A form of stage magic; a pseudopsychic magic that imitates demonstrations of psychic powers used by spiritualists in seances. Combined with other forms of stage magic, mentalist practices are used to produce psi effects in spiritualism that are then attributed to the spirits. In the case of mediumship, and fortune-telling, mentalism includes the psychological skills of cold reading clients to assess what they want to hear. This is done in many ways, but a very frequent ploy is to ask questions that sound like general statements and then to watch for subtle clues revealed by the client’s body language.
In the past stage, mentalists had to invent ingenious codes, such as the famous time-delay code arranged between sender and receiver where an accomplice can transmit bleeps by touching a switch in his cuff, or even in his shoe. Today, miniaturization technology has produced much easier forms of communication.