Psychic Mediums

and Their Techniques

Presentation by Cameron Mount

Personal experiences

Only some of that is true

And it wasn't the stuff about being psychic

I can't say that all

psychics are fake.

But I can tell you how to replicate exactly what they do.

Psychics use a technique called

Cold Reading

There are even books

where you can teach

yourself the skills

that psychics employ

in their trades.

This is a skill nearly anyone can learn with just a bit of practice. 

I own this one.

Cold reading basically comes down to:

gleaning information on the sly

and

feeding that same information back to the client

Establish Credentials

The first thing most psychics do at the start of a session, whether individual or group, is explain their history, even if only briefly.

This frequently involves documents, often framed ones that hang on walls, and almost always come with a story of the first or most important psychic encounter.

But documents are

easily forged.

And even those that are legitimate, are often provided by so-called schools that offer certificates for a substantial fee.

And who is to say that their psychic encounters are either true or untrue?

There are some true believers.

But that doesn't change the techniques

The next thing most psychics do is

Express their own fallibility

This allows them to sidestep any mistakes later, and creates sympathy from the client.

There are several ways they do this:

Couched explanation

The art/science is interpretation

Things I say may make more sense to you than to me

I'm only human, and the signs are not always clear or obvious

Predictions are not certainties

This is all about rapport

The friendlier a psychic seems, the more eager to please the client is.

Salespeople work very hard to establish rapport

And, ultimately, psychics are salespeople.

Psychics rely on repeat clients

Just like other people in the sales industry.

Rainbow Ruse

Telling someone they have both a quality and its opposite

Examples

Flattery

Telling someone something they would like to hear about themselves

But it can't be obvious flattery.

That makes us suspicious.

Examples

A sub-point of this is

Psychic Credit

Barnum Statements

Generalized, usually vague statements about a client's character

Most often these apply equally to everyone

Also known in psychology as the Forer Effect

Examples

Fuzzy fact

A statement of fact that is fuzzy, such that when a client remembers it later, they ascribe more detail than was presented

Examples

Good Chance Guess

What it says on the tin

Examples