spudgun wrote:surely craig (and i know you know your Stuff here so im only asking pwease dont crack up).....the reader tacetly encourages the belief from who their reading that they have some sort of powers that will help them complete the reading (and these powers are outwith the scope of "normal" people) what i mean is that wheras YOU may not believe that the reading is psychic ability the customer does.........if this is for entertainment purposes then sure fire in and its all good.....otherwise it may be percieved as a wee bit cynical
Again though i bow to your superior knowledge on the suject mate....incidently your name means trhe rock or crag in galic by the way (cause its mine too)
Firstly, the term "Powers" is a serious misnomer and the reason so many people assume this idea is the gross amount of misinformation that's in the world via the media, Hollywood and sadly, the plethora of ill-educated nut cases out there on either side of this particular fence. There is no "power" to it outside of maybe psychological influence and most important, there is nothing "Super Natural" about any of it, it is all 100% natural and for those that actually study and know about these things from the "legit" side, it has never been anything other.
This is a very involved issue that we've not time for here, I do go into detail on it in both of my current books however and the new book (due out this fall) will go even deeper into the issue.
If I am a "Reader" then I am literally translating the information gleaned from whichever oracle I'm using in conjunction with other known techniques including the psychological profile elements and observational techniques we hear about. But, there is much more involved than any of the "Cold Reading" books cover, mainly due to the fact that the cynics who have compiled these books aren't Readers and do not know what is and isn't. In truth being a Reader has been a part of Mentalism since it started about a century or so ago. It's only been recently (the past 25 years and most especially the past ten) that such a major fuss has been raised about it from within the ranks of magic. The last time this happened a major chasm took place within the brotherhood that took decades to even come close to getting healed and now, the bigots have ripped it open once again by demeaning the honest members of the magic community who do Readings and work the shut-eye market in ways that aren't usury or manipulative in the sense of exploiting the consumer. The majority of us actually serving as watchdogs for would be predators and potentially dangerous cult-like situations.
The Investment of Belief is a primary requisite of effective Mentalism let alone doing Reading work. This is something most from the magic side of the fence never learn or gain understanding of, they see it all as being "tricks" and fall considerably short when it comes to understanding the psychology of creating miracles.
