Books

13 Steps to Mentalism: A Guide to the Mentalist's Bible

What Tony Corinda's classic teaches, step by step, which edition to buy, and where to get the only authorized PDF.

By The MentalismPro TeamUpdated

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An old book open on a desk with pencil notes in the margins

13 Steps to Mentalism by Tony Corinda is the book most mentalists name when asked where the art is written down. It is a complete course in thirteen parts, from memory systems and predictions to readings, publicity stunts and presentation, and more than sixty years after it was first bound as one volume it is still the standard reference. Performers call it "the mentalist's bible", and the nickname is earned: if an effect in mentalism has a classic method, there is a good chance a version of it sits somewhere in these pages.

This guide explains what each of the 13 steps to mentalism covers, which edition to buy, where to find the only authorized PDF, and how a beginner should actually read a reference book this size without getting lost.

The edition to buy

Corinda: 13 Steps to Mentalism + Mindreaders (Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists)

The full text of Corinda's thirteen steps bound with William Rauscher's history of famous mind readers. The most complete print edition sold today, usually through magic dealers on Amazon.

Check price on Amazon

What Is 13 Steps to Mentalism?

Tony Corinda was the stage name of Thomas William Simpson, an English mentalist who ran magic shops in London, including the magic concession at Hamleys toy store and a shop on Oxford Street. According to Wikipedia's account of his life, he wrote a series of thirteen booklets on mentalism between 1956 and 1958, each dealing with one branch of the art, and sold them as separate "courses". The series was bound as a single hardcover, Thirteen Steps to Mentalism, in 1961, and the American dealer D. Robbins and Co. published it in 1964. It has stayed in print, in one form or another, ever since.

Why Mentalists Still Call It the Bible

Before Corinda, the methods of mentalism were scattered across magazines, private manuscripts and dealer catalogs. Corinda gathered the working methods of his time, credited many of their inventors, and organized them by subject with his own comments on what works in front of a real audience. The result is a book you consult rather than finish. Professionals still open it to check a method, find a variation or remember how an old effect was presented, and many modern routines are refinements of something described here.

Who Should Read It (and When)

The book assumes patience. Some of the language is very much of its era, and the sheer number of methods can swamp a beginner. Our advice is simple: perform a handful of complete effects first, from a friendlier book such as Annemann's Practical Mental Magic, then come to Corinda with questions. Our list of the best mentalism books by level shows where 13 Steps fits in a reading order.

The 13 Steps to Mentalism, One by One

These are the thirteen steps in the order Conjuring Arts and Lybrary list them. We describe what each step covers so you know what you are buying; the methods themselves belong to the book.

Step 1: The Swami Gimmick

The first step is devoted to a small writing device that lets a performer secretly write a prediction or a word at the last moment. Corinda explains how to choose, wear and use it and builds a series of effects around it, from opening pieces to stage predictions.

Step 2: Pencil, Lip, Sound, Touch and Muscle Reading

This step covers ways of gaining information from what people do without realizing it: the movement of a pencil, the shape of lips, small sounds, and the tiny muscular movements that guide a performer in muscle reading (the same principle behind the ideomotor effect).

Step 3: Mnemonics and Mental Systems

Memory as a performance: memorized lists, calendar calculation (naming the weekday of any date), magic squares, the knight's tour and card systems. It is the step that most rewards plain practice.

Step 4: Predictions

Effects in which the performer appears to know a future choice or event in advance, and the many ways a prediction can be presented, sealed and revealed.

Step 5: Blindfolds and X-Ray Eyes

Blindfold work has a long history in stage mentalism. Corinda reviews the classic approaches and the presentations that make an audience feel the blindfold is fair.

Step 6: Billets

Billets are small slips of paper on which spectators write a question, a name or a thought. This step covers the billet work at the heart of many "question and answer" acts.

Step 7: Book Tests and Supplement

A spectator chooses a word or line in a book and the performer divines it. Book tests are among the most practical effects in mentalism, and this step collects a wide range of them.

Step 8: Two-Person Telepathy

The classic "second sight" act, in which a medium seems to receive thoughts from a partner. Corinda reviews the classic approaches to this kind of act and how a pair of performers rehearses it.

Step 9: Mediumistic Stunts

Effects in the style of the séance room, presented as theater. Corinda's era was closer to the age of fraudulent mediums than ours, and this step is a reminder of why mentalists today frame such pieces as entertainment.

Step 10: Card Tricks

Card effects with a mental flavor, chosen for impact rather than sleight of hand.

Step 11: Question and Answer (Readings)

How to answer audience questions and give readings, including the early principles of what is now called cold reading. Ian Rowland's modern book is the natural follow-up.

Step 12: Publicity Stunts

Effects designed for newspapers, radio and public challenges: how a mentalist of the 1950s made headlines. Many ideas translate directly to social media today.

Step 13: Patter and Presentation

The last step is about what the audience actually experiences: scripting, pacing, character and how to frame mentalism so it feels astonishing without crossing into false claims. Many performers think it is the most valuable chapter in the book.

"13 steps to mentalism pdf" is one of the most searched phrases about the book, and the honest answer is that there is one authorized PDF. Conjuring Arts Research Center sells it as a text-based PDF with bookmarks, and its product page states that it is the only authorized PDF version for sale. At the time of writing it costs less than ten dollars, which is a fraction of a print copy. The file is password-protected and opens in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Is There a Free Download?

Not a legal one. The book is still under copyright and still sold, so the free copies on PDF sites and file-sharing pages are unauthorized scans. Many are incomplete or poorly scanned, and some come with unwanted software. Mentalism is a small field supported by small publishers; the legal PDF costs little and keeps the book available.

Is There a Kindle Edition?

We could not confirm an authorized Kindle edition. Kindle listings with the book's title appear from time to time under unusual author names, and we cannot verify who publishes them. If you want a digital copy, the Conjuring Arts PDF is the version that says it is authorized.

Which Edition to Buy

You will meet three versions of the book: the classic hardcover sold for decades by magic dealers, the combined Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists edition, and the PDF. The content of the thirteen steps is the same in all of them.

The Encyclopedia Edition (Print)

The edition linked on this page binds Corinda's full text with William Rauscher's Mindreaders, a history of famous mind readers, according to its listing. It is the most complete print version and the one most often available on Amazon, usually sold by magic dealers rather than by Amazon itself.

The PDF

Searchable, bookmarked and inexpensive. It is the best choice if you mainly want to look things up, and the weakest if you like to annotate a physical copy.

The Video Version

American mentalist Richard Osterlind recorded a video course based on the book, sold as a multi-disc set by magic retailers such as Vanishing Inc. It is a performer's commentary rather than a replacement for reading Corinda.

FormatBest forIncludes Rauscher's historySearchable
Encyclopedia edition (print)Owning the classic, annotating✅ Yes❌ No
Authorized PDF (Conjuring Arts)Reference on any device❌ No✅ Yes
Osterlind video courseSeeing effects performed❌ No❌ No

How to Study 13 Steps to Mentalism

  1. Read Step 13 first

    Start with patter and presentation. It tells you what the rest of the book is for and changes how you read every method.

  2. Then read Steps 3, 4 and 7

    Memory, predictions and book tests give a beginner the most performable material with the fewest special props.

  3. One step a month

    Pick one step, choose one effect from it and perform it until it is solid. Keep notes on what audiences remember.

  4. Return to the hard steps later

    Billets, two-person telepathy and blindfolds take practice and, often, a partner or special materials. Come back to them once you perform regularly.

13 Steps to Mentalism Review: Strengths and Limits

What It Does Better Than Any Other Book

  • ✅ Covers the whole field in one volume, organized by subject.
  • ✅ Explains many classic methods that later books assume you know.
  • ✅ Corinda's practical comments on what works with a real audience.
  • ✅ The final step on presentation still holds up.

Where It Shows Its Age

  • ❌ Some language and presentations belong to the 1950s.
  • ❌ Dense for a beginner; it rewards study more than reading.
  • ❌ Some props and techniques have modern replacements.

Even with those limits, it is the book to own once you know you want to keep performing. Pair it with our plan for learning mentalism and the overview of mentalism techniques to see where each step fits today.

The 13 steps are the chapters of Tony Corinda's course: the swami gimmick; pencil, lip, sound, touch and muscle reading; mnemonics and mental systems; predictions; blindfolds; billets; book tests; two-person telepathy; mediumistic stunts; card tricks; question and answer readings; publicity stunts; and patter and presentation.
No legal one. The book is still under copyright and on sale, so free PDFs online are unauthorized scans. Conjuring Arts Research Center sells the only authorized PDF, a searchable text-based file with bookmarks, for less than the price of most paperbacks.
The mentalist book trick is the book test: a spectator chooses a word or line in a book and the performer reveals it without seeing the page. It is one of the most practical effects in mentalism, and Step 7 of 13 Steps to Mentalism is devoted to it, with many approaches to the same effect.
Lybrary.com lists its digital edition of 13 Steps to Mentalism at 421 pages. The combined Encyclopedia of Mentalism and Mentalists edition is considerably longer because it adds William Rauscher's history of mind readers. Either way, it is a reference to study over months, not a weekend read.
We could not confirm an authorized Kindle edition. Listings with the title sometimes appear on Kindle under unusual author names, and we cannot verify their publisher. The digital version that states it is authorized is the PDF sold by Conjuring Arts Research Center, which opens in Adobe Reader on most devices.
It is essential, but it is not the easiest first book. Beginners do better starting with a book of complete effects such as Annemann's Practical Mental Magic, performing a few routines, and then studying Corinda one step at a time, beginning with the chapter on patter and presentation.

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