I've just seen this on another forum and thought I'd use it as a typical example of the way people can become convinced that psychics are genuine and can know things they couldn't possibly have known.
<blockquote>My girlfriend went to see a physic bloke yesterday with a friend for a laugh
the bloke who did the reading doesn't use any form of advertising and gets his clients just through word of mouth.
as im abit sceptical about all this stuff i didn't really pay any interest.
anyway she turned up at this old guys house nothing special no signs outside no banners etc just looked like an average house in a street. she sat down and all he asked was her name and date of birth.
anyway she got home about two hours later and she was white as a sheet! Surpris i said wtf wrong!.
her words were he knew EVERYTHING! even where i worked what i do where ive been' our house' what it looked like inside!.
myself and the missus had an almighty row the other night he also knew about that!!!! and what it was over! Surpris Confus
the meeting was over 30 min lots was said about our future good and bad.
Im no longer a skeptic he says we all have spirit guides and he talks to them thats where he gets all his info Confus
looks were gona have 3 kids get engaged in the next two years and her family move to spain! which they were talkin about before we stopped talking!!
anyone else had a reading i know there are alot of "fakes" out there but this guy knew his sh!t!!! </blockquote>
An argument that psychics often use is that you can't criticise psychics unless you've tried it for yourself.
This is a good example of why that's not the case. Anyone can be just as fooled as this couple were if they don't know how Cold Reading works. I've also seen, many times, people take the attitude that they do not believe in psychics and the psychic would have to come up with something pretty amazing to convince them.
Again, without any knowledge of how readings are done, there's a good chance that they'll end up convinced.
The point is that it takes only one experience like this to convince people (who are ignorant of Cold Reading) that it's all real. And, being a personal experience, it's difficult to convince them that things didn't occur quite as they remembered.
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You're exactly right - and of course, if you try to suggest that it may not have occured as remembered...well...YOU CALLING ME A LIAR? I KNOW WHAT I HEARD!
Yes, 'I cannot be fooled' syndrome.
It all boils down to people being convinced that they've been told things the psychic couldn't possibly have known.
A good definition of Cold Reading is:a set of techniques used to convince people that you're giving them information you couldn't possibly have known!!
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I always find it amazing that people are convinced by information that is so mundane as to be useless.
If a spirit told me next week's lottery numbers... that's a different story. I know what the inside of my flat looks like - I don't need a ghost to remind me of my ghastly taste in furnishing.
The problem is that many people believe they know what cold reading is, and that they can spot it easily.
So many times i have spoke to people who were once sceptics, became believers because of a cold reading, and after i have looked closer at what was said can show them how it was done.
But once they have been converted to a believer it can be very hard for them to drop that belief, because sometimes to do so, means admitting that you "nan" didnt tell you she still loves you and watches over you.
That can bea very hard thing to admit
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