Muscle Reading, just as it sounds, means reading thoughts based on minor muscle movements, or ideomotor responses. These responses occur out of our conscious, yet they reflect what we are consciously thinking of. There are basically two types of muscle reading, contact muscle reading and non contacting muscle reading. The two types are similar in principle but differ by whether the mentalist has direct physical contact with the subject or not (Randi). Non-contact muscle reading is generally considered more difficult because the mentalist only relies on observation of muscle tension while contact muscle reading involves direct sensation. The two types can be used one after another interchangeably depending on which one gives more obvious cues until the answer is revealed.

 

One most common application of contact muscle reading involves the mentalist having his or her hands on top and under a person’s hand respectively, for example: with the right hand gently holding the subject’s left wrist and left hand slightly supporting the subjects palm from below (Daniels; Mentalism Skills ). The mentalist usually asks the person to think of an object in the room or to hide something in the room and then think of it. As the person consciously focuses on the object and its position in the room, there will be unconscious movements of his held-up hand towards that direction. Of course this movement is minor and is generally difficult to see, nor is it big enough for the person to notice him or herself. As the mentalist speaks, the subject is asked to move around the room with the mentalist. The positioning of hands around the person’s helps the mentalist directly feel any resistance or tension has he gently guides the subject around the room. If movement is fluent, the direction is right; contrarily if there is resistance, the opposite direction may be the correct one (Daniels; Mentalism Skills). Indeed there may be clever people who try to add conscious movements to the hand, but they should be reminded by the mentalist that they should be fully relaxed. In addition to that, an experienced mentalist would combine muscle reading with other available cues such as those mentioned in the other pages of this website to help find the object.

 

Another common application of contact muscle reading is the common ‘put something in one hand and ask someone to pick which fist contains the object’ game. The subject will generally hold the fist containing the object tighter as they consciously focus on the object. Therefore all the mentalist has to do is look for the fist with more muscle tension (Daigo & Arashi). The mentalist will generally try to use non-contact muscle reading first, and then contact muscle reading if the first non-contact attempt did not work for confirmation of the previous attempt. In addition, as the subject keeps thinking of the object, the fist holding the object will tend to slightly rise as compared to the other one (Daigo & Smap). … and again, if the subject tries to consciously trick the mentalist with voluntary movements, the mentalist should combine various modes of cues as mentioned above to find the answer. This requires lots of practice and the gain of experience through trial and error (Daigo& Arashi).