The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick

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One of the most coveted modern mentalism books ever written is finally available again!

"One of the great unsung heroes of original and fooling magic.” Derren Brown

“Hector’s a phenomenon.” Andy Nyman

In the late 2000’s, a young underground UK performer known as Hector Chadwick self-published a book The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick. Bursting with novel and intriguing concepts, this book was a sensational breath of fresh air in a mentalism community desperate for truly innovative ideas. It sold out quickly and mentalists have been clamoring for it to be reprinted for years.

The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick is now back. And is better than ever. Every routine has been rewritten and updated along with illustrations to create the “definitive” version of this iconic book. Plus, more than 50 pages filled with new routines and invaluable essays have been added.

After reading this book, it will be quite obvious to you why Derren Brown (who wrote the foreword) has trusted Hector to help him write numerous award-winning theatrical and TV shows.

Mentalism books often have a reputation for being dense and tough to read. The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick doesn’t just break that mold, it shatters it into a million pieces. A writer by trade, Hector’s clever thinking and sharp prose will inspire you to rethink your material and be a better performer. Don’t let the light-hearted tone of this book fool you, the material in here is pure gold.

Across the nearly 260 pages of this gorgeous hardcover book, you’ll find a variety of practical, well-constructed mentalism effects, along with captivating essays on some of the most important elements of mentalism. His perspective on equivoque is worth the price of admission alone. You’ll even be treated to what is quite possibly the shortest magic essay ever published.

Effects included in The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick

Keys
A psychometry routine using four sets of keys—three of which are returned to their owners, the fourth of which is described in detail, despite remaining hidden from view.

An Astrological Aside
The nonchalant revelation of a participant’s star sign. Nothing is written down.

The Paper Plane Chair Game
A completely open prediction of which chair a randomly selected participant will sit in.

Reds & Blacks
The color divination of an endless stream of cards from a spectator-shuffled deck.

A Card Behind
A spectator correctly senses the identity of a playing card (or three).

Shriek
An impromptu prediction of an elaborately-selected card.

One Hundred Pages
A participant takes a book to the other side of the room, opens it, and thinks of a word on the page. The performer divines it. Impromptu and impossible.

Equivoque À Deux
A routine with an unique exploration of equivoque that relies on nothing but words and gestures. You’ll be amazed to learn that equivoque doesn’t need to be confusing or ambiguous. In fact, the language can be quite concrete.

Mars & Murrie
Another equivoque routine in which Hector explores how the method can be strengthened by giving careful consideration to the manner in which we eliminate objects.

The Windsor Magnet
A prop-less and gimmick-less pseudo-hypnosis routine in which a volunteer loses their ability to lift the arm of a person much smaller than them.

Tossed Out Q&A
Hector’s signature approach to one of mentalism’s strongest and most iconic effects.

These amazing mentalism routines are accompanied by thought-provoking essays touching on a variety of important topics from justification for writing down a thought to examining clichés in magic.

How does the The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick differ from the “original edition” and previous “revised editions?”:

  • Two new tricks including a mind-boggling card magic miracle called “Shriek” that was previously only available in rare lecture notes and a brand-new impromptu book test call “One Hundred Pages" that can be performed from across the room
  • Five additional essays offering a unique perspective on essential mentalism themes such as predictions, scripting and the one-ahead principle
  • More than 50 extra pages in total
  • Illustrations by Hector himself have also been added

If you have a checklist for buying a new book, we assure you The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick checks every box. Both mentalists and magicians alike will find this material worthy of careful study and will continue to be inspired by it for years to come.

"The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick is a Modern Classic. I perform routines from the book to this day, and reading the essays made me a better magician. It is such an important book to me." Andrew Frost (@sleightlyobsessed)

"Quite possibly my favorite magic book I’ve ever read. And I’ve read at least four." Marc Kerstein

"We had the genuine joy of reading The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick for the first time some eight years after we started performing magic together, and were quite cross that it had not been in our hands much, much earlier. We have no doubts that you will love this book just as much as we do. Which is a lot. A huge amount really." Morgan & West

“Genuinely the most inspiring, useful, and intelligent mentalism book I have ever purchased.” Chris Cox

“Hector Chadwick is, in my opinion, the best writer in mentalism. His prose is always full of wisdom (without any pretense or posturing); it is witty, insightful and crystal-clear in meaning and description. When I'm asked what my 5 favorite mentalism books are, ‘The Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick’ is always at the top of my list.” Tom Baxter

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Customer reviews for The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick

Joe
Really great stuff. Original effects, thought provoking essays, and an easy to read flow & style. Recommended reading for all Mentalism aficionados. The style & feel of the book itself is great too, with a cloth bookmark and a simple yet elegant cover that will look great on your shelf!
David
Page 33 alone would get 5 stars from me, and I am thoroughly enjoying the rest of the book. I believe anyone with even a passing interest in mentalism or magic will like this one.
Cory
Vanishing inc has been killing it in the parlour and mentalism books lately. This book is a neoclassic and I can finally see why. Brilliant patter ,essays, and some cool routines.
Gene
I felt like a member of the ‘underground’ as I worked my way through this book. Especially enjoyed the essay about Dunninger’s Name Dodge! The Keys routine is practical and workable. All kinds of great material that’s all within reach. Beautifully written. It’s great to have this classic back in print! Thanks for the kind of quality work we’ve come to expect from Vanishing Inc!
Brian
I found so many good things in here. This is definitely one you'll want to read cover to cover if you have any interest in mentalism. Many of the things in here come from such a great angle it helps breathe fresh life into old routines. This truly helped me reshape a good portion of my act.
Barry
This book is a great read, perhaps the most entertaining since Thirteen Steps if you have a dry sense of humour. It’s also well written; the routine descriptions are detailed and clear and I did not spot any typos or grammatical errors. The equivoque essay and routines are essential reading. I don’t do 'card tricks', but the three card routines are fascinating and I’ve been working on the necessary sleight for one of them. I’m not likely to use the stage routines but I can see that they would be highly effective for any stage performer. Highly recommended.
Martin
The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick is an enjoyable, well written and informative read focused on mentalism. The One Hundred Pages is a unique, at last it was for me, and practical approach to a book test. The Shriek card effect contains techniques with wide application. The extensive and fascinating description of 52 factorial possible orders of a shuffled deck provides many opportunities to include this fun fact -- which may be surprising to folks not aware of this statistic. The essays are meaningful and enlightening.
Pierre
Hidden gems found in some classic plots: must be studied carefully
Aaron
I really love this book. It’s really one of those books where you will read every effect even if it’s something you won’t do. It’s a real easy read. He lays everything out as to his reasoning for doing things and relates the audience perspective. The book is vague at times when it comes to the technical side of handling props, but not to the point where you can’t figure it out. Overall great book.
Tony
An outstanding book. I'm not a mentalist and I won't perform these tricks, but I have learnt so much that will improve my magic. There are insights throughout and so much valuable thinking. I'm so glad I invested in this book: it really is helping me take my magic to a new level.
Jonathan
This is an extraordinarily good book. Subtle thinking, well written. The full package.
Chris
Really beautiful thinking around some of these effects. Chadwick has, for lack of a better word, a "sideways" understanding of how to bring the mysterious to people. Highly recommended!
Mark
This is a gorgeous looking book, and is full of excellent advice and some truly lovely routines.

The cloth bookmark makes dipping in and out of this book a breeze, and I wish all books came with this (The quality of books produced Vanishing Inc. is second to none).

Hector Chadwick’s writing style is relaxed and a pleasure to read.
This book belongs in any mentalist’s library and comes highly recommended.
chris
A MUST read! Wonderfully written with insightful anecdotes throughout. The premise of and the effects themselves are great, but the way you're challenged to REALLY think about what you're doing and why is worth far more than the asking price. Pick this up immediately!
Jeff
What to say except this is a must have!
Cannot put it down.
I don’t understand how I could have missed knowing about this hidden genius before now.
Jeff
Unique.
After all my years in magic and mentalism, Hector Chadwick is new to me.
Wonderful and creative effects, presentations, writing style. Definitely different and entertaining enough to qualify as a must have time.
An exciting reading and learning opportunity.
Lucas Gerardo
I have recently purchased this book, and ever since it has arrived I have not been able to put it down! It jam packed with insightful tricks that will elevate your Magic (even if you don’t perform them). The three card tricks included in this book are worth the price of the book. The essays and the tricks were incredibly well written and a pleasure to read. One of my favourite books in Magic!
Laura Bautista
It's a wonderful edition that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. It is one of the most desired and long-awaited books that complete my bookshelf. Hector Chadwick's rarity is proportional to his greatness. A great mentalist and a go-to magician for the entire community. The edition itself is beautiful and luxurious. The illustrations that complete it are absolutely delicious and the content, at a crossroads between prose, autofiction and essay, totally perfect.
Roberto
The book is very well printed and bound and contains good ideas, but I do not think the content is worth the vest. This is only a VERY stretched conference notes pamphlet where four pages are needed to say 'commit yourself' and more than seven pages are used to tell you how to switch a piece of paper behind a chair. Nostalgia for the booklets of the first half of the last century which gave you, with little money, many ideas in a few pages.
Jonathan
This edition is called The Definitive for a reason... This book is unique for the approach of its rightfully acclaimed author - it looks at magic and mentalism through the lens of a writer, a storyteller. Not of a "guy with tricks".
Each of the routines is unique in its delivery and execution of magic principles, but more so it helps you see your magic like the story that it is, the story you want your audience believing, captivated by.
I'm sure to utilize quite a few tricks and takes on principles from this fantastic work (BTW you MUST read Mr Chadwick's treatise on Equivoque), but more importantly I thimk this book helped me THINK about my magic, patter and presentation, and CHALLENGE my pre-existing notions of how stuff should be done.
In my humble opinion this book is a must-read for any mentalist or magician hoping to elevate their craft further.
Adam
This book has a bit of everything, but I can really recommend it most for the stage mentalist. Don't get me wrong, there's some good close-up stuff in there too, and the essays are awesome ("Commit yourself" is one of those so-simple-it-should-be-obvious-but-it's-actually-incredible kind of essays). Highly recommended no matter who you are, but especially for that stage performer.
Fabio
A very unexpected book. There are a lot of interesting routines and, what I enjoyed the most, a few almost impromptu very fooling routines. I liked the M&M's one and the Red & Blacks. Also loved the Equivoque approach of the author. The paper plane is a very professional piece in my opinion and I'm currently working on a variation of the effect. An interesting reading that you will probably need on your shelves, with a very high quality book with the typical Vanishing Inc quality they accostumed us to.
John
This is such a fresh and approachable look at mentalism!
My only complaint is that the contents of this book are so great, I wish I could keep it all to myself. But seriously, the thinking presented here is so fleshed out and practical. I'm really excited to try the paper airplane routine!
Adrian
The book is gorgeous and while reading it I constantly struggled between wanting to finish reading everything as soon as possible and trying to spend more time with the book in my hands. The writing style is fun and engaging, the ideas are well structured and easy to follow, the illustrations are great and I wish there were many more than there are.

The effects are well thought out, sufficiently varied and offer plenty of opportunities for methods to be tweaked while maintaining the same ideas and outcomes.

You're probably wondering which effects work where. Here you go:

Close-up: Reds & Blacks, A Card Behind, Shriek, One Hundred Pages (the method works for any size audience, then you're free to present it however you want), Equivoque À Deux, Mars & Murrie and The Windsor Magnet.

Stage: Keys, An Astrological Aside, The Paper Plane Chair Game, One Hundred Pages (again), The Windsor Magnet, Tossed Out Q&A. Of course card tricks and equivoque works for stage too. There's an argument for audiences not being able to see your cards or the objects that are magician's choiced, but you'll make your own decision.

Last but not least, the essays are not there just to increase page count. These are not random ramblings with no sense or purpose. Some of them actually changed my perspective of things I considered "common sense", which now in hindsight make little sense. "Would you do me a favor? Pick a card". Why are you saying that? No, really. Why exactly are you saying that? This and many more questions will be met with thought provoking attempts at ultimately becoming better showmen.

Wonderful book, highly recommended. Off I go In Search of Pepe.
Steven
This is one of the most useful books on mentalism that you can own, full stop. It's written in an engaging style that makes it impossible to put down, every routine is accessible to performers of varying skill levels, and the overall advice is top-notch. If you're interested in performing hard-hitting mentalism, you need to add "The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick" to your bookshelf.
Oscar
A lot of magic books feel dense or too serious, but this one feels like you’re learning from someone who actually enjoys explaining things. The routines are practical and clearly explained, and the ideas behind them are simple enough to understand but clever enough that you feel excited to try them out. The new material—over 50 extra pages—fits right in and gives even more useful advice and routines. My favorite part of the whole book is Chadwick’s thoughts on equivoque, which opened my eyes to how subtle and powerful that tool can be when used well. Even the super short essay (which might be the shortest ever printed in magic) made me smile and think at the same time. The foreword by Derren Brown also makes it clear why Hector has helped write so many of his shows. Overall, as a hobbyist, this book didn’t just teach me new tricks—it made me feel inspired to perform again.
Jacob
This book and mind comes recommended for a reason! Some great routines, but also some wonderful ways of thinking. The motivation given in the book for writing something on a billet is genius but legit! The book also talks on using some taboo techniques in an organic way that makes it seem less taboo. I can’t say anything more without giving it away, but if you are serious about performing mentalism and are wanting to learn great routines and look into motivation behind them, this is a must have
Kai
Hector Chadwick - if that is his real name - might be one of the greatest modern thinkers for mentalism and magic. I own 13 steps, Practical Mental Magic and many many more books, but not many inspire me to actually perform and develop myself as a hobby mentalist quite like this book does. Chadwick's writing is brilliant and offers many many thoughts on all sorts throughout this book which really push you to consider just how you might perform and work on your own routines and tricks. 10/10

Community questions about The Definitive Mental Mysteries of Hector Chadwick

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  • Harry asks: What format's the e-book in please? PDF? Could I print it if I wanted?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:It's PDF, yes. And I doubt we could stop you printing it. :) But that would probably end up costing more than buying the book.

  • Billy asks: Is this a book we can expect to see reprinted when you guys are recovered from the fire?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Hopefully!

  • Sven asks: Are there any language restrictions?

    • 1. Jerry responds:None that I am aware of.
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  • Brian asks: Who is the publisher of this book? Is it Vanishing Inc.?

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:Yes it is!

  • James asks: Is this a hard bound book or a paperback?

    • 1. Andreas responds:The description up there says "Across the nearly 260 pages of this gorgeous hardcover book.."
    • 2. Jim responds:I absolutely love every release I have seen from Vanishing. I have a separate section of my book case reserved for those beautiful books bearing the V on the spine.
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  • Stephen asks: Yes, I too was interested in what skill level is required. While not an absolute beginner I'm certainly no expert either.

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:It is mainly mentalism, so the skill you need is much more about presentation than anything physically dexterous.

  • Andrew asks: Is there a common skill level for all the effects? And how many tricks require little to no preperation? Thanks!

    • 1. Vanishing Inc. Magic responds:It is mainly mentalism, so the skill you need is much more about presentation than anything physically dexterous. There's very little preparation, per se, needed.

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