I secretly recorded a Clairvoyant medium...

r2builder

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Hi everyone. First post (but long time follower of Randi)

I'm currently writing my dissertation on spiritualist mediums - outlining the methods used, studying a history of, and asking other questions.

Anyway, last night I attended a spiritualist church here in Scotland and discretely recorded the service.

You can download the mp3 here:

[Hmm, seems like I can't post the link - can someone PM me, and I'll give the link to them. They can post it here]

I'm in the process of transcribing it. I'm trying to analyse it as a cold reading - but some information (names in particular) are a bit too accurate. Not the names at the start of the readings- I mean, I could go in front of 60 people and claim to be hearing a message from "Agnes", but after he's picked a subject, he seems to get quite a lot of names accurately.

I'd love to hear your thoughts - or if anyone can spot a cold reading technique straight off the bat, please let me know.

Thanks.
 
You can find the link below, and a link to the transcript (so far) is at

www . googledim . com / psychic . doc

The audio quality at the start isn't too great, but it gets better.
 
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Welcome to the forum, and thanks for starting off with what sounds like it will be a nice bit of meat for us to chew on.

Linky goodness: http://www.rapidshare.com/files/66248210/psychic_guy.mp3.html

Obviously I haven't heard the recording yet, but getting names probably isn't all that difficult. The cold reader can get an idea of the ages of the people in the room, and from there figure how old deceased parents, grandparents and other relatives would be. And from there throw out some names that were popular during that era, and chances are good there will be a hit in there somewhere.
 
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Just outside Glasgow. It was recorded at <edited to protect the identities of the subjects>
 
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I don't know much about cold reading, really, but some thoughts:

The fact he asks "do you understand" after every statement shows he's fishing. He makes veryt vague statements predicated by "I don't know if", giving himself an easy out and negating the chance that people will remember his misses.

"They had a condition between the neck and the belt" - could he *be* any vaguer? That covers back problems (nearly every adult has some back pain at some point in their lives), every organ problem, scars, rashes, skin conditions, most cancers... Note that once she shows a little reticence to that he says "I know it's not the heart or anything like that" - if she'd have said otherwise it still would have fit.
 
Exactly. He only says "I know it's not heart" after the subject had said (all over) which was probably inaudible to the tape. If you listen closely, you can hear me chuckle when he said "between the neck & the belt"
 
There are at least ten Scottish residents on the forum. I'm in Hamilton.
I'm curious as to your reasons for doing this. Did you ask permission to tape the session?

Are you affiliated with any local paranormal type groups , like the SSPR or API?
(Google paranormal or psychic investigation west of scotland. There's a lot of it about.)
 
I'm in the middle of transcribing this - you can download what I have so far at:

www (dot) googledim (dot) com (slash) psychic.doc

(I trust someone will make this into a proper link too)

My reason for doing this is to aid my dissertation. I'm looking at the very prosperous psychic industry.. studying how it operates, how it started, and why people still believe in such a thing. I'm using this recording to illustrate how cold reading works. I'm not affiliated with any groups - although thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I have nothing but sympathy for the subjects on the tape. It was quite a horrible experience to sit through.

thanks volatile - I'm sitting here with the Ian Rowland book at the moment looking for similarities. I'll order Marks' just now! :)

Thanks guys.
 
www.googledim.com/psychic.doc

thanks volatile - I'm sitting here with the Ian Rowland book at the moment looking for similarities. I'll order Marks' just now! :)

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...

No worries. You might also want to find "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer.

The 1976 anonymous "Confessions of a Medium" is (according to Brown) hard to find (though the link I gave above goes to a site selling it), but there are more recent texts of the same name on Amazon for under a tenner - it'd be safe to assume they're re-prints of the same book.
 
Wow from what I've read thus far:
condition between the neck and the belt before she went into spirit world...she’s telling me she suffered with before she went over.
Click to expand...

Why not go down to the shoes and have done with it? Honestly.Why would "spirit" not be precise about the illness?
 
If this was at a spiritualist church, how can you be sure it wasn't a hot reading as opposed to a cold one? Is there some reason to assume that the medium was not acquainted with the church members?
 
Beth said:
If this was at a spiritualist church, how can you be sure it wasn't a hot reading as opposed to a cold one? Is there some reason to assume that the medium was not acquainted with the church members?
Click to expand...

I don't know how much has been transcribed but reading it I'd say its all cold reading.Unless the medium is just hot reading names and cold reading everything else! Badly cold reading also.
 
I hate the use of 'do you understand' by these cold readers. I wonder how often the dupes say 'yes', meaning they understand the question - even though the actual answer to the question might be 'no'. Before they can insert the 'no' answer, the quick-talking reader has already marked the hit and gone on to the next question.
 
Who's the medium?
He certainly does a lot of fishing. Practically every statement is a question, except when he gives a name.
Note the way he avoids saying "the 31st" , instead of "end of the month".
There are 12 ways anyone can have an anniversary at the end of a month, but only 7 can do so on the 31st.

The respondents all sound to me to be in their fifties or sixties, yes?


The Christian names are all common Scottish ones. No Muslim spirits at this kirk, no Ahmeds or Fatimas. "Pauline" is not a common name and got no takers.

Glasses that go dark are extremely common.

Somebody's saying "Mum" ? Aye. This happens.


It's all generic stuff. He keeps admitting this and even making a virtue of it, stressing he's not responsible for content and trying not to interpret the messages in case he distorts it.

He's a good entertainer- note how when he makes a joke, he then implies it's the jovial male spirit that did it.

Mentioning a pension implies a spirit has been close recently? Buying a card? How so?

Dead folk had heart conditions and shortness of breath?
A link to the Southern General? People die in hospital?
A lot of cards and paperwork after a death?

Interesting that the one really unusual thing he suggested- the finches- got a very vague response. That would have been pretty definitive. I'd think.

He keeps repeating the word "evidence" even though he is producing none, trying to leave the audience with a strong impression that they heard some.

Everything he says is bulk standard west of Scotland stuff.

It's interesting he seeks no feedback from the audience, beyond "Do you know of...?, Do you understand?"

I recognised a couple of the spirits myself. And one person who's not dead yet.

You've either been speaking to Brian in the last two weeks or you will in the next two...

He's a good entertainer.

What I never hear from mediums is "I've got Albert Einstein. He wants to dictate the equation of a unified field theory. Get a pencil.

Sorry if this is disjointed I just jotted thoughts while listening.


r2builder- care to tell us more about the dissertation? Have you other recordings?
It would be interesting to hear the same man at different venues to compare the product.
 
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Azrael 5 said:
Wow from what I've read thus far:


Why not go down to the shoes and have done with it? Honestly.Why would "spirit" not be precise about the illness?
Click to expand...

Classic closed-minded sceptic question, you sad , deluded person.

When I ask people who say they can contact spirit (the collective singular is fashionable), I get answers like this:-
"A spirit is a fragmentary entity, often confused about its identity , its whereabouts, its nature. It may not be able to give us clear answers."

This might be so. But I note inconsistencies. The spirit often seems able to give the psychic detailed information about it's time on Earth, but cannot give elementary data to the sceptical observer via the psychic . For example, if a psychic is able to see and talk to a spirit, which is in turn able to see him, it ought to be able to read the number I have on my palm in large red felt tip- and to pass that number to the psychic. But it can't. Why is this?

Nor do these entities seem to acquire any new data post mortem. No spirit has ever (to my knowledge) passed on a new law of physics for example.

Listening to that medium, not one piece of actual information (in Shannon's sense) was "passed on". All the "evidence" he repeatedly commented on consisted of vague and short descriptions of common items of local culture.

Why never one clear, unambiguous message- "Jimmy, don't wear the red silk thongs to Senga's wedding. Her sister disnae know you're gay and she'll try to get your kilt aff."




 
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