10 Easy Psychic Lessons

Psychic readings and fortunetelling are an ancient art—a

combination of acting and psychological manipulation.

While some psychics are known to cheat and acquire

information ahead of time, our ten tips will focus on what

is known as “cold reading”—reading someone "cold"

without any prior knowledge about them.

Our primary source for this information is Ian

Rowland's insightful and encyclopedic The Full Facts Book

of Cold Reading (available at ianrowland.com). What we

describe here is only a small sampling from this comprehensive compendium by a professional cold reader who

is arguably one of the best in the world.

MIchael Shermer prepares for his debut

as a “Psychic for a Day.”

We have also included information from other articles

published by the Skeptics Society, most notably Michael

Shermer’s “Psychic for a Day: How I Learned Tarot Cards,

P a l m R e a d i n g , A s t r o l o g y, a n d M e d i u m s h i p i n 2 4

Hours” written after his appearance as a ersatz psychic on

Bill Nye’s adult oriented PBS science series Eye on Nye in

2003, and posted on our website (www.michaelshermer.

com/science-friction/excerpt/). In it, Shermer answers the

question, “Do you have to master the details of the

fortunetelling arts, or are they only window dressing for the

more down to earth techniques described in this booklet?”

With only 24 hours to master palm readings, tarot card

readings, astrological readings, and even talking to the

dead, Shermer had no problem convincing subjects

that he had never met that he was psychic. The fact

that he could perform reasonably well with only one day

of preparation shows just how vulnerable people are to

these very effective psychological manipulations.

S e t t h e s ta g e

for an intimate,

c o m f o r ta b l e ,

experience. Establish

your Psychic authority

with props such as

i m p o r ta n t l o o k i n g

charts, or bookcases

full of refere n c e

books.

1

Provide comfortable chairs with

a...