I have a friend who shall remain very nameless (on the off chance that he wants work in the industry again) who was unemployed. When he saw the income potential of phone psychics, he decided to apply. He wasn't psychic and doesn't believe in psychic phenomena in the slightest, but such minor issues weren't to deter him. So what was he to do? He lied all over his application about the Great Psychic Masters that he studied under. Curiously, the psychics didn't perceive that he lied and he got the job.
Next problem: how does someone who's never done this before actually do it? He went out and bought a deck of Tarot cards but, try as he might, he just couldn't remember what all of them meant. He photocopied the instruction manual, cut out the description for each card and taped it to the card. When clients called, he would lay out the cards and read what they said (as an ex-radio DJ, he has a great phone voice). His clients loved him.
He discovered that many of the people who called these numbers were in serious need of help. Drug addicts, abused women, and just flat-out crazy people would call him and ask questions like "what am I doing that makes my husband beat me?" When he would field these calls, he would tell them that he had turned over a "mentor" card. This meant that they needed to seek out a personal mentor to help them with these issues and, by sheer coincidence, my friend just happened to keep a list of toll-free help numbers by his phone.
If you ever get a chance to meet anyone in this industry, see if they're familiar with any of the underground "psychic industry" books that are circulating. I've read through a couple of them dealing with psychometry and I'm astounded by the sophistication of them. One of them is entitled "T.H.E.S.C.A.M.". The letters stand for the seven areas that you need to try to touch on in any cold reading (qw/ travel health education sex ??? adventure money / -- I can't recall what 'c' stands for). They also discuss how to get the people to tell you stuff and how to make them think that you brought it up. Very informative.
Any thoughts on John Edwards in particular?
Re:Crossing Over?
hexmode on 2002-12-06T20:09:27
Use the power of google.
Here's an article from the New England Journal of Skeptism.
Hint: its a TV show. The editor can make JE look like a psychic genius since they aren't obligated to show you everything he got wrong.Check your knees, please.
Ovid on 2002-12-06T20:42:33
I'm not familiar with John Edwards (I don't watch TV), so I can't comment on him in particular, but here's how some of this works with psychometry -- and it works better with receptive people. First, you ask for their keys or some other personal object so you can "receive vibrations" from it. This object serves as a distraction for the person. It's important to be vague, but also provide the mark with different things to focus on so they have trouble seeing what's really going on.
Then, ask their name. If you follow THESCAM methodology, you have seven topics to cover and by using their name, you rearrange the topics according to how they spell their name (I can't recall the exact procedure). This ensures that you proceed through the topics in what appears to be a random order. If you're working a room, it's critically important that you not start with "travel" every time. Then, you start with a few innocent comments to gauge how they react. Sometimes, the mark will be foolish enough to give away starting points with this. If so, abandon your starting point and follow their lead.
Once the preliminaries are done, you start with your first critical topic. "I sense that you or someone near you is having a health issue." If they say "no", you follow up with "pay attention to the health issue, it's going to be important to you or someone close to you". Of course, sooner or later it is. You, the psychic, have made a prediction that can't be tested, nor can it be disproved.
Now, what happens if the mark says "yes"? There are few people who can just say "yes" and fall silent. Quite often, it's something like "yes, my grandmother just came down with the clap!" and the psychic nods sagaciously. The curious thing is, many times the person will report to their friends that the psychic knew that their grandmother was ill. That's how the bulk of the scams work.
Let's say that you, the psychic, have worked through several critical areas and you haven't made any "hits". You're in trouble and you start losing your credibility. If you're in a room, this can seem disastrous, but you ask "why are you so closed to me? I sense something is wrong." And all of a sudden, some of the people in the room feel that the mark is either someone who can't open his mind, or he's trying to set up the psychic. The psychic gets transformed from a fraud into a victim. It's pretty disgusting to watch.
As a last ditch effort, you can gamble. If you know about statistics of people and their habits (and if you can read the mark well enough), you can make educated guesses about them. If you can't read them, you can still take some wild swings. For example: "I sense water. Were you born near a large body of water?" Well, duh! Few cities are built in the middle of a desert. Many people will liberally interpret "large body".
My favorite, though, was when my friend was having a lot of difficulty with one woman and decided to take a risk. "You have a scar on one of your knees, don't you?" (hint: 80% of the adult US population has a scar on one of their knees. I'll halt for a moment while you all check your knees).
Woman: Oh my god, yes!
My friend: You got it in an accident, didn't you? (double duh!)
Woman: Yes, yes! I was skiing.
The woman went on to confess that she knew psychics were real, but she had never been successful in finding one -- until now. She went on to become a regular customer of my friend.
Re:Crossing Over?
gizmo_mathboy on 2002-12-06T22:20:33
I think I read somewhere that he sometimes screens the guest for information before they come on to the show. I think this is a technique used by faith healers and such if they can. Then again, if you can edit a show they way you want you can look like a genius, too.:-)
Re:T.H.E. S.C.A.M.
Ovid on 2002-12-07T02:56:52
Regrettably, no. From what I could tell, this was something that someone put together at home and distributed by self-publishing. In fact, my friend only received a photocopied (several generations of photocopies, by the looks of it) copy by promising the person that he received it from that he wasn't going to let people outside of the industry know about it. Since my friend was in the industry and proved his "street cred" by doing cold readings in bars (he found he had a talent for it), he managed to hook up with others in the scene. I suppose I shouldn't know about the book, but I hardly feel bad about exposing con artists.
I've begged him several times to let me photocopy any of stuff on this, but he won't let me
:( Mind you, this is not some "friend of a friend of a distant cousin told me" type of scenario. I've personally held and read -- well, skimmed anyway -- this manuscript (and one other whose name I can't remember). Re:T.H.E. S.C.A.M.
Ovid on 2002-12-07T03:09:55
I found a reference to it. Google likes to strip punctuation, but I found this through Altavista by quoting "T.H.E. S.C.A.M." The article has a bit more information about the "statistics" I was mentioning earlier.
- Most people prefer gold jewelry to silver
- Most red-haired people get hay fever in the summer
- Most men prefer showers
- Most women prefer baths
- Most men enjoy reading books written by men
- Most women enjoy reading books written by women
- Most people have had at least one memorable sunburn
- Most people have wondered what their pupose in life is
- Most women that wear black are weight conscious
- Most women that wear hats consider themselves fashionable
- Most women as children kept a diary
Information like that is a gold mine if you're into doing cold readings for people.
Re:South Park
Ovid on 2002-12-11T17:06:19
Well, I have different South Park episode idea. You see, I have another friend who used to work as a "Phone Actress". She would send out weekly summaries to her friends of her most hilarious calls, but I think you'll understand if I fail to explain "hilarious".
/me has some weird friends
Best, Rich
