How Mentalists Read Your Mind The Art Of Cold Reading or Mind Reading | Page 74

Chapter 11
COLD READING STEP BY STEP
1.
Choose a subject. The "subject" is the person on whom you
will perform the cold reading.
Sometimes cold readers will choose a subject well in advance
based on information they know about that person but which that
person does not know they know. Select the person you will "cold
read" ahead of time if possible. The more time you have to learn
about your subject, the better. Some cold readers actually have
accomplices visit or interview the subject prior to the cold reading
so that the cold reader can then use this information to dazzle the
subject and the audience.
o
Asking for a volunteer is also a good way to choose someone,
as volunteers are likely to be receptive and, more importantly, will
likely want to believe that you can communicate with the dead or
that you can see things about them that you should have no way of
knowing. However, watch out for skeptics (see Warnings below).
"Shotgun" the audience. Shotgunning is a technique in which you
make one or more broad general statement, such as "I'm sensing
someone who has had some marital problems recently," or
"There's someone named, I think, Billy, that's asking to
communicate with his granddaughter." As you address these
statements to the audience, watch for reactions. There's almost
certainly someone who has recently had marital problems or
whose grandfather went by the name Billy. You, of course, don't yet
know who, but people's reactions - especially their body language will give them away. You can try to refine your "knowledge" by
then making more specific assertions, such as, "This Billy, he lived
a long life. He used to enjoy fishing, no hunting maybe - being in the
outdoors." Focus on the people who reacted to your very broad
first statement, and then look for further reactions. When you're