TYREL ESKELSON
Opinions Writer
Psychics have been around for a long time and rely on an ancient practice that requires both psychological manipulation and good acting skills. This practice is called “cold reading,” or reading without any prior knowledge about the sitter. There are many factors that are involved in a typical reading, but funny enough, being psychic is not one of them.
The first thing a psychic does is set the stage by giving the sitter a feeling of mysticism and making them the center of attention. The psychic talks in a calm tone, and explains that their gift is not always 100 per cent accurate. This rationalizes the mistakes that are soon to follow.
Cold readings start with general statements, much the same as an astrology prediction. For instance, a psychic might claim that, “Your inner feelings are closer to the surface and may need to come out somewhat. It’s a really good time for you to get together with someone you trust and let them know what is what.”
Or, “Sometimes you are too honest about your feelings and you reveal too much of yourself. You are good at thinking things through and you like to see proof before you change your mind about anything. When you find yourself in a new situation you are very cautious until you figure out your surroundings, at which point you begin to act with confidence.”
Maybe I’m a psychic.
After some of these general statements one can focus in on more specifics such as career, love life, money, ambition and family. A great way to do this is disguise questions as statements. An example: “So who might this refer to?” or, “Do you connect with this?”
Cold reading is essentially a skilled fishing expedition that relies on a gullible sitter who remembers the hits and forgets the misses. The sitter will not find meaning in everything the reader says, but the reader absolutely always counts on the sitter being able to connect the dots and make sense out of what they’ve brought up.
Cold reading is also dependent on subject validation which requires the sitter to be convinced that the accuracy of the reader is due to their powers and not the sitter’s willingness to cooperate.
Cold reading is a combined art of psychology and acting that pretty well everyone can do with enough practice. It uses arcane jargon that may be impossible to logically follow but which reinforces the idea that the reader is an authority figure with unique knowledge.
While it is my opinion that some psychics genuinely think they have psychic ability, I think that most, such as celebrity “seers” like Sylvia Browne, are conscious frauds that know damn well that they are not psychic. For anyone who is interested in searching this in more detail I suggest the work of Ian Rowland, Michael Shermer, The Ottawa Skeptics or James Randi.
For the past 30 years Randi has offered a million dollar prize to anyone who can prove they have psychic ability or have any sort of paranormal ability. Nobody has yet to cash in — and I don’t foresee it happening any time in the near future.
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