He Can Twist a Spoon But Can’t Read Girlfriend

New Delhi, November 18: He bends spoons and forks by just ”concentrating hard”. He touches a man on his nose while person standing next feels it. He can make credit cards ”fly” but Ehud Segev – the ”mentalizer” from Israel – is not a magician but prefers to be called as ”spiritual entertainer”.

”I love to amaze people”, says Segev. ”People call it intuition. I call it connection. Connecting first to myself and then to others is what I do”, he adds.

In the Capital for a promotional campaign, Segev performed to a captivated audience on Wednesday night by various ”effects” – he doesn't like to call them tricks. At the end of it, the verdict seemed to be divided. While some said they felt hypnotised, many were sceptical about Segev's so-called abilities.

”I only try to understand what people think and not read their minds,” he says. You think of a number between 1 and 10 and he immediately comes up with the one on your mind. He randomly adjusts his watch and will show you the time you have in mind. Segev, who has performed ”The Mentalizer Kabbalah Show” at Broadway, claims that by trying to understand the way people think, he can also make them think the way he wants to. ”It is easier to understand a stranger's thought-process because the first time is the best chance to get connected to somebody,” he says.

”That is why it is extremely difficult for me to answer my girlfriend when she asks me about the time we'll split,” jokes Segev.

But how it all started? ”I was always the weird boy in my childhood. I was so shy that I would always remain on the sidelines and never participate in what other kids my age did,” he reminisces.

”That is when I started to watch people closely and try to understand what they were thinking,” he says. Mention spirituality and you gift him his favourite topic.

”Our deepest desires are not materialistic. What we want is happiness, health and well being,” he says. ”My biggest achievement is that I can affect people's lives by making them feel good about themselves and others,” he adds.

Segev's promoters claim that he predicted the winners of the Mayoral elections in Israel in a newspaper article 11 days before polling, using their photographs for reference and delivered with 100 per cent accuracy.
Raghvendra Rao