For anyone wishing to know more about cold reading there is this Staff Report from 2003, which I helped Dex to write.
There are also good entries on the subject at the Skeptic’s Dictionary, such as this one.
There’s also an explanatory section on my own website here, with a link at the bottom of the page to some demonsrations I did for the media. These demosntrations were under so-called ‘test conditions’, and the aim was to prove that cold reading really can look like genuine psychic ability (as assessed independently by people selected at random). Some parts of my website are commercial, but these specific pages on my site are free and there is no need to buy anything to read them.
Glad you mentioned this, because I’ve focused mostly on face-to-face work up til now. Phone work is very different, but it’s also easier in some ways because the clients…tend to have a lot in common. Limited set of possibilities in play, most of the time.
I would generally have to get the conversational ball rolling, and it would take a lot more chatter than face-to-face, but it’s also easier to get people telling you secrets over the phone. The first thirty seconds are probably the most important, yeah. Literally that short amount of time, people decide if they are going to committ to paying for this or not. You live or die on first impressions in that business, which btw is such a racket. Somebody is really cleaning up off it, but it’s definitely not the workers. The phone psychic industry is designed to promote high turnover; employees are driven like horses until they burn out and get replaced.
Okay, taking a break for a bit, back later if there are more questions.
Ok, you mentioned that the workers weren’t…well compensated…for their otherworldly powers, but surely they must’ve been paid more than your typical customer service rep (which I’ve done). I’m curious as to what you made (no need to be specific, just, say, compare it to other gigs you’ve had—I don’t want to be intrusive here).
What are the limited set of possibilites? My guesses would be infidelity, financial woes, ailing family members, work-related issues (promotions, etc.), and concerns of the “does he/she really like/love me” ilk. Am I right? Am I hired?
Lastly: What kind of training did they give you at the over-the-phone job?
It sounds like you are indeed very good at some particular skills; are you currently using your skills to make money in a less exploitive way? If not, have you thought about that? I’m sure there are many fields that you would excel in with your people-reading skills (psychotherapy and talk-show host come to mind ).
I don’t recall if you’ve said what you do now, but it sounds like you could be very successful in the right kind of sales. What are you doing with your skills & talents now?
Cold reading is psychic power. Just because the scientists renamed it (after they discovered…oops!..there IS a real science behind it) doesn’t change the reality of what it is.
(Yeah, I know, I should stay out of these threads. I’ll just go soak my head in a bucket of ice for a few days…)
Cold reading is observation. Not psychic power. I can cold read until the cows come home - I’m studing psychology - probably a good match. I’m also really good in sales.
I am not, however, psychic. And yes, many, many people have asked me “wow - are you psychic?” The answer is “No, dumbass - I’m just observant, and interested in other people so I pay attention to shit that other people miss.”
You must be using a different definition of “psychic” than the rest of the world. To most people, the word implies some sort of extra sense that ordinary people lack–not just that they’re observant and good at making educated guesses and manipulating people.
And are you seriously suggesting that mainstream scientists ever thought there wasn’t an unremarkable scientific explanation of “psychic” readings? It’s the psychic scammers themselves who claim that they can defy conventional science.
I think you just contradicted yourself – most people in this world are NOT very observant at all, and many aren’t good manipulators, either. (Which is why so-called “psychic” charlatans have been able to pull off their scams for thousands of years.) Just like alice_in_wonderland said, people assume he’s psychic, when in fact he’s just observant. It’s not a skill that just anyone can learn, either…at least, that’s my opinion. Like perfect pitch, either you possess that skill or you don’t.
I’ve always assumed such is the case. Are you telling me the scientific history of cold reading is something different?
No, actually, I made more answering phones and filing. The only reason to do it is if you absolutely have to work from home, or on a weird schedule. It was better than fast food, but not by much. A few people can become superstars and make big bucks, but not many. You’re paid by the minute (as an independant contractor), so it all depends on how long you can keep them on the phone. I can’t remember what I made per minute, but I had to branch out to face-to-face work because my check wasn’t reliable enough to live on.
I made much, much more just doing little $3-$20 Tarot card readings in the parks. I could easily make like fifty bucks an hour in the summertime, though how much I could work was severely limited by burnout which would set in after so many readings.
The set: You got it, plus people are just lonely and want someone to chat with. You’re hired. You might get a packet with some reference material and hotlines (in case you get a suicidal caller or one in an abusive relationship, which happened to me repeatedly), or you might get nothing. You are expected to pretty much hack it on your own. If you do well enough you might get more attention later, but they throw you in the water to see if you can swim first, in my experience.
Fascinating thread! Also, I think the phone sex operator thread would be interesting also… IIRC, we’ve had a few of those, but they have all been women.
How did you dress for your face-to-face meetings, readings and parties?
Did you ever do a reading that you got spooked over?
This question comes from personal experience. I had a beautiful set of Osho Zen tarot cards, and would do play readings. One friend of mine asked to see them and asked if I’d do a reading. He did ask an odd question - it was a “relationship reading” of some sort, and he asked if I needed to know the other party (to which I said no).
While I don’t remember the exact nature of the reading (except it being a four-card reading), I do remember getting a very odd feeling with the fourth card. I told him that I didn’t understand, but it seemed to imply an interrupted relationship or interminable waiting. It was then that he told me the other party that he had in mind was his late partner, who had been dead for a few years. :eek:
I don’t think I did many readings after that.
Great thread!! Although I’m also really looking forward to the phone-sex thread.
I visited a psychic once at the urging of a friend, figuring what the heck, it should be good for a laugh. I was slightly aware of the methods of cold reading that you’ve described, and was somewhat divided between watching for them and “going along for the ride” just to see what she could turn out of me on the strength of them.
I was rather surprised to find that she did not always follow the rule you mentioned about moving on from the “misses.” She laid out cards and told me someone close to me was “a doctor or a teacher.” Pretty vague, but I couldn’t think of a medical doctor or a schoolteacher that close, so I said no. She moved on, as expected. But then she came back to it more than once, insisting that someone close to me had to be a doctor or a teacher and finally adding that this person “works for the government,” as she tapped a particular card that “told” her this. I then realized that my husband is a professor at the state university - a doctor (PhD) and a teacher (grad students only) who works for the government. She also gave a fairly accurate physical description of him. I was kind of startled. What sort of thing would she have discerned to go back and insist on something I had already denied? I swear I do not decorate myself in college-related paraphernalia and never saw this woman before in my life.
She also told me I had a lump in my left breast (indicating the precise location on her own body), but that it was not malignant. This turned out to be true. A rather specifically risky thing to guess at. What could prompt that?
She also told me a lot of stuff about spirits watching over me (which I would find creepy rather than comforting if I believed it), made some bad guesses that did get glossed over and threw in a few things that everybody wants to hear about how great they are (all true, but of course!). But I found those two things out of the ordinary compared to the rest of it, since they seemed to break the rules of cold reading (in my limited understanding) rather unnecessarily. All in all, it was interesting mishmash.
Sparrow, I think the fact that you had to awkwardly bend the reality around her reading (if she was actually looking for a PhD, why would she go with the vaguer “doctor”? That’s not what most people think of. Also, who thinks of a state university professor when someone says “government worker”?) is somewhat telling as to the fact that she actually was fishing.
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