Re: Crossing Over -- Paranormal Secrets

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Subject: Re: Crossing Over

Author:
Paul Hayward

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Date Posted: 03:01:15 05/16/02 Thu
In reply to: Cakewalk 's message, "Crossing Over" on 14:54:50 05/15/02 Wed

> There was not one thing he said that didn't look like a good guess to me yet people in the audience oohed and aahed.

Yes, John Edward is a "cold reader". This works by making general statements and letting the person being read fill in the details. The medium then feeds back this information in more elaborate form, creating the illusion of having "recieved" it by supernatural means.

Often, a reading is followed by a kind of "debriefing" which gives the medium or psychic the opportunity to strengthen the positive impressions his may subject have, and rationalise away the negative ones.

The process works best on a cooperative person, who really believes the medium or psychic has "powers". Also, some of those who use this technique actually believe this themselves! This is because Spiritualist churches, when they teach wannabe mediums to cold read, dress everything up in language that obscures its true nature.

For example, any positive feedback from the subject is called "validation", which is supposed to help the medium focus. So if the medium says "They [the imaginary spirits] are putting the letter B in front of me", and the subject says "Yes, my Gran was called Betty!" - that's "validation".

Both the medium and the subject can continue to believe that the *spirits* provided the full name, rather than the person being read.

Paul Hayward.

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