One of the most powerful parts of learning mentalism is the ability to control people’s de-

cisions without them even knowing it.

It’s a scary concept to think about, actually.

Imagine if someone was controlling your decisions everyday without you even knowing
it.

Of course, there is an extent to which trained mentalists can influence your mind and deci-
sion making. But it’s extremely powerful and, once mastered, should be used with a cer-
tain level of ethics.

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One of the most common, and simple, examples of influencing decision making appears
when the magician asks you to select a card from the deck.

They already know the card you’re going to select. All they have to do is influence your
mind so that you choose that one.

To the spectator, it’ll be as if it was completely random.

To the common individual, this might sound like a low percentage trick.

But trained magicians and mentalists have done studies where they could influence 100
random people and get 98% of them to choose the card they wanted them to choose.

And the same goes for mentalists.

It’s powerful because people don’t know how powerful it can be, even if they’re told
straight to their face that you are going to be influencing their decisions.

It all happens subconsciously. And that’s extremely cool, and kind of scary when you
think about it.

So how does that look like?

First, watch this video of a master in action:

This is decision influencing at the highest level.

And the cool thing is, you can watch his little moves, practice them, and try out this trick
on your own friends and family.

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Step 1: Be assertive, and confident

This is the foundation of the trick. You need to act like a leader.

People follow leaders because they’re confident, they seem in control, and are smart.

You can’t be shy as a mentalist, especially doing this trick.

People are influenced by leaders and by being assertive and confident throughout the
trick, you are already half-way there.

Step 2: First card is NO - so you influence them to say YES

The first card you lay down on the table is always a yes.

To influence the yes, you’ll start by nodding your head as you ask him to guess what it is.

This is simple, but powerful.

What does nodding do?

First, it build rapport, which in turn builds trust with the spectator.

Second, it’s a subtle suggestion which is easily ignored by the conscious mind, but NOT
THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND.

Nodding builds rapport because humans naturally feel closer to assertive and positive
people, which negative people tend to break rapport. It’s a subtle detail, but one that
can really influence a quick decision.

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Step 3: Shuffle the cards, and ask them this question...

As you watch into the second part of the trick, he’ll shuffle around the cards in his hands
and then say, “You didn’t just see what that said...”

This is a key move, and not just a random part of the conversation.

The key is in the phrasing of the it.

He didn’t ask, “Did you see the card?”

Instead he asks a confusing question that can be interpreted in two ways:

The guy consciously ignores the suggestion since it is a given in a contest where it is very
nicely "hidden" inside a statement and thus easily installed unconsciously.

The mentalist knows that they didn’t see the card, but...

when they answer, No they didn’t see what it said... he confuses them further by rephras-
ing it.

This is to give him a lot of negative statements here.

This is an unconscious suggestion to choose NO.

VERY IMPORTANT: It’s NOT a conscious suggestion, because the spectator thinks that
the mentalist is genuinely worried if he saw the card or not.

Notice also how the statement "YES, the card said NO" is pretty confusing if analyzed
consciously since it contains both the words. But NO prevails simply because it is embed-
ded in a suggestion. When confused, the unconscious goes always for the suggestions.

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Step 4: Suggestions and advice

When he gets the second part wrong, which everyone will if you are doing this properly,
then it’s followed up by a “tip”.

You “help” him with the game by giving him false advice.

You tell them...

“You’re guessing... What you don’t want to do is guess. If you guess, you only end up
with a 50/50 chance. What you want to do is think through the process and try to out-
think it.”

What he says is a false statement. Following the process does not actually give clues
about the answer, unless Derren lets something slip out (which he does not). Following
the process is just a way of saying "Notice my suggestions", which will make the other
guy both more confused (his conscious mind is occupied to notice his behaviour) and
more suggestible.

Also, since he's trying to help him, he's actually building rapport with him.

This is incredibly important for the next part.

Step 5: Ask for his thought process

Now comes the third try.

Here’s where it gets trickier. You can’t use the same forces on them again.

And you need to know more information about what they’re thinking, and how they’re
making their guesses.

So you ask them, “Talk me through your thought process.”

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And because you’ve built rapport with him just earlier by “giving advice,” they’ll be
more likely to tell you the truth.

The card you lay down will be a NO.

They will guess YES almost every time at this point.

Why?

The "yes" here is actually a quite predictable choice, since he is trying to break the pat-
tern the mentalist has built. This is a "logical" answer but is also a mind trap.

Then, before he turns over the card, he adds another element: money.

Adding money to the game actually gives more weight to the guy's decisions. He is now
more reluctant to change his mind since his choice now has a "value". This is just an incen-
tive to not change the choice. Human being tend to be homeostatic, and believe their
choice is right despite it being actually good.

People will not change their minds at this point.

Another influencer tip: When you need to suggest 2 options to somebody, lean back
when you say the one you don’t want, and lean forward when you say the one you DO
want.

It’s another subtle unconscious communication that strongly influences decisions.

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Step 6: More money

Last round. At this point, they’ll have gotten all of them wrong and getting quite frus-
trated that they can’t get one 50/50 choice correct.

But you know that it’s not a 50/50 choice.

You’re influencing his decisions like mad.

And he doesn’t even know it.

In the last round of the trick, you’re going to take out even more money.

In the video, it’s a thousand pounds.

You don’t need to use that much. You can just double the previous wager.

If you master this trick, you don’t have to worry about losing your money :)

The added money gives a HUGE pressure on the guy. Now his choice actually has a lot
of weight, so he will have to analyze everything more accurate (while actually confusing
himself in the process)

The last card will be a NO, so you need to influence him to say YES.

The first move is to hand him the money and ask if it’s real money.

Another subconscious YES in his mind. We’re planting the answer in his mind.

Then... ask if they’re confident. If they’ve gotten everything wrong at this point, they’ll an-
swer yes.

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At which point, you’ll pretend to change the cards after the guy said NO.

This is a powerful unconscious way to suggest the answer is actually YES. The mentalist
does it in a way that the NO seems like it's important for the choice of cards, while it's
not. It's just misleading behavior.

Also, changing the cards actually disrupt all the guy's plans, putting him into "panic
mode" and confusing him further.

Again, ask them to walk you through the process.

Why is this so important?

It’s because you’ve already influenced him to say YES.

And by asking him to walk you through it, it confirms the answer in his mind and it
doesn’t give him time to think about other things and change his mind.

Explaining his thought process aloud also re-assures him that his decision is a logical one
and there is no reason for him to change his mind.

After they explain their thought process, give them confidence by saying that that’s actu-
ally pretty clear and solid.

The last part, where the mentalist tells him it’s NO and he’s wrong, and gives him a
chance to change his mind is something you could do or not do.

It’s up to you.

At this point, the mentalist is 100% sure of his influence on his decision and that he won’t
change his mind.

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It’s like in magic, when you already know the card that the person selected, you have a
confidence about you where you can literally do anything to make the trick look cooler.

This is one of those times.

Because of everything you’ve done up to that point, the spectator WON’T change his
mind.

And alas, you turn over the card and show him that it’s a NO.

Conclusion

This trick takes a lot of practice.

It’s a communication skill and an art form.

You have to be 100% confident in yourself that you’re going to get it right.

You can’t be anxious, and you can’t doubt yourself.

That’s why you need to practice the trick’s routine as well as every little gesture and line
that we went through here.

Watch the video many times, take notes, and you’ll soon be ready to try it out.

The first few times, you’ll amaze yourself and your spectator.

It’s truly an amazing feeling when you can do this trick from start to finish.