‘Lean into the unknown': A mentalist on how he ‘reads' minds
Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Scott Silven. The Scottish mentalist, illusionist and performer, 36, studied hypnosis in Milan, Italy, as a teenager before going on to sell out three world tours. His latest show is called The Lost Things.
RELIGION
You grew up in the windswept lowlands of Scotland. Was there religion – and church? Well, when you hear 'the windswept lowlands of Scotland', you know it's going to be the fire-and-brimstone type of religion! In those small communities, the church is a big part of life. I remember being dragged to church every Sunday and having strong faith as a kid. Later, when I leaned into the skills that I use today – hypnosis and manipulation – I realised there were parallels between what I was hearing the preacher say and the things I would end up doing in my shows.
Oh, what were those parallels? [Preachers] use stories and evocative language to make you think of certain things, so you feel that you're having a genuine emotional response. Weirdly, I began studying [those techniques] to try to bolster my faith. But in researching them, I sort of talked myself out of it. By the time I was 13 years old, I was an atheist.
Sometimes, people wrongly assume atheists mustn't believe in anything … You're right to bring this up because I now believe that there's no such thing as 'atheism'. There's no way to prove that God doesn't exist: the best you can be is agnostic. That's sort of my mantra for my life: not to discredit other beliefs, or something that you don't understand or think to be true. Explore it a bit. Lean into the unknown.
BODIES
When we see your illusions, it looks like mind-reading. What are you actually tapping into? Part of it is building rapport, cognitive behavioural processing, and tapping into those parts of our minds that we don't realise are there. My job is to crack those open. None of the techniques that I'm using is secret or hidden in some vintage tome somewhere. They're a variety of psychological and hypnotic techniques, and some traditional magic techniques, too.
Do you have any gnarly scars? I've got a scar on my left knee, which most people also have, actually. This is one of the things that 'psychics' use: most of us have a scar on our knee or elbow.
When do you feel most comfortable in your own skin? When I'm on stage and connecting with an audience in a really deep way. I'm also big on yoga and I try to do it morning and evening.
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