A rather grey area which has been debated to death previously, but i have another very specific subject in mind which we need to talk about this 1st before we move to that....

There's a lot of mentalists in MMF. To you, is there a difference between mentalism and mental magic?
If there is, what is the difference?

My own thoughts later..

to me,

the mentalism and mental magic is defined by the word "magic".
I don't like the segregation of the 2, but I didn't create the rules.

My interpretation (don't lynch me if you disagree) :-

Mentalism :- NLP & Suggestion, Cold Readings, psychological forces.

Mental Magic :- all manner of peeks, PK effects, Metal Bending, effects like Bank Night.

As a matter of personal taste, I find pure mentalism boring to spectators.
What i hope to achieve someday is to do mental magic with some mentalism elements blended in.

Hmm....

Actually, my own interpretation of the 2 terms is presentational:

Mentalism : Presentationally based on thoughts decipering (whether by mind-reading or thru psychology, supposedly), variations include choice predictions, thoughts reading, thoughts influence/manipulation, etc etc. May not seem like magic at all and possibly could even feel like just a series of successful experiments.
Classic examples : Book tests, simple/straight forward choice predictions, cold reading, etc

Mental Magic : Presentationally more "magical" in nature. Effects that cannot be purely explained by psychology and thoughts reading alone. Possibly more visual in nature. A less "real" presentation but with more glam and fanfare.
Classic examples: Spoon bending, floating bill, headlines prediction, etc etc


So they could possibly by using the same methods, but it's the presentation and the perceived effect by the audience that decides whether it's mentalism or mental magic.

What you think?

For me, There is an extremely thin line between mental magic and mentalism. That line is so thin that it's barely discernable. And in the end, the two genres(or whatever u wanna call it) tend to merge into one and the same thing.

Remember, the audience doesn't care whether it's mental magic or mentalism. As long as they feel entertained, then it's all good.