David Thiel, always appreciate listening to his wisdom. I've learned much from reading his posts over the years.

Matt, regarding your request for suggestions on compensation to make the podcast sustainable, I like the idea of a monthly Patreon fee. But rather than just a bonus interview, perhaps consider the bonus content will include the interviewee teaching an effect, or including a something of value that would serve as an introduction to their material. In other fields, some authors provide a free sample (the first 2 or 3 chapters of their new book) as a way to introduce their work. If people like it, they can then buy the full book.

Personally not a fan of the sponsorship or commercial approach on podcasts.

Thank you Matt and David for a wonderful episode!

What a great suggestion, Stunninger! That really resonates with the feeling I get when listening: I would really like to get to know the interviewees better through their work. The thought “I wish I had an example of their creations to check out now” went through my mind literally after every interview. I’d be very happy if this way of making the podcast sustainable would be adopted.

I really enjoyed this episode. Great interview (loved the “swinging dead cats”, had to laugh out very loud, David). Really enjoyed the contrast between David’s very concise and Matt’s more chaotic way of talking. I enjoy both, I find. And very informative reviews. Thanks very much, Matt. And David.

Matt: It was a pleasure talking to you. I appreciate your searching spirit and insightful questions.

Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure.

David

It was great to hear you again David!

You could hear how well thought out David is about the business of Mentalism. Great listen!

Just listened to Davids interview.
What a treat! Great job guys, thanks tons.

Episode 8 is out, another solo show, more mentalism history. This time I talk about the venerable Robert Nelson. A little bit of a shorter episode this time.

https://soundcloud.com/mysteryartspodcas......a-nelson

Just started getting into this. Great job on the tech side. As a podcast runner myself I know how hard it can be to get the sound right. That is something that I still struggle with at times. I started with the intro episode and then listened to David’s interview which was fantastic. It has a lot of great suggestions on booking gigs and general thinking on Mentalism that I really enjoyed and learned from. I then listened to some of the history episodes such as Nelson and then the first one on the history of Mentalism and I was a bit turned off. There is a presupposition in your presentation that all psychic arts are fraudulent. That’s disappointing. However, it didn’t lose me. When I first started performing Mentalism I was for a time pulled into the materialist and skeptic mind set so I understand where you are coming from and I can hear the fear in your voice when you speak to the possibility of things that go outside of that mindset. There is a lot of negative pressure in the fake magic community to put the mystical and real magic side of things into the broom closet. This always confused me.

I look forward to listening to more interviews as the info on the worker side of things is very valuable. When you get into the conversations on history and spiritualism you might want to consider that you are pushing your own beliefs when you make statement that certain things are bogus or fraud etc... I know there are people in the psychic community that take advantage of the vulnerable and who truly are frauds, but that doesn’t mean we all are. Every industry in the world has people who are trustworthy and the possibility of those who take advantage or misuse their power. Sadly the bad apples have painted a negative picture on the metaphysical world especially from the eyes of a fake magician. It is possible to be interested and have studied magic, perform Mentalism, and be part of the mind body spirit community without deception or fraudulent behaviour. Some of what seems confusing in the history is just that, an interest in all mysterious things.

But Matt, Nelson wrote a whole load of books precisely about using non-psychic means to make it seem like you had genuine psychic ability...and how to keep a repeat client list for your readings side gig and so on... he never really advocated "doing it for real" he advocated the exact opposite by releasing so many books on it!

if people are interested in "doing it for real" then they either have to choose to be as honest as they can be upfront about what is going on, OR...they can release a book on how to give psychic readings and it would be one page long, saying "simply use your psychic ability to give the reading"...

Thanks for listening Stuart.

The materialist side of things is not the only thing I'm intent on presenting. I definitely talk about my beliefs and being open to the possibility of real psi in other episodes.

I'm personally not a skeptic, but I am a mentalist, so I walk both paths.

And Iain is right- Nelson himself was a bit cynical on the subject, which is perhaps why this one comes of that way (if it does).

It's not my intention to be dismissive of the possibility of the real stuff, but as mentalists, we very much come from a line of people that used trickery to fake first spiritualist phenomenon, then mind reading. And so far, the trickery and deception has been what I've been exploring.

I certainly hear your point, and, though my intention has always been to be open minded and not dismissive, I will consider being more explicit in that. Thank you for listening.

“I'm personally not a skeptic, but I am a mentalist, so I walk both paths.”

Well stated and agreed

Hey Matt, really liked the latest episode! I didn't realize Nelson invented all those things. I guess I can forgive him for sponge bunnies given his other accomplishments:-)
And on the Hellstronism, I recall that Criss Angel Mindfreak had an episode devoted to it, although can't remember too much about it years later.

Lol, yeah. Definitely never would have guessed sponge bunnies were a Nelson invention.

He was an extremely prolific guy.

Regarding Nelson learning Hellstromism, the non-contact mind reading thing is especially tantalizing. As I said in the podcast, Nelson believed that contact mind reading was the gateway to real ESP, and it may well be if he was able to do it without contact on occasion. Damon Reinbold recalls a story where he demonstrates non-contact mind reading to Mark Wilson and Nani Darnell after they played the Ohio State Fair. Nani, without writing anything down silently thought of an action that she wanted Bob to do, and he did it. I suppose the cynical minded could think it was actually a setup, but considering there are others that have reported being able to do it, I'm inclined to believe that it happened.

I think I mentioned this as well, but William Walker Atkinson (not a mentalist, rather an occultist and philosopher) wrote a book called 'Practical Mind Reading' which teaches how to do contact mind reading, but does not consider it a trick (maybe it's fair to say it isn't) and also considers it a gateway to higher forms of ESP. It's worth a look, can be read here:

https://archive.org/details/practicalmin....../page/n3

Hellstromism aka CMR aka MR has a long and twisty history.

I got interested in it after seeing Osterlind presenting it at a workshop he’d invited me to in Vegas after MindVention one year. It was one of four things that left me ‘gobsmacked.’ By that, I mean that I was unable to speak for a few minutes. (If you know me, you know how rare that is.) It is one of the closest things to “real” mind reading that I can imagine. It blew me away because I was the volunteer who led Richard right to a pen that was hidden under a paper in the middle of the room. And I KNOW I wasn’t helping him.

So I became obsessed with learning this method. It’s not complicated but it does take a lot of practice.

The best book I know of on the subject is actually the one Osterlind wrote after that particular workshop. It’s a step by step guide that cuts all the fluff from the explanation. Clear and concise.

The volunteer doesn’t speak. You genuinely don’t know where the object is hidden — or for that matter what the object even is — you focus on your subject utterly and you know what they were thinking. What’s the difference between that and ‘real’ mind reading?

David

Episode 9 is live!

I had a great time talking with Drew Backenstoss this week. We had a fun and freewheeling chat and I know you guys are really going to enjoy the conversation. In the review section I talk about 'The Surprise' by Think Nguyen.

Listen and subscribe on the usual podcast apps or you can listen (or download) directly from Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/mysteryartspodcas......kenstoss

Yay!

Matt's description of our chat as "fun and freewheeling" is spot on (well... I had a loads of fun at least!). I believe Matt had some questions planned but my stream-of-conscious tendencies derailed his plans Hopefully listeners will take SOMETHING of value from the episode (and that full well may be to steer clear of me haha).

I want to thank Matt for inviting me on and for taking the initiative to start such a niche podcast in the first place! It's clearly a labor of love and he does a great job.

Best wishes,

Drew

Really enjoyed the episode. Thanks, guys.

And episode 10 is up!

After Matt Pulsar's post above, I reached out and invited him on the podcast. He graciously accepted and we had a very illuminating chat. He's a very entertaining and funny guy.

Also new this episode, the mid-interview music break is from a guest artist named Jason Smith. Not sure if he's a member here, but he is a fellow magician/mentalist. He kindly allowed me to use one of his songs for the podcast (which was great since I didn't have anything new this week).

I still didn't quite finish Drew's book so no review this week.

https://soundcloud.com/mysteryartspodcast/10-matt-pulsar

Perfect timing, I gotta drive to a gig today. Looking forward to the drive now! 😎