Robert, it is difficult to believe that she's worse "live" than on the clips I've seen. I have no skill in cold reading, but I don't think I could do worse than she does.
On a recent TV news magazine show (I forget which), they filmed one of her live shows and played clips from it.
Granted, they could have "cherry picked" the clips they showed to make her look bad (just as her own show probably cherry-picks what they show of her readings to make her look good (like she gets more evident "hits" than she actually does), but in what the news program showed, her guesses drew far more responses of "no" (and blank, confused looks) from the sitters than what is shown on her TV show, where she gets far more "yes" responses (and jaw-dropped astonished reactions) from sitters.
Maybe too many years of skepticism make us more aware of just how bad the act is, while the believers have too many years of credulity to see that.
It is actually very heartening, how a little education on cold reading techniques can open the eyes of a believer to what is actually going on during a reading.
My Better Half Susan was a firm believer in the "abilities" of Browne, Edward and Van Praagh when we first met (see my thread "I married a woo!" from a few years back), but now shakes her head when she sees one of them on TV now, and says things like "To think that just a few years ago, I would have bought that as real..."
She'd had
decades of belief in psychics when we met, and clung fiercely to those beliefs for a while afterward. But between listening to (and actually considering) my take on it, and watching a TV show (something like "Psychics - How They Do It"), her eyes were opened, and she is now of course my greatest supporter in my Stop Site efforts.
So don't assume that "years of credulity" (as you put it) means someone cannot be shown what is really going on.
Keep up the good fight
xterra
Thanks!
-RSL
