ATLANTA, Ga. -- The TV show, “The Mentalist" airs Thursday nights on CBS Atlanta. It’s about an investigator who can solve crimes simply by observing people. It turns out there are real life "mentalists" in Atlanta.

“I'm not a crime fighter, I'm doing this for entertainment,” said Joe Turner.

Turner is one form of mentalist. He uses his abilities to please crowds, by discovering what word in a book a person is looking at. He can even bend a quarter with the power of the mind.

“It’s focused on effects and illusions that have to do with the human mind, its perception,” said Turner.

Keith Howard is the real deal. He's the only certified criminal profiler in Georgia, and one of about 70 in the world. Similar to the "TV mentalist," Howard reads criminals, and he teaches other Georgia officers how to read body language during interviews and interrogations.

“You're looking or their emotional response, you want them to be emotional,” said Howard.

Howard instructs the truth is in the subconscious and a lie is in the conscious. For example when answering a question, the truth comes naturally, while formulating a lie takes longer. And once investigators have determined what someone does when telling the truth, they look for signs of deception when answering a critical question about a crime.

“We look at non-verbal behavior, it's what change do they make in 0-5 seconds after being asked a critical question, it could be crossing their arms, crossing their legs, grooming,” said Howard.

That tells an investigator they need to dig deeper.

“If they don't answer the question, they've answered the question, which is basically they don't want to tell you what the truth is,” said Howard.

In real cases, Howard was asked for his expertise to help select jurors to serve in the 2002 murder trial of DeKalb County Sheriff Sidney Dorsey, who was charged with killing sheriff-elect Derwin Brown.

“We utilized this technique to just to listen to how potential jurors answered questions,” said Howard.

The jury found Dorsey guilty. More recently, Howard was asked to evaluate the "runaway bride's fiance to see if a statement he made gave any indication if he was involved in her disappearance. Howard was also asked to set up surveillance at the grave of Jon Benet Ramsey to watch how people react to her grave in an effort to help find the beauty queen's killer.

For more information about Howard and the Georgia Public Training Center, go to www.gpstc.org. For information about Turner, go to www.joemturner.com.