Results of my Visit with a Psychic

Profwag · 22nd April 2009, 01:10 PM

A while back, I asked for advice on an upcoming visit with a psychic. I went last week and the results are now in. (I posted this on the original thread, but thought it would be better in a new thread so I apologize for any confusion...)

Before I give an abbreviated report, let me begin by saying that I'd prefer to think of myself as someone who is searching for something paranormal rather than someone who goes out to disprove...if that makes sense. I wasn't a believer going in but was hoping for something "miraculous."
To begin, I had a vacation scheduled for Sedona AZ where I had heard was a "Mecca" for psychics. I heard right. They were everywhere. Before my trip, I told my wife I wanted to see a psychic so she immediately set me up, via e-mail, with a recommended psychic who only took appointments in advance. I told her to cancel. I didn't want to go in thinking my psychic would have my name and, thus, have pre-researched my past which would not have been hard. So, I went into a psychic via a walk-in appointment. The cost was $30 for every 15 minutes. (I'm obviously in the wrong business, but that's a different story.) My wife went first for a half hour and fortunately, before I went up to see her, she had the chance to tell me she wasn’t worth $60 so I only went in for 15 minutes. (I would have thought if she were psychic, she would have known I would have paid more if not able to speak with my wife, but I digress.) I didn’t get a chance to tell her what I wanted, though she advertised psychic abilities, intuitiveness, clairvoyance, and communicate with loved ones who have passed over. My father died 4 weeks before my appointment so in a way, I was hoping he would shine through like the light from heaven, but alas, it wasn't even a flashlight. Sorry, I digressed again. My appointment began with her setting a 15 minute alarm clock. She then had me close my eyes and recite something that I couldn’t begin to tell you now what it was. Something like: “My mind is clear. My heart is open. My speech is free.” Or something like that. She then told me to be thinking of a question. “The more specific the question, the more specific the answer” I remember her saying. My thought was “Duh,” but again, I digress. Anyway, she then had me pick 8 tarot cards. After gathering the cards face down, she told me to ask my first question (which would turn out to be my only question.) I asked what I thought was a simple enough question. “I’ve been working in my career for over 25 years and am thinking of doing something radically different. Should I?” She then told me to close my eyes and clear my mind. She re-asked my question to make sure she understood what I was asking. ("duh" came to mind again...) She then told me to open my eyes at which time she turned the first card over... Truthfully, I don’t remember what any of the cards were from this point on. (I threw away my notes before remembering I had said I would post notes of my meeting here.) With my eyes closed, I could easily hear her stacking the cards in an order which would be easiest for her to answer my question. For the next 8 or 10 minutes, she told me why it would be okay to switch careers. Each card she turned over stretched further from my question. The alarm clock sounded, she said “that will be $30” and away I went. Needless to say, my father didn’t come through, I got nothing but preached too concerning a simple question that was obvious in its answer, and I was taken for what amounts to the price of a good dinner. My wife is a believer to a point, but her appointment went exactly the same way. Prior to my appointment, I had overheard a girl (college age) talking about how impressed she was. She said the psychic was able to tell her there “was friction between her and her parents and all sorts of freaky things.” Oh yea, impressive to spot friction between a college age girl and parents. I never have heard of such a thing. (sarcasm) Anyway, the college girl was impressed, but, unfortunately, to sum it all up. I wasn’t impressed in the least and I believe even stronger now that psychics are in it for easy cash. I would still love to see a psychic who can read minds and chat with my Dad and not just give advice. I live in Arkansas if any believers have any suggestions...

Arus808 · 22nd April 2009, 01:33 PM

hi,...could you break up your story into paragraphs. big wall of texts are hard to read.

Kernel Hapablap · 22nd April 2009, 01:39 PM

That's an interesting story, and sounds fairly typical of most psychic readings. It doesn't sound like she even attempted to cold read about anything: just stock answers for a boring question. The more I hear these stories the more I want to set up shop as a psychic. How does one get into such a thing? Is it con artists and skeptics who like to laugh at their patrons behind their backs? Or people who actually believed at some point...

gelatin · 22nd April 2009, 01:42 PM

Why didn't you ask a much more specific question? Was that the only question that you had on your mind?

Azrael 5 · 22nd April 2009, 04:14 PM

Paragraphs please ProfWag couldn't read all that.

Ashles · 22nd April 2009, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by gelatin

Why didn't you ask a much more specific question? Was that the only question that you had on your mind?

I wondered that. It's a very vague question which has no practical use when trying to judge the efficacy of a psychic (well not actually a psychic in the end but a Tarot reader)

The original thread gave some fairly useful recommendations (specific questions, tape recording etc.) but the OP igbnored them.

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of asking for recommendations was.

schlitt · 22nd April 2009, 05:50 PM

Hi Profwag, thanks for sharing.

The skills of these frauds vary largely, but most of them are pretty transparent if you have your wits about you. What they rely on mainly is the cooperation and feedback from the client.

A lot of these people genuinely believe they are psychic, when all they are doing is unwittingly using cold reading techniques they have picked up innately. These types are typically the most transparent, as they have not honed their trickery skills, but at least they are not being deliberately deceptive.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum, where they know they are full of crap, but are in it for the money.

I suggest you do some reading on the subject of cold reading if you are interested in finding out the details of these frauds. Be careful though, there is a lot of misinformation out there about cold reading. A lot of sources say that it relies on astute observation of the client, and using generalizations that could apply to anyone. This is only part of the story, as a good cold reader can provide what seems like very specific information to a client. The most effective part of being a psychic lies in exploiting key psychological flaws that everyone has.

These include: (among many)
The willingness to cooperate, and the desire to see the "psychic" succeed
The tendency to interpret personal meaning into statements, numbers etc.
Unwittingly giving informative feedback
The fallibility of memory.

To give an example, a psychic may be presented with a middle aged woman as a client. Chances are she is there because she is not happy, as content people do not usually go to see psychics. It is usually people who have just had a loss of a loved one, are in financial difficulty etc. A good intuitive bet would be the loss of a male relative. Being a middle aged woman means that she probably has a husband in the prime age for heart attacks, and a father or uncles etc, who are around the age when they will be passing on. So the exchange may go like the following:

Psychic - I am getting the sense of a male, possibly a relative or someone with a close connection to you

client - Yes! (enthusiastic or emotional feedback which shows the psychic the guess is along the right track.)

Psychic - Something to do with the heart, chest, lungs (best bet, and easily to escape from if not accurate, as the psychic could easily just say she is getting the presence from someone else if it fails to hit)

client - Yes! MY husband just passed away from a heart attack!

psychic - Yes, your husband is here with me now.

Now it is pretty clear to see what really happens in that type of exchange, the client provides the information, and the psychic really just tricked the client into doing it. But that is not the point. The interesting thing about these types of situations is that when the client goes to recount what happened with the psychic she will say something like the following.

"It was amazing! the psychic knew that my husband died of a heart attack, and she contacted him!"

The memory of what happened is completely inaccurate and the situation has been interpreted in a desirable, emotional, way for the client. This is very common.

If you are interested in reading more, I suggest you pick up a copy of the latest skeptic magazine. (The one with the ponzi scheme on the cover) This issue has a fantastic article about how psychics work in it.

Profwag · 23rd April 2009, 05:58 AM

I apologize for the paragraph. I'll keep that in mind next time.

As for the cold reading, I know enough about it to be dangerous and was actually hoping that she would go there to see it first hand, but it turned out that she wasn't even good at tarot cards much less anything else. I could tell within the first couple minutes that there was nothing extraordinary about this person so I didn't want to waste any more time or money so at the end of my 15 minutes, I decided it was time to give up.

As I had mentioned, my father had just died. Anyone who would be able to channel the deceased should have picked up on that before I even sat down, but he wasn't even brought up. Supposedly, she had 20 years experience in her "field," but all she seemed good at was rambling.

When I first asked for suggestions, I was hoping for so much more from my visit, but didn't get it. However, I do plan on visiting another one in the near future and have kept all the advice and will hopefully get to use it for my next visit.

Thank you all for the comments!

Kernel Hapablap · 23rd April 2009, 06:01 AM

Please don't waste your money on any more psychics. If you want to do it for scientific curiosity, fine. But I promise you you are never going to find someone genuine. Unless you close your mind to reason, you will always be disappointed.

Kernel Hapablap · 23rd April 2009, 06:03 AM

If you really think that there is some room for possibility of the 'genuine' article, I suggest you read into the myriads of people who have come to claim the million dollar Randi prize.

Chimera · 23rd April 2009, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by Kernel Hapablap

Please don't waste your money on any more psychics. If you want to do it for scientific curiosity, fine. But I promise you you are never going to find someone genuine. Unless you close your mind to reason, you will always be disappointed.

I agree with KH here. What about finding recordings other people made of their own readings? You'd be able to analyze some of the cold reading techniques without shelling out your own money.

Profwag · 23rd April 2009, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Chimera

I agree with KH here. What about finding recordings other people made of their own readings? You'd be able to analyze some of the cold reading techniques without shelling out your own money.

I do tend to agree with you and KH about not shelling out money. I guess it has to do more with me wanting to have first hand experience when telling people they are phonies. Can one be truly skeptical of psychics (or ghosts or UFOs or whatever it may be) without first hand knowledge?

Ever since the Sylvia Brown/Shaun Hornbeck's parents exchange, I've been enraged with anger over psychics and want to disprove every one of them. But before I can do that, I believe I have to have first hand accounts to better know what I'm talking about.

Just my feeling at least, but as I said, I do tend to agree that I probably shouldn't waste too much of my money.

Brattus · 23rd April 2009, 11:21 AM

The funny thing is if a person truly was psychic, the last place you would find them would be through a door with a psychic sign hanging above it.

They would more than likely find the most remote place to live.
Living and dealing with our own daily problems is hard enough.
Being tapped into everyone else's pain and suffering would be impossible to live with.

If such a person was strong and hard enough to actually make it through childhood without killing themselves or being sent to a mental ward, then once again the last place you would find them would be on TV or as a psychic phone friend or through a door with a psychic sign hanging above with a timer and a deck of cards.

The basic common sense of this concept doesn't really make you look like the sharpest pencil in the box.
The next time you have so much money you have to throw some away then please drop it in my paypal account.

Profwag · 23rd April 2009, 12:26 PM

Originally Posted by Brattus

The basic common sense of this concept doesn't really make you look like the sharpest pencil in the box.
The next time you have so much money you have to throw some away then please drop it in my paypal account.

Maybe I just like to give people a chance...

Senex · 23rd April 2009, 12:46 PM

You missed your chance. She could have given you the next powerball numbers

Paul W · 23rd April 2009, 12:59 PM

Cold reading, Barnum reports and similar are actually very simple to do. One of the best books on cold reading is by Ian Rowland: The Full Facts Book Of Cold Reading (4th edition). I've done Barnum reports in front of a lecture theatre of 250 university students. The usual result was a complaint to the head of department by a group that I " ... had insulted and embarrassed their friends". Except for the one or two each time who realised what I was doing, that is: they loved it!

Like someone else already said, I don't think your psychic was very good!

As a matter of interest, BBC West Points of View this week had an item about a woman who had been receiving mailshots from all sorts of "psychics". They denounced these as scams, and introduced a "real psychic" to comment. It may be on BBC i-player. If anyone can access this report and post it on the forum, please do!

22nd April 2009, 01:10 PM	#1
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71	Results of my Visit with a Psychic A while back, I asked for advice on an upcoming visit with a psychic. I went last week and the results are now in. (I posted this on the original thread, but thought it would be better in a new thread so I apologize for any confusion...) Before I give an abbreviated report, let me begin by saying that I'd prefer to think of myself as someone who is searching for something paranormal rather than someone who goes out to disprove...if that makes sense. I wasn't a believer going in but was hoping for something "miraculous." To begin, I had a vacation scheduled for Sedona AZ where I had heard was a "Mecca" for psychics. I heard right. They were everywhere. Before my trip, I told my wife I wanted to see a psychic so she immediately set me up, via e-mail, with a recommended psychic who only took appointments in advance. I told her to cancel. I didn't want to go in thinking my psychic would have my name and, thus, have pre-researched my past which would not have been hard. So, I went into a psychic via a walk-in appointment. The cost was $30 for every 15 minutes. (I'm obviously in the wrong business, but that's a different story.) My wife went first for a half hour and fortunately, before I went up to see her, she had the chance to tell me she wasn’t worth $60 so I only went in for 15 minutes. (I would have thought if she were psychic, she would have known I would have paid more if not able to speak with my wife, but I digress.) I didn’t get a chance to tell her what I wanted, though she advertised psychic abilities, intuitiveness, clairvoyance, and communicate with loved ones who have passed over. My father died 4 weeks before my appointment so in a way, I was hoping he would shine through like the light from heaven, but alas, it wasn't even a flashlight. Sorry, I digressed again. My appointment began with her setting a 15 minute alarm clock. She then had me close my eyes and recite something that I couldn’t begin to tell you now what it was. Something like: “My mind is clear. My heart is open. My speech is free.” Or something like that. She then told me to be thinking of a question. “The more specific the question, the more specific the answer” I remember her saying. My thought was “Duh,” but again, I digress. Anyway, she then had me pick 8 tarot cards. After gathering the cards face down, she told me to ask my first question (which would turn out to be my only question.) I asked what I thought was a simple enough question. “I’ve been working in my career for over 25 years and am thinking of doing something radically different. Should I?” She then told me to close my eyes and clear my mind. She re-asked my question to make sure she understood what I was asking. ("duh" came to mind again...) She then told me to open my eyes at which time she turned the first card over... Truthfully, I don’t remember what any of the cards were from this point on. (I threw away my notes before remembering I had said I would post notes of my meeting here.) With my eyes closed, I could easily hear her stacking the cards in an order which would be easiest for her to answer my question. For the next 8 or 10 minutes, she told me why it would be okay to switch careers. Each card she turned over stretched further from my question. The alarm clock sounded, she said “that will be $30” and away I went. Needless to say, my father didn’t come through, I got nothing but preached too concerning a simple question that was obvious in its answer, and I was taken for what amounts to the price of a good dinner. My wife is a believer to a point, but her appointment went exactly the same way. Prior to my appointment, I had overheard a girl (college age) talking about how impressed she was. She said the psychic was able to tell her there “was friction between her and her parents and all sorts of freaky things.” Oh yea, impressive to spot friction between a college age girl and parents. I never have heard of such a thing. (sarcasm) Anyway, the college girl was impressed, but, unfortunately, to sum it all up. I wasn’t impressed in the least and I believe even stronger now that psychics are in it for easy cash. I would still love to see a psychic who can read minds and chat with my Dad and not just give advice. I live in Arkansas if any believers have any suggestions...
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71

22nd April 2009, 01:33 PM	#2
Arus808 Philosopher Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 6,202	hi,...could you break up your story into paragraphs. big wall of texts are hard to read.
Arus808 Philosopher Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 6,202	__________________ Back home with a new sunburn...I look like a tomato. “Life may begin at 30, but it doesn’t get real interesting until about 150.” “Most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that connects the handlebars to the saddle.”

22nd April 2009, 01:39 PM	#3
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85	That's an interesting story, and sounds fairly typical of most psychic readings. It doesn't sound like she even attempted to cold read about anything: just stock answers for a boring question. The more I hear these stories the more I want to set up shop as a psychic. How does one get into such a thing? Is it con artists and skeptics who like to laugh at their patrons behind their backs? Or people who actually believed at some point...
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85

22nd April 2009, 01:42 PM	#4
gelatin Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 70	Why didn't you ask a much more specific question? Was that the only question that you had on your mind?
gelatin Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 70

22nd April 2009, 04:14 PM	#5
Azrael 5 Philosopher Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Yorkshire,Uk Posts: 5,029	Paragraphs please ProfWag couldn't read all that.
	__________________ "I achieve these results through a mixture of magic,misdirection,suggestion and showmanship"-Derren Brown

22nd April 2009, 05:22 PM	#6
Ashles Pith Artist Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The '80s Posts: 8,711	Originally Posted by gelatin Why didn't you ask a much more specific question? Was that the only question that you had on your mind? I wondered that. It's a very vague question which has no practical use when trying to judge the efficacy of a psychic (well not actually a psychic in the end but a Tarot reader) The original thread gave some fairly useful recommendations (specific questions, tape recording etc.) but the OP igbnored them. I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of asking for recommendations was.
	__________________ With extraordinary few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat. - Jeffrey Burton Russell No one "proved" that a bumblebee can't fly. What was shown was that a certain simple mathematical model wasn't adequate or appropriate - Ivars Peterson

22nd April 2009, 05:50 PM	#7
schlitt Graduate Poster Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,081	Hi Profwag, thanks for sharing. The skills of these frauds vary largely, but most of them are pretty transparent if you have your wits about you. What they rely on mainly is the cooperation and feedback from the client. A lot of these people genuinely believe they are psychic, when all they are doing is unwittingly using cold reading techniques they have picked up innately. These types are typically the most transparent, as they have not honed their trickery skills, but at least they are not being deliberately deceptive. Then there is the other end of the spectrum, where they know they are full of crap, but are in it for the money. I suggest you do some reading on the subject of cold reading if you are interested in finding out the details of these frauds. Be careful though, there is a lot of misinformation out there about cold reading. A lot of sources say that it relies on astute observation of the client, and using generalizations that could apply to anyone. This is only part of the story, as a good cold reader can provide what seems like very specific information to a client. The most effective part of being a psychic lies in exploiting key psychological flaws that everyone has. These include: (among many) The willingness to cooperate, and the desire to see the "psychic" succeed The tendency to interpret personal meaning into statements, numbers etc. Unwittingly giving informative feedback The fallibility of memory. To give an example, a psychic may be presented with a middle aged woman as a client. Chances are she is there because she is not happy, as content people do not usually go to see psychics. It is usually people who have just had a loss of a loved one, are in financial difficulty etc. A good intuitive bet would be the loss of a male relative. Being a middle aged woman means that she probably has a husband in the prime age for heart attacks, and a father or uncles etc, who are around the age when they will be passing on. So the exchange may go like the following: Psychic - I am getting the sense of a male, possibly a relative or someone with a close connection to you client - Yes! (enthusiastic or emotional feedback which shows the psychic the guess is along the right track.) Psychic - Something to do with the heart, chest, lungs (best bet, and easily to escape from if not accurate, as the psychic could easily just say she is getting the presence from someone else if it fails to hit) client - Yes! MY husband just passed away from a heart attack! psychic - Yes, your husband is here with me now. Now it is pretty clear to see what really happens in that type of exchange, the client provides the information, and the psychic really just tricked the client into doing it. But that is not the point. The interesting thing about these types of situations is that when the client goes to recount what happened with the psychic she will say something like the following. "It was amazing! the psychic knew that my husband died of a heart attack, and she contacted him!" The memory of what happened is completely inaccurate and the situation has been interpreted in a desirable, emotional, way for the client. This is very common. If you are interested in reading more, I suggest you pick up a copy of the latest skeptic magazine. (The one with the ponzi scheme on the cover) This issue has a fantastic article about how psychics work in it.
schlitt Graduate Poster Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 1,081	Last edited by schlitt; 22nd April 2009 at 05:51 PM.

23rd April 2009, 05:58 AM	#8
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71	I apologize for the paragraph. I'll keep that in mind next time. As for the cold reading, I know enough about it to be dangerous and was actually hoping that she would go there to see it first hand, but it turned out that she wasn't even good at tarot cards much less anything else. I could tell within the first couple minutes that there was nothing extraordinary about this person so I didn't want to waste any more time or money so at the end of my 15 minutes, I decided it was time to give up. As I had mentioned, my father had just died. Anyone who would be able to channel the deceased should have picked up on that before I even sat down, but he wasn't even brought up. Supposedly, she had 20 years experience in her "field," but all she seemed good at was rambling. When I first asked for suggestions, I was hoping for so much more from my visit, but didn't get it. However, I do plan on visiting another one in the near future and have kept all the advice and will hopefully get to use it for my next visit. Thank you all for the comments!
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71

23rd April 2009, 06:01 AM	#9
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85	Please don't waste your money on any more psychics. If you want to do it for scientific curiosity, fine. But I promise you you are never going to find someone genuine. Unless you close your mind to reason, you will always be disappointed.
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85

23rd April 2009, 06:03 AM	#10
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85	If you really think that there is some room for possibility of the 'genuine' article, I suggest you read into the myriads of people who have come to claim the million dollar Randi prize.
Kernel Hapablap Scholar Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 85

23rd April 2009, 07:08 AM	#11
Chimera Mind Fetishist Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Southwestern US Posts: 394	Originally Posted by Kernel Hapablap Please don't waste your money on any more psychics. If you want to do it for scientific curiosity, fine. But I promise you you are never going to find someone genuine. Unless you close your mind to reason, you will always be disappointed. I agree with KH here. What about finding recordings other people made of their own readings? You'd be able to analyze some of the cold reading techniques without shelling out your own money.
	__________________ "6,000 years ago, God created a 4-billion-year-old Earth. He can totally do that!"--Aggle-rithm "I always thought 'respect' meant 'don't let on how ridiculous you think other people are'."--Tragic Monkey

23rd April 2009, 11:16 AM	#12
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71	Originally Posted by Chimera I agree with KH here. What about finding recordings other people made of their own readings? You'd be able to analyze some of the cold reading techniques without shelling out your own money. I do tend to agree with you and KH about not shelling out money. I guess it has to do more with me wanting to have first hand experience when telling people they are phonies. Can one be truly skeptical of psychics (or ghosts or UFOs or whatever it may be) without first hand knowledge? Ever since the Sylvia Brown/Shaun Hornbeck's parents exchange, I've been enraged with anger over psychics and want to disprove every one of them. But before I can do that, I believe I have to have first hand accounts to better know what I'm talking about. Just my feeling at least, but as I said, I do tend to agree that I probably shouldn't waste too much of my money.
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71

23rd April 2009, 11:21 AM	#13
Brattus Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2007 Location: The bowels of death and despair Posts: 1,223	The funny thing is if a person truly was psychic, the last place you would find them would be through a door with a psychic sign hanging above it. They would more than likely find the most remote place to live. Living and dealing with our own daily problems is hard enough. Being tapped into everyone else's pain and suffering would be impossible to live with. If such a person was strong and hard enough to actually make it through childhood without killing themselves or being sent to a mental ward, then once again the last place you would find them would be on TV or as a psychic phone friend or through a door with a psychic sign hanging above with a timer and a deck of cards. The basic common sense of this concept doesn't really make you look like the sharpest pencil in the box. The next time you have so much money you have to throw some away then please drop it in my paypal account.
	__________________ Whatever Brattus types is correct. - Brattus Anyone who quotes themselves is way cool - Brattus

23rd April 2009, 12:26 PM	#14
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71	Originally Posted by Brattus The basic common sense of this concept doesn't really make you look like the sharpest pencil in the box. The next time you have so much money you have to throw some away then please drop it in my paypal account. Maybe I just like to give people a chance...
Profwag Scholar Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 71

23rd April 2009, 12:46 PM	#15
Senex Illuminator Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: An autobody repair shop in Connecticut Posts: 3,543	You missed your chance. She could have given you the next powerball numbers
	__________________ I am the one who knocks! Walter White

23rd April 2009, 12:59 PM	#16
Paul W Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 466	Cold reading, Barnum reports and similar are actually very simple to do. One of the best books on cold reading is by Ian Rowland: The Full Facts Book Of Cold Reading (4th edition). I've done Barnum reports in front of a lecture theatre of 250 university students. The usual result was a complaint to the head of department by a group that I " ... had insulted and embarrassed their friends". Except for the one or two each time who realised what I was doing, that is: they loved it! Like someone else already said, I don't think your psychic was very good! As a matter of interest, BBC West Points of View this week had an item about a woman who had been receiving mailshots from all sorts of "psychics". They denounced these as scams, and introduced a "real psychic" to comment. It may be on BBC i-player. If anyone can access this report and post it on the forum, please do!
Paul W Critical Thinker Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 466	Last edited by Paul W; 23rd April 2009 at 01:04 PM.