November 2011

Beware the Cold Read

"Many of the charlatans used a technique called cold reading to create a custom future using cues from your answers"

Predicting the future is an easy business for frauds and con artists looking to make a quick buck. The future hasn't happened, so how can we call them on something they predicted that hasn't happened yet. If you do, they just say that knowing the future has somehow changed it.

Many of you probably remember the psychic phone fad from the 90's. You could call a 900 number and get a personal read from a “professional psychic” who could answer all your questions and predict your future.

Many of the charlatans used a technique called cold reading to create a custom future using cues from your answers to questions, tension in your voice and even body language for personal visits. The key to a cold read is to provide general information that actually pertains to most people. That's why they call it cold.

Clairvoyance and Sensory Deprivation

 

Psychics and other practitioners of extra sensory perception have been using sensory deprivation as a way to enhance and amplify their talents. This is definitely not something new and is based on sound scientific theory.

It has been proven that when a person loses one sense, such as hearing or sight, that the body enhances the other senses. So someone who lost their sight, gain more acute hearing, etc. The theory follows that if you deprive the body of all of the senses, then it might enhance the one sense that is left... the sixth. In a full sensory deprivation experience the subject is in total darkness and their ears are covered or they are placed in a completely silent environment.

They are also suspended in a solution that keeps them buoyant and with a temperature that is as close to their natural body temperature. This fools the body into thinking it's floating in nothingness. People often use this for meditation, but it can also be used to increase sensory abilities.

The Mayan Calendar

 

When it comes to predicting the future, there has been much talk about the ancient Mayan calendar because is ends in 2012... maybe. For some reason, everyone believes that because this calendar ends that it means the end of the world.

Why? Sure, as far as ancient civilizations go, the Mayans has a pretty good grasp of astronomy. So much so that they developed a calendar based on the stars. That's great, but there were many civilizations that had a decent grasp of astronomy.

The Celts and Egyptians all had knowledge of astronomy and used in their religion. Did the Mayan think about their calendar ending a thousands years after it was developed? No! We consider ourselves advanced, but we sure didn't think about the 2000 bug did we.

Breaking Into The Time Stream

 

Many people that have foreseen future events such as Nostradamus were beloved to have tapped into a ephemeral time stream. In essence, the time stream is like river flowing in all directions. Instead of water, events and portents of the past and future are constantly flowing.

Certain people have the ability to connect with this stream and pluck out events. They don't have much control and the glimpses they get are fast and fleeting, so they are left with only pictures in their head and a need to decipher it.

Nostradmus did it with quatrains that still vex those who try and understand them. Many people connect only a few times in their life and are left with strange prophetic dreams that eventually come true. It could be as simple as a future birthday party of some person they have never known or a plan crash three years down the line.