How to Cold Reading: Paraphrasing and Backtracking for Fun & Profit

A quick way to build rapport and understanding with your sitter is to use a technique that psychiatrists, counsellors, AND "pro" psychic readers use. It's a simple technique that makes the person you're talking with feel understood.

And although it is a vital skill and quite easy. It does take some practice. People in our western culture tend NOT to listen. We often remain quiet while the other person is talking, just remaining silent until it's our turn to speak. In other words: NOT LISTENING.

So you simply paraphrase what your sitter has just said.

The thing is that when you repeat back what someone has said, it's very soothing. Finally, someone understands what they're saying.

Now you can't repeat back what they've just said verbatim. You'll sound like a parrot. Like mimicking, people will just find that annoying and a little strange if you do it too often.

As useful as paraphrasing and backtracking is in itself, it really comes into its own during a psychic cold reading. The trick is to paraphrase what your sitter had said earlier in the reading. For some strange psychological reason, the sitter will think that what you've just said came out of the ether.

For example, say you're giving a reading and in your spread you turn over the Six of Spades, or if the Tarot is your thing, The Hermit - upside down.

YOU: Tell me about the frustration in your family, please. (Add "please" if you want to sound like James Van Praagh.)
SITTER: Huh? Well, My daughter's got an failing grade in Maths, she's never gotten below a B before. And my son got into a fist fight on the school playground. My children have never done anything like this.
YOU: I thought so.

LATER THAT SAME READING. . .

YOU: The cards tell me your kids are having some problems at school. Isn't that right?
SITTER: Yes.
YOU: Every cloud has a silver lining. Your children will grow stronger through adversity...(etc., etc. Just grab something from your cold reader's bag of clichés and platitudes.)

In the unlikely event the sitter says, "I just told you that" when you are paraphrasing. Just tell him or her that you are just making sure/just getting the facts straight. Or just tell them, "I knew you were going to say that." ;-)

As you can see, paraphrasing/backtracking is an important communication skill. You can practice it during your everyday conversations. You can also watch a talking head on the news. Listen for a couple of seconds, turn the sound down and repeat what he or she had just said in your own words.

Making Meanings

If you do scrying or any sort of clairvoyance, and come up with some sort of image, you can use this line effectively: "Does that mean anything to you?" As in many cold reading lines you give a sitter, this one has them doing a transderivational search for meaning.

"I'm seeing a red brick house out in the woods. Does that mean anything to you?"

Even though this is a standard line in a cold reader's repertoire, there is a problem. It presupposes that the sitter might NOT know. That's the nature of yes-no questions. There's no reason to make your job harder by setting yourself up for a miss by the language you use.

Much better to ask your sitter: "What does that mean to you?" With this line, he or she will try harder to find meaning in your images.

"I'm seeing a red brick house out in the woods. What does that mean to you?"

This will get a stronger reaction AND less chance of getting a miss.

Red Hot Cold Reading Tip

Are you giving a reading about someone's past? If so, talk about fire. Think about it. Hasn't practically everyone's life at one point or another been touched by fire, sometimes positively, but more often negatively?

Reflect on your own life for a moment. Hasn't fire entered your consciousness, strongly, at some point? It could have been the terror of a forest fire to a cozy campfire with a new love.

From my own life I can think of several experiences, including these when I was a kid: a house on fire down the street where someone was killed (it haunted me for years); almost setting my house on fire when I was playing with my chemistry set unattended by an adult. Panic city! And having big bonfires with my friends at "woods parties". Good times, indeed.

Use any sort of "past" lines to talk about fire. These can get you started:

• "What's on fire?"
  
• "Tell me about the fire."
• Or, if you want to be really brazen, "Tell me about the fires."
  

The last line is good in that fire has usually touched (I accidentally typed "torched" ;-)) people's lives in more ways than one.

In the unlikely event that your sitter's life hasn't been affected by fire. You can always bring up a fire that was mentioned in the media that might have touched their emotions. Just fish and shotgun.

Psychic Cold Reading Tips: Things You Can Do With One Hand

This one is for you palm readers out there.

Here are a few little techniques to add flair to your hand readings.

1. Guess the Finger. Do this before you start a reading. Tell the sitter you want to see if there is telepathic rapport between the two of you. Ask her to hold out her hand - palm upwards - and to concentrate on one of her fingers. Now say to her to mentally tell you the finger she's chosen. Lightly touch the tips of her fingers, more often than not, the one she is thinking of will offer slight resistance. If you don't get it right, use one of the methods you use for handling a miss.

2. Oh, the Future! Ask for her hand, if she doesn't ask, "which one?" and just offers you one of her hands, tell her, "Oh, I see you're more interested in your future!" (Who isn't?)

3. Reflexology. Squeeze, pull and rub your way into their heart (line). If you suss out, or are told, they have simple problems like a headache, you can tell them that you also know hand reflexogy. When I lived in Thailand, I used to see the Thais rubbing the area between the thumbs and index fingers hands of their friends and relatives when they complained about having a headache. If you want to add this skill to your routine, you can find out the basics of Reflexology and get a printable hand chart here on this link.

4. Sussing out their situation. Okay, if you're experienced at reading palms you probably, consciously or unconsciously, do this already. But take a look and feel of their hands. Are they wearing rings? Where and what kind? Are there callouses, or are their hands baby-smooth? State of their fingernails? Nail polish? Chewed? Dirty nails? Are their hands shaking? I don't need to tell you the meanings. What do they mean to you? Come up with your own patter.

Another thing to keep in mind: Are they trying to fake you out? Wearing a wedding band but not having a tan line on the finger. Dressing up like a laborer but having soft hands. Watch out for these.

How to Improve Your Cold Reading Technique with YouTube Videos

You have to separate the wheat from the chaff on this one. But if you do, you'll be well rewarded. There are plenty of videos online demonstrating cold reading techniques.

I had to separate the cold reading acting techniques from the cold reading psychic techniques. Still, a few of those will get through.

It's a great way to see Derren Brown coldreading and get some tips from Ian Rowland. There are perfect demonstrations of how eyes-closed psychics like Sylvia Browne and John Edwards brush off miss after miss. Classic.

Check out the cold reading videos here.