 Now, this lecture and the next lecture is devoted to the psychic reading, also called the cold reading, and it's done deliberately by someone who knows what they're doing, who is aware that this is a tool, a technique that's exploiting the limitations or the biases of the human mind and taking advantage of it. I like the psychic reading being a skeptic, so and I think it's the, and being a person who wrote the major chapter in the annual review, I wrote a chapter the only time they ever had it, in the annual reviews of psychology on the psychology of deception, and as a psychologist I would say my specialist was the psychology of deception. And to me the cold reading of the psychic reading represents a prototype, a good example that contains everything that we want to talk about or how people believe, how powerful it is, how vividness, how the power of a story and how dealing with yourself can override everything else and create a reality. It's very, very powerful and I find this a very good thing to use to understand how the mind works and doesn't work and what motivates us, what gets us excited and so on. And so what we're going to do now, this reading, this lecture will be mostly on giving samples of readings, a lot by myself, but I've also got Randy in here, and then if we have time, this lecture, we're going to give you a little thing I do in my workshops. I'm going to pair you off, hopefully when I pair you off, I'm going to try, you probably know each other a lot, but try to get you, match you up with people you least know so you're more affected that way, and I'm going to teach you how to read, give each other a reading. I'm going to teach you what I call a systematic scan, and it's very powerful, I've done it over and over again, so I know my experience at this works. I did it recently at a workshop on cold reading at the TAM last year, and we had 130 people in that room, as big as I've ever had, because I was like a small group, we paired everyone off and the average accuracy rating that people gave each other's readings was 85%. By the way, there's a magic number because that over the last 20 years of my doing these workshops is about the average accuracy rating I get is about 85%, so that's about, so that's a little better than you're going to do than the ordinary psychics do, so just after this one little reading, you're going to be better than most psychics. Okay, so let's start off with some examples. Let's start off with the superpower show, okay? That was a show done in Britain on one of the channels there in 1990, and I want to show you a segment where they had me come there on that show because they have a man in England called Christian Dion. Well, you'll see it, let's see, let's talk to him, so go show that. Arrow cards if you want Christian to have a look at the future, 071-603-1152, so get darling out for that. Okay, well the phones will be buzzing and Florence is in Ilford. As we pick out the cards, there's two things, particularly going back. Ray Hyman is on the executive council of Psychop, he's listening to tapes of English psychic Christian Dion's radio talk show, sent to him in America by a British associate. In the show, Dion questions callers and gives them psychic readings and advice. Hyman came over to London to investigate. Hi Yvonne. All right. How are you? Hi. Shopping going on. Well, I think people don't actually believe I shuffle them all the time and change them around, but we do, kids, we do. Certainly do. What? Over the last sort of basically 12 years, it's been a bit of a dodgy patch, Yvonne. That's all right. I feel that you have also been draining yourself a lot recently. You've been getting yourself all wound up, very much so. And without being rude, you've lost your sparkle. That's wrong. You know, it's like you're not you at the minute, we need to get your sparkle back. I think that will be better as we go into the old... It's a bit like being able to view a videotape of someone's life. You can see the past, the present time, the future time, which gives them evidence if you want, that things you predict for the future are good or at least accurate. Right. Is there anything particularly you wanted to find out about? It just helps to make up on things. Right. Stay on the line with the student. If you can just make sure your radio's turned off, give it a downline. Well, what do Dion's callers think? Is Yvonne from Acton convinced of his psychic powers? Yvonne, you just had a consultation with Christian Dion. What do you think of Christian? I thought it was good. It was right what he said to me. What were some of the things that he said that were good? Well, he said there was ups and downs in the last 12 years. And in the last two, and also that I tend to put everybody else before myself. And I've lost my sparkle, you know, that was all. And he said about a property deal, which I take it he means moving between now and Easter next year. Is that something you have been thinking about? Well, we have, yeah. And he seems to think that it will happen. She's just one person and many, many thousands of people seem to be just as convinced as she is. And the sad thing is that there are alternative explanations. Back in Buffalo, Hyman is going to show how to read people's minds without psychic powers. 24 minutes after 10 o'clock, my guest in studio, Mr. X, a psychic reader, a gentleman who is able to tell you many things intuitively about yourself through the use of his ability to focus in on your psychic energy and also with the use of tarot cards, which he has in front of them now. Good morning, Julie. Good morning. How are you? Fine, thank you, and you? Good. You sound very chipper and very happy. I also see that you've had probably some daydreams only. It's just really fantasy daydream type of thing where you even thought of maybe running away once in a while and maybe starting life anew with a new relationship and so on. But that's just because of this problem of as you begin to think of the youth that's now slipping by and facing the future. Oh, good. And that's that part of it taking care of. Well, that was remarkably accurate. I compliment you on that. Cold reading is when you meet a client whom you've never met before, we call it meeting them cold, and give them a reading that is insightful and the client thinks gets to the core of his or her personality. And the way this is achieved in a nutshell is to give the client general statements that could apply to anyone, but then you gradually refine them by the feedback you get from the client. And once you get this feedback and refine it, you make sure that the home message is wrapped up with this rule. The basic rule is you tell them what they want to hear. Now, let me give you an example of what is like a cold reading. Let me show you what Christian Dione was doing, just this little sample from him. This year to Easter of next year, before you're able to get the property matter completely organized. Okay? Now, that doesn't mean to say it's going to take the whole of that time, it's in that time. Did you say property matters? What do you mean by that? Well, because around you property-wise, it's as though there's no settlement at the moment. He's talking about this property matter, and he said it's not necessarily that during that time, but in this time, which actually, if you think about it, covers quite a big range, a big range of things there. The next five year block. You can break down his whole approach to a simple formula, which I think would be very easy to write on a computer. And the reason you can do this, by the way, is that it's not Christian Dione who makes these readings so successful, it's the people who are listening. They are putting the meaning in there. Um, I haven't actually got a partner. At all? Um, no, not in that way, no. Well, I'm talking romantically, obviously. No. Right. At all? No, nobody. All right. Not romantically, no. All right, well, let that one write. I agree with them all in the saying that anybody can do what I do, because we all have the power. It's just that they haven't, A, got the logic, if they want to use that word, to see that we don't tell them general things anyway. When people come for readings, it's very specific things. And if I was telling people general things, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, because people wouldn't come to see me. So the skeptics have got the problem, not myself. About 97% is my estimation of people who do psychic readings believe in what they're doing. Even though if you listen to them over and over again, they have a very simple form, they're very repetitive. Do you want to hear an honest answer? Yeah. I think they're thick. I honestly think they are thick. I mean, do you think it's some, they feel a challenge to the personal? I think they, well, maybe they have a challenge to the belief systems as we all are, but I think they're basically inadequate and they are thick. I mean, they've tried it before. No doubt they'll attack me after that, and they'll try it again. But good luck to them. She'll always work because she's completely dedicated. I would like anyway, without further ado, to introduce you to this remarkable medium, this wonderful sensitive, Doris Collins. Doris Collins is Britain's most famous medium and healer. And not surprisingly, she hasn't escaped psychopathy. Doris Collins, I will say something about Doris Collins. She was at that time the top medium in England. Doris Collins. And a guy named, I'm trying to name his name, he had a talk show on PBS all the time. He was very famous for a while. Oh boy, I wish I could think of his name. I'm so bad at it. But anyways, some of you would recognize his name. But anyways, he had a talk show and he brought her to the United States because she's so famous in England. And one of the things she does, she stands up in front of a crowd. She proceeded well many years before there was a John Edwin stuff doing the same stuff. But she would stand in front of the crowd in England and say, I get an Abbot, a name Abbot. Does anyone recognize the name Abbot and stuff like that? And because someone would, and so on. He brought her to the United States and had her on the show and she bombed completely. No recognized names she was throwing out. And the problem was that all the names she throws out. Our standard names in England and they're not the standard names in this country. Oh no. Another thing that's like that, there's a guy named George Alexander who became the, who was the predecessor of John Edward and all the, and Van Prague. They're just copying him. They're poor imitations of John Anderson. But John Anderson had the, had it down to the things they had. They had it down to a very simple form. Again, I could write a program for her. And I was on Larry King Live opposite George Anderson one year. Larry King wasn't on that show. There was a, he was away and there was a subject to marry something or other. I forget her name. So she was the hostess of the show. And we were, I went to San Francisco and George Anderson that time had a radio show. And he was very, had a book out. He's still alive on the, seeing on the internet. He still runs his stuff. But he was a big deal at that time. He was the medium to talk to people. I think he's the guy who developed what I would call a modern approach to doing readings for mediums. But his approach was simple. He would say, someone call in. Usually he did this on radio all the time, sometimes on TV too. Someone would call in and he'd say, I get a name like Jonathan. Jonathan. Does that mean anything to you? And if they say yes, he would then say, living or dead? If they said dead, then it said Jonathan was trying to reach you. The semester from Jonathan to you. If they say living, okay, there's a spirit out here trying to reach Jonathan. And then he got himself, that was the basis of his thing. Okay, so he's on, I'm supposed to be the poo poo guy. You know, the party poo poo. Anyway, I'm on, and Anderson gets the first call. Someone calls and says, obviously an elderly lady can talk to my voice. And he says, I get the name John. Do you know a John? She hesitates and she says no. And she says, no John, don't you ever have a John? And he likes, she says no. And then he says, oh, I see, it's static in here. It's Joe, Joseph. Did you know Joe or Joseph? No. I'm saying, yeah, boy, I don't have to do anything. And she went through, oh, it's Jillian. That's what, you know, the static is pretty bad on the other side. And she knows, she doesn't know Jillian at all. And he went for a few more and it just was a big bus. She didn't know anything. And later on my way back to Eugene from San Francisco, it dawned on me, you know, she's calling from New Mexico. It said, from Mexico. She's calling on the reservation. And they don't have names like Joe, Jillian and stuff like that. Which he gets away with all the time because they stand in names, right? And he can transform them. And, you know, again, John Edwards has taken over that thing. He throws out the name and it's not Jack, it's John. John, okay, it's Joseph and so on. And it's always something as simple as that. It works though. It works. These guys have been in here now, right? And so don't knock it. But she doesn't know it, but the reader, who's a University of Oregon psychology professor, says palm reading is pure fiction. And Diana doesn't believe in it herself. But something strange is about to happen. Diana is going to become a believer. You have a hard time hanging on to money. You have spaces between your fingers. Ray Hyman gently raises common topics like money or career. On the lookout for giveaway responses. A nod here or a word there. Other people do your income tax. Otherwise, you do, okay, good. The fate line comes very late, very, very late, out of your lifeline. And that suggests your career is very, very late in coming. This is children, you know. And lots of them are there. After about 20 minutes, Ray is feeding back to Diana what he's gathered she probably wants to hear. Six. She said better hurry. How accurate was it? Pretty accurate. Really? Yeah. The career about four years ago, I started selling insurance and have just now decided that it's really not what I want to do. Kids, of course, I have one child. But my mother has five. My sister has five. So now Diana thinks there might be something to this. I think I was really meant to have more children, but I never married young. And then when he said accounting and stuff, he's right. I am not a bookkeeper. I don't want to be. And I let other people handle my taxes and everything. She and I are working as a team. Yeah. I call a symbiotic relationship. She wants me to be right. Because you know it's going to could help her. And because I want to be right, because it's an ego trip for me as a reader. And so we're helping each other. So was there a point during this where you said to yourself, oh, this guy has some ability? Yes. Now what about now? Now that you know that he doesn't believe in it, that he's just reading what you told him, how do you feel about the future? Well, pretty much the same, except that I'm going to, it's nice to know that I have a big strong marriage line there. This is really interesting. You're thinking about the things he told you, and you're considering them, and you're reconsidering your life in a way, even though he, he, it was like a put up job. I think that I was taking the stuff that I believe I want to happen to be true. Most of us look at the world in the same way as Diana. We pick the bits of a horoscope we like and read them into the stars. The rest of the show had me, the reason he came to Eugene, he wanted me to test the dowser. And we did it. We set up a test of the dowser, we tested the dowser. He was a nice guy, and he wanted me to test, and I was able to, and I used Barry Byerstein to help me, and we went to the fairground, because he dows, he had to have a pair of shoes, because we, he dows, he had to have a place that was going to be no electric wires around and stuff like that. So we went to the fairgrounds, and we did a nice test of the dowser. He said he could locate metal under a bucket. So we had 10 buckets, and we, Barry's trial was double, double blind. Barry Byerstein would place the thing according to a random schedule under one of the 10 buckets, and then mix the buckets a little bit so that they, he couldn't tell that one had been handled. So while Alan Alder and I and the dowser were away, and then we would come back, and that Barry regarded the way, because so he knew where it was, and he couldn't inadvertently give us any clues. And the dowser would use his rod to find the object we placed under one of the buckets. And he, he just, he just flat out was bad, even though this was his test, he suggested. He was very bad. And Alan Alder's a very nice guy, and he could see he was puzzled by this gal here, because she was inconsistent. And afterwards, it was more that goes on, you know, but they caught a lot of, a lot of the important things on this thing here. She was adamant that she didn't believe any of this stuff, but she was also adamant that I told her things that no one could have known by normal means. And she insisted on both. And Alan was puzzled. He was trying to get, to see the contradiction in it. She didn't see any contradiction. She doesn't believe this stuff at all, but he knows stuff that no one could have known by any normal means, and he told me that, and he was right on everything. So, it was very puzzling. Well, similar, another thing happened with this dowser. After he failed everything, we got into van to drive back to the university, because we were doing most of the show from the university. As we were driving back, Alan asked the dowser, he said, look, you were so sure of this before you went into this, and yet you bombed. How did you explain that? So he said, well, I don't blame Professor Hyman. I don't blame any of you. Professor Hyman was very nice. He did everything that he said he was going to do and he fulfilled all my conditions. He says, but I think the problem is that science hasn't caught up with us yet. I suddenly come across that, but I love that because he said that. And Alan said, what do you mean by that? He says, well, science is not ready to detect what I do. Then it's not ready. So we're too far ahead of science. So I love that. Anyway. It gets louder later. So back to what we have been doing in our lives. We have gone on. We use when someone has it, this is what they typically do. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. Scam. I think what we should do now is go forward some more to, because near the end of the show it gets much more interesting, because at the first half of the show it's all positive. It seems like he's hitting with that group and everything else, but later you find something else at the end of the show. This guy with Schwartz, who I had some very strange interactions with, he validates Edward among others. He's a professor at, Joe does a very good job on the show. So, John Edward did hone in on a suspicious death. I think it's a good idea to come through loud and clear. Four of all people date-lined cameraman Tony Hagana, one of two cameramen shooting our story. John Edward zeroes in on the fact that Tony's father has died. He said some things that were very personal. I knew, and putting the ring on his finger on my dad's finger when he died was really something that I don't think anyone else saw. When you watch a lot of these readings, rain, photo, dog, these things come over and over and you're almost sure to get hit. I mean, I have a lady that does memories involving the readings of life. In fact, Jewelry did come up several times during this group reading. He also did not leave the ring. He made me talk about the bracelet with a watch. It's a bracelet with a watch connection that comes up with this. There was a lot of talk of special months. I want to talk to you and I want to talk to you about either the 10th, which means that October, the month of October, or the 10th of the month having some type of meeting. But she's done it definitely. It's already April. Show me April. Who brought this? Mine. And of course, how you will die. Cancer and heart disease. And that's even major causes of death. There's a lot about that. Actually, somebody passes from cancer also there. It's a show me cancer. Some of the congestion that comes up in the chest. So either somebody had congested heart failure, pneumonia, or they could not breathe. There was a problem that comes up in this area. And who passed from breast cancer? But John A. Moore also came up with specific information. And these know. It seemed right on target. Is there anybody with a unique S name? Does anybody have multiple different skin types? And they're like prickly skin, like psoriasis? What is this? Is that it? No. David, please. My name sounds like psoriasis. It's psoriasis. Ah! Ah! Ah! Do you understand that? Yes. Okay. That's for you. I'm going to come and connect you to the twins. What twins? Yes? Do you understand this? Okay. Who are the twins? My daughters and granddaughters. Our twins? Okay. And he was right about our cameraman, Tony Spock. And he had passed away. He got empathy. That's pretty good, Anthony. You see mediums who mill about before sessions and read people to chat with them and pick up things. John Edward had made it a point to avoid any contact before that night's session. But remember this footage of Edward dancing? Tony was the cameraman. He shot this just hours before the group reading. You met Tony before, though, right? Early that day? Yeah. They not only met, but Tony told John Edward a critical piece of information during the shoot. Tony was the cameraman. And we were aware of what he had done before he did the shoot. I think he was going to the day he did that. And then it makes me feel like, you know, that's very significant. Okay. So that's not some energy coming through. That's something you knew would go in it. You knew his name was Tony. You knew that his dad had died. And you knew who to group. Right? That means a whole lot of thinking he got me doing that. Like I said, I've reacted to what's coming through. But I see it here in the field. I interpret what I'm seeing here in the field. And I define it. He reads his hand. It makes sense to me. Great. But I'll sit here and look at that and go, hey, you know, this is the cameraman. He goes, stay in line. You know, wouldn't that be impressive if he'd get the cameraman to cry? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. No. But grieving is emotional. Whatever the trigger. Tony, our cameraman was clearly moved. So was Pan. She was in tears. There's nothing more deep-seated and resonant with people than the idea of a dead bubble. This is a very vulnerable person. He has crossed in my mind a line in a rather sacred domain that for me would be off-limits. I do not see what I do as being a great therapist. I don't want to be looked at as a great therapist. I think that it can help you. It could be good. They charge the people like you, and maybe you can make money off of people's grief. Very clearly. Every person does what they do for a living and needs to be paid so they can continue to do what they do. What I asked you was, are you making money off people's grief? And it sounds like you're saying to me, hey, I can charge three times as much. That sounds like people want to do this. You're right. I could charge three times as much, but I don't. I think that there's a value to it, I think. You pay for my time. But you can't put it by saying, God, it needs to be free to self-pattern prices. Isn't the experience as priceless but passionate beliefs and John Edward's followers that makes it possible? After all, non-believers aren't likely to seek out a meaning. Never mind. But hey, won't, if someone willingly wants to go, though, it puts the heart of it. We're never going to know the truth. Truth doesn't matter here. Truth should matter. But the idea that the injustice of means is always ethically a pretty dicey area. It might be okay if I flatter you a little or if I help you, but you're starting down so pretty slowly when you start doing that. But all 13 people who were at the group reading told us afterwards that the experience was worthwhile. And the seeker said, all that matters to her is that she and people like her have found some comfort. There are people that lose little children, that lose spouses, that lose parents. If they are walking away from him, and comforted, and happy, and they can go on living their lives, what is the skepticism? What could he possibly be doing that they have some fault to say about it? Because the dead are not here to dispute the matter, not to us anymore. We are quite literally left through the words of John Edward, and the faces of the people who hang on his every word for some glimpse of a year after believing there must be something else. Their loved ones have gone on. For them, if not for others, it is enough. You get the idea a little bit. In the manual that I gave out for cold reading, which J.R.F. may make available so that people want to get a copy of it, it's about 85 to 100 pages long. It's a manual which I hope covers everything you need to know about cold reading. I did take off the Internet a long transcript of James Edward on Larry King Live Show. The value of taking it off to Larry King Live Show, or a show like this, is that it's not edited. On his own show, Sci-Fi show, it's always edited. They leave out all the misses and stuff like that. It's very carefully edited, which means that you can't make any judgments at all. On this long one, there's a person who has some website and he makes comments on various points during the transcript of Edward's giving a reading on Larry King Live Show. It's a long thing. I put the whole transcript on that in the appendix because you just have to read it to see what's going on. Every single reading, Edward's does like that. It's unedited. He's throwing out names. He says, I get an H, a Harry, a name like Harry. Does that make sense to you? And again, living or dead, almost like the Georgians technique. And if it's living, then message is far. That person, if it's dead, that person giving a message to the caller. It's always a very common name. It's always the first name, never the last name. And there's a few simple rules that goes on there. And also, many times, even with the common names that he's using this technique, there are people who say, no, I don't know having one, close to anyone by the name of John and I don't know anyone who's passed on his name, John. Edward doesn't back down and this is his other technique. He says, look, I am always right. The spirits never lie. You go back and check and you'll find it out. And this, he does this a lot too. So he brawls himself. So he never admits defeat and he can't lose that way. That's all he does. It's much less technique. There's no technique at all actually except for those simple rules. He just throws out names at random and they're very common and he doesn't have any technique at all. If you took my course from me about one of my workshops or you just read my manual, you'll be better. You have better technique than he has but he doesn't need it. Just like Gell doesn't need technique in bending spoons. He doesn't need it. Apparently it's just enough that people calling in like this lady there you just saw that they get any comfort they want to believe in him and he doesn't have to have any technique at all. He's home free. He's a millionaire. He's going to keep making money at it and he can't lose. So no matter how bad you are at this stuff works. And that's the message we want to get there. Now, how many here have had a reading from a psychic? Okay. Did you find it impressive? Are there any kind of bending? How was yours? Well, it was Mark. Was that? It was Mark. Oh, it was Mark. Mark Edward, yeah. Mark Edward. And the guy is just a natural psychologist and I knew that I was giving meaning to what he was saying to me and I also know that he knows me and he knows me. Okay. So she's saying... She's a skeptic and she's saying that... I gotta say this because people aren't hearing you. I won't hear you on the line. And she's saying that Mark Edward gave her a reading and she knows that, you know, she doesn't believe this is real so that yet still is impressive. He's a good psychologist and she was impressed by it. Okay. Now, how much time do we have? We have about 25 minutes. Okay. I think we'll try it then. We're going to have you... I'm going to have you... I'll peel off with... Find someone that hopefully that you don't know too well but we're going to peel you off. Let's see. Two, four... Hopefully it's an even number. We'll find it for an even number and we're going to have you... I'm going to give you a technique for reading each other, okay? And it'll work. No question about it. So you'll believe it. So I'm going to give you this... So if you peel off... Sometimes you may have to move your chairs and then you can move back there and just say it's facing each other. That would be nice. We're going to use what I call a systematic scan. There are many techniques you can use to do it. But this thing is... Believe me, it's very powerful and it should work very well. What you're going to do is... We're going to do it systematically. Later, if you get... If you practice it, you won't have to do it systematically. You just sit and look at people. You can do it. But we're going to have... I'm going to have you look... We're going to do it systematically. I'm going to have you first look at the person's hair that's opposite you. Okay? They're here. Look at their hair. And see where anything comes to mind that the hair might say something to you about it. Another, for example, is this well-kept hair? Is it not well-kept? Does it hair check to make a statement? Is it natural color? Is there any hair? You know... Okay. Now, don't worry. The most important thing is not to worry. If nothing comes to you, fine. Forget about it. That's okay. But if something comes to you, just remember it. If something... What kind of person do you have a hair like that? Did they take care of it? Or they didn't take care of it? Is it casual? Is it well-groomed? Is it natural? Whatever. If nothing comes to you, fine. That's okay. Don't worry. Okay. So after you've done that, and by the way, it's good to take notes. If you can take notes, it'll help. Write something down. If nothing comes to you from that, that's okay because you're going to have a lot of opportunity. You don't need much. Just now look at their face. Now just look at the face. And for example, is there acne or any marks like that that might say something to you or not? Is there makeup on? If there's not no makeup on, if there's makeup, is it more than it should be for this occasion? Or is it less? Or is it well-groomed? Good taste. Anything you tell me, is the face to suggest it's too puffy or overweight? Anything at all? If nothing, fine. Don't worry about it. There's a lot of opportunity to get out of stuff. Okay. And we're going to go relatively fast because you don't need much time on these kinds of things. And you get better at it. You can do it automatically. Now, the next thing is look at the person's body, yet the body especially. And how are they sitting? Are they good posture? Are they relaxed? Bad posture? Okay. Okay. Bad posture. Anything about their body? Are they slouching? At this point also, can I make a consideration? Are they overweight, underweight? They look like someone who spends time in a gym a lot. Or do they spend too much time in the pizza parlor? You know, whatever. And also, it's the time to begin looking at their clothing a little bit too. What kind of clothing do they have on? Again, is it casual? Is it studied? Is it anything that tells you about it? Is it that you're making a statement with their clothing? Are they, you know, anything at all? Now you can go on and look at the legs and the rest of the body and see again anything that tells you there about their pants, how their legs are covered, anything that tells you about that. And very important, the shoes. The shoes match the socks. Are they, do they have socks? And the shoes tell you something. Are they casual shoes? Are they shoes for, used to be, you can't tell now, but there are shoes, they used to be, you could tell that people have some problems with their feet, the kind of shoes they had were wearing, but you can't tell these days about that kind of stuff. But shoes can tell you a lot, especially, do they crash? Or do they fit in with everything else? That's that? That's that? Shoes tell you a lot. Oh, okay, okay. Right, okay. Now, look for any jewelry or any kind of jewelry. You look at the hands, especially, and see if there's any, of course, marriage rings are there, but sometimes when you're reading someone, you will see that they don't have a marriage ring, but it looks like that there's a place where a marriage ring was. And you know, that tells you a lot. Many times, it used to tell me a lot when I was doing readings, that they took it off deliberately to hide the fact that they're married, once you wear it, I pick it up. And you would see, you can often see because they've been in the sun or something like that, there's a white little place where the ring was. They've taken it off. They've probably taken it off just before the reading to challenge me in some way. But anyways, you look for real signs like that. Sometimes you get, it gives you a lot, sometimes it tells you nothing, but you're looking for things like that. Fingernails are very important, so check them out. People who bite their fingernails, people take care of their fingernails. They long. They can tell you things or not. Yeah, would you say the person is laid back or tense, this is very important, their posture. Is it good posture or not good posture? And anything like that, that you could say about it, I think you have enough now. I think you have enough to, now, one thing that helps that you've got a lot of what I would call descriptors, and now the thing is to put them into a story, to make a story out of it. And when I was playing with Christian Dion, trying to simulate him, he always, everything he did, he had three places. He put some stuff in the past, what the media past, recent past has before this person called or they encountered this person, and things that could lead up to any problems they now have, and then the present, what the situation is present, and the immediate future and the long-range future. Now the same thing to tell people, well, we'll get to that later. I'm going to let you stop at this, but sometimes it's good to put what you have into a story or some sort of a framework or context. You don't have to, but it's good. Okay, now we're finished. You're all set. And I'm going to have, would you mind being willing to openly tell what you come up with? Would you give him his reading now? Just tell him. Yeah, tell him what you think he's like, what kind of person he is, and so on. What did you come up with? Now, this is a really good comparison. These are really different people from different worlds, right? Okay, what different age levels and so on, right? You're older than she is, right? Who's going to go first? Who should go first? Okay, you have a wide variety of tastes. You're pretty laid back. A couple others, but I think I've forgotten them now. What notes did you write down? Just not things I heard just about the systematic scan thing. That's good enough so far. How far, what Louie said, how was it, what would you say? Say, how'd it fit you? Fit you well? How would you give a rating from zero to 100? What would you give it? I only said two things. Okay, well, the two things you did were right on, that parent. Okay, give him his reading now. A little shy, but laid back. Close. I'm not exactly very organized, so I wouldn't exactly say me. What would you give her a rating if you had to give her a rating? 90%. Okay, now let's take one more parent. I'm sorry. Then again, I'm not that shy. You're not that shy, okay. So you had something, you didn't believe, that was a little bit off maybe. But that's okay because shyness, it's a funny thing. You're shy in some context, and shy in others. Okay. I'm sorry, you can go first. Okay. I'm giving it a... I feel like you have an orderly background. Perhaps maybe parents were in law enforcement or military or something to do with structure. And I think now that you've come to sort of rebel against that maybe, and you're coming into your own thinking in different ways and trying to figure out certain things. But you feel a nervousness that you're not sure if it's working. But you can be very confident and outgoing and strong at times. But maybe it's to cover up for something. What would you give that... What kind of rating would you give that? I mean, it was very vague and ambiguous. But you know what? He was on the right track. Okay. You were? Right track. Yeah, definitely. Okay, so what kind of a rating or backwards would you give it? Zero to 100. Zero to 100? Yeah. 100 being best. Right. I'll say 70. 70%. Okay. Okay. Now give him his rating. I'm mad at you now. No. Okay. Okay. I'm feeling an energy here. Sit down. You know, you're so like, take me as you see me, man. I have no pretenses. I don't try to be something I'm not. I do hope that you do find people who finally see it. Especially girls. Hard to find people. You're not confrontational. And you're really turned off by people who are. You're very sensitive. And you do show it. No matter how much you cover it up, man. It betrays you. It comes out. You're a gentle guy. You don't... You're not very physical. You know, you can lose a couple of pounds, but you also know you look good. And a lot of girls like you. They just don't connect all the way. You have trust issues. You're looking for a girl who's not very strong, not very masculine. Just someone who's just kind of stable and just loves you. No drama for you. You're not driving exactly what you want to drive right now. Don't know why that's an issue. I was told that. Let's see. I'm going to stop there. Okay. How did you do? Really good. How would you rate that on a scale from 0 to 100? Let's say... 85. Okay. That's the standard. Now, if you got a reading, how many would rate the reading that they got from their partner between 90 and 100? How many would do that? Okay, so let me see if I got it right. One, two, three... Who else? Did anyone else have a hand up? Okay. So three in this category. Okay, how many would rate it from 80 to 89? One, two, two there. Okay. How many would rate it from 70 to 79? One, two, three, one, two, three. I think I got everyone okay. And, okay, 60 to 69. Okay. None. 50 to 59. None. Anything lower? I always said 50 to 59. I always said 50 to 59. Okay, so you would be... So we got one there. Yes, anyone? Why go on in the asterisk? I go on in the asterisk. Because what she did was so obvious to me that what she said, it has an amazing duality to it that it didn't apply and it did apply. So I'm having trouble with you picking any of your numbers based on that. So you can't decide because you're... I really can't. I'm too much of a skeptic. And regardless of whether you think it's general or not, sometimes you still can make a judgment as to... Was somebody obviously wrong or did it seem to fit even though it's general? Zero was an option. I would say it wasn't a reading. It was a generalization that... Okay, so we'll put an asterisk. Okay, so we grab an asterisk. Okay. Okay. That's no reflection on you, Barbara. Is it Barbara? Yeah. Okay, no reflection on you. You picked a loser. Okay. But you know, this is consistent with what I get. It's amazing, even here. It's about 85 is what the meaning would be here. And over the... I first did a workshop in cold reading and just figured out to do this pairing thing. Ever since then, Belgium, we had a conference, a world skeptics conference there, I think it was in the early 80s or something like that. And that's the first time I did it and it was 85% right on. And ever since then, it's a magic number. 85% is what the average rating I get, usually much larger. And with a TAM, 130 people, the average was right on 85%. So it's spooky. It's a magic number. But it's much better than most psychics. Much better than John Edwards. So you all people are pretty good. And even with a a dub, Barbara you're pretty good. Well statistically, it's the first time we've had an asterisk, ever. And 30 is my... Well, what's the early 80s to now when I was a... Okay, yeah. So, actually, most of the groups I do these workshops are, turn out to be skeptical groups. I got the same rating once I did it with the psychiatrist and other hospital attendants at the major, one big major mental hospital in Oregon. And I did it for all the staff there. And I did a workshop on cold reading father. And I think I still got 85%. So it doesn't make a difference for this kind of thing. Whether it's skeptics or just other people. Did you ever do one with people who actually believed in it? Psychics. Well, most people do, but I never had a group. Most of the workshops people asked me to do by skeptics. They're learning how to do cold reading. And it's because they need an alternative fallback position to make a living. I think. So I often wonder, maybe I shouldn't be teaching people how to be good at this because do we need more psychics out there? My excuse is that this is fun and if you do it, it's really amazing how powerful it is. And you learn how it is that you can do it and people are just... And even skeptics sometimes are pretty much overwhelmed by it. But ordinary people they just love you and they just and it turns out that you know what you've heard of T.A. Waters, haven't you, DJ? T.A. Waters was a we're finished now. T.A. Waters was a well-known mentalist. He was at the Magic Castle and so on. He passed away. But he wrote one of his books, classic books on mentalism. He wrote a story, he didn't name the people in the story. He said he wanted to show the power of psychic readings. He said there was a party at someone's house, at a professor's house internally, Percy Diakon's house. He lives in San Francisco then. It was a party at his house and one of the visitors was a well-known magician and he did fantastic magic. And it was just amazing. But then the other person was asked to read poems and them do a few of that and he did those and that was all the subject of conversation. And even weeks later, Percy was getting people coming back to him at the party and talking about the poem reading. The point he wanted to make is that even the greatest magic won't, I'll do some and just give some in a week. It takes a while. It turns out that people at that party at Percy's was me. I did the poem reading and Jerry Andrews, my good friend and really one of the best magicians ever in the world. And yet his powerful magic after all he talked about and when he talked about his memory was in my poem reading. I remember one of the guys who was one of Percy's colleagues at the probably statistics of Stanford and he's a man who's very famous for having developed a food bay technique you know, he's a very famous statistician and he was a guy who actually had no doubts about it that I had hit everything on him and I couldn't have done it other than abnormal means. And that's so next time we're running get into the horror effect and get into the mini-dream of how this really works and what makes this work how it fits into psychology and how it fits into skepticism.