"I see some kind of pain goes on for a long time ": how psychics skillfully deceive people

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

An excerpt from the book "Anatomy of Delusions" - a detailed guide to critical thinking from a domestic author.

Surprisingly, very often people, coming to a psychic, talk about their problem themselves, without even trying to test at least some paranormal abilities of the interlocutor. Usually a person lays out everything himself: “I have trouble, my only hope is in you. My husband left me for a young bitch. I can't live, please - help! As you can imagine, the psychic can only bargain and conduct some mystical ritual. The whole difference is in the showiness of the performance. Someone can make a conspiracy, someone can carry out a senseless but spectacular ceremony (there are no comrades for the taste and color), someone can prepare a potion. I repeat: in most cases, without realizing it, people talk about themselves, their problems and needs - and the psychic does not need any special abilities.

With the situation when the client himself puts the information the psychic needs, everything is clear. But in many cases, the psychic really correctly names many facts from the past and present of a person, thereby apparently proving his unique abilities.

If it's not a miracle, then how do they do it?

Any psychic, fortune teller or medium in communication with a client uses the cold reading technique that I mentioned earlier. Let's take a closer look at it. There is a lot to be said for how we look and how we behave. By analyzing gender and age, ethnicity, appearance, clothing, non-verbal behavior, demeanor, speech, reaction to words and questions, you can quickly "count" any person. Of course, these will be guesses and hypotheses, but they can be made with a high degree of probability.

In many ways, the acceptance of conclusions from a psychic is associated with the Barnum effect (aka the Forer effect), which we also talked about earlier when we discussed astrology. The situation is exactly the same here.

For effective cold reading, it is important for any psychic to first enlist the support of the client and partially transfer the responsibility associated with interpretation to him. Therefore, the medium often makes a preamble at the beginning of the session: “I will try to help you. When I enter the astral plane, I will see images. I don't always understand what they mean, but these images will come from you. You know better what they mean. Together we can find the answer. Good?"

You must understand that since people turn to the paranormal in a situation of despair, then any person will have a strong desire to correctly interpret information in their favor, and therefore, to find meaning where it is clearly not there. And this is apophenia Apophenia - the ability to see relationships in random or meaningless data. - Approx. ed. clean water.

Then the psychic begins his session, diluting it with various entourage and atmospheric elements - a real show according to all the laws of drama and scenography.

Here and reading spells in an incomprehensible language, and the use of candles, crystal balls, old cards, skulls, occult props, potions, mysterious symbols.

A psychic, analyzing a person, makes the first predictions, the widest possible, universal, suitable for almost everyone. One way or another, they will be associated either with personal life and love, or with family and relationships, or with health, or with work and financial well-being.

My experience suggests the following. If I came to the miracle-magician with a wedding ring, he immediately started with the family (someone got sick or will get sick). If I came without a ring, I heard about work (“You have problems at work” - it's no wonder to assert this and be right, because a huge number of people come to a psychic with just this). Once during a session I pretended to limp several times. It is easy to guess that the first guess of the fortuneteller (and playing cards were used) were health problems: “For some reason I see exactly the legs. There is a problem with them."

To test each hypothesis, the psychic will always carefully observe the client's behavior. Experienced mediums are brilliant at tracking changes in facial expressions, non-verbal behavior - postures and gestures. Any hit to the point can be easily traced: a person can blush or look away, pupils can dilate, tremors begin, etc. Believe me, a professional psychic with experience will give odds to any investigator or psychologist.

At the same time, at first, the psychic will try to avoid precise wording, because he needs to test the waters and hit the target. Therefore, the statements “For some reason, the cards are burning…”, “I see a strange picture… What could it mean?”, “I feel that…”, “Most likely…”, etc. are often used.

My favorite technique is negative questions: "Are you by any chance connected with art?" And even if you answered in the negative, the psychic will continue: "Yes, yes, I see it." Brilliant!

Often psychics begin a fortune-telling session with a person's characteristics. Of course, if the fortune-teller starts with a compliment, this increases the degree of trust: “You are an amazingly strong person!”, “I see that you have a very bright aura, you have no anger and good thoughts”, “You have powerful energy. Do you know that you also have psychic inclinations? They need to be developed. Have you ever noticed something like this? This is done, as you understand, not by chance. A kind word and the cat is pleased.

Some people mention diametrically opposite properties, tracking the reaction: “I see that on the whole you are a very responsible person. And some even abuse it. But sometimes you can and we will be gouging. Is that so? Entering into a dialogue, a person himself does not understand, which confirms one of the alternatives, allowing him to continue the cold reading.

It's amazing how psychics ignore their failures and focus only on hits. Let's try to follow how a professional does it in dialogue.

- I have an image of you crying. It makes me feel bad myself from this … Some kind of heaviness right …

- I don't understand what you mean. I haven't cried lately.

- So this old pain goes on. Stale. The scar is straight deep, it has not healed yet.

- Yes, I have nothing like that.

- This is your protection. And I can feel it directly. Remember the last time you cried.

- When the cat died. But she was already old.

- Here! I just see a connection with a living, but not a person. You have a feeling of longing.

- Yes, it seems not … I normally survived this loss, we were mentally prepared for this. The children were just upset.

- And I feel it. The scar is due to this. You worry more about your children, share the pain with them.

- May be.

- You see. That's exactly what I'm talking about.

The psychic can interpret any forecast in his favor. Let's imagine that he says: "I am on a journey for some reason." This is a logical assumption, because any person who had enough money to pay for a session will sooner or later go either on vacation, or on a business trip, or somewhere to visit relatives. But let's imagine that a person answers: "No, no, I definitely have no travel plans, I rarely leave the house at all." Then the psychic will use a figurative meaning: “No, you did not understand. This is not a literal journey. It is a journey from one state to another. I see metamorphoses, some serious changes that are taking place in you now. " Did you see how quickly the medium changed the forecast vector?

Some psychics do not start with a general topic, but with particulars. For example, once a psychic, after “went into a trance” (and he played frankly badly), told me: “The name is Marina”. Then there is a pause: he is waiting for my reaction. I am silent. “Who is Marina? Remember!"

You probably understand that there is no such person in Russia who has never met Marina in his life.

This can be a classmate, a neighbor from a past life, a former colleague, a relative, even a saleswoman from a store near the house. Naturally, an ordinary person begins to sort out out loud which Marin he knows. If the psychic sees that there are many of these Marins, he can narrow down the search: "I see dark hair."

A psychic can have a lot of predictions.

• "I see a disease in your family." Are there families where no one is sick at all? And even if you categorically deny, the magician may insist: “Have you seen relatives who live in another city for a long time? That's it. Be sure to contact them, they need your help."
• "I feel like there is a man who plays a big role in your life." Listen, in the life of any person there can be such a man: father, grandfather, brother, matchmaker, colleague, husband, lover, friend, partner, teacher, etc. But for greater persuasiveness, details can be added that are just as universal (that is, anyone can fit them): not just a man, but "a man, so strong, with character and such an insightful look."
• “I have a strange feeling. As if pressing the chest … Someone close …”See how differently this can be interpreted. Could it be that the person has heart or lung problems? Easy. Maybe a relative died due to heart problems? Of course. Maybe there is a heaviness on the heart because of worries, problems, sadness? Yes, this is common to almost everyone.
• "Ugh! It smells like alcohol. Who has a problem with alcohol? " Again, a very likely hit, given the situation in our country with alcohol abuse.

Recently, psychics have succeeded in their business. In addition to the classic cold reading, they masterfully use fear to demoralize their client. Incomprehensible, but emotionally strong words are used: “death”, “curse”, “conspiracy”, “coffin”, “grave”, “karmic violations”. Words that are absolutely incomprehensible to the client and create a sense of the existence of a separate magical world also work well: "vairon", "aditum", "essence", "elemental", "andras", "incubus", "asmodel". Don't even ask what that means. Words from the classic religious thesaurus are also intertwined: "Lord", "Amen", "angel", "servant of God."

It's amazing how deeply religious people are not embarrassed by the confusion of religion and fortune-telling, spells, curses - that's where mystical thinking is in full action.

Some psychics don't cheat. There are just a large number of mentally ill people who sincerely believe that they have exceptional abilities. They really don't want to cheat anyone or engage in fraud, they truly believe they have a unique gift.

“But what about the show“Battle of Psychics”? Is this really a hoax? " - you may ask. And I, as an experienced television broadcaster, can authoritatively say: yes, all this is 100% production. Instead of a detailed description of how one of the most popular programs on Russian television works, I recommend that you watch the cycle of documentaries by Boris Sobolev "Going to Hell". This is a very powerful documentary investigation that is really impressive.

Nikita Nepryakhin is a writer and TV presenter, author of trainings on argumentation and persuasion. In his new book "Anatomy of delusions" Nikita tells what "mystical thinking" is, how to distinguish truth from fakes, and science from obscurantism. The author brings many stories, studies and personal examples, and offers exercises to help develop critical thinking and avoid cognitive pitfalls.