Name: The art of reading minds
Uploaded: 2025-10-21T15:03:46Z
Duration: 14 min 21 s
Description: Have you ever wanted to read someone's mind? Mentalist Oz Pearlman is billed as one of the world's greatest mind readers ... and yet, he says he doesn't have any special powers. In this spectacular talk meets psychic-inspired magic show, he demonstrates his skills on a live audience in the TED theater.

Have you ever wanted to read someone's mind? Mentalist Oz Pearlman is billed as one of the world's greatest mind readers ... and yet, he says he doesn't have any special powers. In this spectacular talk meets psychic-inspired magic show, he demonstrates his skills on a live audience in the TED theater.

The art of reading minds

Reading minds has less to do with magic and more with understanding people’s thinking patterns. By applying techniques honed over decades, even seemingly impossible feats—like guessing a stranger’s dinner guest—can be achieved through observation, inference, and practice. A simple method inspired by shampoo bottles, 'Listen, Repeat, Reply,' can help anyone remember names on the spot. Memorable demonstrations involving audience members reveal how belief, attention, and risk-taking fuel truly remarkable connections.

Mind Reading Is a Learnable Skill, Not a Superpower

Mentalism relies on reading people, not reading minds, and anyone can learn its principles with practice. In a live demonstration, a performer correctly deduced audience members’ secret thoughts by observing behavior and cues, not psychic abilities. He shared a practical technique for remembering names forever: listen, repeat, and reply, inspired by the 'lather, rinse, repeat' method on shampoo bottles. The talk showed how these people-reading skills can boost confidence and connection in everyday life.