Why People Believe Weird Things

Divination isn’t magical – it’s simply guess work, close observation and research.

If you watch a mind reader or psychic at work you might be surprised at the accuracy of their information. Accurate readings, however, don’t mean that divination is real. Psychics use tricks to fool their audience into believing them, just like magicians.

There are two methods that psychics or other mystical people use to fool people into believing them.

The first is to give a cold reading, in which a psychic tries to guess details about the person’s life, which is actually fairly easy if the guesses are vague enough.

The psychic will first ask some general questions until they find a topic the subject responds to positively, at which point the psychic goes into more detail, probing further. For example, the psychic might start out with, “Do you have problems in your relationship?” If they keenly observe how their client reacts verbally and physically to leading questions, they can make further educated guesses about their personal life and situation.

These mind readers also understand it’s alright if they get a few things wrong, because the client will remember the hits much better than the misses. Fortune tellers also usually try to keep it positive, by saying things like “You’ll find your true love soon.”

In a hot reading, a psychic researches their client’s life ahead of time. They’re especially likely to do this before a show, because they want to make a good impression on viewers.

Psychics will often arrange informal meetings with certain spectators before a performance. It may seem harmless, but it’s actually a good opportunity for the psychic to get personal information about people through small talk, then use it to wow the audience later.

Nowadays, hot readings are even easier because so many people share their personal information online. In many cases, all it takes to be a “psychic” is access to someone’s Facebook or Instagram.