Precognition is the foresight of future events, often presented as a demonstration of psychic or extrasensory perception. A mentalist performer uses precognition techniques to reveal information about seemingly random events such as lottery numbers, dice rolls, volunteer behavior, or audience choices, as though the performer had prior knowledge.

The precognition theme in mentalism performances is framed as a supernatural ability to access future knowledge or insights.

Precognition methods include two-way envelopes, pencil reading, secret writing (e.g., nail writing, thumb writing, pocket writing, double writing), sealed predictions, billet-loading envelope openers, and time-delay mechanisms that simulate the illusion of foreknowledge.