Psychic reading

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Psychic reader booth at a fair.

A psychic reading is a specific attempt to discern information through the use of heightened perceptive abilities; or natural extensions of the basic human senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and instinct. These natural extensions are claimed to be clairvoyance (vision), clairsentience (feeling), claircognisance (factual knowing) and clairaudience (hearing) and the resulting statements made during such an attempt.[1] The term is commonly associated with paranormal-based consultation given for a fee in such settings as over the phone, in a home, or at psychic fairs.[2] Though psychic readings are controversial and a focus of skeptical inquiry,[3][4] a popular interest in them persists.[5] Extensive experimentation to replicate psychic results in laboratory conditions have failed to find any precognitive phenomena in humans.[6] A cold reading technique allows psychics to produce seemingly specific information about an individual from social cues and broad statements.[7]

  1. ^ Reading Archived 2010-08-24 at the Wayback Machine – Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Parapsychological Association (2010-04-14)
  2. ^ Nobel, Carmen (April 10, 2008). "Vision Quest". The Boston Globe.
  3. ^ Stollznow, Karen (2010-04-12). "A Psychometry Reading The Naked Skeptic". csicop.org. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  4. ^ "psychic". The Skeptic's Dictionary – Skepdic.com. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  5. ^ Haskett, Wendy (August 15, 1987). "Psychic Fairs Aim for Aura of Fun in Mind Reading". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ Ritchie, Stuart J.; Wiseman, Richard; French, Christopher C. (March 14, 2012). "Failing the Future: Three Unsuccessful Attempts to Replicate Bem's 'Retroactive Facilitation of Recall' Effect". PLOS ONE. 7 (3): e33423. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...733423R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033423. PMC 3303812. PMID 22432019.
  7. ^ Dutton, Denis (1988). "The cold reading technique". Experientia. 44 (4): 326–332. doi:10.1007/BF01961271. PMID 3360083. S2CID 2382430. Archived from the original on January 14, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2009.