Octang Frye

I subscribe to the James Randi school, myself; you know, cold reading etc, that sort of thing.

Anyway, I wish you the best. I had a nice time in Chicago recently. 'Thought the people were great, very friendly. Fantastic city.

Octang Frye

What is this I don't even

PaulEMontador

yes I generaly do cold readings, as I do not know who I'm reading, I do a lot on a Blog Talk Radio show, and on bitwine, as well as off my own site
I've even recently starte communicating with animals!!

Octang Frye

I communicate with dogs all the time. Rubbing their bellies, haunches, under their chins. To hell with cats. Don't do 'em.

And Ray is from the generation of national service and short back and sides.
Think Mr MacKay from Porridge, without the moustache. Just a grizzled old hackneyed ex-copper from the Big Smoke.

From wikipedia:
Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, illusionists, and con artists to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do.[1] Without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. Cold readers commonly employ high probability guesses about the subject, quickly picking up on signals from their subjects as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, and then emphasizing and reinforcing any chance connections the subjects acknowledge while quickly moving on from missed guesses.

It's an interesting skill to have. I have somewhat of an innate ability myself, but probably nowhere as developed as yourself.

another bloody yank

Your talents will be wasted in IL. Go West, NORCAL is the place for you.

Englishman43

There's a Brit out here who can do it via e-mail or telephone conversation. I've chatted with her about it all, her background etc and with my interest in and investigation of certain eastern practices believe it's quite legit.

iray

And ignore whomever said to go West: There are fools - and the money they are so eager to part with - everywhere.

Octang Frye

I have no problem with it as long as you don't represent cold-reading as anything supernatural/preternatural. It's entertainment.

After Erich Weiss/Harry Houdini's mother died, he dedicated a lot of his time to exposing flim-flam artists, mediums and spiritualists; debunking spirit cabinets, seances etc. He only went after those who misrepresented themselves as having real "magical" powers.

Englishman43: do tell about your interest and investigation into these certain Eastern practices. What are they and why do you think they are legit.
Bearing in mind that the James Randi Educational Foundation $1 million challenge has yet to be claimed after all these years.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/...lenge-faq.html

Englishman43

I spoke with an English lady out here several years ago,just by chance, who had the "gift" the OP has. We chatted quite a bit about when she first discovered it, how she "reads" people etc, etc.

I've read quite a few books, science based, on rates of vibration and their effect on plants, books on the structure of the universe and such and then spent 3 years studying meditation and spiritual healing thru a fellowship here, not a religion in it's own right , rather a system of beliefs built on scientific fact and taking from several different religions and there is a common thread between the English Lady, the reading I've done ( and I didn't seek out books to suit the way I was thinking , all were given to me by friends with a "check this out it's pretty interesting" comment) and the study.

Rates of vibration and how they can, and do, effect everything weather or not we like it.


I'm as sceptical as a man can be but through everything I've learned I have completely changed my way of thinking.


I'm aware of James Randi, have seen several documentaries about his work and agree that there are a lot of 'chancers' out there that are fleecing people - much like every other aspect of life - but tarring everyone with the same brush is very close minded.

Octang Frye

Vibrations, vapors and spirits, oh my!

Englishman43

Sorry - if I'd realized you wanted to take the piss I wouldn't have bothered wasting time replying to your question.

ian-mstm

Respectfully, it it was truly science-based, there would be general acceptance in the scientific community. It's simply bad science under the guise of "real" science.

Ian

Ray

Stephen Hawking said its all a load of bollocks ..and he is a tad smarter that your average long haired lout

Octang Frye

My apologies. I do appreciate you taking the time to reply. It's just that talking about "vibrations" seems so Victorian.

You could argue that vibrations are the same as, say, a magnetic field; a way of describing a sphere of influence. It's language we use to describe something. Like chi, in acupuncture.

But while a 'field' is an abstract way of thinking about something, it has demonstrable, measurable effects. Can "vibrations" be measured?

ian-mstm

The Beach Boys thought so!

Ian