Is your psychic reader really psychic?

Whether you are having a face to face or telephone psychic reading, how do you know that the person giving it is really psychic  – or whether they are just using cold reading techniques?

Cold reading is when people use clever language tricks to convince people that they are psychic.   Mentalist Derren Brown gives incredible demonstrations of cold reading.  A brilliant cold reader can make you gasp at their accuracy – unless you know what you’re looking out for!

Between me and my testers, we’ve tested hundreds of psychic readers who want to join my team and listened to hundreds more psychic readings from professional psychics.

In the article you can read by clicking through the underscored words here, I talked a bit about what I mean by accuracy in a psychic reading, but I thought it would be useful to explain a bit more about what we’re looking out for in our tests.

Someone who is genuinely psychic should be able to give information that’s very specific.   For example, if I go back over what readers who made it through to my team have said during their tests,  Mary repeated something I’d said to my partner in private that very morning.

Another told a tester something about her that was such a major secret that she was totally shaken and it took me ages just to get her to tell me what it was – and I certainly can’t put it here!

We’ve always got an ear pricked for general statements that could apply to anyone.  These include comments such as ‘you’ve had a few ups and downs in life’ (who hasn’t?) or, ‘You’re always looking after other people and need to put yourself first more’ because most people would agree that’s true about themselves – even if it isn’t!

Our testers don’t give out any information about themselves (there’s so much already about me in the public arena that readers have to say something totally spectacular to get my attention!), so watch out for readers who try and fish for information from you. They might say something like, ‘I’m getting an image of the sea.  Does that mean anything to you?’.  They should be able to tell you why they’re getting it!

You also need to look out for readers who try and make something they’ve got wrong come out right.  For example, if they say that you’re single when you’re happily married, they might try and recover by saying something along the lines of, ‘I think  what I’m picking up on is that even though you ARE married, you’re very independent.’

Listen out for a psychic reader trying to make one piece of information stretch in several different ways. You’ll sometimes hear supposedly psychic readers say things like, ‘I’m getting the name Mark, or it could Mick or Molly.  It could be connected to you, or someone you know, or someone you’re about to meet.’   That kind of thing scores nothing in our tests.

If your psychic reader is a medium, hang fire if they come up with a connection with a military gentlemen from generations ago until they can make it much more specific without any prompting from you.   Why?  Many countries had or have conscription. Up until 1960, for example, all eligible men in the UK had to do a stint in one of the armed forces.  Where there has been conscription, it’s a one hundred per cent certainty you’ve got someone with military connections in your family tree!

When it comes to having a paid psychic reading, choosing a psychic reader on the recommendation of someone you know and trust is a good place to start.  It isn’t always possible to do that, however, especially if you are trying to choose from one of literally hundreds of the readers advertised on the internet and in magazines who now offer psychic readings over the telephone.  Looking at their descriptions and reading their feedback can tell you a lot, but sadly you can’t always trust what you see.

Many telephone psychic companies say that they test their readers and again you are going to have to use your judgement in working out whether you feel that to be true.

These are just a few things that you can watch out for.  With so many people wanting psychic readings these days it’s very tempting and far too easy for anyone to set themselves up as a psychic reader – unless you really know what you’re looking for!