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Cold Reading Psychics on national television
by Drew Vics
I don't watch too much TV, though lately there have been some decent shows on. I catch the news in the evenings and watch some Simpsons reruns, but other than that I barely turn the thing on, unless of course I stumble across an X-Files re-run. I'm usually either reading, writing, painting or playing my guitar. Then there are the usual house chores that take up the rest of my time.
Have you ever watched the James Van Praagh show? I wouldn't on purpose, but one day I stumbled across it while flipping through the channels. How interesting, this fellow claims to be a phychic reader who can channel the dead right on national television! Everyone can watch him communicate with spirits from beyond who want to talk to their living relatives. How nice.
Are peaple really that gullible? Unfortunately, yes.
As I watch the show I can easily see Mr. Van Praagh's trick. He's not blatantly disclosing information that he couldn't possibly have known outside of some miraculous spiritual contact. He's leading the subject with vague questions and the subject ultimately makes the conenctions and provides all the details. This is known as cold reading, when the reader attempts to lead the subject into divulging information, as opposed to warm reading, when the reader already knows a little something about the subject, maybe through a previous interview or casual conversation backstage.
How does he select a subject? He suggests some names, or some situations, "I'm getting something about a Bob or a Bill, something with a 'B'. There's something about some chest problems, like some form of cancer, or a heart condition. Something in the chest area."
So far he's given himself plenty of possibilities, someone in the audience is bound to know someone with a "B" name who had a health condition related to the chest. That could be anything, and that's the idea. That's how his trick works. Vague and broad possibilities.
Here's how the rest of the "channeling" might play out.
The subject he was looking at shakes her head, he hasn't made a connection there, though he sees that a woman two seats over is nodding her head. He turns his attention to the new subject and pretends to get more information from the deceased.
He continues with another question, "So it's Bill?"
"Ben," the woman says.
"Yes, I was getting 'B'." Then he continues to probe, not providing information, just prompting the subject for it. "And there's a chest thing, or maybe something with his heart. He's indicating something about his chest area, a problem there."
"He had Emphasema." Again the subject has given him confirmation. Success for Mr. Van Praagh.
"Yes, he was indicating a chest or lung discomfort."
And on and on it goes, until the subject is convinced Mr. Van Praagh is communicating with her deceased relative, when in fact she has provided all the information. This is Cold Reading, letting the subject fill in the blanks, tossing out vague ideas and watching how the subject reacts, then proceeding accordingly.
Often the subject will remember things Mr. Van Praagh suggested during his "reading" while he was grasping at straws to make a connection. These ideas will stay in their mind and if ever a real event occurs that happens to relate, in any way, shape or form, they may well assume he had predicted it. How fascinating, no room for coincidence there. Right.
I won't appologize for my disbelief in psychics and channelers. I never thought Uri Geller could actually bend those spoons with his mind. These people are clever magicians, and in the case of James Van Praagh he's not even that good, when you actually open your eyes and pay attention it's obvious to see what he's doing.
I think the Amazing Randi is better. For more information on Cold Reading Click Here.
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