Fundamentals by Bob Cassidy

The foundations of mentalism. Acclaimed as "a definitive resource for all who are interested in mentalism and probably for most in magic generally." Bob's list of 39 most important books to read, which is included in this ebook, is by itself hugely valuable, because you not only get a list of books but the reasons why each one of them is so important. This allows you to judge for yourself if you should read a particular book or not. Fundamentals can be seen as Bob's extraction of the most important concepts from these 39 books.

This list of 39 books, or as Bob calls it "The 39 Steps to Mentalism" can be read here.

Bob mentioned during an interview that this ebook has an unfortunate name, because many will look at it and think: "Fundamentals - oh I already know all the basics." However, these are not just the fundamentals for beginners, these are primarily the fundamentals that intermediate level and advanced level mentalists need to understand and internalize. Most questions mentalists have are answered in this ebook.

1st edition 2002; updated 2005; 89 pages

1. Preface
2. Introduction
3. How it All Began
4. A Few Members of the Original Cast of Characters
5. Overview
6. The Psychology of Mentalism
7. Plausibility
8. The Path to Mastery
9. A Note on Rehearsal
10. Fundamental Structures
11. Common Misunderstandings
12. The Opening Effect Comes Second
13. Some Fundamental Principles
14. The Bulldog Deck and The Scary Movie Routine
15. A Fundamental Psychological Ploy
16. A Thought to Ponder
17. The Shuttled Newspaper Test
18. Get the Lead Out
19. Three Canisters and a Bill
20. An Essential Secret
21. Handling
22. Quiz
23. An Introduction to the Interaction of Physical, Psychological and Presentational Principles in the Performance of Mentalism
24. "A Startling Thought Reading Effect"
25. An Interesting Fact
26. Activity Time with Dr. Bob
27. A Startling Thought Reading Effect
28. Commercially Available Effects and Gimmicks
29. Persona and Subscript - the Keys to Believability
30. The Subscript
31. Riding the Web
32. The Thirty-Nine Steps
33. Some Thoughts on Performing