Cold Reading
Cold reading is a very powerful tool for the mentalist, when used correctly it is imperceptible and can produce quite incredible performances that appear to have the hallmarks of a psychic or supernatural nature.
Cold reading itself is often misunderstood, and it is often wrongly explained. Here we will cover the basic structure of a cold reading performance before giving you some more recommended reading.
Firstly, after the cold reader has made sure that they have created the right atmosphere to help with suggestion, he or she will recruit the help of the cold readee by making a statement such as:
“Often images, voices, and sounds can be quite unclear, and often I won’t understand the meaning or significance of it while it will clearly mean more to you than it does to me. If you are receptive and we work together then we can unlock these meanings and we will be able to interpret the vibrations to understand the messages and uncover what they mean.”
In providing this suggestion at the beginning the message is clear - it is up to the subject to interpret any suggestion made by the cold reader, to identify it’s meaning, and to provide the message. Once you have them on board with this then clearly the whole process becomes much easier.
The cold reader, or mentalist, will now proceed to deliver the reading with the full co-operation of the subject, who will either provide their clues verbally or unconsciously using non verbal communication such as body language or eye cues.
One common method used by cold readers is to make statements where they suggest one thing and at the same time suggest it’s opposite too, thereby ensuring accuracy and also making statements that probably apply to everyone, although if presented well appear to be very personal. An example might be:
“At times you can feel quite introverted, like you need peace and quiet and solitude, but at others, if you are in the right mood, you can come out of your shell and be the lie and soul of the party.”
In a similar vein to this a cold reader may use a form of subtle flattery to illicit a positive response from the subject.
Another technique that is often used is a kind of machine gun approach (this is quite an unsubtle method) where the cold reader may say something like “I have a man here, maybe like a Grandfather, Father, Uncle, Brother, Cousin,” whereupon the subject fills in the gaps for you, or they may come up with a first letter of a name, as demonstrated on our psychics page.
It is also common to throw in some statement that appears to be personal but which actually applies to almost everyone.
Statements like this can include talking about a box of old photos, with women about having in their possession a piece of jewellery (which may or may not have belonged to a deceased person, or have been given to the subject by them, or have come through the deceased’s family, etc - the possibilities are only limited by your & the subjects imagination), it may be in relation to a number (house number, telephone number, age, etc?), plus many other similar statements.
Another favourite along these lines is to talk about childhood accidents - maybe the cold reader can see blue skies and a tree in a field or orchard, a small stream or river, and they sense an accident happened here.
These kinds of vague suggestions coupled with trees, fields, water, etc give a lot of room for the subjects memories or imagination to fill in the gaps appropriately.
These really are the basic beginnings of cold reading, we will delve into them more completely on this website in due course, but in the meantime we have included a number of books that will help you to research cold reading further on our recommended reading page.
