I Went to the Madrid Book Fair to Read Minds: Three Experiments

In short: at the Madrid Book Fair in El Retiro park, I ran three mentalism experiments with strangers. In the first, I read words they freely chose in any book, on any page. In the second, I found the one stall a person was thinking of among hundreds, guided only by contact with their wrist. In the third, I wrote down a word before someone else circled it at random in a book.

Experiment 1: the word nobody could know

The instructions were simple. Go to any stall, pick any book, open it at any page and choose a word. I could not see anything, and the person could change their mind as many times as they liked.

From there I work with what I can see: the face, the eyes and micro-expressions. I ask them to think of a letter, count the letters in the word or picture it written down, and I narrow it down. That is how words like “monarquías” (monarchies), “sábado” (Saturday) and “quemaron” (they burned) came out, chosen from books I had never even touched.

Experiment 2: finding a stall by touch alone

The Fair has hundreds of stalls. I asked one person to think of just one, say nothing, and hold my wrist while thinking about the direction.

This kind of contact reading relies on tiny, involuntary movements: when we head the “right” way there is less resistance, and when we move away a barely noticeable tension appears. We walked through the crowd for a good while until we stopped in front of the exact stall she had chosen. Her reaction says it all: “I’m in shock.”

Experiment 3: influencing a decision

The last experiment was the most ambitious: getting someone to act exactly as I wanted without realizing it. I gave her a book and a pencil, asked her to hold it behind her back, open it at any page and circle a word without looking. Before she did, I had already written something on a piece of paper.

The circled word was “dibujo” (drawing). My paper said “dibujo”. I repeated it with another person and it matched again, this time with “Sena” (the river Seine).

We are all far more suggestible than we think.

Magic, psychology or suggestion?

That is exactly the question I want you to walk away with. I have no powers: what I do combines observation, psychology, suggestion and mentalism techniques. Knowing that does not make it work any less, and that is the fun of it. If you like these street experiments, also watch How private are your thoughts? and the Milgram experiment I replicated in Madrid.

Frequently asked questions

What is contact reading?

It is a classic mentalism technique. The mentalist reads small involuntary movements in the other person to know which way to go or which object they chose.

Did the participants know anything beforehand?

No. They were visitors to the Fair I stopped on the spot, with no preparation.

Can I have this kind of mentalism at my event?

Yes. Formats like this work very well at cocktail receptions and corporate events, because they move among the guests and get people talking. Write to me and we will adapt it to your event.