Excellent points and perspective!

GB316
DW gave you great advice and Dick Christian steered you unto the right path IMHO.

When I started lurking around here last summer I decided to join the community a few months later. It was the best thing Ive done for my advancement in the ART. Welcome to the Café!

Like you, I wanted to do one thing and one thing only.... MENTALISM! I had the typical story, -did magic in my youth, blah blah blah, and now I want to get back into the art after X amount of years!-. As an adult I am the type of man that decides on a goal and sees things from start to finish. If it was mentalism, then BY GOD!MENTALISM IT IS!. But after asking for advice, and allowing my betters to mold me, through their sound advice,I began reading Hay's book -The Amateur Magicians Handbook-, and reading it the proverbial lightbulb lit up in my head! There was NO way I was going to begin doing mentalism without learning magic first. I understand that some have gone straight to mentalism, but this performance art has so much to offer and I don't want to miss out on the areas that picked my interest when I read -The Amateur Magicians Handbook- just because I want to become a mentalist.

Nothing wrong with having a long term goal but I just didn't want to be lazy and miss out...you know? I try my (laughable) best to do coin magic right now... and I suck less every day. When I'm not coin working, Im obsessed with my silver dollars, or reading BOBO, I drink coffee and read books on mentalism like the ones suggested above by my betters. Am I practicing mentalism? Well....no. But I imagine myself performing those miracles when I read it. I imagine myself as a Bob, or a Banacheck, or as a Paranormalist, or a human lie detector, etc etc etc... Somewhere, and at some other time... I will fill those shoes...but for now... I will do a coin roll, scream at the coin I just droped and learn my coins... Im having too much fun to stop.

Doing coins makes me respect my betters in the ART even more. When I see a Magician perform I just say -WOW!- because I know the hours put into the simplest illusion. Please don't tear me apart for my last rant... but I believe that doing mentalism before I feel ready would be disrespectful to such a beautiful and at times controversial performance art.

respects,
Shamsiel

Richard Osterlind's 'Easy to Master Mental Miracles' DVDs from L&Lpub.

Now, I can say that the Principles of Mentalism is possibly the best introduction to mentalism. However, I still put Cassidy's Fundamentals to be the best introduction to mentalism. They sort of come at it from two different directions and surround the concept of mentalism, defining and mastering the field.

*jeep! and God Bless!
--Grandpa Chet

I've recently started reading 'Corinda's 13 Steps To Mentalism'. I just can't put it down. Such an awesome read. The amazing thing is how logical it all is and the theory is so easy to understand. After reading through most of it, I've started practising some of the tricks and really look forward to mastering them. Definite recommendation by me and after doing research that seems to be quite a standard opinion of this book. I wish you the best of luck..................it's soooo much fun!!!!

Thank you all for your advice. I now have clarity and direction to take my journey forward so thank you all.

I'll put a plug in here for Jay Sankey. Check out his website. He can be a bit odd at times, but he is very thorough and gives you a lot of presentation ideas. He helps you think more about HOW to present and I find that very helpful. IMHO he gives a lot of value for your dollar and he is often overlooked.

http://www.sankeymagic.com

AMAZING MAGIC + MENTALISM VOL 1&2 are a great place to start.