Hi Peter. These are superficial answers that probably raise more questions than they answer, but FWIW…
‘Russian Doll’ = one of several kinds of statements that are used used to extract information while sounding as if you’re giving it. A ‘Russian Doll’ statement (aka ‘onion skin’) contains several possible ‘layers’ of meaning. For example, the psychic says, ‘You have a daughter, don’t you?’. If yes, it’s a hit. If not, the psychic moves on, ‘Well, maybe not an actual ‘daughter’ as such, but I’m getting a daughter-in-law / someone who is like a daughter to you / a female presence, younger generation, who plays an important role in your life’. And so on. The initial statement can be ‘opened up’ as it were until the client offers agreement, thereby telling the psychic what she wants to know.
“Sugar lump” = piece of flattery designed to appeal to the client’s ego or vanity and lower their intellectual defences, the commonest being for the psychic to say the client too has some psychic ability or sensitivity.
Can I just say… I don’t want this thread to develp into one where I start answering everyone’s specific questions about cold reading because (a) it could get to be a very long thread, (b) the Mods could get twitchy if it looks like I’m advertising, (c) it could get to be hard work, because CR is a big subject where the richness is in the details; superficial answers are misleading and detailed ones take a long time to type!
These are perfectly plausible suggestions. I would suggest that most probably the psychic offered a range of health-related guesses and possibilities that were gradually refined and whittled down to something more specific based on feedback during the reading.
This isn’t hard to do. A very common one for psychics to offer is, ‘And you’ve had a bit of back trouble… yes?’, because most people can interpret this to fit, one way or another. Over time, as the reading progresses, this can be whittled down to something more specific, for example a slipped disc from three years ago. The client goes away and tells her friends that the psychic correctly said she had a slipped disc three years ago, and it sounds marvellous and impressive.
However, it’s important to note that unless you can provide a transcript of the actual reading, and maybe some notes about relevant circumstances, there is no way of knowing how accurate the psychic’s statements really were, or how the psychic arrived at those statements. There’s a section in my book that addresses ‘How do you explain that?’ type questions. The short answer is that without the data, we can’t provide analysis and it’s usually unhelpful to try to do so (because it only provides ammunition for the believers and associated moonbats).
As Ianzin says, it is amazing what people think they heard a psychic say when they tell their friends a few days later. But if you watched a videotape of the process you’d often see something completely different from what you remember. It could be that you told the psychic that you had a vitamin deficiency before he told you. Or maybe they never even mentioned it at all, you just think they did. Human memory is a slippery thing, and people can be dead certain that they remember things that never happened.
I found this appearance by Ian on Charlie Booker’s Screenwipe (I believe Screen Burn is a newspaper column): The appearance begins at 4:47 (warning: profanity – Charlie Brooker is an angry man) This may not be what was mentioned above.
Some psychics put people in the audience who ask you what you hope to discuss with them. They either have hidden microphones to pick up your answers, or the person simply gets up to go to the bathroom or their car of whatever and reports back to the person.
“I see someone here who wants to contact their mother. Her name is Shirley…Susan…an S name…Wait, it’s Sharon. Who wants to talk to their mother Sharon.”
OHMIGOD, he’s psychic. You just forgot you told the person sitting next to you the same thing a hafl hour ago.
In the trade, covertly obtaining information before giving a reading is known as ‘hot reading’. There are some documented instances of this sort of thing going on. It’s true in some cases ‘psychics’ have had associates mixing and mingling with the paying clients and eliciting clues or information which can be recycled later. There are a range of other techniques for harvesting information, ranging from the subtle to the blatant, from the simple to the ingenious.
I’ve come across the ‘hidden microphones’ allegation once or twice, but I have my doubts about it for several reasons. I don’t think it’s ever been necessary for a ‘psychic’ to get involved with this kind of hi-tech chicanery (there are so many easier ways that don’t require technical comptenence). I’ve never heard from any source I trust of this technique being used, and unless it’s coupled with with covert video surveillance then it’s not terribly useful. And I’m not sure it would be all that practical a way of gathering advance info. Microphones tend to work well when they are aimed at one speaker. Otherwise, they are only really good for gathering ambient noise. But I am open to correction.
Faith healer Peter Popoff was busted using a hidden microphone by James Randi.
(ETA: actually, Popoff’s wife obtained the information through other methods, and then informed Peter through a hidden receiver. They did not actually use hidden microphones to spy on audience members.)
When an alleged medium smiles smugly, do you feel an urge to smack him? Like many of us, you were probably told in your youth that it’s best to strike a happy medium.
Hi there, I’m a student at a local college and I’m studying Psychology with a minor in Philosophy. I’m currently conducting research for a paper that seeks to understand the societal function of psychics and soothsayers and why people are so eager to pay for their “services”.
What I would like to know is if anyone knows any good free sites or way to advertise myself as a psychic? I need to research how often people agree with whatever they are told and whether gullibility and desperation is the issue at work.
If you were really psychic, you wouldn’t need to ask. Or you could check out the various references already in this thread. Any decent description of how cold reading works will give you some idea why it works.
That said, I think the main reason why people go to psychics and soothsayers is for reassurance - reassurance that things will be okay, reassurance that their deceased loved ones are happy (and, by implication, that when they themselves die they’ll be happy too), reassurance that they can steer their destinies away from foreseen disasters. The universe is a big scary place and people take comfort where they can.
Now scientifically, that makes a lot of sense, and we all believe it, until our mother-in-law looks up and answers, ‘Becky already planted those tulips for me’ before we ask the question.
This kind of thing happens to some people; I’m one of them; so are several people to whom I am close. I have never know anyone who could call up the little gift at will; I have never know anyone who demonstrated the gift under stress; I have never know a little sending to be other than trivial - and that is always the second most convincing aspect of the little gift to me. The most convincing aspect is that ‘readers’ often don’t notice what they’ve done; the mother-in-law above will later thank the ‘sender’ for offering to plant the tulips.
Do I believe this is a magical, supernatural power? No, I believe it is some vestigial ability. We are a highly vocal and verbal species; I think our verbal development turned this ability into something akin to an appendix.
However, lounge-act mind-readers? Entertainers only. Because I have never known anyone who could read at will, but I’ve know plenty of highly socially adept people who can read people so well it does seem supernatural.
There’s a ‘psychic’ down the road who operates out of her house. Huge sign on the front lawn, and credit cards are accepted! … Well, maybe I should study up on mind-reading and hang out a shingle, too, I could use the money! (I don’t know how or why she gets away with this, and I’ve never seen any others who blatantly advertise.)
From an early age I had to use my intuition for ‘survival’. My home environment was volatile, and often violent. Both my parents had serious issues, my father was eventually diagnosed as Schizophrenic. I developed the ability to ‘read’ an environment (energy wise) before I walked into it, so I knew what to expect. I also learned to ‘read’ other people, not because I would make money from it, but because it ensured my well being to do so.
I have come a long way since then. When you are able to do this at an age when you don’t understand if it is viewed as ‘real’ or not and just do it to survive you don’t care what anyone thinks, you are not doing it for that reason. And it becomes something permanent in your life that continues to grow if you are open to it.
I have helped a lot of people with my ‘gift’ which was born out of difficulty and necessity. But it seems all of human evolution is derived this way…
