Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 1988 Page 42
work my way over to seeming to have ESP. I had the impression that I was reading their mind.‖
(11)
Actually, the ―warming up‖ was the beginning of a narrowing down process. The early misses are
simply discounted as insignificant This technique is classic in faulty psychic investigation. Large
amounts of data are simply ignorant. It is sometimes said that entire experiments ―didn't work
out.‖
If a participant, the receiver, is inaccurate in a reading, his partner, the sender, is instructed to
say, ―That's not my experience of this person,‖ rather than ―You're wrong.‖ The former is a
manipulative phrase that greatly increases the possibility that the sender will question his own
knowledge of the person being described, and give credibility to the receiver's ―experience‖ of
that person.
The intuition exercise goes on for 40 -60 minutes, which is plenty of time to have a high number
of hits in each dyad. Participants may tend to remember the hits and forget the misses, or to see
them as ―warming up.‖ The intuition exercise is immediately followed by a break in which
participants are allowed to talk among themselves. Here they are given an opportunity to share
their surprising experiences. It does not seem unreasonable to expect them to exaggerate their
stories in order to demonstrate their ―high level of awareness.‖ In my own performance of ESP
illusions, I have seen that one seemingly impossible effect in the course of a long performance
will dominate conversation after the performance, and misses will be forgotten.
It does not take many accurate hits to impress an inexperienced participant with this type of
exercise. One of the participants estimated the ―readings‖ in the intuition exercise to be about
―75% accurate.‖(12) Since the participants lack experience in ―psychic‖ investigation, and do not
realize how much can be attributed to manipulation, that might seem impressive. However,
participants tend to exaggerate the percentage of accuracy in such a reading due to selective
memory, so that a subjective impression of 75% accuracy is in fact not very impressive.
Other Principles of Mentalism
The intuition exercise draws on several other fundamental principles of mentalism. The trainer,
for example, may tell participants that they will be right 80% of the time. This is a standard line
used by mentalists to make the demonstration seem more genuine. One hundred percent
accuracy would seem impossible and the audience would suspect trickery. It also explains why
there are some inaccuracies.
Since the exercise is one of making statements about a person, another principle of mentalism
applies: there are many more statements that people will agree are true about themselves, or
about another person, than one would think- This knowledge accounts for the mentalist's ability
to do ―cold reading,‖ or to seemingly tell someone a lot about himself with absolutely no
information about that person.
Psychologist Ray Hyman describes how cold reading works so effectively.
We have to bring our knowledge and expectations to bear in order to comprehend
anything in our world. In most ordinary situations this use of context and memory enables
us to correctly interpret statements and supply the necessary inferences to do this. But
this powerful mechanism can go astray in situations where there is no actual message
being conveyed. Instead of picking up random noise we still manage to find meaning in
the situation. So the same system that enables us to creatively find meanings and to make
new discoveries also makes us extremely vulnerable to exploitation by all sorts of
manipulators.(13)
Another principle of mentalism known as the ―individuation effect,(14) comes into play in the
intuition exercise. If a person volunteers some information about himself (or another person), he
or she will have a stronger tendency to believe ―psychic‖ information that seems to be based on
work my way over to seeming to have ESP. I had the impression that I was reading their mind.‖
(11)
Actually, the ―warming up‖ was the beginning of a narrowing down process. The early misses are
simply discounted as insignificant This technique is classic in faulty psychic investigation. Large
amounts of data are simply ignorant. It is sometimes said that entire experiments ―didn't work
out.‖
If a participant, the receiver, is inaccurate in a reading, his partner, the sender, is instructed to
say, ―That's not my experience of this person,‖ rather than ―You're wrong.‖ The former is a
manipulative phrase that greatly increases the possibility that the sender will question his own
knowledge of the person being described, and give credibility to the receiver's ―experience‖ of
that person.
The intuition exercise goes on for 40 -60 minutes, which is plenty of time to have a high number
of hits in each dyad. Participants may tend to remember the hits and forget the misses, or to see
them as ―warming up.‖ The intuition exercise is immediately followed by a break in which
participants are allowed to talk among themselves. Here they are given an opportunity to share
their surprising experiences. It does not seem unreasonable to expect them to exaggerate their
stories in order to demonstrate their ―high level of awareness.‖ In my own performance of ESP
illusions, I have seen that one seemingly impossible effect in the course of a long performance
will dominate conversation after the performance, and misses will be forgotten.
It does not take many accurate hits to impress an inexperienced participant with this type of
exercise. One of the participants estimated the ―readings‖ in the intuition exercise to be about
―75% accurate.‖(12) Since the participants lack experience in ―psychic‖ investigation, and do not
realize how much can be attributed to manipulation, that might seem impressive. However,
participants tend to exaggerate the percentage of accuracy in such a reading due to selective
memory, so that a subjective impression of 75% accuracy is in fact not very impressive.
Other Principles of Mentalism
The intuition exercise draws on several other fundamental principles of mentalism. The trainer,
for example, may tell participants that they will be right 80% of the time. This is a standard line
used by mentalists to make the demonstration seem more genuine. One hundred percent
accuracy would seem impossible and the audience would suspect trickery. It also explains why
there are some inaccuracies.
Since the exercise is one of making statements about a person, another principle of mentalism
applies: there are many more statements that people will agree are true about themselves, or
about another person, than one would think- This knowledge accounts for the mentalist's ability
to do ―cold reading,‖ or to seemingly tell someone a lot about himself with absolutely no
information about that person.
Psychologist Ray Hyman describes how cold reading works so effectively.
We have to bring our knowledge and expectations to bear in order to comprehend
anything in our world. In most ordinary situations this use of context and memory enables
us to correctly interpret statements and supply the necessary inferences to do this. But
this powerful mechanism can go astray in situations where there is no actual message
being conveyed. Instead of picking up random noise we still manage to find meaning in
the situation. So the same system that enables us to creatively find meanings and to make
new discoveries also makes us extremely vulnerable to exploitation by all sorts of
manipulators.(13)
Another principle of mentalism known as the ―individuation effect,(14) comes into play in the
intuition exercise. If a person volunteers some information about himself (or another person), he
or she will have a stronger tendency to believe ―psychic‖ information that seems to be based on
