Read Your Mind

Picture this. I’m a guest on a private island in the British Virgin Islands. A band plays steel drums as the clear waters of the Caribbean Sea gently lap the pristine shoreline. Chefs tend to jerk chicken sizzling on an elaborate barbecue while a team of uniformed servers weaves in and out of the crowd. The breeze smells like spices, hibiscus, and money. It’s magic hour, the last golden light of day washing over us. All the beautiful people are enjoying bespoke cocktails. The other guests and I can’t help stealing glances skyward; our host on Necker Island has just returned from the edge of space on his Virgin Galactic rocket.

Sir Richard Branson’s people could have hired anyone to celebrate the occasion. I mean, this is a man who has Mick Jagger on speed dial, right between Paul McCartney and the King. To my surprise and de-light, his team chose me. I’m working the crowd, going from group to group, building up excitement and momentum as we all wait for the guest of honor. Suddenly, his friends and family part like the Red Sea. The barefoot billionaire appears, sporting a deep tan that contrasts with his iconic white-blond hair and open linen shirt, flashing that un-forgettable smile. Everything about the scene feels surreal.

A moment such as this demands nothing less than the best, and I’m ready with one of my strongest reputation- making tricks. I lock eyes with the man, the myth, the legend, and it is go time.

“Imagine someone’s face, anyone at all, and see them in your mind’s eye,” I say. Then, using a small pair of scissors, I start slicing and dicing one of my business cards, like a child carving out a meticulous snowflake. Everyone around me whispers as they start to anticipate where this might be going.

When I ask him who he is thinking of, he casually says, “Barack.” Then he adds, “Obama,” in case I wasn’t sure which Barack he has in mind.

I unfold the paper and hold it up against my dark gray suit, revealing the freshly cut silhouette of the former president. The audience gasps in astonishment, but Branson, who does billion- dollar deals before break-fast, isn’t so outwardly effusive. Instead, he gives me a sly little smile. The best way I can describe his reaction is that it’s like having the Godfather reach over and pinch you on the cheek as an understated sign of respect and affection.

Sir Richard tucks the piece of paper into his breast pocket. He looks over his shoulder to make sure no one else hears him, leans in close, and whispers, “I’ll give this to him tomorrow when he arrives.”

What If You Could Read Minds?

Who hasn’t wished they could read someone else’s mind? How much easier would everything be if we could just figure out what other people were thinking, right? I mean, you’d probably never fight with your spouse again because you’d understand that should he or she say, “It’s nothing,” it would definitely be something, and you could act preemptively.

What if reading minds gave you practical skills, enabling you to predict the right time to ask your boss for a raise, to cease self- sabotage, or to stop procrastinating and start doing? You’d be more confidently per-suasive, able to influence those around you in an effortless manner. How great would that be?

Of course, mind reading would be nice to have if you found yourself in a position of weakness, because you’d have the formula to flip that power dynamic to your benefit. By knowing what’s in another person’s head, you could get a gatekeeper to give you what you want, whether it’s an extension on an assignment or a waiver from your homeowners’ as-sociation. Reading minds would make you better at understanding hu-man nature, which makes it the ultimate cheat code in life.

What would be even more useful than reading other people’s minds? The ability to read your own. Picture the results of tapping into your motivations and learning how to change your outcomes; of pushing past what’s kept you stuck. What if you could set yourself up for success in the long term?

You can do all of this using the skills of a mentalist.

I’ve spent almost thirty years learning how to reverse engineer the human mind. Knowing how you think reveals to me what you think. From Tom Brady to Serena Williams, Howard Stern to Shaq, I’ve convinced some of the most notable people on the planet that I can access their innermost thoughts. But guess what? My entire career is built on a lie.

Ready for a bombshell?

I can’t actually read minds.

What I can do is read people . . . and so can you! You already do it hundreds of times a day, every time you interact with another human being at home, at work, on the street, and everywhere in between, and I can help you be even better at it. Few skills will take you further in life than learning how to channel your inner mentalist. Reading people is a critical step to achieving what you want in this world. From getting ahead to getting what you want, the tactics I employ as a mentalist can be repurposed from entertainment to success in everyday life.

All of us have an internal BS detector that we developed from being around people, from getting social stimulus. What you may not realize is you were born being able to read minds. You can tell when someone’s not paying attention to you. You can tell when someone’s lying to you. (If you’re a parent, you’re really good at this.) You can tell when someone’s interested in you or when they’re faking it. We all have this sense. Well over two-thirds of communication is nonverbal, so it’s not a matter of what people say but how they say it, and even what they leave unsaid.

Mentalism is magic of the mind. Rather than using fast hands to fool your eyes, I watch the way people move. I listen to the words they choose. I study their patterns and behaviors, often without them realizing I’m doing so. Mentalism is all about psychology, observation, memory, and communication. These small signals tell a much bigger story— and once you know what to look for, you can “read” people al-most instantly. When I say to channel your inner mentalist, what I mean is this skill is instinctual. When you were a baby, long before you under-stood spoken language, you were able to interpret your parents’ thoughts by studying their faces. The furrow of a brow, the flicker of an eyelid, the pull of the upper lip; all of it infused with meaning. The first time we smiled at our parents and they smiled back, we said to ourselves, Oh God, when I do the thing with my mouth, that makes people pay attention to me! And it’s that first bit of dopamine that gets us going. The ability to interpret other people is innate in all of us because we’re social creatures; it’s why our species has survived.

The question isn’t Do you have the skills? because the answer is You do. The question is How do you take your skills to the next level? How do you improve on your instincts and learn to trust them more?

This isn’t about tricks. It’s about transformation. I’m going to teach you the very techniques I’ve used to perform for millions of people around the world—but more important, I’m going to show you how to apply them in your own life to create real, lasting change. You don’t have to be a mentalist to think like one. You just need a shift in mindset—and a few powerful tools.

So, I’ll walk you through how I became a mentalist and start you on the path to honing your skills so you can learn to read people and apply the principles of mentalism to your everyday life. And, crucially, to develop the ability to look into the mirror and start to read that person’s mind, which seems daunting, but it’s not. In fact, it’s easier than you think!