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Lewis HowesThe SURPRISING SECRETS To Influence Anyone Using Your MIND | Lior Suchard & Lewis Howes
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Chapter summaries
Turning skeptics into publicity: why doubt still helps the show
Lior Suchard explains how negative reactions and skepticism can actually amplify his reach. He describes skeptics as “unpaid publicists” because they retell the experience, even if they don’t like it.
- •Skeptical reactions still spread his name and the story of the experience
- •He says it doesn’t matter whether people talk positively or negatively if they say his name correctly
- •He frames controversy and doubt as effective PR for a mentalist act
What he thinks he does: understanding how people think (not what they think)
Asked what he does, Lior describes mentalism as using his senses to create the experience of additional senses. He emphasizes that he doesn’t claim to know what someone is thinking, but how they are thinking, drawing on psychology and nonverbal communication.
- •He describes his work as using five senses to create the experience of more senses
- •He distinguishes “knowing how you think” from “knowing what you think”
- •He cites psychology and nonverbal communication as core foundations
- •He sets up a demonstration to show what he means by “process of thinking”
Dice mind-reading demonstration: tracking choices and patterns
Lior uses a dice experiment with Lewis to demonstrate how he reads decisions and predicts selections. He frames it as analyzing how Lewis thinks and noticing tendencies, including skepticism influencing repeat choices.
- •He predicts dice outcomes across multiple rounds, including when the roll is hidden
- •He describes the moment after someone sees a number as a moment where cues become available
- •He attributes success to reading subtle tells and patterns over time
- •He suggests skepticism can drive predictable repetition in choices
Reading vs influencing: the “pink elephant” and poker-tell framing
Lewis presses on whether Lior is influencing choices or reading them after selection. Lior explains that attention and constraints shape what’s mentally available, using the “don’t think of a pink elephant” example and comparing it to poker tells.
- •He labels the dice example as “reading,” not influencing
- •He uses the “pink elephant” example to show how language drives immediate imagery
- •He compares the signals he looks for to poker tells
- •He says mastery comes from practice, like learning piano, but not everyone becomes “Mozart”
Mentalist vs magician: belief, ambiguity, and the ‘is it real?’ effect
Lior contrasts magic and mentalism by focusing on the audience’s belief state. He says magic is understood as illusion, while mentalism creates a gray area where people wonder if it could be real, which makes it more psychologically engaging.
- •Magic amazes, but audiences assume there’s a trick and it isn’t real
- •Mentalism adds a belief component: viewers ask “is it true or not?”
- •He says the gray area is central to the mentalist experience
- •He connects this ambiguity to how people evaluate belief more generally
Influences and lineage: naming standout mentalists and Uri Geller’s role
Asked about world-class mentalists and inspiration, Lior names a small group he considers very good and mentions who influenced the field. He highlights Uri Geller as a major figure who brought mind-power entertainment concepts to the stage.
- •He says there are “less than 10” very good world-class mentalists
- •He names Derren as an inspiration and mentions Chaim Goldenberg as a friend
- •He cites Uri Geller as an early figure associated with spoon bending and global fame
- •He explains he developed the concept with humor, energy, and creativity for live and TV shows
Building the act: four pillars, storytelling, and engineering “wonder” reactions
Lior breaks down performance structure into core effects and then layering story and traps around them. He explores “wonder” as an emotion that varies by person and explains how he adjusted shows to create applause when audiences were too shocked to respond.
- •He compares magic’s “four pillars” to mentalism’s core categories (reading, influencing/guessing, predicting, moving objects)
- •He says he builds stories and “traps” that lead audiences to false explanations before surprising turns
- •He calls wonder highly individual in expression, unlike laughter or anger
- •He shares a show where no one clapped because they were shocked, forcing him to reprogram for applause
- •He says seeing audiences become “children again” is why he performs
Childlike wonder, parenting, and why mentalism doesn’t rely on spectacle
Lewis asks about childhood and Lior connects wonder to how children perceive the world, referencing a scene from The Prestige. He explains mentalism is often intellectual rather than visual, so his productions stay modest and focus on interaction and emotion.
- •He says children retain curiosity and wonder that adults often lose
- •He references The Prestige to illustrate how children question what adults accept
- •He says mentalism is sometimes not visual and can be hard to do for very young kids
- •He notes even large shows avoid heavy spectacle because the impact is emotional and interactive
- •He says storytelling is “everything” in mentalism
Corporate infotainment: Swatch watches, IBM Watson, and making messages memorable
Lior explains how he ties mind-tricks to corporate storytelling so audiences remember key messages. He shares a Swatch event where he appeared to stop watches as a metaphor for brand strength, and describes similar concepts used with IBM and Google.
- •He describes creating “infotainment” by connecting effects to brand messages
- •He recounts stopping multiple watches onstage, then dramatizing that he couldn’t stop the Swatch as a metaphor
- •He says he can build memorable metaphors for products (including cybersecurity) using the same principles
- •He compares emotional memory (major events) to why audiences remember an impactful performance better than lectures or PowerPoint
Risk, failure management, and why imperfection can increase credibility
Asked about risk, Lior describes past danger-based routines and why he stopped doing them. He explains how he manages moments that go wrong by integrating them into the story, and even intentionally makes outcomes slightly imperfect to feel more human and believable.
- •He recounts performing risky acts like knife/bag and staple-gun style routines and later abandoning them
- •He says live shows can go wrong, but audiences may not notice when it’s woven into the narrative
- •He shares handling a heckler by turning it into a running thread that paid off later in the show
- •He argues a small mistake can feel more credible than perfect accuracy
- •He says he sometimes makes drawings ‘close’ rather than identical to strengthen believability
Why he performs and what might come next: moving from wonder to education
Lior describes loving audience reactions and the post-show connection with fans. He hints at a future phase that’s more educational, aiming to help people beyond entertainment, including moments where participants appear to do the impossible.
- •He says reactions and audience connection are a major reason he continues
- •He frames the work as not only entertainment but also inspiring and somewhat educational
- •He describes wanting to add more participant-centered moments where others do the “impossible”
- •He references a Rubik’s Cube moment where the participant appears to solve it, presented as their moment
Learning influence ethically: rejecting psychics, ‘psychological karma,’ and his book’s approach
Lewis asks how people can learn intuition and positive persuasion; Lior draws a strong line against psychics and fortune tellers. He emphasizes giving, rapport, and influence basics, and mentions his book, which mixes mind puzzles with influence concepts like framing and compliments.
- •He says he is against psychics and fortune tellers who exploit belief with similar techniques
- •He describes belief in ‘psychological karma’—giving and helping leading to returns over time
- •He mentions basics people can learn: rapport-building and elements of NLP
- •He introduces his book and gives an example puzzle to show how framing shapes thinking
- •He highlights compliments and warm connection (including hugs) as influence builders
Top influence behaviors: reciprocity, helping first, positivity, and creating heroes
Lior responds to a request for practical influence levers, referencing a well-known influence framework and emphasizing reciprocity. He shares examples—from small gestures like candy with a bill to large-scale reciprocity between countries—and stresses consistently looking for positives and helping others shine.
- •He cites reciprocity: giving first increases the likelihood others give back
- •He gives examples ranging from waiter gestures to country-to-country disaster aid
- •He recommends being the first to ask how to help or support in a group setting
- •He reinforces compliments, connection, and positivity as influential behaviors
- •He shares visiting kids in hospitals and making them the hero of the moment
On-camera book test with Christine: predicted words and the lingering ‘how?’
Lior brings a participant (Christine) into a live demonstration involving random book selection and a word choice. The chosen two-word phrase matches what Lior wrote down earlier, intensifying the discussion about fairness, choice, and how the effect is constructed.
- •Christine selects books from around the room and narrows to one book
- •She flips pages, chooses a side, and lands on a two-word phrase
- •Lior reveals he had written the same phrase beforehand and gives it to her
- •They discuss how offering chances to change the choice increases the drama and commitment
- •Lior claims he had not touched the books when arriving, reinforcing the fairness framing
Phone + Google Images: choosing a dream guest and revealing Will Smith
Lior uses Lewis’s phone and Google Images to set up another demonstration: choosing a super-famous person to interview. Lewis searches for Will Smith, and they playfully frame it as thinking of the same person simultaneously.
- •They move to a Google Images-based demonstration on the phone
- •Lewis is asked to choose any super-famous person, dead or alive, and search the name
- •Lewis selects Will Smith and explains it’s a long-time top podcast dream guest
- •They riff on the idea that Will Smith might be watching and invite him to the show
Who’s easiest to read, and the ‘philosophy’ of prediction vs influence
Lewis asks whether some people are easier to read; Lior says yes and describes scanning audiences to select the right participant for each experiment. When asked what happens if a prediction fails, he reframes the outcome as a philosophical question—did he predict, influence, or read—leaning into mentalism’s ambiguity.
- •He says participant selection depends on the specific experiment
- •He describes quickly scanning audiences to decide who fits best
- •He admits he sometimes chooses someone who isn’t a good fit
- •He reframes missed outcomes as part of the mentalism ‘gray area’ (predict vs influence vs mind-reading)
- •He keeps method opaque, emphasizing the underground nature of the craft
Personal side: family vs career, focus challenges, fear of aging, and life meaning
The conversation shifts from technique to life: Lior talks about balancing travel with family and missing opportunities for family commitments. He shares difficulties with focus and attention, a fear of getting older tied to Peter Pan and Superman symbolism, and says his meaning is making people happy.
- •He names juggling family and career as his biggest current challenge
- •He describes compressing trips and prioritizing family commitments like birthdays and vacations
- •He talks about attention challenges and wanting to be more focused and serious at times
- •He shares fear of aging and identifies with Peter Pan and Superman duality
- •He answers why he was born: to make people happy, and reiterates skeptics help spread his name
Three truths, legacy, and closing: love, give, be positive, and defining greatness
In the final segment, Lewis asks Lior’s ‘three truths,’ and Lior chooses love, giving, and a nuanced form of positivity. He reflects on how quickly people are forgotten across generations, shares where to find him online, and ends with a definition of greatness as something each person defines for themselves.
- •He lists three truths: love (beyond romance), give (not only money), and be positive (not as a cliché)
- •He tells a story emphasizing that everyone ends equal and highlights limited time in life
- •He reflects on legacy and how names fade across generations
- •He shares how to connect with him online and mentions future plans for shows
- •He defines greatness as individual and self-determined rather than judged from outside
