How to cold read

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

I found this article, not seen it mentioned before. It's pretty good! Of course you can't completely define cold reading, I guess that's the whole beauty of cold reading, but this is as good a concise guide as any I've seen.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cold-Read

[bindeweede]

I found this article, not seen it mentioned before. It's pretty good! Of course you can't completely define cold reading, I guess that's the whole beauty of cold reading, but this is as good a concise guide as any I've seen.

http://www.wikihow.com/Cold-Read


You will be convincing as long as you make it seem like you know more than you do. Remember, the subject likely wants to believe in your "powers," and you just have to foster that belief. He or she will then attribute more knowledge to you than you actually displayed.
But some people, somewhere, just won't accept that.

[Admin]

That's quite a good article. The only problem I have with articles on Cold Reading (i.e. reading with no prior knowledge of the client) is that they make readings appear to be more skilful than they really are.

If you ever get to hear recordings of readings you'll find that they really are not at all impressive and some are so bad it's incredible that people believe them at all!

Here's an example of a 'genuine psychic' who did a reading for Bad Psychics' Jon Donnis online here: http://divinemystics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22


I'm picking up on a woman just now, her hair is tied up she looks like a respectable kind of woman, possibly an aunt? Mid 50's I feel a very warm sociable person one I feel who was often looked up to, I feel she was a very creative person also. I do feel there is something very particular you want me to pick up on, I'm not sure this is it or not though. I'm not really getting anything else on her just now I'm afraid.

Are you planing a trip abroad somewhere anytime soon? One which you've been wanting to have for a while but haven't been able to get round to? It's certainly been well earned and if you've not started planing anything yet I think you should, I feel it will do you good as you need to relax and unwind. I get the feeling you've had a particularly stressful or busier than usual time recently. Don't over do it as I feel you quite often do. Do you suffer from migraines frequently or headaches, perhaps related to stress?OK, that's a mini-reading but it's exactly what a Cold Reading looks like. It's utterly vague and filled with questions (!)

Now this is from someone who purports to be a real, bona fide, medium!

In Cold Reading, we would expect veiled questions from a skilled reader ("I'm picking up the name Michael which I see has some significance for you" being the veiled form of "Do you know anyone called Michael?") but most readings are just 'psychics' asking questions and clients answering them and filling in the blanks and applying meaning to them.

When I first got interested in skepticism and looking into things like psychic readings I thought that although what they were doing wasn't real, they must have some incredible skill to be able to convince people of their ability.

The truth is, it really isn't skilled at all and the truly amazing thing about psychic readings is that clients will validate the most incredibly poor readings as being convincing.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

...The truth is, it really isn't skilled at all and the truly amazing thing about psychic readings is that clients will validate the most incredibly poor readings as being convincing.

Agreed, one of the problem talking to believers is that cold reading is such an all-inclusive term for basically any activity used to give readings. It doesn't really address the fact that lucky guesses can seem like amazing hits, when statistically, these are always likely to happen.

I sometimes think we should stop using the phrase and come up with something better that describes the whole process - both hits and misses.

[Admin]

I sometimes think we should stop using the phrase and come up with something better that describes the whole process - both hits and misses.

Yes. Cold reading just means 'reading a client without having any prior knowledge'.

Sometimes I see something like "I'm getting a letter 'J' and a problem in the chest area" being described as 'Cold Reading'; but it's not. It's a technique used to do a Cold Reading.

It's a bit like 'The Placebo Effect'. People use it as a blanket term to describe any form of recovery from any condition that wasn't directly due the a medical intervention.

Of course, there are many effects that come under the term 'placebo effect' just as there are many techniques used in readings that simply get called 'Cold Reading'.

How about something like this technique Ian Rowland identified:

The rainbow ruse.

"You are the sort of person who keeps herself to herself much of the time but if the mood takes you, you can party along with the best of them".

"You are a calm and rational person who has a lot of self control, but woe betide anyone who oversteps the mark with you".

They're a form of Barnum Statement (anyone can identify with them) but posed in such a way that they can't be wrong!

In the first example, you're saying that a person is an introvert and an extrovert!

In the second example, you're stating that the person is cool, clam and collected and a hot head.

i.e. the technique is used to cover the whole spectrum (hence the term 'rainbow' ruse) of possibilities so that no matter how the person sees themselves, they will identify with it in some way.