If I could only read your mind... oh yeah, I can!

It is amazing how the internet works. I wrote an article for a software magazine a few years ago about using magic and mentalism to help create better software. Funny though that the magazine either does not exist or does not have a googlable index so the only reference from the Googleplex was this:
Magic Is Golden - Pulling Rabbits Out of Hats (Software and Magic).

Follow the link and take a look. It is pretty good stuff and could open your mind to a new way to think about human/software interactions or even the harder human/human interactions.

The gist of it all is this: Use the information you have to both impress that you know something and further use the information to make accurate predictions about the demographics and psychographics of your coworkers/customers/tribe.

One of the important rules of persuasion is 'Liking' and found in the following book:Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The point here is that a person that finds common ground is more apt to do a deal with you. By using mentalism techniques you can find common ground that you can leverage opportunities.

Use the clues. Don't just sit in your customer's office! Look around. Find the sports, art, books, etc. Find common ground, even if it is common ground between your customer and another customer of yours. Just knowing someone like your customer helps you seem likable because of the common thread in your shared social network.

Caildini also looks at authority as persuasion. A simple lab coat can make people do things they would never do for anyone else. you can use mentalism techniques to be the knowing doctor. This is wacky simple. Look at many drug ads. Old=disease. How fortunate that they know and understand my problem!

But Cialdini also talks about the dishonest persuader. If you trick simply to gain advantage, the lack of honest persuasion causes issues later on. The key is to truly use a technique to to help the target of persuasion. If you simply trick, then you don't get repeat business. This is clearly seen with reciprocity (exchange of gifts). The Hari Krishna are a great example where they would give an unexpectant rube a flower which caused a reaction to give a donation. But the ploy failed as there was no real benefit and people learned to avoid the followers. The Hari Krishna are now banned from many places mainly because of their less than honest techniques. Of course many of you reading this don't have any idea what a Krishna is and that is in large part their own doing causing society to bad a practice and thus also limiting the exposure so much that it is no longer as widely known.
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Here in Bangkok (I am here 6 months out of the year) we have horribly disfigured beggars. Though there is a travesty for these poor people, they are placed by criminal gangs that reap the donations. The result is that these poor people that would have normally eked out a living are now mostly ignored. On the other hand the Buddhist temples bring in vast sums of money because their spending of the money is usually transparent. The reciprocity is in the form of both offerings and luck/fortunes and other spiritual services. The people are happy to pay for the spiritual piece of mind and it pales in comparison to the offering plate at your local church.

Back to mentalism, a less spiritual miracle of observation, statistics, choice words, and a little prestidigitation. Be honest, surprising, and appear to know things that others do not. This will help you go far if you do so honestly with the benefit of your friends, family, and tribe clearly a goal.

What is a the most important part of the tribe beyond the leader? Shaman or witch doctor and in some cases they are the leader as well.

Magic and persuasion - I'd like to float an idea in front of you.

Flying, levitation, people just floating in the air. Imagine how you feel when you see a magician perform a trick that breaks the laws of physics. Our brains are wired to expect gravity. When someone floats into the air, you feel the hair go up on the back of your neck and the chill of goosebumps.

I'm not taking about watching David Blaine or Chris Angel on TV. I mean really seeing this live and in person. You feel like you just jumped out of an airplane - your stomach does a little twist like you are flying too. It is powerful stuff.

I tried a new trick last night. I am not really a good magician, but there are a few good tricks that work themselves and even the most honest magician - i.e. I feel bad that this is a trick and it shows - can pull off something that spins the audience's mind. In this case, just my girlfriend, but a group of 100 tomorrow. This trick is so good, I'll be doing it every presentation or talk in the coming months.

Quite simply, it is full body levitation. Flying up in the air seven inches or so (higher depending on circumstances). It is a bit incredible to see someone see you break the laws of physics. It is even more incredible when you say, "hey watch me do this new trick". People are still falling out of their chairs! It is a trick, they know it, you know it, but they still are surprised! The human brain just works that way. Even if you repeat the trick several times, people still can't stop having their minds twist at the sight.

The brain is predictive. That is how you can know a song fro the first three notes. But when you break that predictive pattern, all hell breaks loose. The brain is both confused and in a state that is far different than normal life. It is also in a state of newness. The brain is ready to see whatever is next because it has gotta figure this all out.

Persuasion can be this way too. Don't need to hide the fact that you are selling an idea or a product. It is in the art of surprise and stickiness of ideas that sell. Knowing it's just there to make decisions easier and entertaining helps drop resistance to the idea or sale.

The world is too full of blah blah blah buy me. It should be more empty hat (the problem), the rabbit (the solution), producing a rabbit from a hat (the idea/product).

You want to sell shoes, I got the trick for you! But I'd guess that anyone that can fly 'literally' through their presentation is going to be able to spin the freedom and power over the 'gravity' of the problem is going to make a sale.

I'm not going to give this trick away. I'm not even going to tell you where it is commercially available. It is for magicians. Are you a magician? Are you the witch doctor of your tribe? Let me know what your tricks are and I'll share mine.

Time to go. Gotta feed my rabbit.