talkmagic.co.uk

Hey there guys.

I managed to get a guy's memory before, through the use of cold reading, and blind luck with specific facts using intuition e.t.c

but it is sometrhing I am not confident in at all - having never studied it.

Is there a book anywhere that goes into it at all? I think it is cold reading, though it could be hot reading

I have no idea what the name is.

Basically - they have a memory, and you "appear" to just start revealing it piece by piece "it;s a happy memory...you were about 8 or 9...it was your birthday...you were brought a horse..."

e.t.c

anyone know of some nice recources?

Hi Chris,

I watched an episode of "The Real Hustle" and Paul Wilson showed the steps taken by charlatan psychics. He mentioned the use of 10 "Barnam Statements" which apply to almost everyone. I'm thinking of utilizing these with the "Light & Heavy Chest" as a convincer of psychic/hypnosis powers in a routine.

Whilst researching these, i came across this article which may help you. There is suggested reading at the bottom.

http://www.blgoldberg.com/PSYCHICS.htm

I still haven't found any info about Barnam Statements, if anyone can help??

Here is a quote from part of the article - see if this statement applies to anyone here.


QUOTE:

"You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times, you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept other's statements without satisfactory proof, but you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself lo others. At times, you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be unrealistic."

Credit : The Psychology of the Psychic by David Marks and Richard Kanunann

thanks for your help, sir, but it isn't 100% what I am after.

Cold reading is the "apply to everyone" stuff, but I'm after techniques onw hat to do as you go along - enabling you to tell them specific details - age, what they were doing, e.t.c

I have a general idea of how it works...I managed it before...but am just after more in depth teaching

This is recommended at the bottom of the article:

Hyman, R. '"Cold Reading': How to Convince Strangers that You Know All About Them." 1977. The Zetetic Vol. I, No. 2: 18-37.


There's probably a review of it somewhere on-line.

Gotta feeling this is going to be deep reading. I doubt there is any "Step one - step two - step three" books around and if there are - they're probably cr@p.

Hope this helps

Jason

PS Have you used "Dearly Departed" yet? I can't wait for the right time.

Blapsing_Beard wrote:thanks for your help, sir, but it isn't 100% what I am after.

Cold reading is the "apply to everyone" stuff, but I'm after techniques onw hat to do as you go along - enabling you to tell them specific details - age, what they were doing, e.t.c

I have a general idea of how it works...I managed it before...but am just after more in depth teaching

The Barnum Statements mentioned can cause the Forer effect, in which you believe that statements that apply to most people apply specifically to you.

What you're after is cold reading, where you divine a thought, a memory of an event, or personality trait unique to the sitter with no prior knowledge. There are lots of books and ebooks that will teach the basic technique, so the reviews section is probably the best place to start. It's your own gift of the gab that makes a good cold reader once you discover the basic technique. I'm sure lots of people will have their own favourite, too. Personally, I like Advanced Cold Reading by Joe Riding. It's a short text, and has the basic technique including what to look for in responses to make sure you're getting hits, then moves onto more advanced ideas.

Once you have basic cold readings under your belt, a great resource for adding detail is Ian Rowland's Full Facts of Cold Reading. It's not a beginner's book, but more a library of subroutines you can use to build a deeper reading from once you know which way's up.

The full facts book of cold reading by Ian Rowland
Without a doubt the best book on the subject.
Available direct from Mr Rowland.
http://www.ianrowland.com/ItemsToBuy/Co ... Main1.html

another tip is to take a look at someone, see if they remind you of anyone, and basically start to describe that person's character instead...see how far you get...

once you've gotten to grips with the basics, try Mind Reading by Kenton Knepper, and then Invisible Readings by Enrique Enriquez...but that's not for a good year yet whippersnapper...

you can always just slip some CR into your mental-effects, after you've finished a routine, you can say as you set up for the next one something like "it's strange you know, the last person who did really well at that last test was like a/b/c....i can the impression that's quite like you too..." see what they say, if its a miss, then its just conversation, if its a hit, just probe a little more indepth and chance your arm bit by bit...see how far you can really go...

then just continue with the next effect...

its one of those "learn by doing" things though...practice on girls though...

I can assure you all that nobody here knows as much about this subject as I do except Magic Wand and Reverend Browning. You are in the presence of a master and should take advantage of it.

Paul Wilson knows as much about this stuff as I know about the care and breeding of Japanese butterflies. And the Ian Rowland book is full of nonsense written by someone who has never done a paid reading in his life.

I am the way, the truth and the light in these matters. Instead of purchasing all the silly books mentioned money should be invested in the Mark Lewis Psychic Course which consists of 4 videos and an audiotape.

I am a terribly low profile sort of person who does not believe in advertising on magic forums so I shall say no more about it.

Cold reading is the most advanced form of mentalism and is not for the faint of heart. After a long while the information comes through for real. You won't need trickery or fishing around. If you want to call that "psychic" or "intuition" that is fine by me. Once it happens you will know you have made progress in your studies.

And the Ian Rowland book is full of nonsense written by someone who has never done a paid reading in his life.

Uummm, not sure if you're attempting irony or just being facetious, in which case, sorry for biting but.....Ian Rowland has made his living cold reading, he's appeared on many television programs performing cold reading in various guises generally with the purpose of debunking the myth of psychics, tarot readers etc.

On many levels I have to second what Mark has stated; if you want to learn how to be a plumber, you don't ask the local carpentry master to teach you... it's the same when it comes to the art & science of being an accomplished Reader... you don't ask bloody magicians and more especially, a crew of underhanded cynics with an agenda "how it works" YOU GO TO PEOPLE THAT DO READINGS! Within the magic world this would include sources such as Richard Webster, Bob Cassidy, Ron Martin, John Riggs and a small handful of others that spring to mind that most of you probably have never heard of... for starters, they aren't commercial show biz players and secondly, they don't look at Mentalism as being a bunch of magic tricks e.g. they're kind of out of the proverbial loop when it comes to the current trends vs. the established truths on this topic.

If you want to learn how to do Readings then learn an actual system and forget all this magic-biz psycho-babble horse pucky, it will only get you into trouble. If I had to do it all over again the first group of areas I'd learn would be Numerology, Palmistry and Asian Face Reading followed by an understanding on body shape (Somoatypes -- see; http://www.kheper.net/topics/typology/somatotypes.html for more details) and some deep research into Jungian and perhaps some Ericksonian Psychology, in this you have a firm background or foundation and will be able to "Read" most anyone at the drop of a hat. But, if you insist on supporting your local magic dealer ask him to get you the following books and/or tapes/CDs by Richard Webster;

QUICK READINGS WITH NUMEROLOGY
QUICK & EFFECTIVE COLD READINGS
PSYCHOMETRY FROM A-Z
and Bob Cassidy's "THE REAL WORK ON COLD READING"

The Cassidy tome by the way, offers some very interesting critique on the previously mentioned Hayman piece of c*** (not the best) which is so filled with misinformation and inaccuracies I honestly don't understand why anyone would recommend it on any level. Hayman is essentially a joke that's made himself out as being something that's "self-important"... kind of like Joe Nichols.

What About Mark Lewis's Course? You ask

What little I know about it and from what I've heard in feedback by several reputable individuals, it offers some very solid points of view that can only benefit the novice or curious as the case may be. But as we all know Bro. Lewis uses this study course as a means by which to condition your mind so that it is more pliable and subject to his teachings, thus luring you deeper into his cult... I mean, religious organization...

Since when was Erickson a cold reader?

Milton Erickson crops up a lot in conversations about cold reading. I think it has more to do with his own methods and psychology—and how they can assist in cold reading—than pure cold reading as a performer.

In fact, he used cold reading techniques to extract theraputic information for patients' state of mind conditioning.

Yes, I was just coming back to edit it to: "Since when has Erickson been useful in cold reading?"

What I mean is, he was a clinical psychologist. He took histories and listened to the patient's perception of what they felt and why. Once he knew what was going on properly, he could start to help them. If he wanted to know something, he'd ask, like any doctor. Can someone who's read Erickson point me in the direction of which of his books deals with Reading patients rather than asking them to describe what's going on, to stop me having to plough through the lot?

Reverend Browning mentions Joe Nichols a well known sceptic. The chap used to work for me in Canada where he was hiding out as a draft dodger years ago. He was the first draft dodger allowed back into the USA after President Carter gave them all a pardon and got quite a bit of publicity out of it not all of which was positive.

As for Ian Rowland he also worked for me.

I therefore am well acquainted with heathen sceptics. I repeat that Ian Rowland has never done a paid reading in his life. Yapping on TV about what he thinks happens in a psychic reading doesn't qualify him as a cold reader. He even gives an example of his "skill" in his book with a sample "reading" and it is bloody awful.

If you are "debunking" readers that means you have never actually done it yourself for money and if you have then you are a bloody hypocrite for doing it in the first place and then going into self righteous debunking mode.

As for Rowland I am afraid getting glimpses of reflections in coffee cups is absolute fiction and if that is the sort of thing he offers on television as cold reading I am afraid he doesn't know what he is talking about.

I repeat. If you have never done it for money as in a paid reading you are no cold reader. Uninformed yapping on TV does not count.

BEFORE this turns into the usual mass-debate over who is right or wrong, can we just draw the line here and let beard-breath decide for himself...

he's already got a list as long as his arm to decide from...

and before anyone mentions "learn a system", if you decide to learn one, you cannot be psychic in the least by definition...psyhics just "are"...

i should know, i come from a line of them on my mother's side...you don't learn, you do...how very zen...now do all as if doing nothing...