Meet a real-life mentalist

I'm a huge fan of the acclaimed television show The Mentalist, and in absolute thraldom of Patrick Jane - played by Simon Baker - who can get a gang of suspects into a room and identify the killer with cold/hot reading by dealing them a hand of tarot cards. You see, as Patrick later explains, there's nothing supernatural or paranormal - or even predictive - about a deck of cards: it's only that the human mind is (usually) conditioned to mentally operate a certain way; he only picks up cues, puts two and two - at times, two and three - together.
And, then, he says, "Et voilà!"
That's the first thing I tell Nicolai Friedrich (who was in town for a show last week). And how I have the DVD box set of The Mentalist, and do re-runs ever so often to be mentally in-tune with Patrick.
"How much are you like Patrick?" I ask excitedly.
"Quite alike," he smiles, clearly amused. "All the techniques I know - he uses them too, but the only difference is I don't work for the police [Patrick works with the homicide and serious crimes division at Sacramento PD]."
Nicolai sips on his latte, "You know, it's not just Patrick or I; anybody can be a mentalist."
That's what Patrick also says, but tell me again.
The human mind, he continues, has two parts - conscious and sub-conscious. The subconscious mind is quite limited in its operations because
most of the time we are paying attention to what's happening consciously; while the conscious mind dominates and "only picks up six to seven" conscious cues, the subconscious minds gets 'secret' signals - tone of the voice, aspects of body language, etc - to form intuitions.
"In a normal conversation, you won't pick up these cues because your focus is on something else - like getting the work at hand done. But if you're getting a good feeling or a bad feeling, that's because of your subconscious mind. In the end, we can all be some kind of mind readers."
So, what are the subconscious signals he is picking up from me?
"That you are overwhelmingly curious. and a little afraid. You're open-minded but, at the same time, sceptical. You're ambitious but you're also happy with what you have. You must be a Libran? Contradictions find a balance in your life?"
I am a Libran.
Wow!

When Nicolai was four, he attended a circus show and was "wowed" by the magician. "I knew immediately I wanted to do this, so I got myself a magic box, and mastered a few tricks." He proved to be a fast learner, and at 16, won an award at a magicians' competition in Germany.
But he wanted more "wows". "As a magician, I say pick a card, put it back in the deck, shuffle it, and I find it. That's impressive. What's more impressive, however, is telling someone, 'Think of a card and I'll tell you which one you thought of'. I'd always been curious about how the human mind works, about psychology. Gradually, I started getting into the field of mentalism. Now, in my shows, I mix magic with mentalism - that's more compelling." Magic is visual, mentalism is "the feel". "The combination is unique."
He's clear he cannot give life advice - how you choose to be is in your hands -"but I can help with techniques that can help you cope. It's a communication process - I can't just look at you and read your mind; mentalism is about psychology and the power of suggestion. and, of course, a little bit of magic!"
I reminiscence about an episode in The Mentalist, where Patrick gives a woman - who's a heavy smoker - a once-over and tells her when she wakes up the next morning, she will no longer want to smoke.
"Can you 'cure' someone of smoking?"
I ask Nicolai.
"This was one incident in The Mentalist that was slightly exaggerated," he laughs. "You can't 'cure' someone of smoking - it's a
habit, not an addiction, so it has to be let go. The smoker has to be ready to let go. Coming back to your question, yes, I can help
someone let go of a bad habit - such as smoking - but I'll need at least 10 minutes to work with him/her. I'll have to hypnotise him/her and reprogramme his/her subconscious mind. Because, when someone starts smoking, there's - usually - a subconscious reason
why they do it: they want to fit in or feel grown up or feel they need a vent. It's the person concerned who lets go of that need [that formed the habit], and I aid to get part of the subconscious memory erased. But it's critical that this person wants to quit smoking - else, it's not going to work!"
His biggest challenge, Nicolai adds, is if someone fakes expressions during a reading. "I always have a Plan B and then some, but you can - potentially - trouble me by faking expressions consciously." There are strategies and tools for mentalists. "I'm obviously
very secretive about them. There's a common pool that you cull from when you learn
mentalism. Then, you develop your
own methods, make variations, redefine existing techniques."

It's time for a little action of The Mentalist kind. I'm given a regular dice. "Now, choose a number and say it out loud."
"4," I offer.
He turns his face away, so he can no longer see what I'm doing. "Now pick another
number, place the dice on the back of your hand with the new number you've picked
facing out, and cover the dice with your other hand."
I pick 1, and do the needful.
"Ready?" Nicolai asks, face still turned away.
"Yep!"
He turns to face me. "Okay, like I've told you, you seem to be the sort who's very interested in this whole mentalism thing but you're also very sceptical. People like you, who want to make it difficult for me, usually pick a lower number than the one they thought of. So, your number is definitely below 4. Hmm, you like variety and you didn't want to make it easy, so you didn't choose 3 or 2, you chose 1. Correct?"
Correct, I say, a little bemused.
We could have gone on and on, but in my mind, it this seemed to be a play with a limited range of numbers - 1 to 6.
"Can you do something more 'magical'?
Like guess my debit card PIN number - Patrick can do that!"
"You think that's magical, having your PIN number revealed to a stranger?" Nicolai jokes. "But let's try. Is 1 the first digit?"
"Of my card number or my PIN number?" I ramble nervously, because, you see, 1 is the first digit of my PIN number.
"The PIN," he says.
Yes, I whisper.
"Care for the second one?"
"Why not?" I counter bravely.
He tells me to hold his hand and look into his eyes. He calls out 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-0. I think I look unflinching the whole time, but when he asks, "9? Is 9 the second digit?", there's a trickle of full-bodied dread coursing down my being.
"Oh dear Nicolai, let's forget about the remaining two digits. Now tell me how important is it for a mentalist to be a good person - to not abuse the subconscious system into doing horrible things. like prising out PIN numbers and robbing everyone dry?"
It could be dangerous, he agrees, but it's part of the "show". "I, for instance, am too busy to be tempted. [I'm hoping the others are too!] As a magician, I can steal watches but I don't want to."
Of course I have to ask him: "Can you
steal mine?"
"I can't steal your watch if you're asking me to steal it - but if we are having a normal conversation and you are not expecting me to steal your watch, I can do it!"
The larger point, however, he says, is that mentalism is a skill which can be useful in everyday life. "You can influence people at a positive level, you get to know more of the human mind. As a salesman, for instance, it's helpful to meet a person and realise what they want. And if you can practise mentalism on yourself with the help of self-hypnosis - which is a great mind-disciplining tool - you can motivate yourself, be more empathetic."

What's his message to the world as a
mentalist?
"Inspire people and show them that 'seemingly' impossible things can be done. Most inventions in the world had seemed impossible till the time somebody actually invented them. You know, as kids, we have fantasies and are so open-minded, but the more we grow up, the magic goes away. We need fantasy and creativity to change our perception of reality - it's an ability we have but we don't use it. and I want to bring it back."
After my meeting with Nicolai, I make a mental note to change my debit card PIN number, and turn the corner to get a taxi. As I do so, I come face to face with Patrick Jane, my original mentalist: Simon Baker looms large over a store façade (alongside a horse - maybe he was being a horse whisperer) in a Longines advert. How about that, how about that, I think to myself, trying to do a quick mental math on the probability of a coincidence.
Or maybe it is just mentalism. Or maybe there's magic in my life.
Et voilà!
sushmita@khaleejtimes.com