Paranormal phenomena - mind reading, fortune telling

How often do we indulge in a friendly discussion about the super natural phenomena that ends up in a louder than gentle argument? With me, it happens a lot. The other day I was dining out with a few friends and we started talking about Numerology. I was arguing against the possibility of it being a true science. Since my arguments were lacking proper references and the work that has already been done in proving or disproving it as a science, therefore, soon it turned into a not-so-pleasant debate. So I decided to look up for some existing material specifically on Numerology and psychic sciences in general. Here are my findings.

All the famous methods of mind reading or fortune telling (e.g. Palmistry, Astrology, Numerology) are based upon a psychological phenomenon called "Cold reading".

Cold reading is a technique used to convince another person that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do. Even without prior knowledge of a person, a practiced cold reader can still quickly obtain a great deal of information about the subject by carefully analyzing the person's body language, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc.

The most commonly seen Cold reading technique is called "Forer effect". The Forer effect refers to the tendency of people to rate sets of statements as highly accurate for them personally even though the statements could apply to many people. As an example, take a look at the following statements

"You have a very sensitive personality, although you tend to hide it most of the times"
"I sense that you are sometimes insecure, especially with people you don't know very well."
"Most of the time you are positive and cheerful, but there has been a time in the past where you were very upset."

The following article is an eye opener. Read it in detail and evaluate.
http://www.skepdic.com/forer.html

Cold reading has some standard and famous techniques that people have used and mastered over time and we see them practicing those as magicians, psychics, palmists, astrologists, mind readers and what not. The link below will tell you about Darren Brown who is a famous psychic and has done several TV shows exhibiting many of the psychic phenomena. The only difference is that he has an open and honest approach to what he does. He cheerfully reveals that he can't read people's minds or commune with the afterlife - his skill is to make it look like he can.

Here is an interesting and worth reading interview of Derren Brown.

Wikipedia article about Darren


Here you can find some famous techniques of Cold reading


Million dollar paranormal challenge
James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an organization dedicated to falsify claims of paranormals. They have done some good research in the area which is available on their website http://www.randi.org.

At JREF, we offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event. The JREF does not involve itself in the testing procedure, other than helping to design the protocol and approving the conditions under which a test will take place. All tests are designed with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple preliminary test of the claim, which if successful, will be followed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually conducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the applicant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the "applicant" becomes a "claimant." To date no one has passed the preliminary test.

The list of applicants and the application forms and other details can be downloaded from this link


We humans have a tendency to believe in the super natural. I cannot point out any specific reason for this tendency but it does exist in us. Look around, you will notice more than 80% of the people completely or partially believing in such stuff. Be it in the form of mind reading, horoscope, Palmistry or professionals like Aamil Babas tricking the innocent minds of our people.

Being part of an educated and rational community, it is our responsibility to deny all such claims and confront them with reason.