Absolutely! I have done a lot of readings knowing that I am using cold reading - much done with the help of** ianzin’s** book. I started using tarot and astrology - always saying up front that I was trying to show how the process worked - but my denial about any psychic ability was sometimes met with the argument from a sitter that I might think that I was a fake, but the system must be working. Otherwise, as they would say: “there’s no way you could have known that!”
So I created my own divination system, based entirely on cold reading techniques. No validity beyond my own imagination. It still works a treat and there are still a few who refuse to believe that I don’t have psychic ability. When I read people, often things jump into my head which are amazing hits. At the time, I can’t identify their source, but when I work back over the reading later, I can see the pattern. This happens often now that I have done hundreds of readings. If I believed in my system - astrology, tarot, psychic abilities, dead people talking to me - then I can fully understand that I would attribute those hits to the system, or voices or whatever. I could easily be using cold reading and be deluded at the same time. I have no doubt many of the street-stall local psychics are doing just that.
Which one knocked up the woman who was on Oprah yesterday? Or is that something we won’t know til she and the baby go on Maury?
Trivia: Jonathan Edwards was the grandfather of Aaron Burr. On his deathbed he supposedly told a Calvinist clergyman cousin who was trying to convert him “I was born the grandson of Jonathan Edwards and became the killer of Alexander Hamilton, what reasonable deity would turn a blind eye at those credentials?” (He was never overly repentant of the duel.)
What would be cool would be if John Edward summoned Jonathan Edwards and Aaron Burr to discuss their opinions on what kind of VP John Edwards would have made.
It would save a lot of problems if they’d wear nametags. That way they could say “Her name is 'Hello My Name is Susan OliviaThorsdottir-Norris” which would help a lot more than “her name has an o or two in it and she’s standing next to a guy who looks like Paul Sorvino but in a Hawaiian shirt”.
Based on a line from To Be or Not to Be: “My husband is the great actor Joseph Tura. He’s world famous in Poland.”
The line was added by Jack Benny because when he was touring he loved all the podunk towns with diners that advertised their “world famous peach cobbler” or “world famous strawberry preserves” or somesuch. He said in one of his routines that whenever Soviet dignitaries visited and you could see them whispering something to somebody in the background while appearing with the president or at the U.N. “I always wonder if they’re saying 'when this is over let’s go to Molly’s Diner in Texarkana and get some of that pecan pie the East German ambassador and the Chilean consul were talking about”.
I had already decided that when everybody recognizes my rightful claim as Queen of the World, everybody would have to wear nametags at all times when they weren’t at home. That way, those of us who can’t recognize faces wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage. Now I know that I must get all ghosts to wear nametags, too… how am I going to do that?
