The mentalist know how people react when faced with the inexplicable.

Question: Why do people like being fooled by you?

Gerard Senehi: I think people are fascinated by the psychic dimension or the paranormal because it represents...It’s a metaphor for what more might be possible and I don’t think it’s inherently where the answer lies for us there are possibilities for humanity lies in psychic abilities but I think it’s a metaphor for that other things are possible, that things are deeper than they appear on the surface, that there’ a lot more and that’s why it’s always so fascinating.

That’s why also in times of crises people sometimes go back to their, you know it’s an easy place to look for deeper meaning or higher possibilities or greater possibilities and it’s not necessarily where we’ll find it but it’s the first place, one of the first places to look.

Question: Has there been a psychic shift since the start of the financial crisis?

Gerard Senehi: I don’t feel that people are [IB] pressing more. I mean, when I perform it’s it’s…it impacts people. People have strong reactions to it so I don’t feel that people’s responses has deferred. There’s perhaps new opportunities that are opening up because maybe because there is more interest in media but from people them selves I haven; felt the difference.

Question: Do your performances frighten people? How do people react to your performances?

Gerard Senehi: People are rarely scared by what I do. Occasionally, I’ve had somebody be caught off guard and get upset because they just couldn’t understand it and they show the visible kind of response. That’s rare because I also approach what I do in a very light-hearted way. It’s a playful kind of mess with your mind kind of quality.

I think it’s more when something just unexpected happens, that’s what’s most shocking for people and they can pop up at any point during my performances like it’s completely unexpected and that’s what catches people and makes them all of a sudden kind of step back and go, “What? Did that really happen? What did I just see?”

So it’s more the unexpected component rather the specific thing that I do. There was one time where I performed a miracle but because it was kind of expected it hardly had any impact and then I remember a few seconds later doing something more simple and then realizing that I have a much bigger impact as it was like.

Recorded on: June 4, 2009