Mr. KiLa, Japan’s foremost magicianHello everyone.I am KiLa, a magician. In order to introduce you to the world of magic, I have carefully selected a magician for this “Biography of Magicians,” based on my own prejudice. This time, I would like to introduce an American mentalist, Banachek. The words “mentalism” and “mentalist” are now familiar in Japan, but few people know about him. Even magicians may not be familiar with Banachek. However, in my opinion, he is the leading authority on mentalism. First, let me give you some background on him. Born in England on November 30, 1960, Banachek performed an escape stunt on the TV show “The Search for Houdini” in 1987. He has worked as a mentalist and consultant for various entertainers as well as for international shows. There is one episode that cannot be left out when introducing him. It is the case of “Project Alpha,” which took place in the United States in the 1980s. In 1979, the McDonnell Institute of Parapsychology was established at the University of Washington by James McDonnell, Chairman of McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Corporation, to develop and study “parapsychology” McDonnell was a scientist. McDonnell, a scientist and interested in the paranormal, donated a large sum of money, as much as $500,000, to the Institute. Peter Phillips, then a professor of physics at the University of Washington, became the institute’s director. The institute began recruiting psychics from all over the U.S. to verify whether they were real or not. The institute recruited nearly 300 applicants from all over the U.S. After a screening process, two were selected as test subjects. The two subjects were Michael Edwards (18) and Steve Shaw (17). When the experiment began, they demonstrated telekinesis and psychokinesis. After three years of experimentation and research, it was concluded that they were psychic. The news was reported all over the United States.   But then the two men made a shocking confession: “We are magicians, James.” They said, “We are students of magician James Randi, and all of the ESP we were experimenting with were tricks.” James Randi was an illusionist who went by the name “The Amazing Randi”. He is a skeptic and a critic of pseudoscience. In fact, when the McDonnell Institute began experiments to test psychic abilities, Randi sent a one-point warning to Director Phillip: “During the experiment, do not allow the subject to change the original plan,” “Strictly control the circumstances surrounding the experiment,” “Do not respond to the subject’s whims,” and so on. This is advice to spot tricks. He also offered to attend the experiments free of charge if necessary, but all of these offers were ignored. So Randi sent two of his students, young boys, to prove to him that if he proceeded with ESP research without a solid verification environment, he would not be able to tell the difference between tricks and ESP. If, during an experiment, someone asked, “Isn’t that a trick?” during the experiment, they were told to immediately admit it and answer, “I was sent by Randi. He was to take full responsibility.” However, the researchers at the McDonnell Institute were unable to see through the trick until the very end, and they never asked the two men, “Is it a trick?” In 1985, two years after this shocking admission, the McDonnell Institute was closed. Steve Shaw, one of the boys who used magic to have his psychic abilities recognized in front of a crowd of scientists, was the future Banachek.   Once again, what exactly is mentalism? Do you know what mentalism is? Many people probably think “mentalism = psychology”. Many people think that mentalism is something that can lead people or read their minds without using any tricks, although it is not equal to that. Mentalism is magic. Just as there is jazz, pop, reggae, etc. in music, there is card magic, coin magic, illusions, and mentalism in magic. Mentalism is a category of magic.