We all know self-styled psychics use "cold reading" to ply their trade, right? But what, exactly, do we all know about CR? Are we sure of our facts? Ian Rowland is. He should be; he's a master practitioner -- a professional magician who for many years has used CR to produce detailed, insightful "psychic readings." And he's eager to tell us all about it.
As he explains in this clear, logical, detailed and very readable book, CR is far more than what most of us think. It has to be since, like a clever, well-executed magic trick, CR can leave anyone who doesn't know how it works completely amazed. (Yes, even you.) And like a good magic trick, once you know how it works, it's not mysterious at all, just very cool.
The book begins by helping readers unlearn what they think they know about CR, an important step since most people who think they know a little about CR are mistaken. Next, Rowland lays bare exactly how CR does work ... in great detail. He talks about each of the phases that make up a reading and shows how they relate to and reinforce one another. For each phase, he lays out the relevant techniques, giving examples of each. He then wraps up the "How It Works" part of the book by explaining how to weave the techniques together in front of a "client" (including a skeptical one) to conjure a convincing reading.
The book then demonstrates how the theory is translated into practice. It presents a verbatim transcript of a 25-minute "tarot reading" Rowland did for a program that aired on BBC TV. In it you can see how he deploys the toolkit he's just described and why it works so well. As I said, very cool.
A little further on, Rowland turns to the subject of "blocking" CR -- techniques you can use to cause someone doing CR lots of trouble. While there are good pointers here, blocking techniques are pretty obvious once you know how CR works (as Rowland himself admits). He ends the section on "blocking" with a tongue-in-cheek description of the sport of psychic-baiting, providing instruction not just on how to block CR but really make an explosive mess of any reading you might be involved in. Exactly what you always dreamed of doing to a TV psychic given the chance.
All of the foregoing is really great, on-topic stuff, but the book has a few other things in it, as well.
Some of this is similarly well done, just not so on-topic. For example there's a 3900-word all-purpose astrological reading. This is a nice piece of work that contains quite a few elements from CR. But because it's a fixed, written report and because CR gets so much of its power from the interactive nature of a reading, one wonders why Rowland chose it rather than an additional, interactive transcript illustrating the use of other tools in the CR toolkit.
And then there are some bits that are not just off topic, but also pretty lame. Chief among these have to be the sections on applying CR to "romance" and "criminal interrogation." Maybe, but what's on display here is, well, speculative at best.
These minor weaknesses aside, if you have more than a passing interest in how fake psychics do their thing, this is the book for you. If you're skeptical of what psychics do, you'll now know what you suspected all along. If you're a believer, you'll be able to use the information in it to separate the real psychics (if you find any, send them to JREF so they can collect the $1,000,000 prize) from the vast field of fakes who use CR. If you're thinking about going into the fake psychic business, this is the textbook you need.
I only wish the book were more widely available. The only way to get it is to order it from the author at www.ianrowland.com. I should warn you, it costs a lot -- £28 plus postage -- but it comes fast, and once you read it you can (and should) pass it around to your friends...and maybe to some other not-so-friendly people who need it.
As he explains in this clear, logical, detailed and very readable book, CR is far more than what most of us think. It has to be since, like a clever, well-executed magic trick, CR can leave anyone who doesn't know how it works completely amazed. (Yes, even you.) And like a good magic trick, once you know how it works, it's not mysterious at all, just very cool.
The book begins by helping readers unlearn what they think they know about CR, an important step since most people who think they know a little about CR are mistaken. Next, Rowland lays bare exactly how CR does work ... in great detail. He talks about each of the phases that make up a reading and shows how they relate to and reinforce one another. For each phase, he lays out the relevant techniques, giving examples of each. He then wraps up the "How It Works" part of the book by explaining how to weave the techniques together in front of a "client" (including a skeptical one) to conjure a convincing reading.
The book then demonstrates how the theory is translated into practice. It presents a verbatim transcript of a 25-minute "tarot reading" Rowland did for a program that aired on BBC TV. In it you can see how he deploys the toolkit he's just described and why it works so well. As I said, very cool.
A little further on, Rowland turns to the subject of "blocking" CR -- techniques you can use to cause someone doing CR lots of trouble. While there are good pointers here, blocking techniques are pretty obvious once you know how CR works (as Rowland himself admits). He ends the section on "blocking" with a tongue-in-cheek description of the sport of psychic-baiting, providing instruction not just on how to block CR but really make an explosive mess of any reading you might be involved in. Exactly what you always dreamed of doing to a TV psychic given the chance.
All of the foregoing is really great, on-topic stuff, but the book has a few other things in it, as well.
Some of this is similarly well done, just not so on-topic. For example there's a 3900-word all-purpose astrological reading. This is a nice piece of work that contains quite a few elements from CR. But because it's a fixed, written report and because CR gets so much of its power from the interactive nature of a reading, one wonders why Rowland chose it rather than an additional, interactive transcript illustrating the use of other tools in the CR toolkit.
And then there are some bits that are not just off topic, but also pretty lame. Chief among these have to be the sections on applying CR to "romance" and "criminal interrogation." Maybe, but what's on display here is, well, speculative at best.
These minor weaknesses aside, if you have more than a passing interest in how fake psychics do their thing, this is the book for you. If you're skeptical of what psychics do, you'll now know what you suspected all along. If you're a believer, you'll be able to use the information in it to separate the real psychics (if you find any, send them to JREF so they can collect the $1,000,000 prize) from the vast field of fakes who use CR. If you're thinking about going into the fake psychic business, this is the textbook you need.
I only wish the book were more widely available. The only way to get it is to order it from the author at www.ianrowland.com. I should warn you, it costs a lot -- £28 plus postage -- but it comes fast, and once you read it you can (and should) pass it around to your friends...and maybe to some other not-so-friendly people who need it.
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