Re: So, I met a seer.....
Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
Or whatever those fortune telling gypsies are called. She didn't give me a formal reading, she just shook my hand, and told me that something important is gonna happen on 02-08-08 for me, that I will have a big decision to make.Naturally I asked her what the decision is, but she wasn't too specific. She said it involved either money and/or romance, that I will have a big decision to make, that there will be a lot of risk involved.
I dont believe in this crap, but I cant help but wonder, you know?
It's a complete farce.
They use a technique called cold reading. They make a lot of generalized statements, and eventually they hit on something. Usually the person receiving the "prediction" gives off signals that indicate a "hit" (a prediction that seems like it could be true) and the person goes with it. The large number of statements ensures that there will be some hits, although many misses. In a situation with only a brief reading, there will be a few blanket statements that are vague and usually positive. This allows for the human mind to interpret the prediction to suit what happens to them, giving the psychic a higher chance of (perceived) success. Your "big decision involving money and/or romance" is a perfect example of this.
And human minds remember the hits better. Think of a crazy coincidence you've had. You remember it, but not the ridiculous number of times when nothing happened. So if a psychic says 20 things, most of them vague, and a person wants to believe...they'll find ways for nearly half of the predictions to seem true, and will consider the psychic reading authentic. Or if they get 1 solid hit in those, and it seems unlikely to them that it is something that could be easily predicted, people will be awed.
Cold readers are great at working statistical averages, so that the things they say have a high chance of being true. For example, if I were to sit in a room with 5 people and say "I'm sensing someone that died of a heart attack. This person is contacting me." I have a good chance of getting a "hit". Add cancer to that list and it's nearly a statistical certainty that someone will have had an immediate family member that died of one of these ailments.
Penn and Teller, James ("The Amazing"😉 Randi, Michael Shermer, and others have all formally debunked everything from TV psychics (that "Crossing Over" dude that claims to talk to the dead), as well as astrologists and other commercially successful paranormalists. It's all just a big lie, or the people are fooling even themselves into thinking they have strange powers of precognition.