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Forum members' cold reading experiences

Robert Oz

Graduate Poster
Robert Oz
Joined
Dec 3, 2007
Messages
1,455
After having read widely on the subject of cold reading over the last few years, analysing readings performed by the TV psychics, reading transcripts, etc. and participating on this forum, I've come to the point where I'm fairly confident I could convince a stranger that I was a genuine psychic.

Of course, my opinion of psychics would preclude me from allowing said stranger to leave with the impression I was genuine. I would always reveal my methods after the stranger was convinced. And I would certainly never claim to make contact with dead loved ones.

However, even though I'm confident I could do it, I've never tried it and would be interested in conducting the experiment to better understand how easy or difficult it actually is, revealing it was a hoax to the sitter afterwards.

I was hoping to get some anecdotes of experiences other forum members have had in trying to fool someone that they were a genuine psychic, whether on another forum, chat room or in person. Anyone tried it?
 
I have thought about this myself. I haven't studied much on the specific techniques of cold readers though, but I'm confident that I could probably pull it off with a bit of studying and some practice. I was thinking that it would be best to practice with some people who know that you are practicing cold reading and are willing to play along. This would help you get comfortable with the routine and would also allow you to find out where you need improvement with your technique/studying.

I would be interested to know how it turns out if you try this.
 
I recently had an on-line chat with someone on these forums. While she did not think I was a psychic nor did I pretend to be so, I took a few stabs at some personal information about her just for giggles.

* She likes to paint
* She likes to read fiction
* She has just one sibling and is not close at all to that sibling
* She has several close friendships with men (actually she said quite a few)
* She doesn't have close friendships with women (didn't get a chance to say this before she offered it).

All hits. No misses.

This wasn't a cold reading per se. It was just stuff I thought likely based on what I've seen of her. I've pulled similar stunts before with people. It's always stuff that can be reasonably deduced based on observation and listening. Sometimes when I explain my reasoning, it's totally wrong. Does that mean it's ESP or luck? You make the call! :-)

I've also played the cold reading game with people, but only to illustrate a point. After a few questions I start explaining what I'm doing. You know, the question is vague or likely to be answered in the affirmative by just about anyone. I always do it in a mocking way, which seems to work for me.
 
I've thought a lot about this. I want to go to the local psychic fair and set up a booth. It would need to be private. The first thing I would do is to charge $20 up front, and leave it on the table during the whole session. Then perform the reading. At the end, I would hand back the $20, explaining that I hadn't earned it. I would describe exactly how I did what I did, and suggest that this is how everyone else did it too.

I did a tarot reading for a friend quite recently. I like to think of the cards as idea triggers - they provide a semirandom stimulus that can be used to focus thought on particular areas - especially when you leave it up to the subject to explain what the cards mean (the old "does this mean anything to you" trick). He thought that it helped him make a decision.
 
A while ago, I did quite a bit of research into this, and a few times I did some cold readings online, always being up-front about me not being psychic at all. I had a few sucesses, a few middling ones, and a few failures.

One thing I noticed was why psychics often say "just say yes or no". They give the impression that this is so people can't accuse them of cold reading, but actually it helps make the hits they do get seem more impressive.

One reading I did, I guessed that the sitter was an only child and moved around a lot. Ah, I thought, probably a son of a military man. I was all set to guess that, when he told me his dad was a soldier. I was quite annoyed at having my best hit taken away from me.
 
Correction

UncaYimmy said:
I recently had an on-line chat with someone on these forums. While she did not think I was a psychic nor did I pretend to be so, I took a few stabs at some personal information about her just for giggles.

* She likes to paint
* She likes to read fiction
* She has just one sibling and is not close at all to that sibling
* She has several close friendships with men (actually she said quite a few)
* She doesn't have close friendships with women (didn't get a chance to say this before she offered it).

All hits. No misses.
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I was that person, and actually, they weren't all hits. I do like to paint, but not very much, so it is a half-hit half-miss. I said that I do read a lot of fiction (college literature) but that I don't always like it, because it is a must more so than a hobby. I do not have just one sibling, I have four. But it is true that I am not close to one of them. The next one is absolutely true; all of my friends are males, I do not bond with women on the same level.

It was fun. UncaYimmy is a good cold reader.
UncaYimmy said:
This wasn't a cold reading per se. It was just stuff I thought likely based on what I've seen of her. (...) It's always stuff that can be reasonably deduced based on observation and listening.
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I didn't realize I was that predictable.
 
Be careful when posing as a psychic. Even after revealing that you are just cold reading, they might respond: "But you could be psychic without knowing it!"
 
Yes, that's a danger, but if the proper precautions are taken ("see, the recording clearly shows that you said that this was your mother, not me") then the problem is reduced merely to the threat of violence, which is easy to deal with.
 
I went through a period of woo-ism several years ago, and I was convinced that I had psychic powers. I used to read palms and interpret dreams, and I must say that I was pretty good at it, particularly because I was thoroughly honest in my belief, and people tend to forget your misses if they think you are honest. Up until this day I still have friends who swear by my powers, even if I have denounced them.

Most of the time I was cold reading without knowing what I was doing, but I taught myself not to be very evident about it. I would look for non-verbal clues, remember every small detail that I could from the person being read, but I would also make some wild-guesses that would sometimes provide spectacular hits. The biggest hit I ever got was when I told a friend that a certain dream meant that a mutual friend of ours was pregnant. She actually was pregnant, and neither of us knew about it. That's how I learnt that when cold reading, gambling pays off big time, as a massive hit obliterates all misses.

Nevertheless, I do declare that it was a great way to pick up women :D
 
VisionFromFeeling said:
I was that person, and actually, they weren't all hits. I do like to paint, but not very much, so it is a half-hit half-miss. I said that I do read a lot of fiction (college literature) but that I don't always like it, because it is a must more so than a hobby. I do not have just one sibling, I have four. But it is true that I am not close to one of them. The next one is absolutely true; all of my friends are males, I do not bond with women on the same level.
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This seems to be a common response from believers who are aware from the beginning of the reading that the reader is not really psychic, but merely cold reading.

Vague hits and ambiguous guesses, when the sitter is aware you are cold reading become "half-hits" and "not-really-hits", but when sitting for someone the sitter believes to be genuinely psychic, they are "remarkable insights". It's the number one problem of revealing that you are cold reading prior to the reading.

Obviously, believers tend to be far more skeptical of a reading when they know a game is on. If only they showed that same skepticism for the "genuine" psychics.
 
Robert Oz said:
Obviously, believers tend to be far more skeptical of a reading when they know a game is on. If only they showed that same skepticism for the "genuine" psychics.
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Excellent point. Tell them your a cold reader before and you will be perceived as a poor performer. Tell them afterwards and and they may continue to believe you are psychic.

arthwollipot said:
Yeah - but are they the kind of women that you enjoy spending time with? That, I think, is the question.
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Duh, yeah.:D

Anna Karenina said:
Just for anyone who hasn't seen it here is the link to Derren Browne pretending to be a medium using cold reading - he was so successful in convincing them of his validity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NxJs7onvXc

p.s I love Derren Browne
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Transcript of the cold reading appears in Derren's book Tricks of the Mind. Best book ever.
 
Anyone interested in actually posing as a psychic to give others a lesson in skepticism should really consider reading Ian Rowland's "Full Facts Book of Cold Reading" - that text outlines everything about cold reading. One of the most useful sections is how to recognize that you're being "read" (hint, it's not just psychics who do cold reading) and how to block a cold read. It's a great read, and I think the advice contained therein is very valuable regarding these points.
 
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MattusMaximus said:
Anyone interested in actually posing as a psychic to give others a lesson in skepticism should really consider reading Ian Rowland's "Full Facts Book of Cold Reading" - that text outlines everything about cold reading. One of the most useful sections is how to recognize that you're being "read" (hint, it's not just psychics who do cold reading) and how to block a cold read. It's a great read, and I think the advice contained therein is very valuable regarding these points.
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Agreed. Ian Rowland's book is certainly the best on the market for cold reading.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the "text outlines everything about cold reading", but it is the most comprehensive book on the subject. I have seen techniques elsewhere that weren't covered in Rowland's book, but no text gives as much as Rowland's.

Highly recommended!
 
While were on the subject of resources; has anybody here ever read Mind Reading Exposed? The website hypes it up really well and lists a number of tricks that it teaches how to do with 100% accuracy, but I'm skeptical. The only review of the book I read wasn't very informative in regards to how useful the techniques actually are.
 
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