how to be a successful psychic -- 5/5/16

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Today's encore selection -- from The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading by Ian Rowland. If you want to become a psychic, which is a $2 billion industry in the U.S. alone, there is perhaps no better instruction book than Ian Rowland's The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. Rowland, a highly successful practitioner, freely admits the tricks involved, and meticulously catalogues them for his readers. A good part of the book explains how the psychic can convince the client of his or her psychic abilities (e.g., "The Fuzzy Fact") and achieve a successful reading, but the book also explains how to handle situations where the client rejects the psychic's statements as incorrect. Two of the ten methods outlined in the book for dealing with this rejection -- focus and awareness -- are excerpted below:

"There are going to be times when the psychic offers a statement that the client rejects. Now and again the client will say that a statement is incorrect or just doesn't mean anything to her. This isn't a problem for the psychic. There are many ways in which she can still be right, or at the very least partially right. In the world of psychic readings, if the client accepts a statement then the psychic wins and if she rejects a statement the psychic wins anyway!

"There are two main ways for psychics to deal with a negative response: revisions and codas. I will deal with the revisions first, because I think they are more interesting and useful. Later we will look at the two commonest codas. There are numerous revisions, but here are the eight that I think are most useful.

"Focus: This revision applies when at least part of a statement is right, even if it's just one word or one idea. The psychic places all the focus and attention on the part of the statement that is right and allows the rest to fade away, forgotten and unmentioned:
'I'm sensing the name Jane or Jenna in connection with your place of work. Someone you don't necessarily know very well but you see her often. Can you place this person?'

"If the client happens to work with anyone called Jane or Jenna, or anyone with a name that sounds similar, this is a hit. However, suppose the client says:

'No, not really. I know a Joanne, but she's nothing to do with work. She's a friend from my school days.'

'Yes, that must be who I was getting. I was sensing a female name starting with J, you know, Jane or Joanne or something like that, and I knew it had to be someone you have known for quite a long time. And you have known her a long time, haven't you?'

"The psychic places all the focus and emphasis on the bits that are right, and simply forgets about the rest. A slight refinement is for the psychic to hint that she only got something wrong because she did not trust her psychic powers:

'Oh, she's called Joanne is she? Well that'll teach me! I wanted to say Joanne but then I got this impression about Jane or that kind of sound. I should learn to trust my first instincts, shouldn't I? Okay, but nonetheless I knew that there was someone in your life with this name that you've known a long time. That's right isn't it?'

"When using the Focus revision, the psychic's delivery and tone of voice can help to make the error seem a trivial distraction of no consequence. Example:

'And this house you lived in at the time, I see a number 2 on the door. That's right isn't it?'

"If yes, this is a hit. If not, the psychic says:

'Well, all right, I'm obviously confused about the exact number but not to worry, it doesn't matter. This house that I'm seeing is the important thing, and the reason I want to mention this house is that ...'

"The psychic goes on to talk about something completely different, forgetting about the problematic numeral as if it had never been mentioned. The client can generally be relied upon to also forget about it. A happy conspiracy of forgetfulness adds greatly to the impressive nature of many psychic readings.

"Awareness: The psychic suggests that her statement is correct, but the client may not realize this as she isn't aware of all the facts:

'I'm sensing the name Jane or Jenna in connection with your place of work. Someone you don't necessarily know very well but you see her often. Can you place this person?'

'Not really, no, I don't think I know anyone with either of those names.'

'Actually, there's a good chance this might not be your place of work. It might be someone your husband or a friend of yours works with, at some office or something like that, and you might not know them personally.'

"The psychic is basically saying she is right, but the client isn't in a position to know that she is right. A useful variation is to suggest that nobody is aware of the crucial information:

'Actually, this might be someone whose first name is actually Jane, but she always uses her middle name for some reason. Even people who have known her for a very long time aren't aware that in fact she regularly uses her middle name, which I sense is quite different.'

"Another variation is to suggest that there's a reason why a given piece of information might not be available to the client, such as embarrassment:

'I'm sensing this name Jane or Jenna, and she's recently had a medical issue to deal with, yes?'

"If yes, this is a hit. If not, the psychic says:

'Actually, she may have kept rather quiet about it. I sense it's perhaps not something she would talk about much. I don't think it was anything particularly serious so we don't need to dwell on it.'

"Yet another variation is the suggestion that the client's memory may be at fault, or that she was never fully aware of the situation in the first place. This can be made to sound entirely forgivable:

'And when you were younger, I see an accident involving water. Does this make sense to you?'

If yes, this is a hit. If not, the psychic says:

'I sense it's going back some time, perhaps when you were very young. You may not remember much about it now.'

"The Awareness revision is never used in such a way as to make the client feel stupid or ignorant. The psychic always makes it clear that the lack of awareness is entirely understandable and blameless."