|
[Previous entry: "Thursdee news"] [Main Index] [Next entry: ""] 11/11/2005 Entry: "Cole Reedin" At a dinner party last weekend, a friend of mine showcased his exceptionally entertaining talent for palm reading. He even put on a phoney Gypsie accent to make it even more tantalizing. All were quite impressed, myself included although I remain skeptical. I remarked to my girlfriend that perhaps the most effective tool he had was the fact that he could do something people rarely do: while holding your hand, he spoke for several minutes about you instead of himself. Any way, here is a passage that more or less goes along those lines. Cold reading refers to a set of techniques used by professional manipulators to get a subject to behave in a certain way or to think that the cold reader has some sort of special ability that allows him to "mysteriously" know things about the subject. Cold reading goes beyond the usual tools of manipulation: suggestion and flattery. In cold reading, salespersons, hypnotists, advertising pros, faith healers, con men, and some therapists bank upon their subject's inclination to find more meaning in a situation than there actually is. The desire to make sense out of our experience has led us to many wonderful discoveries, but it has also led some of us to many follies. The manipulator knows that his mark will be inclined to try to make sense out of whatever he is told, no matter how farfetched or improbable. He knows, too, that people are generally self-centered, that we tend to have unrealistic views of ourselves and that we will generally accept claims about us that reflect not how we are or even how we really think we are but how we wish we were or think we should be. He also knows that for every several claims he makes about you which you reject as being inaccurate, he will make one that meets with your approval; and he knows that you will remember the hits he makes and forget the misses.
|
