All right, two digit number between 1 and
100.
>> Okay.
>> 33.
>> Wow.
>> Yeah?
>> Yes, holy shoot.
>> A cold reading is you warm up
the sucker by telling him things that he
says how could he ever know that, you see?
You say between the ages of 13 and 15,
you had a great change came in your life.
Well that happens in
everybody's life [LAUGH]
>> So a few weeks back I came across
a video by a guy who
claimed to be a mentalist.
>> Mentalism, it is the secret art of
seemingly being able to read minds.
>> He uses psychology and
basically mind tricks.
>> Irine?
[APPLAUSE]
>> Alex, look at me right here.
I wrote the name.
>> In order to lead you down a certain
direction, or make you answer a question
a certain way, so that he knows
it before you think he knows it, or she.
>> And what can you say also?
>> Yes, yes, yes.
>> Can you tell us, this is the first,
what was the name of your first love?
>> Elton
>> My God.
[APPLAUSE]
>> My God.
>> I can't even believe that, my God.
Nobody knows that, nobody.
>> I don't believe in psychics,
I don't believe people can read minds.
I'm a man of science, so
I'm going to put it to the test.
I'm going to try to learn those tricks in
a day and see what happens.
[MUSIC]
So just with a preliminary YouTube search,
I'm seeing a bunch of stuff
about palm reading and
how to assess a person's characteristics
based on how long their fingers are and
weird stuff like that.
I'm not sure how based in reality this is,
but this is why I'm going to put it
to the test and see what happens.
[MUSIC]
Just from, Watching videos last couple
of hours and doing research,
it's sort of evil genius stuff.
It's learning these mind tricks and
the power of persuasion.
And it's mostly just psychology, I feel
like, rather than illusion or magic.
[MUSIC]
>> Okay.
>> All right, cut the deck.
>> Okay.
>> I want you to think of a six digit
number.
Yeah, I can do that.
>> None of those are a pen, I'm sorry.
>> All right, so
I'm going to write something down.
If I told you to pick
a number between 1 and 10,
most people would end up
picking either 3 or 7.
If I told you to write down the numbers 1,
2, 3, and 4, and
then underneath that, write a vegetable.
For some reason, most people write carrot.
I don't know why that is, but
that's just the way it is.
Think of somebody's name,
anybody's name, who I don't know,
I couldn't know.
>> Okay.
>> So, knowing these tools,
knowing the way people's brains think,
you can kind of guide them,
and trick them, and
persuade them into making certain choices.
And that's what I was
doing with these people.
Now, the tricks didn't always work.
Think of a number.
>> Okay, 234.
>> Okay.
>> They match.
[LAUGH]
>> What?
>> But when they did,
they were pretty damn effective.
[MUSIC]
>> Woah, woah woah!
>> Woah!
>> And then the number you picked
with the four crossed out.
>> Shut the fuck up,
and you spelled his name right.
Are you serious right now?
Come on, come on.
How'd you do this?
[LAUGH]
>> Yeah, that was really your number?
>> Yeah, wow, okay,
now I'm sufficiently freaked out again.
>> There you go.
[MUSIC]
That's what I have for your number.
>> Which is correct, isn't it?
>> Yeah, that's what I have for your name.
But you wrote after.
>> I know.
[LAUGH] You're too good for this shit.
>> On a scale of one to ten,
I would give you a solid eight.
>> I didn't know your birthday and
I guessed the number.
How impressive is that?
>> I'd say a six or
seven, but yeah.
>> The trick
that I was most confused about
was when you guessed the correct
vegetable that John was thinking.
>> Not bad.
[SOUND] I thought of carrot too.
>> A solid 8.5.
>> Whoa, wow,
that's a lot, okay.
>> Yeah,
it's good.
>> Usually,
there's a point in these videos
where I show you this montage of
scene after scene of me failing to
attempt whatever it is I'm trying to do.
Well, with this, there really
wasn't a whole lot of failure.
Either you know the tricks or you don't.
I'm home now.
What time is it?
It's 8 o'clock at night.
A lot of these videos and
a lot of the techniques I've been
watching they're insanely simple.
So me knowing how simple it is, and
them not being able to get it,
fill me with this
feeling of power in a way that is
incredibly invigorating, and
potentially, I feel, addictive.
I feel like there's a fine line, right?
You can deceive somebody,
and it's in good fun,
and then you sort of tell them the trick,
and it's not a big deal.
Or someone maybe willingly
wants to be tricked.
But there's no such thing as magic and
no such thing as mind reading.
It's all just tricks, it's all just
gimmicks and the power of persuasion.
And it's interesting,
it's definitely interesting,
but it's also equally frightening.
Hey Mark.
>> What's up?
>> Think of a number between one and ten.
>> Okay,
do I say it?
>> Seven.
>> No.
>> [LAUGH] What was it?
>> You were one off, it was six.
>> Okay.
>> I heard you start with the S, and
I was like yes.
[LAUGH]
