Without even digging I get at least a 90% on that reading too.
Uncanny!
I knew you would.
photopat check with your family, friends and acquaintances. That last 10% is a hit too. You just don’t know it. It’s called an “unverified hit.” You just haven’t looked hard enough to see that I’m right.
I don’t know if maybe you had a parental-type figure? I don’t know if maybe there were some tensions at various times. Some of these tensions were resolved but some still lingered?
If I only had a certificate so I could be a geuine, bona fide, certified, documented, real psychic.
Then I guess I’ll need a shingle. Or maybe a call-in radio show. It sure’d beat working for a livin.
Ok, I’ll be one of the ten people on this one.
1. Someone you know OR are related to died. I don’t know if they left a son behind ?
Both my parents and all my grandparents are dead. My parents left behind not just one, but seven sons, and two daughters.
**2. OK, I just want to ask you something about like a chest condition. I don’t know if it’s a breast condition or a cancer condition in the chest area? And this person who died I’ll tell you, there’s a father figure over there also. **
My father died from cancer, which eventually spread to his heart and lungs. One night his heart simply stopped.
3. I don’t know if you have some old books of this person. There’s something about having old books and they’re in a box.
Both my parents were avid readers, and our house was always full of books. After my mother died, they were packed up in boxes, where they sat until this last year. We then went through them divided them up among us. I have several of my Dad’s old books, including some from his time in the navy during WWII.
4. And is there a poem or a phrase on his or her headstone?
This one does not seem to apply to me. My mother was a poetry fan, and may have at one time talked about putting something on Dad’s gravestone, but never did. All it has is their names and the dates of their deaths.
5. And I want tell about, is there a birthday, wedding anniversary or death anniversary that either just past or is coming up?
My father died at the end of January, my mother four years later at the end of February. We are currently about two weeks past one anniversary, and two weeks before the other.
6. I don’t know if you took pictures or looked at them.
Photography was a kind of family hobby, started during WWII. My folks had hundreds (or thousands) of pictures of themselves, us, other relatives, etc. They also had a darkroom, which we used together. We spent many hours taking pictures, developing film, mounting slides, making prints, looking at pictures, creating slide shows, etc. This was a big part of both my parents lives, especially during their later years. I still have several of the camera bodies, lenses, slide projectors, antique cameras, etc. that belonged to my parents.
So, out of six statements, five apply to me. Some of them mention some things that were very significant to me and my family, such as books and pictures. And picking up on the double anniversaries of their deaths, amazing!
Not bad for a “reading” that was aimed at someone else entirely.
Ugly
Since “cold reading” seems to be accurate in the case of skeptics and not in other cases, it is time for a cite. I am sure you are basing your beliefs on controlled studies.
So please show me some of them. Cite please.
Love
Leroy
Lekatt, so far, the only person participating in this thread who has applied a “reading” to themselves and not found a very high hit rate is yourself. But you managed to show your own bias and dishonesty very clearly when you tried to deny that a particular “reading” applied to your family, even though you admitted elsewhere that you did not know enough about your family to know whether the reading fit your family or not.
Also, you are the one stating that the manner in which the readings seem to fit those read is not due to the generality of the readings but rather due to a psychic ability.
So I suggest that the onus of proof is on you to find a cite showing that the readings do not match more or less anyone.
Two points in anticipation of your likely response to this post.
Firstly, the attitude that “only skeptics have found cold reading to work” is just a self fulfilling prophecy. In your mind, anyone who doubts and applies logic to so called “psychic readings” is a skeptic and therefore suspect. In other words, you just shut out any evidence that doesn’t suit you, which is BS.
Secondly, before you come back with some comment about the onus of proof being on those who call others fakes, not on those who support them, remember that I am going to body slam you over the Doc Cathode issue if you do.
“Accurate in the case of skeptics”? What are you talking about? I’m a little confused here.
There are a few books that delve into “cold” reading fairly extensively. There have also been television programs that have cold readers on it. P&T had one recently, where the “psychic” admitted he was cold reading.
Also, Shermer’s book Why people believe strange things has examples of cold reading.
Sagan’s book Demon Haunted World delves into cold reading a bit and why it is popular.
lekatt said:
Here’s one that you won’t accept, but what the hell. It’s what a guy used to call The Tarot Scam and is how he used to get free beer in college by doing cold reading. People believed his cold readings and thus kept buying him beer.
And here is one that discusses how he performed at a meeting where he did two readings for people who totally believed what he said, despite the fact that he was only cold reading.
Since you completely ignored my last link about the cold reading books, not to mention everything else that everybody else has said, I strongly suspect you’ll ignore these too.
Do either of these involve controlled studies?
From what you psoted these sound like anecdotal evidence and not a controlled study.
I would guess not, considering the topic…
Meatros?
I’m not sure; I don’t have the books on me. I think some of Shermer’s accounts were, but it’s been a while since I’ve read his book.
As far as Sagan goes, he wasn’t actually investigating cold reading, and I didn’t suggest that he did. He was explaining why people would accept a psychic.
The real question is what constitutes a hit. I don’t think that vague generalities that require the querant to fill in the blank or leading questions like the ones I’ve seen in the transcript count as a hit.
I’d say that I’ve not seen any accuracy in either admitted cold-readings or psychic readings.
After what constitutes a hit has been established then a survey of psychic readings could be compared with admitted cold-readings. The next step would be to establish what the hit rate of random guessing would be.
If y’all’ll help me flesh out the details that I mentioned then I’ll write the grant to apply for funds to perform the study.
Good luck. Although you might get a bite from that billionaire in Las Vegas…
???
What I find interesting is the implication tha Lekatt makes now that a test of accuracy would be relevant. His previous criteria for distinguishing a genuine from a fake didn’t mention accuracy at all. Presumably this was because psychic skills aren’t black and white and come and go.
Lekatt,
Is it accurate to say that you think accuracy is an indicator that will let you determine whether or not a psychic is real?
What criteria do you use to determine if something is a hit or not?
I think that ** Prichester** raised a very valid point.
Lekatt,
Specifically, what beliefs are you wanting to see cites for?
Lekatt,
Specifically, what beliefs are you wanting to see cites for? If you can tell me I can begin to look for some cites. As it is I’m not clear what you are asking for.
You are telling me that psychics do cold readings and I am asking for a cite, some controlled study that proves what you are saying.
Hey, you guys are the ones that taught me that, you know that personal experience means nothing. The stuff that was done on the board is just anecdotal, doesn’t count.
So, unless you come up with a controlled scientific study proving what you say, you don’t have the right to say it.
Love
Leroy
I didn’t ignore your links to the books, I looked them over quickly.
If you took an automobile apart and laid out all the parts on the ground, you would no longer have an automobile, certainly nothing to take you anywhere.
If you took a deck of tarot cards and laid them out, and explained to someone what each card meant, you would not have a reading, nothing to help anyone.
Tarot card, quija boards, crystal balls, and such are only tools and in themselves mean nothing. The reading is in the psychic who uses these tools. Psychics like James Van Praagh doesn’t use anything. George Anderson uses a pencil and clipboard.
So, someone telling about the scam of tarot cards does not appeal to me, I know from the title he is not knowledgable about psychics.
I will try to write a post this weekend on spiritualists, they are the psychics, healers, teachers, and helpers of others.
Love
Leroy
Ridiculous. The individual parts of an automobile are subject to scientific validation, whereas the functional parts of a Tarot deck are not.
And if
**
wouldnt that mean that people who use non-functional Tarot cards but are nonetheless genuine psychics are engaging in fraud anyway, since they CLAIM that it is the Tarot deck that is helping to determine the outcome, whereas it really has no influence whatsoever?
Well? Which is it?
I’ve been careful not to say that. What I ihave said is that the transcripts I’ve seen are indistinguishable from cold-readings. I asked you how you distinguished between the two and you sent me to wade back through hundreds of posts. Cold-reading involves vague statements and asking questions. JVP does this in the transcripts I’ve read.
I’m asking:
Is it accurate to say that you think accuracy is an indicator that will let you determine whether or not a psychic is real?
What criteria do you use to determine if something is a hit or not?