Easy Mentalism Tricks for Beginners

The very best easy mentalism tricks for beginners are those those that not only easy to perform but that use no items or require a ton of skill. Having this in mind, one category out of all fits this perfectly – forces. A force is when you, by one way or another, give the illusion of choice to your audience but actually force an outcome from them, be it a number, a color, a word, a thought or whatever you’ve pre-determined.

Most of them are easy, fast, require little training and best of all – they’re quite powerful!

Although there are many mentalism tricks to choose from, today we’ll be taking a look at the top easy mentalism tricks that you can learn how to perform in a heartbeat.

Let’s dive in!

Top 5 Easy Mentalism Tricks for Beginners

These are the easiest mentalism tricks you can perform as a beginner. They’re simple to learn, extremely potent and your key to blowing your first couple of minds!

1 – Triangle Inside Circle

One of my favorites, this classic but very easy mentalism trick delivers a powerful effect with little to no effort and it’s also ultra fast to perform. It’s all about suggestion through subtle hand motions to make your “target” imagine exactly what you want them to.

It’s super easy but you need to be very subtle, relaxed and confident, else the audience will realize that you’re tricking them due to obvious hand motions. Although I could explain to you step by step how to do it, why not let our friend Patrick Jane (Simon Baker from the show The Mentalist) show you instead? Enjoy.

Take notice of just how comfortable he is while performing – that’s the state you want to be in so it translates to your audience as well. Charm is everything!

2 – 3 of Diamonds Card Prediction

The easiest card mentalism trick you can learn is this brilliant one popularized by one of the best mentalists in the game – Derren Brown. Although it’s been around for ages, it’s still just as effective as ever and extremely simple. Just like the one above, subtle non-verbal communication is the key to ace this trick as you’ll be suggesting the diamond shape (through triangle shaped hand motions) and the number 3 as well by displaying it with your hands several times.

Here it is performed by the man himself, Derren Brown, in just 25 seconds.

Watch it several times and take notice of what he does with his hands – everything he says is just misdirection to steal your focus away from the hand motions (although your subconscious is capturing everything, which leads you to think of the 3 of Diamonds). An excellent and very easy mentalism trick for beginners.

3 – Elephant Trick

Offering Mentalism with a touch of numerology, the Elephant trick is a classic force that’ll blow your friends away. The trick gives your audience the illusion of choice while in reality you’re asking them questions that force them to think of a few numbers, letters and things that you’ve already pre-determined.

The final result will be them thinking “Gray Elephant in Denmark” (without them telling you) to which you can simply “mind read” them and say the answer or you can even write it down on a piece of paper before starting and reveal it at the end. It’s simple, effective and a lot of fun. Here’s a great explanation of the trick:

4 – Red Hammer Trick

Another numerology-infused easy mentalism trick, this one is all about asking your audience to perform a bunch of easy calculations in a specific order. Once they’re done, you ask them to think of the very first color and tool that comes into their mind and surprise, surprise – it’ll be a red hammer.

It’s not as certain as the Elephant trick but the success rate is still stunningly high. Although I spoiled the result by giving you the final answer straight up, you obviously can’t mention it at all to your audience.

The image that features the whole script is quite long so I’ll link to it here. You can take a look at it and then come back.

You also have a few interpretations of how and why it works although in my opinion the calculations don’t serve any real purpose besides making the audience focus and leave them more susceptible to the final question. Regardless, it’s a neat little mentalism trick for beginners.

5 – Drawing Thoughts

Another easy force, this one makes your audience reach the number 9 (be it through a card force or through a simple math questioning) which will always lead to them picking an item from a list (that you’ve printed previously) that relates to a shape you’ve chosen, in this case a circle (hula hoop, disc, bubble, etc…).

I recommend the card force instead of math as the math option is much more obvious. I know what you’re thinking – this sounds a bit complicated – but I assure you it’s not. Take a look at this great tutorial by Jeremy:

You can modify this trick in a lot of ways to make it your own but the simple basis always stays the same.

Conclusion

Simple but potent, these easy mentalism tricks will blow your friends’ minds and give you a great taste of what it feels like to be a successful mentalist. Although you can use these as party tricks, they’re also a fantastic introduction to the world of mentalism so if you’re interested in learning more, be sure to read this.

Thanks for reading and as always – have fun!