| Subject: Modern mediums |
Author:
Paul Hayward
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Date Posted: 07:37:07 05/21/02 Tue
Modern mediumship, in which the medium recieves messages from the spirits of the deceased relatives or friends of people in the audience, employs a technique known as "cold reading" to the magic fraternity.
This has been used by mentalists for years to perform psychometry (where an object belonging to the sitter is held and "impressions" recieved) and sham demonstrations of other "psychic" phenomenon.
The medium begins by focussing on a small section of the audience, and pretending to recieve a name, or some initials of a name, saying something like "They're [the spirits] putting a letter J before me, does this have resonance for anyone here? There is a J-A connection, something like Jasmine or James or Jack?"
Unsurprisingly, some eager and gullible believer will react in some way, particularly if they just happenned to have come in hope of talking to their dead Uncle Janus.
The medium homes in on these reactions, and continues by making other vague statments, such as "Was there pain towards the end?" Since most people die painful deaths, the answer is likely to be affirmative. Furthermore, the subject will often volunteer other details: "Yes, Uncle Janus was hit by a car, he died a few days later from head injuries".
Medium: "Because he's saying there was a terrible crash and that he was a long time in the hospital. There is also intense pain in the head area, terrible pain. Did you get to say goodbye?"
Sitter: "I came here hoping for a message."
Medium: "He's telling me that he's sorry you never got to say goodbye at the end, and he's showing me a garden, and flowers. Do you understand?"
Sitter: "Well..."
Medium: "That's what he's showing me. Flowers and a garden."
Sitter: "My mother had a rockery. Uncle Gordon played frisbee with me there once."
Medium: "Uncle Gordon says he's glad of those moments you had together".
This hasn't been an actual transcript, but merely one possible way a "reading" could go. Note that the sitter is providing the information, not the medium (certainly not the spirits of the dear departed). While the medium will make many guesses on his own, detailed and specific information is nearly always volunteered.
Most readings such as this are proceeded by a chat with the medium, allowing him the chance to subtly alter the specific memories the subject may have of the reading. Should he have made any particularly risky guesses (bear in mind that references to timepieces, or slips of paper left in pockets of jackets of the departed which the grieving couldn't bear to throw away, may sound very specific but actually have a high probability of being true) these can be rationalised away.
Mediums often tell people to write down anything that doesn't make sense, because it may make have a connection to a relative or friend, or they may remember later what Uncle Gordon was talking about.
For more information and actual transcripts of John Edward, Van Praagh and other mediums performing this mentalist's trick, check out the James Randi Educational Foundation home page at:
http://www.randi.org/jr
Paul Hayward.
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