The ability to communicate clearly between the minds of two or more individuals without any spoken words or by any other physical means.  This includes the ability to tell random strangers specific thoughts, feelings, and images that they have in their minds.

The ability to cause inanimate objects to move or otherwise be manipulated with the power of the mind, simply by concentrating and apparent sheer force of will.   This is usually done by causing objects to move across tables or rooms, pages in books to turn, and even causing spoons, forks, and other metals to bend and twist without any known application of outside physical force.

The ability to discern facts about a person, place, or event merely by coming into direct physical contact with objects associated with them such as finger rings, clothing, houses, etc.

The ability to know, in advance, the actions, thoughts, or feelings of a person or persons, or an event or series of events.  This is often made apparent by writings or recordings that are supposedly made prior to the occurrence and could not have been completed after the fact.

Amazing feats such as solving complicated math problems with lightning speed, difficult puzzles like Rubik’s Cubes, and even murder mysteries.  In some cases, the mentalist has actually learned how to do exactly what they claim to be doing (such as memorizing a great deal of information), while at other times they are merely creating the illusion of such abilities through some form of trickery.

The ability to perceive things accurately in the apparent absence of physical eyesight, usually while blindfolded or otherwise somehow having physical vision temporarily eliminated.   These demonstrations seem to indicate that the mentalist—without physical vision—is not only able to “see” things, but can even perceive things that people with normal vision are unable to see.  One of the staples of many of my performances is my blindfolded mind-reading act.  You can see a demonstration by clicking here.

The ability to act as an intercessor in communication between living individuals and loved ones or other individuals who are dead or have passed away.  Many professionally performing mentalists (those with pure ethics anyway) shy away from this as it is mostly practiced by people who want to convince the general public that such skills are real, and that they are truly communicating with people beyond the grave.

Regardless of how skilled a magician may be, few people who walk out of a theater or other venue after a magic or illusion show truly believe they've witnessed something miraculous or "real."  At the very most they admire the cleverness and theatrics of the performer, but don't actually believe their assistants were sawn in half or flew through the air by some mystical power.  However--due to the highly-interactive nature of most mentalism performances--people often leave a show by a mentalist with a powerful feeling that something extraordinary has taken place, mostly due to the very personal nature of the effects they've witnessed.  While theatrical illusions performed by magicians and illusionists are impressive indeed, being told by a mentalist that he or she knew that you have an aunt named Clara who just lost her German Shepherd named Zeus is something you are not soon to forget, especially since you've never met before.  The audience's perception of the abilities of the performers are quite different indeed.

The truth is that while performance styles between magicians and mentalists tend to vary greatly, the difference between a magician and a mentalist is otherwise rather subtle to the casual observer.  Mentalism is actually a branch of the art of magic that--while closely related--tends to exist somewhat entirely on it's own, employing many of the same methods but often eliciting stronger and longer lasting effects upon it's viewers.   Both magicians and mentalists are guilty of "smoke and mirrors"--with magicians using the term to a more literal degree, while mentalists demonstrate this through clever rhetoric, pseudoscience, and at times even invisible, mechanical trickery.