Had a Psychic Reading

Sep 30, 2017
5
0
Hi All

A person tonight said he was a spiritualist and I asked him to tell me something about myself. He then said this:

"I see a girl in your life that is suffering a lot and in a dark place. You worry that you don't do enough for her, but you should know you do all you can."

I was stunned. I have a friend who is suffering greatly with migraines and fibromyalgia and I do always worry that I am not doing enough to help her. Its an ongoing battle I have in my head.

I could not work out how he could have known this. Is this cold reading? I just dont know. This guy is a friend of mine, but I have never ever told him this situation in my life.
 
Oct 12, 2016
114
57
25
Utah
Sounds like cold reading to me. Might not have been as solid of a hit for everyone as it was for you, but I suspect that most people, at least most men, would relate to that statement in one way or another.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ParkinT
Sep 30, 2017
5
0
I was thinking the same. But he has no reason to use cold reading on me. He was talking about being a spiritualist and it was me that asked him to read me in some way. It was freaky.
 
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
Probably Cold Reading. If it's not too personal, how exactly did he say it?

Let me put it this way: The World population is split up roughly 50 - 50 between guys and girls right (and anyone in-between)?

Now what are the odds that there is a guy who does not know a single girl in the world, including family, friends, acquaintances, or just someone you know about? Virtually 0%. And it is almost 100% certain that you know someone that has some problems in their life.

Now he goes and says the first part, about there being someone in a dark place, suffering. Lets say you're eyes widen naturally, as you know this to be true. He now says the rest, because that is normal human nature - to care about someone.

Lets say your face got kind of confused. He then says "no wait... it's not just a girl is it...?" You seem surprised, he changes it to a guy. He then explains how your friends with them, regardless. And now he goes back to explain how you feel you don't do enough.

Essentially, he has started with a broad statement that applies to 99% of people, and then uses process of elimination to make more statements. It's all a form of Deductive reasoning and watching body language.

Other ways he could have done it:
You said he's a friend of yours. He may have overheard a conversation you had.
He knows a bit about you. He could've just taken a wild guess and hit home.
He knows someone you know and heard from them.
He knows the person that was affected.
The possibilities are endless.


But no. It wasn't Psychic power.
 

Lyle Borders

Elite Member
Aug 5, 2008
1,604
859
Seattle, WA
www.theory11.com
I was thinking the same. But he has no reason to use cold reading on me. He was talking about being a spiritualist and it was me that asked him to read me in some way. It was freaky.

The very fact that you asked him "to read [you] in some way" gave him the reason to use cold reading on you.

Ask a magician to show you a trick, and he will use the methods he knows to show you a trick. Ask a "psychic" to give you a reading, and he will also use the methods he knows to give you a reading.

"I see a girl in your life that is suffering a lot and in a dark place. You worry that you don't do enough for her, but you should know you do all you can."

I can think of several people in my life whom this statement would easily apply to - and this isn't my reading! It is an incredibly generic statement disguised as a very personal revelation.

If you asked a psychic that you had never met to give you a reading, and they then said that you have "a friend who is suffering greatly with migraines and fibromyalgia and [you] do always worry that [you are] not doing enough to help her", you would be looking at something a little bit more impressive. But when someone gives you the reading you got, it has zero meaning and the psychic just fished for you using assorted generic statements until you bit on one of them.

// L
 
Sep 30, 2017
5
0
Yeah I totally agree. When he was telling me, we were in a pub and our faces weren't facing each other. He was saying all this in my ear and could not read my face. I literally gave him nothing to go on. I am not just someone who wants to believe in this stuff by the way. I have always been more towards cold reading. I do totally agree with all of what you are saying, but he had no reason to do cold reading on me. Him and his family have been doing spiritualism for years apparently. Its all very odd.
 
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
Yeah I totally agree. When he was telling me, we were in a pub and our faces weren't facing each other. He was saying all this in my ear and could not read my face. I literally gave him nothing to go on. I am not just someone who wants to believe in this stuff by the way. I have always been more towards cold reading. I do totally agree with all of what you are saying, but he had no reason to do cold reading on me. Him and his family have been doing spiritualism for years apparently. Its all very odd.
You don't really need to see their faces. You can literally tell simply by the things they do. If they take a sip of their drink, they are probably intrigued. If they seem more alert, they are surprised. It's all sorts of stuff. Again, it was a very generic statement.

You don't "do cold reading on someone". You just read them.
 
Jan 14, 2017
159
150
I am [another] one who is very cynical of this sort of 'effect'. Consider how many times you have been with a group of people (or alone) and opened a Fortune Cookie, read the silly little piece of paper and commented (or thought to yourself), "Wow, that *really* is true!"
There is a lot of psychology (one thing common to all humans) that we apply even to ourselves unwittingly.

I ALWAYS eat the little cookie - I love them - and I NEVER read the silly little piece of paper. {Exception, to make a joke I will pretend to read the paper and say, "Help! I am being held captive in a Fortune Cookie Factory!" }
 
  • Like
Reactions: Maaz Hasan
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
I am [another] one who is very cynical of this sort of 'effect'. Consider how many times you have been with a group of people (or alone) and opened a Fortune Cookie, read the silly little piece of paper and commented (or thought to yourself), "Wow, that *really* is true!"
There is a lot of psychology (one thing common to all humans) that we apply even to ourselves unwittingly.

I ALWAYS eat the little cookie - I love them - and I NEVER read the silly little piece of paper. {Exception, to make a joke I will pretend to read the paper and say, "Help! I am being held captive in a Fortune Cookie Factory!" }
Just to build on this, you can always freak your friends out by guessing something personal about them that is actually quite generic. Try it, it's a lot easier than it sounds,
 
  • Like
Reactions: ParkinT

RealityOne

Elite Member
Nov 1, 2009
3,744
4,076
New Jersey
@gamedesign ~

Although you come across as confident, sometimes you have doubts that you are as good at what you do as people think. Deep down you know what you need to do to really become the best but that involves a lot more effort on your part.

You have a friend or relative who is in a long term relationship but you don't think they are truly happy. You need to let them find their own way.

You are thinking about making a change or decision in your life, but you are worried if it will all work out. You have to trust your instincts on that one.

There is a member of your family that you are upset with but you don't know how to go beyond it. You just need accept that they will never change.
 
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
@gamedesign ~

Although you come across as confident, sometimes you have doubts that you are as good at what you do as people think. Deep down you know what you need to do to really become the best but that involves a lot more effort on your part.

You have a friend or relative who is in a long term relationship but you don't think they are truly happy. You need to let them find their own way.

You are thinking about making a change or decision in your life, but you are worried if it will all work out. You have to trust your instincts on that one.

There is a member of your family that you are upset with but you don't know how to go beyond it. You just need accept that they will never change.
Almost all of these applied to me, and I am sure they applied to most people. The thing is, when we hear these generic statements, we automatically link them to things in our life, and we remember it as if they said something very specific to you.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lindel

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
Keep this in mind: What most magicians call "cold reading" isn't really a very good definition of it.

When it really comes down to it, "cold reading" is a combination of having a deep understanding of what people will likely be experiencing at various parts in their life, and learning to trust one's instinctual ability to observe and deduce.

Because of that, you can actually train someone to be an excellent cold reader, without ever telling them it's a "trick". If you were to go to a "Develop your psychic power" workshop, that's pretty much what happens.

I say that because it's entirely possible your friend believes he has genuine abilities. If he believes in it, then he's not scamming you or anything like that.

A lot of magicians think anyone who does 'psychic readings' is consciously using trickery. I would be comfortable to wager that the majority think they are really doing something for real.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lindel
Aug 25, 2017
172
93
Pittsburgh, PA
This thread is exactly the problem I have with the way some people use these tactics. Granted, there are some, as Christopher said, that truly believe they have a gift and are doing something real for the person. The reality is that while there may be a lot of people who believe they really have psychic ability, I'm not sure that would account for the "majority." I tend to believe that a majority actually know they're taking advantage of someone and it's the minority that believe they themselves have a real special gift.

What you have outlined here is an aspect of a classic cold read and Barnum statements. Cold reading is more than Barnum Statements however. It can get pretty involved. A good cold read involves looking at the person and being very perceptive of things. For example, seeing cat hair on someone. They are clearly an animal person. The color of the cat hair can tell you the color of the cat etc (just an example). As stated, the guy had a reason to give you a cold read because you asked him to. Unless he knows you really well...he'd have no choice but to give you a cold read (albeit a basic one). He made you feel exactly what he was supposed to make you feel. If you didn't feel that way, then he wasn't very good at it.
 
Aug 25, 2017
172
93
Pittsburgh, PA
How many psychics do you know, @DisasterTheory?
There are quite a few in my area. Because I'm a magician I became friends with quite a few of them (not all), because I'd run into them constantly at the local magic shop. Obviously this doesn't account for a "majority" nationwide. I can only speak in regards to the majority I've gotten to know. I've also studied the art for quite a while, along with various styles of magic. Again, that only allows me to speak on my behalf and how I personally use the techniques.

Of the 12 "psychics" I got to know on a personal level, only 4 of them truly believed they were doing something real. The other 8 actually helped me learn the techniques throughout the years because they knew I was studying it (through our conversations at the local shop).
 
Aug 25, 2017
172
93
Pittsburgh, PA
I will say, to be fair, I don't think a majority of them feel that they are doing something "wrong" so to speak. Some of them actually told me that they are helping people to have closure and answers and that they feel they are doing a good deed. A few of them were all about the money they could make by pretending to be psychic. So by no means am I saying that a majority of these people are "horrible people." I'm just saying that from my experience and personal relationships, that I'm not so sure it's the majority that believe they are genuine.
 

WitchDocIsIn

Elite Member
Sep 13, 2008
5,877
2,945
I've been involved with the pagan/neo-pagan/witch craft community for a couple decades now, on both coasts.

There's quite a few consistencies with everyone I've met - 1) They almost all genuinely avoid our kind of "magic" because it would be detrimental to their reputation to be associated with it. You'll pretty much never see one in a magic store.

2) They believe they have some kind of power which is supernatural. I've heard it described a lot of different ways, but the end result is usually pretty consistent and very similar to what talented entertainers do as well.

3) They are NOT entertainers in any way, shape or form and may even take offense if that is implied. At least, not in the psychic work they do. I know a few that are dancers as well.

So unless you're involved in the "genuine" psychic world, you can't really make a judgment as to how many believe in their own powers, can you?

In the metaphysical world, every single person I've met that does readings and such, believes they are doing it "for real". Whether that means they are receiving messages from the spirits, simply executing a reading system (Like Tarot), or are "Sensitives" - they believe in what they are doing.

That's not to say that there are not people who knowingly use "tricks" to enhance their readings. Those people are out there. But in my experience the number of those people is rather small, compared to the number of people who are not and would not ever use tricks.
 
Aug 25, 2017
172
93
Pittsburgh, PA
So unless you're involved in the "genuine" psychic world, you can't really make a judgment as to how many believe in their own powers, can you?
So...you're saying that unless I involve myself with a group of people in which all of them believe themselves to be genuine, that I can't make an unbiased judgement that a majority do not believe that what they do is genuine?

I'd venture to wager that if I involved myself with 100 people who all thought they were genuine psychics...then yes...by definition...a majority of them would believe they are genuine psychics.....

Then again, I don't believe in "genuine psychics."
 
Jan 26, 2017
2,173
1,338
23
Virginia
At the end of the day, regardless of whether they thought it to be true or not, one of the aforementioned methods was probably used.
 
Searching...
{[{ searchResultsCount }]} Results