind Reading Magic Tricks

There are several types of magic tricks that you see here and there. On television street magic is probably one of the popular one these days. These magic tricks usually involve the use of coins or cards. Learning magic can be easy and entertaining at the same time. For those who are curious how mind reading tricks are done, it’s a lot simpler than you think.

Here’s a good simple mind reading trick that you can start off with. When it is mind reading that is concerned, people expect that it’s all about predictions. This trick involves numbers. In preparation for this trick you will need an assistant who knows how the trick works. Before starting your trick, write down a number on a piece of paper. Any four digit number over 6,000 will work. Once you’ve written your prediction on a piece of paper, fold it and place it in an envelope. Throughout the trick have the envelope in clear view of the audience. To start off, ask a spectator the year in which he was born. Write it on a large slate so that the audience can see. Ask another spectator to name an important year in history. Write the next figure under the first one that was given. Ask a third spectator what year he considers important in his life and again write it under the second figure. Point out to the audience that there is no way you would know what dates would be given. Now ask your assistant to write a year under the third figure. Once finished, ask your assistant to add up the 4 figures and read it aloud. Now ask someone from the audience to open the envelope that was in clear view throughout the show and read what is written on the piece of paper. It should have the same figure as what is written on the slate.  The key to this trick is that your assistant has to know the number you predicted. Your assistant in effect just has to write a number that will equal your prediction. Finding an assistant who’s good at math may be advisable.

Here’s another simple mind reading trick we’ll call Naming the Dead. For this trick you won’t need an assistant just a hat. So what you do is choose three spectators from the audience.  Hand each person a slip of paper and ask two people to write the name of two living people and ask the third person to write the name of a dead person. Without touching the pieces of paper, ask the spectators to fold the slips of paper and drop it into the hat. Ask one of the spectators to blindfold you. Once you’re blindfolded, shake the hat as if mixing the pieces of paper inside. Then pull out one slip of paper and it should read the name of the dead person. This is quite a simple trick. The three slips of paper you hand out should not be identical to the other. The best way is to tear a piece of paper into three parts. Two pieces of paper would have smooth edges and one rough edge while the center part will have all rough edges. Make sure to hand the center piece of paper to the person who will be writing the name of a dead person. So in effect you just have to feel the piece of paper with the rough edges when pulling it out of the hat. 

You can come up with all sorts of different mind reading games. It’s just about outsmarting your audience and being a little sneaky. It’s usually easier to pull off tricks when you have an assistant who is seemingly innocent.