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Or: How Fraudulent Nediums Obtain Information....
As you are sitting here reading this article -- I can tell certain things about you. You are a sensitive person who is in tune with events around them. When you
were younger, you were different from other people that you knew. You have always been a little on the outside of things.
Your intuition is strong and you feel that you may have always had a bit of sensitivity or a psychic ability. You have occasionally
dreamed of things before they happened or at least had a strong sense of 'deja vu' under certain circumstances.
You are also a caring and honest person, perhaps too much so, but you have difficulty in letting people get to know
the real you. When you finally do let someone inside, you keep him or her close to you for a long time. In fact, there is
someone that you are close to that you are concerned about right now. You worry too much though and can best help this person
by continuing to be a positive influence in their life.
Does this information fit you and your personality?
Does any of it fit -- perhaps just enough to convince you that someone who is giving you this information is on the right
track? This is an example of what magicians (and unfortunately phoney psychics) call a "cold read". It's an
old technique that is designed to make the subject believe that the medium could see into that person's soul. In more
unfortunate cases, it is also used to make that the subject believe that the medium is communicating with the dead.
It's called a cold reading because at first, the reader knows little about the person being read. However, thanks
to simple deductions made from the client's body language, posture, breathing rate, eye contact and both verbal and non-verbal
clues, the cold reader can quickly adapt the reading to suit the individual. It's an age old device that has been put
to many uses over the years. It was a staple of the séance during the Spiritualism era -- and it's still being
used by popular television psychics today for the same fraudulent purposes.
That's not to say that there are no genuine
psychics out there -- that's not for me to judge. I try to keep an open mind about everything until I am convinced otherwise.
But I would like to provide the information for those who may not know about it as to how "cold readings" and so-called
"spirit communication" can be easily accomplished. It's not for me to say whether your favourite television
psychic is real or a fraud -- you need to decide that for yourself -- but in the article ahead, I'll show you how this
type of reading has a historical precedent, how it can be done today and even how you can learn to do it yourself!
HELPING OUT THE SPIRITS
Modern Spiritualism can trace its roots
back to the Fox Sisters, who first began summoning spirits to communicate with them back in 1848. While there are lingering
questions about some of the mediums who appeared on the scene during the heyday of the Spiritualism, there is no denying that
the movement was riddled with cases of fraud. Many of the phony mediums were exposed by magicians and investigators over the
years and in many cases, they were prosecuted for bilking money out of unsuspecting clients. Today, most popular mediums confine
their spirit contact to "mental mediumship", which means that they claim to receive psychic messages from the dead
that no one else can hear, rather than receiving messages from the spirits through trumpets, apparitions and mysterious objects
that appear in the séance room.
Mental mediumship has been around for quite some time though and has it roots in
the early days of the Spiritualist movement. Messages that could be obtained for the sitters at a séance were always
convincing, especially if they seemed to contain information that the medium should not have had access to. But was this really
the case?
In his book The Psychic Mafia (1976) former medium M. Lamar Keene explained in detail how he managed
to fool sitters who came to see him at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana. He explained how mediums of those days managed to obtain
what seemed to be complex information about the sitters who came to the séances. While clients were sitting in the
darkened séance rooms, confederates would be used to pilfer through purses and billfolds to obtain photographs,
letters, bank books and even social security numbers. They also made it a rule that anyone who wished to attend a private
séance had to attend at least three public services beforehand. That way, the sitters could not only be observed and
monitored, but the mediums would have time to run down the information already gathered in order to put together files on
the sitters.
They also observed who was
gathered for a séance through two-way mirrors and they could then prepare their "spirit messages" accordingly.
That way, a sitter could always say to a sceptic that "the mediums didn't even see me before the séance, so
if they needed prior research to prepare their messages, how could they have known to prepare one for me?"
The mediums also employed high-tech devices to help gather information.
Of course, in years past, a high-tech device might have been nothing more than an electronic sound collector, which could
pick up sounds at a considerable distance. Keene used one that was set up in a house across the street from the Spiritualist
church at Camp Chesterfield. By aiming it at the church before a service, he could pick up all sorts of information that could
later be incorporated into his readings.
Today, unscrupulous readers
can employ more sophisticated devices such as tiny ear plugs that can receive messages from assistants about the sitters.
This is a method that has been used to great effect by not only phoney mediums but by questionable religious evangelists as
well. Healing needs and spiritual messages can be incorporated into services by collecting "prayer requests" that
are filled out by the attendees in advance of the service. It may appear that the evangelist has no access to these requests,
but his assistants do and can feed the information to the minister through the ear plug.
Mediums (and evangelists
with working with ailments that need to be healed) have also been known to use sealed envelopes that contain questions for
the spirits to answer. The medium will hold up the envelope and then answer the question inside of it -- without ever actually
seeing it. Of course, the information was given to him by the spirit world! Or was it?
In truth, this is one of
the simplest and oldest "carny" shills around and yet it still continues to amaze people to this day. What actually
occurs is that the questions and requests are gathered by assistants prior to the séance or group reading. The sitters
have written their questions onto pieces of paper and then have sealed them into envelopes. This is all legitimate and completely
above board -- to this point. The medium then takes the requests, which have been placed in a box or basket, and removes the
first sealed envelope. Without opening it, he proceeds to answer the question that is written inside. A person in the back
of the room exclaims that this was his question and is suitably impressed with the answer "from the spirit world".
Of course, what the rest of the sitters in the room do not know is that the man at the back is an accomplice of the medium.
The words spoken were not his questions at all -- in fact, it was all a ruse -- and he is simply part of the game.
The medium then opens the envelope to read the question back that
he answered, thus "proving" his mediumistic skills. What he has really done is to open an envelope that contains
an actual request from a sitter. He memorizes it and then tosses it away. He then picks up the next sealed envelope and pretends
to answer the question that is contained inside of it. What he is actually doing is answering the question from the envelope
that he opened earlier. It appears that the spirits are providing him with the information inside of the envelope, when it's
really the one that he already opened. He repeats the process over and over again, staying one envelope ahead throughout the
entire sitting, and appears to be receiving information from the spirits.
Today, things are more sophisticated (in
some ways) and carnival tricks are liable not to fool most audiences. When those who are believers take a look at the television
shows that claim to speak with the dead, many swear that no room for trickery exists. They are certain that someone would
have long ago detected their favourite medium if he was hacking into people's personal files for information or using
an accomplice to feed him data through an electronic wire. And while it's impossible to know what is taking place in a
television studio (for the shows are obviously highly edited) I concede that it's likely that these mediums are not using
electronic trickery -- for the information they need is provided directly by the sitters themselves!
TALKING TO DEAD PEOPLE?
As
mentioned earlier, most of today's popular mediums limit themselves to receiving messages from the dead through clairvoyance
and then pass those messages on to their sitters. Because they do not have to produce physical phenomena, it is much more
difficult to expose the frauds and also to differentiate between those who may be self-deceived (believing they really can
talk to the dead) and those who might actually have a gift that is beyond our understanding. Unfortunately, this puts all
mediums in a bad light and those who really are genuine, or strive to be, should do whatever they can to expose the ones who
are frauds. If those who attempt to be legitimate allow only the debunkers (who believe in nothing -- including even the possibility
of spirit communication) to expose the fraudulent mediums, then they are allowing the entire community to look bad by appearing
as though they will do nothing about the frauds.
Today's popular television
mediums are doing nothing more than blatantly employing the "cold read" method, which was used for years in many
magician's "mind reading" acts. I was instructed in this method a number of years ago by a friend who was a
magician and since have researched it quite a bit. When this new breed of television psychic began to appear on the scene
a few years ago, I recognized their method for what it was right away. And so did many others but logic has been bedevilled
by the popularity of this new movement and by those who simply "want to believe", no matter what. As stated already
though, it is not my place to try and convince the reader of what to believe or what not to believe -- that's up to you
-- but I do want you to understand how subtle variations on this familiar method can be accomplished.
These current mediums work by asking a lot of questions. This should be your first clue that something
is not quite right for the "spirits" apparently have very poor memories or a lot of trouble communicating! In my
opinion, if the spirits have a message to relay, they should be able to so without all of the silly guessing and weird unrelated
information that seems to spew out. Anyway, what happens is that by this information being provided in a question form,
it may be considered correct (or a "hit) if it happens to be on target and if wrong, then will seem to be just an innocent
query. The medium can then obtain clues to the information they are providing by watching the body language of the sitter
(facial expressions when either wrong or on the right track) and then can shift the information to fit the mood. For example,
almost anyone can react positively to a mention of a common object like a ring, a watch or some special piece of jewellery
and this guess can then be transformed into a hit by the medium.
In addition, the mediums will attempt to boost the
accuracy of their statements by trying to get the sitters to focus on their accurate statements rather than the numerous incorrect
ones. Even the most believing viewer will admit that the mediums are wrong much more often that they are right. Of course,
this is hard to tell from an edited television program that is designed to showcase the medium. If you really want to observe
them in action, try to do so on a live broadcast or news program that is not skewed in one direction or another. I think you'll
find it be very revealing as the misses fall as often (or more so) than the hits and the accurate statements are usually weak
ones -- such as telling an elderly person that the medium senses his parents are deceased or "I sense an elderly woman
with an 'm' in her name". The only thing that really seems to be "uncanny" about what is going on is
the editing involved with the taped shows. Many audience members who have attended the shows in the studio go away more disenchanted
with the mediums than when they came.
Another popular variation on the cold read (and one that often does not make the final television cut)
is the method that some mediums have of "brow beating" the sitter and refusing to accept the negative responses
to their statements. This is a common technique in which the medium persists in attempting to redeem a wrong statement, harassing
the sitter so that they begin to feel that the incorrect response is their fault. Many sitters will start to accept the statements
out of guilt and this further boosts what seems to be the accuracy of the medium's visions.
Regardless of how
you look at it, or your fascination with your favourite popular medium, there are a myriad of problems when it comes to accepting
the authenticity of their readings. All that I ask is that you not be too quick to believe -- or too quick to doubt either
-- and study these things for yourself before making up your mind. I believe that an analysis of how many of these mediums
work will shed a much-needed light on the "mysteries" of "communicating with the dead".
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