Ask me about being a professional psychic

[Quicksilvre]

Do you use a Jamaican accent?

[wildzer0]

[ QUOTE ]
Do they actually care how "read up" you are to do this, or is it kinda the used car salesman you-work-on-commission-so-if-you-suck-who-cares-you're-gone-soon-anyway sorta thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

They could care less if you're actually good, but if you're not, you'll be gone pretty quick.

[ QUOTE ]
Please give an outline of how to begin a cold reading.

[/ QUOTE ]

First I do the hook, this is where I switch the tables and make them feel like they're the ones on trial, not me. If what I'm saying doesn't fit, it's their fault. Then, I make some fuzzy guesses and some false negative statements to "prove my ability" and probe for information. Then I make my predictions, tie everything together and conclude. Very basic outline, but that's the standard format.

[psuasskicker]

They give you scripts for the hook and tips on how to read people or do they pretty much say "You want a job? Great, you're hired. Go to town." ?

- C -

[mason55]

wildzer -
think about questions you would have asked before you did this because i don't really even know what to ask but i want to hear all the details about hwo everything works

[wildzer0]

[ QUOTE ]
Care to take a guess on the demographics? [ QUOTE ]


Mostly women in their 40s, the vast majority.

[ QUOTE ]
can you tell us a little about how it all works? maybe some tricks you use

[/ QUOTE ]

There are many, many helpful tricks. There are 4 big ones that are the main ones I use, although I'll resort to a bunch of others.

Turn the tables - make them feel like if the reading doesn't fit them, it's their fault.
Fuzzy Guesses - statements like "I see a man with glasses, and a date near the end of february, the 23rd or 24th" - things that will hit anyone, but feel specific.
False negatives - statements like "You haven't been to Europe recently, have you?" No matter what their answer, you can turn it into a hit
Hitting the misses - Various techniques for turning completely wrong guesses into hits.

[wildzer0]

[ QUOTE ]
They give you scripts for the hook and tips on how to read people or do they pretty much say "You want a job? Great, you're hired. Go to town."

[/ QUOTE ]

No, you're completely on your own, no scripts. that's why I took the time to really prepare before I tried it out for real.

[ QUOTE ]
wildzer -
think about questions you would have asked before you did this because i don't really even know what to ask but i want to hear all the details about hwo everything works [ QUOTE ]


Honestly, the most significant questions I had were moral ones, and then basically the nuts and bolts. How I was going to learn to react to curveballs, and questions in general. I gave a basic overview above, if you can think of anything else by all means let me know. I think the moral questions are pretty interesting too, because it's something I struggled with a bit.

[mason55]

do you feel bad abotu what you do?

i mean, i would just say "hay it makes these people happy and gives them hope" and feel pretty good about myself.

[wildzer0]

I should say this is NOT a completely easy job, it can be quite trying, because if you get a bad review or two, especially in the beginning you can basically kiss it goodbye. And people intentionally throw you curveballs and look for excuses to screw you up.

[psuasskicker]

How long do you plan on doing it?

Did you look around at different agencies to find a good one, or throw a dart at a phone book and go with whichever it hit?

- C -

[Dudd]

So, 250-300 dollars a day for 3-3.5 hours of real work, which consists of lying on the phone. How does one get into this?