Discussion Post I submitted for my Atlantic University TP6000 Course – March 4, 2020
The best way to take control of a situation where you’re trying to appear more psychic than you are or, if like Orson Welles in the video we were assigned this week (https://youtu.be/IjPsnfysrp8), you’re just out to have fun by pretending you’re “fraudulent fortune-teller,” is to employ basic sales techniques. The most important of these is to develop “rapport,” which may be challenging if you’re dealing with someone who is science-oriented and discerning by nature, the type who might be running a parapsychology research study.
Despite the fact that the researchers may be wearing a white lab coat, and the interview takes place in a laboratory setting, in the end, they are human just like everyone else. The easiest way to build “rapport” and to get someone off-script is to have them to talk about themselves. Ask questions like, “how long have you been doing this”,” and “did you grow up around here?” Family life is key to try to uncover and to determine if they have kids or pets, everyone loves talking about them! Identify areas in their life where you can show commonality in order to build a bond of trust (which is kind of creepy if you’re trying to pull one over on them).
Also, the fact that they are in parapsychology in the first place provides pretty strong clues about their passions, worldview, curiosity, and belief systems. Even if they are more on the skeptical side of the scale, they are still open enough to be participating in a research project that involves screening individuals for their “psychic abilities.” Play on their interests. Talk about Harry Potter, old sci-fi comic books, Star Trek (the original of course!), and the Matrix. If they didn’t want to talk about their kids or cats, they’ll certainly discuss with you at great length which of the Star Wars movies was the best.
In terms of the target material, giving the fact that this is a one-on-one session, I’d suggest sticking with a psychic reading as opposed to using tarot, pendulums, or any other object. The individual is a serious scientist, and, while they may be open to psi experiences, they may not be that accepting of the other “tools of the trade.” Also, as we’ve learned this semester, parapsychologists fight a never-ending battle for acceptance by other scientific disciplines, and if you come in with a bag full of tricks, that will likely send off alarm bells with the researcher.
In terms of the specifics, our Mentor, Loyd Auerbach as someone who has dedicated his career to parapsychology offers telling clues of how to approach this assignment. In his article in Fate Magazine, he provides “several things” to look for in a good “psychic or psychic reading” (1994, p. 3), thereby providing a sound approach for convincing a parapsychology researcher that you’re “legitimate.”
Auerbach’s first criteria for a good psychic is the level of specificity provided in their readings, particularly when it comes to “Names, dates, and places” (1994, p. 3). If the participant isn’t actually psychic, how do they pull this off? In his Simple Introduction to Cold Reading, Ian Rowland provides one way and that’s the use of “stock lines,” whereby the reader has many of these at his or her disposal that “can be categorised in many different ways, e.g. demographic group, context, theme, age of the client and so on” (2019, p. 20). Adds Auerbach, one trick of psychics is to use common names like “Mary,” where the “client, after a moment…says, ‘Oh, you must mean my friend Mary. I work with her” (1994, pp. 3-4).
Rowland also provides a “refined version of the stock lines approach,” and that’s the Association Sytems (2019, p. 21). In this system, “you learn 26 stock lines and associate each one with a letter of the alphabet. When you ask the client her name, you mentally note her initials and then deliver whichever lines correspond to those letters” (2019, p. 21). This approach reminds me of the recall technique I employed during my college summers as a tour bus driver on Martha’s Vineyard. In the beginning, I memorized the history of various landmarks along the route and when I saw them, they would trigger a speil or bad joke I had learned.
Cold readings, and even tour bus drivers, rely heavily on practice, which is certainly a criterion for pulling off this ruse. In the Orson Welles video, he relays a story about how, after completing nearly a full day’s worth of pretending he was a fortune-teller, actually started displaying true psychic abilities. He notes he no longer had to “read” the person when they came in to get clues but instead was now accustomed to tuning in to their energy and aura, or as he put it, “the computer [in your head] has made all these deductions without you being conscious of it” (https://youtu.be/IjPsnfysrp8). He concludes the video with a story of a woman who came in and sat down “looking perfectly alright, and I said, you lost your husband the last week. And she burst into tears; she had” (https://youtu.be/IjPsnfysrp8).
Another point Auerbach raises is that psychics who refuse to be recorded raises serious red flags about their credibility (1994, p 4). Therefore, if you want to impress your parapsychology reacher, ask them if they would mind if you taped the interview. Explain to him or her that it’s your practice to do this for all your clients and that you’d be happy to share a copy of the session with them. Chances are, I’m guessing, the researcher will say that for propriety and confidentiality reasons, this isn’t allowed. Either way, since you’re now so versed in doing cold readings, what do you have to fear!
Finally, Auerbach notes that the death knell to any psychic who provides readings steeped in generalities (1994, p. 4). If you’ve memorized enough stock lines, and successfully employed an association system, generalities can be avoided.
References
Auerbach, L. (1994, February), “Psychic frontiers: Do you know how psychic your psychic is?,” Fate Magazine.
Kevin Klawitter (2010, Oct. 21). Orson Welles on cold reading. [Video File] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/IjPsnfysrp8
Rowland, Ian (2019), A simple introduction to cold reading, Rowland Limited.