Do you believe in Psychics?

Question

Have you ever had a reading? Was it true what they said?

Answer 1

Cold reading is a technique used to convince another person that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do. Even without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by carefully analyzing the person's body language, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. This technique is also called offender profiling.[citation needed] Cold readers commonly employ high probability guesses about the subject, quickly picking up on signals from their subjects as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, and then emphasizing and reinforcing any chance connections the subjects acknowledge while quickly moving on from missed guesses.
Performers such as Lynne Kelly, Kari Coleman,[1] Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have used this technique at either private fortune-telling sessions or open forum "talking with the dead" sessions in the manner of self-proclaimed psychic medium John Edward and his British counterparts. Only after receiving acclaim and applause from their audience do they reveal that they needed no psychic power for the performance, only a sound knowledge of psychology and cold reading.[citation needed] Many famous psychics, on the other hand, claim that their abilities actually stem from paranormal means or intuition, and deny that they are employing cold reading techniques.

In an episode of his Trick of the Mind series broadcast in March 2006, Derren Brown demonstrated how easily people can be influenced through cold reading techniques by repeating the famous experiment in 1948, by psychologist Bertram R. Forer.

Before starting the actual reading, the reader will typically try to elicit cooperation from his subject, saying something like, "I often see images that are a bit unclear and which may sometimes mean more to you than to me; if you help, we can together uncover new things about you." One of the most crucial elements of a convincing cold reading is a credulous subject eager to make connections or reinterpret vague statements in any way that will help the reader appear to have made specific predictions or intuitions. While the reader will do most of the talking, it is the subject who provides the meaning.

After assuring that the subject will play along, the reader will make a number of probing statements or questions, typically using variations of the methods noted below. The subject will then reveal further information with their replies (whether verbal or non-verbal) and the cold reader can continue from there, pursuing promising lines of inquiry and very quickly abandoning or avoiding unproductive ones. In general, while only some of the information comes from the reader, most of the facts and statements come from the subject, and are then refined and restated by the reader so as to reinforce the idea that the reader got something correct.

Even very subtle cues such as changes in facial expression or body language can indicate if a particular line of questioning is effective or not. Combining the techniques of cold reading with information obtained covertly (also called "hot reading") can leave a strong, but false, impression that the reader knows or has access to a great deal of information about the subject. Because the majority of time during a reading is spent dwelling on the "hits" the reader is able to obtain, while the time spent recognizing "misses" is minimized, the effect is to give an impression that the cold reader knows far more about the subject than any ordinary stranger could.

Answer 2

I had a reading. Not because I sought it out but because I was her advertising rep and she started in with a reading out of the blue. She was dead-on accurate about my past and my present, but the future has been a little murky. A couple of things she was correct about, but I'm not holding my breath for the others to happen.

I think some are for real and some aren't.

Answer 3

only some of them like Sylvia Browne, I have had a reading before and some of the things came true but not all of the things that they said still waiting for them since she said it would come in time

Answer 4

I think Sylvia Browne is the real thing. Though I've never had a reading w/ her cause her sessions cost 700 an hour.

Answer 5

Nope

Answer 6

Where were they on 9/11... Or the Indonesian Tsunami that killed 300,000?

Answer 7

Don't believe in 'em and don't waste my money on them!

Answer 8

not in the slightest