The real answer to psychic ability is "cold reading," the trick mentalists have used for centuries to convince people they have psychic powers. The technique has evolved into a polished art, and experts can truly amaze. But even simple cold-reading techniques can seem compelling. Some naïve "psychics" even confuse instinctive and inadvertent cold reading as their "psychic intuition"--that is, they manage to convinces themselves that they have psychic powers, when in fact they are using basic intuition and common-sense instinct. The basics of cold reading involve starting with general statements that are likely to be true about anyone: "I see you have financial concerns." "You feel as if no one truly understands you." "Your family has been on your mind a lot recently." Such vague and general statements can seem quite specific when someone is applying them to you. As you nod and express amazement, the reader makes other comments, following up on only those statements which garner a good reaction. The psychic says, "Maybe your sister...or an aunt...definitely a woman close to you..."--and he or she watches for your reactions to gauge when the trail is getting warm. Working this way, in a few moments the cold reader is telling you your most intimate secrets. Deprive a cold reader of this feedback, and his psychic powers are quickly short-circuited. A cold reader may also start with a general statement, and then once the subject answers positively or negatively, they follow up with a more specific statement, pretending that's what they had in mind all the time. For example, they may claim to "see" the letter "J." A willing participant might then dutifully fill in the detail of "John." The reader will then pick up on this and say, "Yes, John. I see a male figure named John who is important in your life." "John is my father," the subject may volunteer. "Yes," continues the reader, "because I see that he is an older man, and he was with you as a child."

But later on, the subject will likely recount to others that the psychic knew his father's name was John. Another strategy is to make high-probability guesses. For example, psychics will commonly see the letters 'J' and 'M', or actually guess the names John or Mary, because these are the most common. Watch the TV psychics carefully--they never see the letter 'Q'. They may tell an elderly, affluent New Englander that they see palm trees in the near future. So-called psychic detectives will often see water, or a red door--items that seem specific but are common enough that they are likely to be found somewhere near the eventual location of the victim. John Edward is fond of guessing, "I see the number '3', it can be a month...or a day...or part of a year." He will keep going until he gets a hit.

View: Full Article | Source: New Haven Advocate

I like the question about the actual death of the loved one.

They ask if it was in the torso (heart attacks, lung cancer etc, all very common) if not in the head (strokes etc again common).

They'll then narrow it down to heart attack or cancer (in TV the other stuff gets edited out).

If its cancer they say it was a long illness (never) and they seemed to get better, then it was sudden (remission?).

If its a heart attack it was a sudden death (you can have 20 but the one that kills you almost always is).

These people are messing the memory of a loved one, the most important thing you have left of them.

There have been some recorded cases of alleged psychics giving surprisingly detailed accounts. I've read so many of these stories over the years, I'm afraid the details elude me. I know one involved a family in England shortly after (or possibly during) the second world war. They had lost one of their sons in the war and began seeing a psychic who gave them "messages" in the form of the name of a book and a page number. Then, when they'd check that page of that book they'd find that it was somehow relevant to them -- a phrase someone in the family habitually used or a reference to something only they knew about. The son who had been killed was fond of compiling word puzzles, so they felt the odd system (the book and page number thing) was characteristic of him.

There was also something I really wish I could remember about a message (from someone else) referring somehow to a love affair that the family of the dead person hadn't known about or something. Aargh! Vague, I know! It's supposed to be considered one of the real puzzles of early parapsychology, though.

Sorry, that's not very helpful, I know.

And the Cross Correspondences remain interesting, but it's way too involved a topic for me to go into here. I'll see if I can find some links to information about that, in case anyone's interested.

I think generally, with psychics, a good rule of thumb is that the more they're getting out of it, money, fame, book deals, etc., the less likely they are to be legit.

http://www.prairieghosts.com/cross_corr.html
Here's a link to information about the Cross Correspondences. The love affair thing I couldn't remember about is explained too. It's the "Palm Sunday Case".

And (sorry! <g> Three posts in a row! ) if you like reading about the techniques of phony psychics, read Dorothy L. Sayers' murder mystery, Strong Poison, and/or the young adult book The Ghost Next Door, by Wylie St. John.

My mom once told of a lady who used to live around here. She said that everytime this lady went to a party, she'd end up not going to them anymore because she'd constantly freak out the guests by telling them things about them no one knew. I don't know who true it is though:(

I'm constantly amazed at how many skeptics will write articles that never mention or discuss the true hits made by some psychics. I've had an interest in psychics for several years now, and have seen quite a few of them in action. Although there are many times I've seen some of them use "cold hit" questions/answers, I've seen just as many make actual, dead-on hits that cannot be the result of trickery or explained away.

I guess those that don't believe just won't believe even if they are given actual proof. And some believers won't accept the fact that some psychics are phonies. To generalize and say all psychics are fakes is as stupid as believing that all psychics are genuine.

I think there are real psychics out there, but the majority use cold readings. I've always been a people watcher, growing up in a restaurant and bar. Believe me, you can learn more about people in that environment than you can in a psych class. Anyway, my point is, I was actually doing cold readings before I knew what they were. Watch the eyes, body language, breathing etc...and you can tell when you're hitting the mark. It's just a matter of tuning in, so to speak.

I believe that there are genuine psychics out there, but I do know that I'm not one of them!

A few years ago, I went into a "psychic" chatroom on AOL. As a joke, I offered to give anyone a free FAKE psychic reading. I stressed the word, FAKE. I was amazed how well I did (doing cold readings), but I found it was easy when working with people who wanted to believe SO MUCH that they would accept or find a connection with anything I was saying. I kept telling them that I was making this stuff up, but they wanted to believe in me so much that they thought I was the real stuff! I found how easy it is to do a cold reading, too, but I also learned that some stuff you just can't fake.

This makes the job so much harder for the real psychics out there. People are so starved for direction in life, that they will believe anything without giving it serious thought.