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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2011 :  11:56:54  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
... locations?

Anyone have a good link or resource on cold reading a specific location, as opposed to cold reading people?

I was watching some fucking retarded new ghost show on travel channel and they had a "medium" doing what was clearly a cold read, but she was doing it in a house, only camera crew people present, pretending to see the spirits of past residents. Some ex cop then does legit research on the location, looking up old records and such, then they get together at the end and compare notes.

Just looking for some info on what techniques they use for doing a cold read on a house instead of a person.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth

Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2011 :  12:42:46   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude

... locations?

Anyone have a good link or resource on cold reading a specific location, as opposed to cold reading people?

I was watching some fucking retarded new ghost show on travel channel and they had a "medium" doing what was clearly a cold read, but she was doing it in a house, only camera crew people present, pretending to see the spirits of past residents. Some ex cop then does legit research on the location, looking up old records and such, then they get together at the end and compare notes.

Just looking for some info on what techniques they use for doing a cold read on a house instead of a person.


Interesting. But I'd first wonder if it was really a cold read. Home records aren't that hard to come by.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2011 :  13:08:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The whole thing was painfully fake to me, but I've been on to this type of thing for a long time. I'm explaining cold reading to my GF and her daughter, but they don't buy my explanation of cold reading a location.

Obviously the people could just be doing research prior to taping and then dressing it up as a cold reading show, but that is mundane and boring.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2011 :  16:23:01   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dude
Obviously the people could just be doing research prior to taping and then dressing it up as a cold reading show, but that is mundane and boring.
Sometimes the truth is mundane and boring. Ask any magician!

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict

2830 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2011 :  18:00:17   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send sailingsoul a Private Message  Reply with Quote
There are three types of psychic readings cold, warm and hot. What you saw was a hot, where research is done before hand on a person or place. The way to test ability this is to have the con artist cold reader do a cold reading on a location undisclosed to the before the test. That way there can be no research before hand if they don't know the haunted location. There is no reason that this should not be an acceptable test control. In the "cold" reading for the show, wasn't it presumed or stated that the reader had not cheated by doing prior research?
Originally posted by Dude[/i]

The whole thing was painfully fake to me,
It should be, it's totally fake and done to con people out of money in the worst cases. It's every bit as fake as Religion.
but I've been on to this type of thing for a long time. I'm explaining cold reading to my GF and her daughter, but they don't buy my explanation of cold reading a location.
Are you saying they are fooled into thinking cold reading is real and has never been proven to be legit?
Obviously the people could just be doing research prior to taping and then dressing it up as a cold reading show, but that is mundane and boring.

Why not brush up on cold reading skills? Michael Shermer did a article on James Van Praagh and explains how he fools (cons) his audiences. Shermer also did a video on the topic. To watch this video and look at the pictures of people (@ 3:30 minutes in) who are totally taken in by such foolishness I can't help but equate them to people in church. Praagh has made many many millions playing the cold reading scam over the years. He mostly does cold readings. There are quite a few tricks or tactics that are used. Anyone can do cold readings and the most despicable take money. Sometimes millions using these skills and fertile fools

I forget who but there's a skeptic in Australia who did them down there to show people how easy it is to fool people and how the scam works. During an interview, a podcast, I heard she say (I believe it was a woman) she was surprised by who many people would always come up to her after a demonstration and tell her that she should persue this "talent" forgetting she kept saying "I using tricks, I'm not psychic". I'll try to look it up and find it.

Get that! Even after she tells people it's a trick they still think it's not and believed her to have psychic abilities. For some people stupid goes clean to the bone. SS

There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS
Edited by - sailingsoul on 09/24/2011 18:03:31
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