Mentalists are also often considered psychic entertainers, although that category also contains non-mentalist performers such as psychic readers and bizarrists.Some well-known magicians, such as Penn & Teller, and James Randi, argue that a key differentiation between a mentalist and someone who purports to be an actual psychic is that the former is open about being a skilled artist or entertainer who accomplishes their feats through practice, study, and natural means, while the latter may claim to actually possess genuine supernatural, psychic, or extrasensory powers and, thus, operates unethically. Instead of doing "magic tricks," mentalists argue that they produce psychological experiences for the mind and imagination, and expand reality with explorations of psychology, suggestion, and influence.
However, many professional mentalists today may generally distinguish themselves from magicians, insisting that their art form leverages a distinct skillset. Mentalism is commonly classified as a subcategory of magic and, when performed by a stage magician, may also be referred to as mental magic. reading body language, refined intuition, subliminal communication, emotional intelligence), and an in-depth understanding of key principles from human psychology or other behavioral sciences. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes effects that may appear to employ psychic or supernatural forces but that are actually achieved by "ordinary conjuring means," natural human abilities (i.e. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precognition, psychokinesis, mediumship, mind control, memory feats, deduction, and rapid mathematics.
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities.
However, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, and has enjoyed several popular vogues since. They were also used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents. The same level of ingenuity that was used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would also have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in money games. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many stage magicians even capitalized on this notion in their advertisements. For many recorded centuries, magicians were associated with the devil and the occult. and is still performed today on stage and in street magic shows. For example, a trick with three cups and balls has been performed since 3 BC. As a form of entertainment, magic easily moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials.Performances that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced throughout history. Towards the end of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm. John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, who had a magic theatre in Paris in 1845.
Until the 18th century, magic shows were a common source of entertainment at fairs. During the 17th century, many books were published that described magic tricks. It was created by Reginald Scot to stop people from being killed for witchcraft. The performance of tricks of illusion, or magical illusion, and the apparent workings and effects of such acts have often been referred to as "magic" and particularly as magic tricks.One of the earliest known books to explain magic secrets, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, was published in 1584. To the general public, successful acts of illusion could be perceived as if it were similar to a feat of magic supposed to have been able to be performed by the ancient magoi. Ritual acts of Persian priests came to be known as mageia, and then magika-which eventually came to mean any foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. In ancient times, Greeks and Persians had been at war for centuries, and the Persian priests, called magosh in Persian, came to be known as magoi in Greek. The term "magic" etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia (μαγεία).