Mind Reader

Keith Sobus ยท

Mind Reader is one of my favorite mixers, it's fun, mysterious, and let's one of your students be a hero.

No Supplies Needed.

How to Play:

This is a trick game. You'll need to tell one student ahead of time how to play. This student you choose will be the "mind reader" and he's going to read your mind. Let's say the student you choose is "Zach." Set the game up by saying something like, "Zach sent me a text last night and told me he could read my mind. I don't really believe him, So today we're going to find out if that's true or not."

Then have the group stand in a circle and ask Zach to leave the room. While he's gone, you're going to choose a person in the circle, and when Zach comes back in, he will "read your mind" and pick who you've chosen.  Then you will send Zach back out of the room, pick a new student, have the students shuffle seats to confuse Zach, invite Zach back into the room, and wow/bewilder the students as Zach correctly identifies the picked person each time.

Pro Tips:

  1. Make sure the person you choose to be the mind reader, really understands how the game works before you start playing.
  2. "The person to the right of so and so" may give a different outcome than saying "the person at so and so's right." In one case, "right" could be defined by the viewer, in the other case, right is definied by the person chosen. We prefer this second option so that it won't matter which way the mind reader is facing. 

Here's how the trick works.  You need to decide before you play the game who the first person you pick in the circle will be.  Let's say you plan on picking "Rachel" first.  (Let Zach know before the game starts that Rachel is going to be the first one you choose).  So, round one, Zach re-enters the room and correctly guesses "Rachel".  The rest of the students at this point will be mildly amused and slightly skeptical.  Before Zach leaves the room again he will look at and memorize the student sitting to Rachel's right. (Make sure you also notice and memorize who is standing to Rachel's right as well. Let's say this person's name is Dave.) So have Zach leave the room and have all the students shuffle (while still staying in the shape of a circle).  Before Zach comes back in you will pick Dave, and when Zach enters the room again he will correctly pick Dave, amaze everyone, and look and see who is sitting to Dave's right before he leaves the room again.  Get it?  Because the students are shuffling in between rounds, they won't notice that you are always picking the person to the right of the person who was picked last.  Pretty great stuff :)