# Mesmerists, mediums and mind-readers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 30, 2009, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292 "2009-03-30T11:29:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4491bb/32.png) [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Have_Hippos_In_My_Garden)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/1 "2009-03-30T11:29:31Z")
In the latest edition of [**the psychologist**](http://www.thepsychologist.org.uk/archive/archive_home.cfm?volumeID=22&editionID=174&ArticleID=1500) there is an article involving mediums and mind-readers. It states that, “Derren Brown is a psychological illusionist. Far from attributing his ‘mind control’ feats to paranormal abilities, he expressly rejects the existence of paranormal phenomena, and has suggested (either explicitly or implicitly) that he relies upon techniques such as neurolinguistic programming and reading people’s body language.” So, do you genuinely believe in psychics, mind-readers or mediums? Do you really belief certain people have powers to read other people’s minds or talk to the dead? Or is the case really as Derren Brown puts it, it is a phenomena based on psychologically learnt skills such as reading people’s body language? My cousin and aunt went to watch a so called medium the other week, **Derek Acorah** , who did a show in front of several hundreds of people (he is also on TV). They came back completely enthusiastic about how amazing his ‘abilities’ are and how fascinating the show was. I didn’t want to offend them and so didn’t say this, but did think ‘what utter crap’. There is such a lack of scientific proof for this kind of mind reading how can people still genuinely believe in it and let it affect their emotions so deeply? ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/2 "2009-03-30T16:12:11Z")
I knew you were going to say that. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/3 "2009-03-30T16:26:08Z")
This thread needs **ianzin** , who has written THE authoritative book on the subject of cold reading (and who knows Derren Brown, for what that’s worth). I’m hoping he’ll also provide some new and interesting adjectives in reference to Derek Acorah, who will roundly deserve them. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/4 "2009-03-30T16:31:24Z")
It’s called [Cold Reading](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading) and it is BUNK. I see a male close to you…his first name starts with M…no, wait H…he died horribly…a heart attack? I had a great-uncle Henry who died at age 92 in his sleep. Someone near to him died horribly. His wife? She lived six years later than he did, dying at age 97. His son? They only had two daughters. Did his daughters have any children? One had a horrible miscarriage. Was it a boy? I don’t know. It was a boy and he died a horrible death. His name was going to begin with an M and he died a horrible death. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/5 "2009-03-30T16:31:27Z")
Until one can measure or block psychic waves, the only evidence we’ll ever have of fakery is that we can reproduce the results without psychic waves and of course occasionally we can detect radiowaves from a third party feeding info to the psychic. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/6 "2009-03-30T16:37:12Z")
[Mod Note]This is probably going to wind up in GD[/Mod Note] > [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](#): > > There is such a lack of scientific proof for this kind of mind reading how can people still genuinely believe in it and let it affect their emotions so deeply? People want to believe in these kinds of things for a variety of different reasons - sometimes they’re desperate to talk to someone who’s died, for example. In that kind of situation you’re prone to ignore common sense. And on the surface these things can definitely look convincing. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/7 "2009-03-30T16:37:21Z")
> [@I\_Have\_Hippos\_In\_My\_Garden](#): > > Do you really belief certain people have powers to read other people’s minds or talk to the dead? If anyone does have such powers, they’ve failed to prove them in a controlled setting to the satisfaction of scientists. I very seriously doubt that anyone can read other people’s minds. Think of the survival advantage that you’d get from being able to read your opponent’s mind in a fight, for example. Even if it were very crude mind-reading, it would be an advantage. If there were people who could do that, they’d have a huge advantage over other humans, and that trait would spread to the whole population pretty quickly. It hasn’t done that, so it probably doesn’t exist. (The same argument applies for being able to predict the future) > [@](#): > > There is such a lack of scientific proof for this kind of mind reading how can people still genuinely believe in it and let it affect their emotions so deeply? Because mediums, mind readers, etc, are good at telling people what they want to hear. If someone tells you something you want to hear about yourself, it’s human nature to want to believe that they have unusual insight into your character. People don’t like to think of themselves as gullible. If you initially believed that someone could read your mind (or whatever) and then changed your mind, you’d have to admit that you were being gullible earlier. It’s not always easy for a person to admit, even to themselves, that they’ve made a mistake. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/8 "2009-03-30T18:01:53Z")
Regarding Derren Brown, I can’t add much to what I wrote in [my Staff Report on this subject](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2272/does-nlp-work), and the addtional comments in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501118) started by **Dex Sinister**. As for the rest, it’s all been said before. _Is there any credible scientific evidence for telepathy, ESP or mediumship?_ No, not yet. Read the literature if you want to, but this is a fair summary of the ‘state of the art’. _Does this mean such things are impossible?_ No, it just means we don’t have any credible evidence or proof so far. _Why do so many people believe in such things?_ Because they want to, and they get some sort of emotional benefit. It has nothing to do with rationality. _Why do papers and magazines print so many stories suggesting psychic powers are real, or at least that they may be?_ Because it helps to sell papers and magazines. It has nothing to do with factual truth. _How do these self-styled ‘psychics’ deliver such impressive results?_ Sometimes they use ‘cold reading’. If you don’t know what cold reading is, you can find out all about it for nothing just via Google. Sometimes they use hot reading (secretly obtaining information in advance). Sometimes, they aren’t that impressive at all, but it seems that way if you only remember the guesses that were right and ignore the ones that weren’t. I’ve given more demonstrations of cold reading under ‘test conditions’ for the media than anyone else in the world. In every case the subjects of the demonstrations, who did not know I was faking it, concluded that I was amazing and impressively psychic. One woman said my astrology reading was “99.5 percent accurate”, even though I made up every word off the top of my head and didn’t know anything at all about her. In every case, though, the TV production people and I explained the truth to them afterwards, tactfully and sensitively, showing that the point was not to make them look foolish, but to demonstrate that it’s possible to be taken in this way and arrive at false conclusions. One of my demonstrations, for ABC’s ‘Prime Time’, was seen by an estimated 10 million viewers. Derek Acorah is a so-called psychic with his own TV show here in the UK. I will be careful what I say about him because I don’t want to get the owners of this Board or myself into trouble. I was asked to comment on him and his show for a separate TV show called ‘Charlie Brooker’s Screen Burn’. In my opinion, Derek’s skill base does not extend beyond cold reading of a rather poor and unimpressive variety. However, other viewers may form different opinions. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/9 "2009-03-30T18:20:49Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > I’ve given more demonstrations of cold reading under ‘test conditions’ for the media than anyone else in the world. In every case the subjects of the demonstrations, who did not know I was faking it, concluded that I was amazing and impressively psychic. One woman said my astrology reading was “99.5 percent accurate”, even though I made up every word off the top of my head and didn’t know anything at all about her. In every case, though, the TV production people and I explained the truth to them afterwards, tactfully and sensitively, showing that the point was not to make them look foolish, but to demonstrate that it’s possible to be taken in this way and arrive at false conclusions. One of my demonstrations, for ABC’s ‘Prime Time’, was seen by an estimated 10 million viewers. Do you have a link to video of any of these, particularly the “Prime Time” appearance? I’d be curious to see you in action. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/10 "2009-03-30T21:51:38Z")
Cold reading sounds interesting. One question- I had a woowooish person tell me that I had a specific _vitamin deficiency_. (Which I did). How on earth do you use cold reading to figure out something like\* that\*? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/11 "2009-03-30T21:54:09Z")
I have all of these demonstrations on video, but I haven’t converted them to digital formats and I haven’t posted them online anywhere (and it’s faintly possible that the copyright owners would object if I did). No video, but if you’re interested you can read more about some of these demos [here](http://www.ianrowland.com/ItemsToBuy/ColdReading/ColdReadingTestDemos.html), although those pages were created a long time ago and aren’t all that up to date. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/12 "2009-03-30T22:16:22Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > This thread needs **ianzin** , who has written THE authoritative book on the subject of cold reading (and who knows Derren Brown, for what that’s worth). > > I’m hoping he’ll also provide some new and interesting adjectives in reference to Derek Acorah, who will roundly deserve them. > [@ianzin](#): > > I have all of these demonstrations on video, but I haven’t converted them to digital formats and I haven’t posted them online anywhere (and it’s faintly possible that the copyright owners would object if I did). No video, but if you’re interested you can read more about some of these demos [here](http://www.ianrowland.com/ItemsToBuy/ColdReading/ColdReadingTestDemos.html), although those pages were created a long time ago and aren’t all that up to date. Is the book that Gyrate is talking about the in the demos link? If not can we get a link? I’ve been looking for a good explanation on cold reading. My family takes this stuff too seriously and I want to show them that it’s all BS. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/13 "2009-03-30T23:05:21Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > Derek Acorah is a so-called psychic with his own TV show here in the UK. I will be careful what I say about him because I don’t want to get the owners of this Board or myself into trouble. Ah, yer no fun. But point taken. And I should probably add that the above book plug wasn’t inserted at **ianzin** ’s behest but rather as a reference for the OP and similar readers, and the mods are asked to view it as such. Any commercial transactions which may occur as a result have nothing to do with either me or the Chicago Reader, etc etc etc. ---
**Author:** ![Black\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@Black\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Black_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2009, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/14 "2009-03-31T18:38:46Z")
**ianzin** , can you recommend any resources for learning the art of cold reading? Do you think a person needs to have any sort of natural people skills to be suited for it? It’s something I’ve always wanted to learn - not to swindle people or anything, but just to see if I could do it. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/15 "2009-04-01T15:47:11Z")
To **Black Sunshine** and other who have asked questions about cold reading and how it works… you can find out pretty much everything you want to know just by googling ‘cold reading’. There’s a lot of free info out there. Just be aware that in the acting trade, ‘cold reading’ is sometimes used to mean ‘auditioning by reading from a script you’ve never seen before’. I’ve written a book on this cold reading that addresses some of the questions that have been asked here, such as ‘How could the psychic have known…’ and ‘Can anyone do it…’. I want to be careful about mentioning this because the Mods don’t want any thread turned into an advert, but then again you _have_ asked about learning resources. PM me if you want more information. And there are other books available on the subject. Magic shops can usually either supply them or point you in the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/16 "2009-04-01T19:21:37Z")
Ianzin is just naive. What he doesn’t realize that what he _thinks_ is cold reading is actually him using psychic powers that he himself is unaware of. The spirit world feeds him information subconsciously so that he _believes_ that he is just making it up. That is how he is so accurate. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/17 "2009-04-01T21:20:55Z")
Hi **Psychobunny**. I _do_ understand that it was a pleasant, light-hearted post, and I take it as such. However, just for the record and because it’s relevant to the OP, ‘cold reading’ does _not_ equal ‘just making it up’. It’s a heck of a lot more challenging than that. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/18 "2009-04-02T01:07:19Z")
Sorry-I realized afterward that I should have taken that out. It should read “…he \*believes \*that he is using his powers of observation and careful leading questions…” or something like that. Seriously, though, I think if it weren’t an art, people wouldn’t be so gullible. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/19 "2009-04-02T01:28:10Z")
Black sunshine, here is an article that gives a very basic introduction to cold reading. It examines the role of criminal profilers in solving murders. It suggests that some of them are just cold readers who contribute no useful information to the case. > **[The Difficulties of Criminal Profiling](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/dangerous-minds)** > > Criminal profiling isn’t a Whodunit; it’s a Hedunit. But how useful are those profiles, really? You’ll find an explanation of some of the techniques starting on page 5, with specific examples. Note that the Ian Rowland cited in the article is Ianzin’s real name. Ian, I think I understand what a rainbow ruse is, and also a Barnum statement. But can you describe what a _Russian Doll_ is, or what \*sugar lumps \* are. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2009, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292/20 "2009-04-02T03:09:09Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Cold reading sounds interesting. > > One question- I had a woowooish person tell me that I had a specific _vitamin deficiency_. (Which I did). How on earth do you use cold reading to figure out something like\* that\*? There are a few possibilities. One is that they made a great number of comments about you, one of which they were lucky enough to be correct about, and so that’s the one you remember. You don’t remember all the stuff they got wrong. Statistically, they are bound to hit sooner or later. The other (which is only a variant on the first) is that the vitamin deficiency is one that is very common (or very common amongst your demographic) and so they knew they might well be correct. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mesmerists-mediums-and-mind-readers/491292.md?page=2)