Oh Psychics. Most people aren’t that impressed when one of them spits out a mundane vaguery
like:
Theresa Caputo: “Was your mother ill prior to her passing?”
I was amazed. I was amazed! It was remarkable.
I said most people.
But when a psychic gets a hit like: James Van Praagh, “Are you adopted.”
“I see a house for sale: 795,000 euros.” Rosemary Altea, “I know that she took her
own life.”
That’s something else entirely.
For the first type of prediction, cold reading tactics are usually used. It’s called cold
reading, because the psychic is going into the reading cold without any prior research
and they use a couple clever tricks to fool their audience.
But with a few tools and a little prep time, psychics can perform a hot reading, in which
they do research prior to preying on their victim. I’m going to reveal some of the
methods that these vultures use, so that next time one of them tries to take advantage of
you and tells you to have an open mind.
James Van Praagh, “Don’t be closed minded.”
You can do so with guarded skepticism, remembering the old skeptic maxim:
“Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.”
The first and most obvious method of gathering information is internet research.
Most people don’t realize just how much information about them is publicly available
on the web. When people buy tickets online to psychic shows, at bare minimum, they enter
their full name, billing info, and email address.
You may be thinking that a spineless con artist can plug that info into a people search site
or private investigator software package to gleam public records including a person’s
address, phone number, marital status, criminal background, and more, but they don’t even
need that. In a packed out audience, there are bound to be at least a few dozen people
with no Facebook privacy settings set.
Sites like ancestry.com reveal the names of relatives as well as family death records.
And tools like Google maps and street view show cross streets, neighborhood info, and
even details about what a person’s house looks like – knowing this, is it really
that impressive when a psychic says that they’re “seeing a red door.”
It’s even less impressive when a psychic does a reading of any kind of celebrity figure
whose information is publicly accessible all over the web.
Josh Elliott, “I’d know that there was plenty of information regarding my past readily
available with a cursory internet search, including an extensive interview I had given
to a website two years before.
James Van Praagh, “And would you know Susan?” Josh Elliott, “Yes.”
James Van Praagh, “Was Susan your mother?” Josh Elliott, “Yes.”
James Van Praagh, “How interesting. You’re part of two families – she’s saying to
me. Does that make sense to you?” Josh Elliott, “Yes.”
James Van Praagh, “Are you adopted?” Josh Elliott, “Yes.”
James Van Praagh, “Oh. That’s what I thought.” Josh Elliott, “But I wasn’t prepared for
what happened next.” James Van Praagh, “Do you know the name
of L E… Lenard? or Leo? Leon? Leo? Leon? or Leo? Leo-something?
Josh Elliott, “Yes. Leo was the name of my adoptive mother’s long-time companion
whom I loved as a step father for almost 25 years. Leo died suddenly in 2009 – until
I looked again upon my return home. And there it was: a reference to his passing able to
be exploited along with all the rest.”
But not all research is done over the web. Some shows have information packets for audience
members to fill out before the show, asking attendees who they wish to connect with. This
is a pre-internet trick that goes back to the days of faith healers like Peter Poppof,
only he called them prayer cards.
James Randi, “To his followers, Popoff seemed to have divine powers. He also knew the personal
details of their lives. The radio scanner we brought to the hall picked up a decidedly
worldly source.
Popoff’s wife, “Hello Peety, can you hear me? If you can’t you’re in trouble.”
James Randi, “Popoff was being prompted by his wife through a wireless earpiece. She’d
gotten her information from prayer cards, filled out by the faithful before the show
began. Popoff’s wife, “She wants to get rid of
the walker.”
Peter Popoff, “You want to get rid of this walker, sister?”
Popoff’s wife, “She lives at 1627 10th street.”
Peter Popoff, “1627 10th street? Is that right?”
Old Lady “That’s right.”
Popoff’s wife, “She has arthritis all over.”
Peter Popoff, “Wooo! Burning this arthritis!”
Since Poppoff’s days, earpieces have gotten smaller, cheaper, and more common place. And
Poppoff is far from the only person claiming to have other-worldly information sources
who’s been caught wearing an earpiece.
A member of the audience claimed they heard a man backstage feeding Sally information
in secret.
A fan who was sitting in the back row of the Grand Canal Theater in Dublin during one of
Psychic Sally’s shows told a radio station that she could hear a man’s voice through
an open window behind her, claim that everything he said the psychic was saying 10 seconds
later. Well she says that her headset is purely a microphone, she does not receive.
Paul Zenon, “Yeah. The headset with the microphone is purely a microphone, and she
can’t get messages from that, but she hasn’t denied having a separate earpiece which is
on the other side. If you have a look at her biopic (it’s called the psychic life of
Sally Morgan) there’s a shot of her walking off stage taking off the microphone and a
separate earpiece which she leaves dangling. It’s an earpiece.”
Now this explains how psychics can get amazingly accurate hits on their own turf, but how do
they pull off this same feat on other people’s shows?
Well it’s pretty easy to rig the reading by planting a few of your own people in the
audience of a show that you’ll be on, which Rosemary Altea’s agent got caught doing
by Penn and Teller on an episode of Bullshit.
Rosemary Altea, “I know that she took her own life.”
Mark Edward, “How did she know it was a suicide? I knew there had to be some link,
because suicide is not something you want to be wrong about.”
Joni spoke with Rosemary about the possibility of our being here?
Penn Jillette, “And who’s Joni?”
Joni is Rosemary’s literary agent.
Penn Jillette, “That’s right. She works for Rosemary. Joni asked us if she could bring
people to the taping. Suspecting a setup, we agreed.”
Mark Edward, “Turns out, you know, that they are her literary agent’s best friends,
so I mean, you know, that took the air out of that one.
Or how about the self-proclaimed psychic Joe Power? When Joe’s own agent supplied a client
named Vonda, Joe got hit after amazing hit. But on further investigation by magician Derren
Brown, it turned out that.
Derren Brown, “Joe has always said he did not know any of her details, but what I’ve
discovered is that Vonda’s next door neighbor is in fact, Joe’s sister.”
And even if cheaters didn’t stack the deck by rigging the audience, they often sift the
crowd for information prior to the start of a show.
Rosemary Altea, “It’s a mother-son connection here. I feel I’ve got your mother here trying
to communicate with you, OK?”
Penn Jillette, “Hmm. How’d she know that this poor guy’s mother was going to come
through.”
Mark Edward, “If you look at the tape again. The first thing she did when she arrived was
drift right over to the people who she knew were going to be in the audience. So the information
gather starts immediately.
Rosemary Altea, “Who do you want to connect with?”
My mother. My mother. My mother.
Rosemary Altea, “Your mother? …It’s a mother-son connection here. I feel I’ve
got your mother here trying to communicate with you, OK?”
Rosemary’s hardly the only one. The Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo, requested 45
minutes alone and without cameras with Howard Stern’s audience as a prerequisite to going
on his show.
But what happens when these same psychics are asked to do a spontaneous reading on someone
without being able to perform prior research? Well they have to resort to cold reading which
I’ll cover the techniques for that in my next video, so make sure you’re subscribed
and you hit the bell button so you get notified. But till then, here are some of those same
psychics you just saw absolutely bombing later on in same exact show when asked to give a
spontaneous reading.
Rosemary Altea, “I’m seeing a man who is standing by your side – quite broad set,
big, very black. He tells me he had a massive heart attack prior to his passing, he just
went bang, just like that. And he refers to you as, ‘his boy.’ OK? Confusing you?”
Yeah.
Joe Power, “There was some type of split up. Umm, going back quite a while.”
No.
Joe Power, “Why does she mention 17 years ago, then? …Is there a Jimmy or James connected?”
No
Joe Power, “She’s saying yes. On grandfather’s side?”
No
Rosemary Altea, “But I have a man who’s standing between us. He passed with cancer.
He was very, very sick before he died. You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”
Yeah, I understand, but I don’t know who that could be.
And when we asked him to read our producer on the spot, that didn’t go so well.
James Van Praagh, “(humming) I’m tired. I’m not going to be able to give you a clear,
quality thing.”
The Mentalist, “We both know what you are. I mean, let’s be honest here, you’re a
con man.”
Before you guys go, you may be familiar with a YouTuber name King Crocoduck. He’s a physicist
who’s been fighting pseudoscience on YouTuber for a while. Well he just got in a pretty
bad motorcycle accident the other day. Can you do me a favor? Can you go subscribe to
his channel and follow him on Twitter? Let’s see if we can cheer him up with a bump in
his sub and follower count. Thanks guys!
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