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Hi

Could anyone suggest a couple of good "cold reading" books, i am looking for a good book regarding psychic/medium type methods to use as part of my mentalist/mind reading acts.

MartinShipleyMagic wrote:Hi

Could anyone suggest a couple of good "cold reading" books, i am looking for a good book regarding psychic/medium type methods to use as part of my mentalist/mind reading acts.

It's difficult unless you state what you actually want to achieve? Without knowing your end game, I would always recommend Ian Rowland as a good starting point. His cold reading book introduces all the main principles.

K

I'd second the Ian Rowland book, well worth reading if you're wanting to get started on Cold Reading. You might also want to have a look at Paul Voodini's Pure Q&A and Kenton Knepper's Completely Cold.

Julian Moore's James Bond Classic Cold Reading is also a very useful way of learning a system.

By the way, if you put Cold Reading into the Google search function at the top of the page you'll find several previous threads full of hints, tips, arguments, disagreements and nuggets of priceless information.

If you want to learn about cold reading, Rowland's book is good...if you want to learn to actually read yourself...it's not that useful.

Anything by Richard Webster will set you on your way...

http://www.deceptionary.com/webster.html

I was going to say the same thing Lenoir. Ians book is a great resource for cold reading but is not a system in itself.

Love Kenton Kneppers 'Completely Cold' I give you a warning, it is a little bigger then a pamphlet and is quite expensive. And when you read it, it is all completely obvious. But if you are going to do any cold reading, or any type of selling and you apply the principals it is worth the price at five times what you pay for it. (especially if you are salesman working off comissions..yes?)

All the resources recommended above are good.

If you want to be able to 'give readings' I'd suggest learning a legit system. Numerology is very accessible.

If you want some pointers on 'good things to say', Paul Voodini's "Reader Of Minds" is an excellent resource. In fact, I'd recommend this over the "Pure Q&A" mentioned above.

If you want to do readings one on one, or in a close-up setting, the best resources are Julianne Moore's James Bond Cold Reading and his Palmistry book. Paul Voodini's Palmistry for Magicians is also very good.

If you want to work on a stage, the best resources are Voodini's Reader of Minds, and Scorpio's Message by Bob Cassidy. But any work by either man on the subject will be good.

Ian Rowland's book is very good, but useless if you want to actually do readings. Keep it for background reading as you get better. And Completely Cold is completely useless. Don't bother with it.

Mark Lewis released a double DVD on readings which is good - ideas that can be applied one on one or on stage. Available through International Magic.

It is interesting the opinions of others. It is what makes the world go around. Not saying anybody is right or wrong. In fact I suppose it all comes down to our personal styles and how we use the information we have.

I usually agree with TonyB But in this case I have to 'disagree' with his assesment of 'Completely Cold" I certainly agree that it may be uselss to some. However I use the principals of Completely Cold not just in my magic world but in everyday life. My mother sent me a copy when I was working at a bank, I was in sales selling loans, equities and such, it would drive me crazy that so many people had all this money just sitting doing nothing. Earning 1 or 2 percent when there are so many products out there that would actually put that money to work. I could not figure out how to get people to listen. My mother who is great at selling and getting people to not only listen but she gets people to hear what she has to say. She sent me 'Completely Cold' after a rocky start I started getting people into the bank. I started getting them to listen, so much so that the branch manager started to take notice. Sales improved to the point where the district manager started to take notice. All because I took the principal in Completely Cold and applied them (it?) to my situation.

To be fair I don't do a lot of cold readings, I find psychic work...hmmm, not for me. Mentalism I find to be on the boring side. But the book certainly did change the way I perform to a degree and made me change the way I deal with people in a variety of situations. Including the occaisonal 'reading' to use the term very loosly.

So, to be more long winded perhaps TonyB is correct that in application to 'readings' Completely Cold may be useless, to many. But I have, and I know plenty of people who find the book very useful.

I think that Completely Cold like a lot of Kenton's work is very much love it or hate it. I personally really like it, ok a lot of it is common sense and quite obvious when you look back over it but its also really useful and valuble information. Its a good place to actually get you started with cold reading and getting the yes answers.

Tony mentioned that my DVds are obtainable from International Magic which they certainly are. However, they are also obtainable from me directly from me for the same price but I will also throw in a bonus item of some kind with it.

I have no idea how Kenton Knepper's work would apply to a bank situation but I do agree that it is completely useless in a reading situation. It is manipulative and doesn't work anyway. It left me "Completely Cold"

And the much lauded Ian Rowland book is fine if you want to learn theory that sounds good but has no existence in actual reality since no professional reader of my acquaintance either sincere shut eye or street wise open eye uses a single technique in his book. And since Ian has little experience of doing paid readings himself I would take his book with a pinch of salt. However, it might work if you work in a bank although I suspect it won't.

Most of the stuff out there is written by people who don't do readings for a living. The only source I can recommend beside my most worthy self is Richard Webster who is the last word on this kind of stuff.

But you don't need so called "cold reading" in the first place unless you are a crooked spiritualist medium of whom there seem to be a great many especially on television. Why not do it for real? Palmistry and Tarot are very ancient and powerful divination systems which make it unnecessary to use trickery anyway.

The trickery that some magicians use in a reading is the sign of an amateur. All this supposed "cold reading" is completely unnecessary. Do it for real. That is the best way.

bmat, glad Completely Cold was of use to you. Of all the resources I have come across it is the one I got least from. All of it's insights are fairly much common sense. I find that Kenton has a knack of wrapping the obvious in a superfluous amount of words, and selling it too dear. But I don't work in sales (and am bad at selling myself!). I am glad it is of use in your field.

The method he suggests could get a reading going, but is very vague. Like Barnum Statements, it is a tool to have in the arsenal, but during a good reading you don't need those tools.

mark lewis wrote: Why not do it for real? Palmistry and Tarot are very ancient and powerful divination systems which make it unnecessary to use trickery anyway.

The trickery that some magicians use in a reading is the sign of an amateur. All this supposed "cold reading" is completely unnecessary. Do it for real. That is the best way.

As a one time confirmed sceptic I'm glad to advise that doing it for real does actually work and, even more important to the lazy ones like me, is less onerous than learning loads of cold reading or Barnum statements. Going with your instinct in such matters will probably mean giving a more accurate reading than anything from pre-prepared generalisations. Take a deep breath and just do it!

Yes, Completely Cold is common sense. But, isn't that a common thing in magic? I found it and Wonder Readings to be useful. But, I really don't do much with readings and I am a big fan of Kenton.

The thing about Kenton is this. Think of magic as a sheet of paper with writing on it. The writing is the magic, the beef, the techniques. This is what most people offer. Kenton writes essays about the space between the words, the paper, and how it is all styled and put together. Some people find this pretentious and pedantic. Maybe it is. But I find it quite useful.