Part of being a mentalist is about trusting your judgment. Unfortunately, most people have turned their observation skills off. General and non-overt assessment of an individual provides good background information that is normally missed.  For example, are the person's hands soft or calloused? Is his musculature toned or not? Is the person dressed to stand out or to hide? Take yourself right now -- what might someone learn about you just from looking at you? There are dozens of general assessment information items that will help you to profile the individual. Think of Sherlock Holmes -- he didn't have ESP, he just noticed things. That's all. A slight tan line on the left ring finger. A pen mark on the left hand. He would now trust that this person is either divorced or separated and right-handed. Trust those snap judgments! A mentalist's work lies in stirring memories and causing the "tells" to appear, even if the person cannot bring to mind the information. “Tells” will help you to observe what the mind knows but the memory cannot call forth. Remember that although someone may say they do not remember something, the brain records everything. As such, the information is there, but just not accessible to that person at that time. "Tells" include:  Dilation or constriction of the pupil of the eye (dilation is associated with positive emotion; constriction with negative).  Where the person gazes Rate of respiration Heart rate Relative perspiration of the body Knowing what tells to look for isn't helpful if you don't know what they mean. While each person is a bit different, tells are called as such because they're usually consistent. So get in front of a mirror and start studying your own face. Here's a few things to look for:  When you think of a positive memory, your pupils should dilate. When you think of a negative experience, they should constrict. Imagine both of these scenarios and see what happens. Think of an answer to this question: What do you like about going to the beach? Once you've come up with your answer, note where you looked. If you said something like fire, you probably visualized it and looked up. If you said something like the sounds and the smells, you probably remained at eye level. If you said the sand in your hands, you may have looked down. Visual answers generally go up, aural stays level, and hands-on memories draw gaze downward. Make yourself nervous. How does it manifest in your body? What is your heart doing? Your breathing? What are you doing with your hands? Now run through other emotions too -- sadness, happiness, stress, etc. Much of detecting lies is seeing the tells we just covered. In fact, that's what a polygraph does -- it measures blood pressure, pulse, and perspiration. The higher these numbers, the more likely the person is lying. But you can also do things a polygraph can't do -- like see when people aren't looking you in the eye, twiddling their thumbs, or being inconsistent in their verbal and non-verbal behavior.  A good thing to master is detecting micro-expressions. These are little flashes of how the person actually feels before they consciously cover it up. They're often feelings of distress or negative feelings they don't want other people to see for one reason or another. Pay attention to their entire body -- how much they're gulping, if they're touching their nose or mouth, what they're doing with their hands, fingers, and feet, and how they're standing in relation to you. Are they angled toward the door? They probably subconsciously want to get away! Persuading people is a huge part of being a mentalist.  At the very least, you're persuading them you are a mentalist! If a person is given some evidence that one can “read their mind," they are easily confused between telepathy and observation/persuasion. A simple way to do this is to ask leading questions. John Edward and other TV personalities are great at this. They start with, "I'm seeing a 19. Does that mean anything to anyone?" They start out vague until someone latches on. Then, once someone does, he'll ask questions like, "You were very close to him, weren't you?" and the person answers, feeling like they're understood. He's just asking very vague questions and the person is filling in the gaps for him! Look for all detail in the environment. Observe all human interaction, from the one-on-one to how the room is grouped. Often just a ten-second look into a room can tell you how each person is feeling.  If you see one or two people near the door, they may be socially anxious. See a person whose body language is clearly focused on someone else? They're interested in that person, probably sexually. And if everyone is aligned toward one person in the room, you've found your alpha. And that's just three examples. If you can, record something. Start with small segments, observe, record, then view again several times to find what information you missed the first time.
اصنع أحكامًا لحظية على بيِّنة. ابحث عن الدلائل المادية في الآخرين. استخدِم نفسك كأول حقل تجارب. اكشِف الكذبات اسأل أسئلة ذات مغزى. تدرَّب بشكل عرضي بمسحك للغرفة بنظرات متفحصة.