The Art And Science Of Cold Reading, Magic and card tricks
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TRADECRAFT
The Art and Science
of Cold Reading
© Copyright 2002. All rights reserved.
eBook Version
TRICKSHOP.COM
TRADECRAFT
The Art and Science
of Cold Reading
TRADECRAFT
The Art and Science of Cold Reading
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO COLD READING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
CHAPTER TWO: THE MIND OF THE SUBJECT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTER THREE: CURRENT TRENDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
CHAPTER FOUR: THE 30-SECOND PROFILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER FIVE: BASIC TECHNIQUE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
CHAPTER SIX: ADDITIONAL INSIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
CHAPTER SEVEN: COMMON QUESTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
FINAL THOUGHTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
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“…I irmly believe that of all the Arts and Crafts of Mentalism, there is
nothing more satisfying than one who is a irst-class Reader. It is the
ultimate in Mentalism and if you reach this standard – you will never get
any higher – nor will you have to. It is a paradox that entertainers seek to
create a fantasy and yet the fantasy of this art is reality.”
—Tony Corinda,
Corinda’s 13 Steps to Mentalism
FOREWORD
I
magine meeting someone for the very irst time and being able to
reveal not only some of their innermost thoughts, but also details of
personal events yet to come. It appears to be nothing less than a genuine
demonstration of extrasensory perception, ESP. This is the power of
cold reading – a process used by professional psychics, mind readers,
fortunetellers, intuitive counselors and guides, and mentalists.
In TRADECRAFT, you will learn how to harness this power to entertain
your clients. This concise, how-to manual takes you step-by-step through
the process of developing your cold reading abilities – from gaining a
solid grasp of the underlying scientiic principles at work to the practical
application of speciic methods and techniques. Moreover, you will even
learn how to answer the most dificult questions readers face.
TRADECRAFT
is a TRICKSHOP.COM Publication
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CHAPTER ONE:
AN INTRODUCTION TO COLD READING
WHAT IS COLD READING?
There have been many deinitions of cold reading. Most deine it as a technique or skill used to gather
information about a subject who is unknown to the reader. In reality, cold reading is not a single skill
or technique, but rather a series of them. Therefore, for our purposes, as magicians and mentalists, we
shall deine it as, “A process by which the reader creates the effect that he or she has knowledge of an
unknown subject’s life – past, present and future.”
This process begins with observation, which enables the reader to build an initial proile of the subject.
Based upon this appraisal, along with an understanding of psychology and current trends, the reader is
able to make a number of opening statements about the subject. These usually intersperse speciic details
relating to the subject’s proile with general assertions, likely to be true about almost any person. This latter
technique is called “warm reading.” Probative statements follow these. Based upon the subject’s reactions,
the reader is then able to zero in on details that appear to hit their mark, and abandon those that do not.
In this quest, the reader uses both “try-on” and “multiple out” statements that are open to interpretation by
the subject. Any information gleaned is used to reine the accuracy of subsequent statements made to the
subject. In the hands of an expert, this process has an uncanny effect.
WHY IT WORKS
Most psychologists point to “The Forer Effect” and a phenomenon called subjective validation or selective
memory. In general, it states that when you give people a number of both vague and speciic claims
about them – they tend to remember and give signiicance to the ones that are accurate or favorable,
and dismiss as insigniicant or forget, those that are not. In the case of cold reading, this selectivity of the
human mind helps the subject interpret or “retroit” the reader’s assertions to it his or her own particular
circumstances or beliefs.
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