Digital Mentalism Volume 1
Hydra
Today, we’re diving headfirst into the matrix and taking a closer look at Digital Mentalism Volume 1 by Christopher Parrish.
Digital Mentalism Volume 1 is focused around his very clever use of the app Hydra by Shameer Salim and Ellusionist.
If you don’t own Hydra, you can get it from Ellusionist and don’t forget to use the discount code: MENTALISTBLOGGER for 10% discount off your order.
Digital Mentalism Volume 1 feels like Derren Brown and Dr Emmett Brown had a late night Zoom call and decided to turn a billet peek into binary code and cold reading into an algorithm that googles your soul! This isn’t your Grandad’s mentalism… Well not unless your Grandad was hacking Spectrum 48k’s back in the 80’s?
This is mentalism for the smartphone era, where Tik Tok attention spans meet psychological warfare and Google Chrome is just as valuable as cold reading skills.
You’ll know who Christopher Parrish is from my review of Digital Mentalism Volume 2. Which you can find by clicking below:
But just in case you forgot: Christopher Parrish is The Digital Prophet of mentalism. Some say he’s a time travelling cyborg, others say he’s ai. None of the rumours have been confirmed yet, I’m still looking into them. Although I did receive an email from The INTER GALACTIC QUANTUM LORDS…
Demanding that I put my tin foil hat back on!
Christopher has taken the classic principles of mentalism and introduced them to the silicon (I thought there should be an e too!) chips of modern technology.
Digital Mentalism Volume 1 isn’t just about tricks.
It’s a mental framework for working in a digital landscape.
I mean, it does have tricks or effects as I prefer to call them but the real treasure is in his thinking, Christopher has an uncanny ability to take a trick/effect/app and completely flip it on it’s head and use it for an entirely different purpose than originally intended.
I suppose you could call it Social Media Sorcery.
In DMV1 Christopher breaks down how he uses Hydra to secretly harvest information about his participants, reveal that information and turn any borrowed smartphone into a digital billet peek or unbelievable prediction/revelation.
It’s social engineering layered with some very clever scripting to make it feel like the dark arts are at work… It’s slick, sneaky, and incredibly smart. Christopher teaches you how to ethically and responsibly leverage his participants thoughts to create stunning revelations. He dives into his set up and takes you on a journey to explore stuff that feels like it shouldn’t work and yet somehow it totally does. Oh did I mention that he also shares his app free methods?
Let’s take a moment to be serious. Not too serious but serious enough to sip an espresso while stroking your chin thoughtfully.
Digital mentalism is not the future… It’s the present!
It’s a place where digital deception meets psychological misdirection. Performers who ignore the tech in their participants hands are ignoring some of the most personal, emotionally loaded props ever invented.
What could be more intimate than someone’s smartphone?
Christopher isn’t just teaching you a bunch of tricks. He’s teaching you to look at your participants and harvest their organs.
Organs?
Sorry I meant secrets!
This is powerful stuff and Christopher doesn’t exploit it, he respects it. There’s a clear emphasis on ethics, consent and responsibility, which gives the material a grounded feel despite its mind blowing implications.
***We interrupt this blog with a short SEO Break***
For all you SEO nerds (Yes, I see you!) This blog post is optimised with the following keywords:
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I also sprinkled in some natural language phrases like: mentalism for the digital age, smartphone magic and digital deception.
Mainly to keep Google happy but also to ensure that your brain gets a little dopamine hit, every time you scroll.
***Back to the regularly scheduled madness***
Reading Digital Mentalism Volume 1 feels like you’re in a Zoom call with a mentalist who’s way too excited about metadata and thinks the Dark Web is a performance venue and I mean that in the best way possible, Christopher’s passion jumps of the pages, erm I mean screen.
Enough with the madness. Tell me why I should buy it?
Because Christopher has a psychic Octopus that needs feeding!
I thought I said no more madness?
Ok, here’s why you should buy Digital Mentalism… If you’re a mentalist who performs for real people in real world situations, especially those who are glued to their phones then Digital Mentalism will give you an edge.
This is the kind of material that feels real, is grounded in technology that we all use everyday and it makes your audience question reality, not just clap politely.
It’s not for purists who think everything should be done with a piece of paper, a sharpie and a deck of cards. It’s for performers who evolve with the times and for explorers who want to surf along the super highway of technology, psychology and performance art, it’s a lot of fun too!
TLDR: For the ADHD Mentalists Out There.
Christopher Parrish has created a user manual for modern mystics and cyber sorcerers which also doubles as a playbook for the performer who sees potential in every ping, app and DM.
This isn’t just a book of tricks, it’s a call to rethink how we engage with our audience in this modern world of tech.
This material is best suited to performers that want to use their smartphone in new ways.
Not best suited to card purists, technophobes, people still using flip phones or anyone living under a rock!
Christopher Parrish is quickly becoming one of my favourite mentalists, his thinking is just so out there and he’s got a very clear vision of how modern mentalism should look.
You can pick up your copy of Digital Mentalism Volume 1 by clicking the picture below:
I must also point out that Christopher does not own a psychic Octopus and I have absolutely no idea how that rumour started!!!
STAY WEIRD
ЯYΛП MΣПƬIƧ
International Man of Mischief