Sure you want to amaze people with your ability to tell a complete stranger about their past, present and future, like an open book. Perhaps you even picture yourself as the next Derren Brown cold reading guy. This is great, of course.But there are some additional benefits of mastering cold reading. Most having to do with influence and persuasion. Let's take a look at five I think are pretty important:
1. Meet people.
People are fascinated with and drawn to psychics, mind reading and predictions. And if this person knows something about these subjects, he or she will never be at a loss for friends, partners, and opportunities. Just look at Jean Dixon.
PUAs have known that using cold reading techniques is a great way to meet beautiful ladies at the clubs. You don't even have to be (on the prowl) to meet new people. You walk into a bar with a friend and start looking at his or hand and just saying dumb stuff about the lines on their hands ("If your Heart Line is longer than your Head Line. This means your Head Line is shorter..."*)
But what if you don't have any friends, like when you move into a new city or are on holiday? A great way to have people come up to you (I know, approaching people is a drag) is to pull out a deck of Tarot cards, create a spread, and look like you are seriously comtemplating the meanings. (Actually, you could give imaginery readings in your head as you do this. Good practice.). If you are in a busy cafe or bar, nine times out of ten someone will start to talk to you about them. Offer them a free reading.
In another way, if you're new to a city and you want to meet people, just start taking classes in Palmistry or other pyschic arts. Look online or in the local entertainment paper for something like this. Studying a divination system is often a recommended way of learning cold reading.
Bear in mind that most of these people are closed-eye and won't take too kindly to why you are studying these divination systems.
2. Develop your intuition.
After you have been practicing your cold reading skills, you'll start developing a second sense about people. It's uncanny. You become a highly-tuned, highly-sensitive (mind reading machine). THIS is where eyes-closed "psychics" go wrong; they start to think they can REALLY know what a person is thinking. Although a highly developed sense of intuition is an important human skill, if you start to think you can really communicate with dead people, you'd best have a talk with James Randi. He'll straighten your ass out.
3. Tell if someone is lying. This is a corollary of No. 2 above. As a human, you've been dealing with liars all your life. I'd be lying if I said this was a bad thing. But as you develop your skills, you'll become more sensitive when someone is lying to you. (Would I lie to you?) Homicide investigators develop this sense to an incredibly high degree and can often tell when the suspect they are talking to committed the murder. We're just a step away from Minority Report.
4. Develop rapport.
As you give more readings and develop your sensory acuity, you'll start to automatically and unconsciously create stronger bonds with people. People will feel like they've known you for years. Master salespeople have this skill down pat. "We buy from people who not only like us, but are like us." You'll be able to give people what they want because you'll know what they want.
5. Make Money.
I saved the best for last. As you probably know, some people have made themselves millionaires by parlaying their cold reading skills into pay dirt. Unfortunately, some of these men and women are con artists preying on people desperate for answers. But there are big rewards for people who are skilled in cold reading as psychic entertainment.
You have all sorts of options to cash in with cold reading—from psychic fairs to psychic parties to writing books.
The well-known psychic entertainer Richard Webster said that when he was just starting out, he'd go down to the local pub with a sketchbook and color pencils and start giving Aura readings to the patrons for ten dollars a reading.
So there you go, five ways cold reading can enhance your life. And that's just a start. I'm sure you'll think of a few more ways as you develop your skills.
* Believe it or not, years ago I used this line on a lady I met in a bar. Her friends who were looking on were impressed (she wasn't). But it just goes to show, if you look confident and look like you know what you're doing, people will absolutely EAT UP whatever you say.
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