How to Do a Psychic Reading

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Check the resources section at the end of the article.

Step 1

Setting the stage.
Always act confident, yet modest about your abilities. Assume an air of mystery - as if you know things you aren't saying. Start by telling the subject that he needs to clear his mind, focus, etc. You're putting the responsibility for the success of the psychic reading on him, and making him want to cooperate with you, rather than him seeing it as a psychic test of your abilities. Later, when you make a general statement, he will feel it's up to him to match your statement to some specific situation in his life.
Step 2

Use statistics to your advantage.
Did you know that most people have a scar on their left knee? That's the type of statistic-based guess that will seem very specific to your subject, but has a good chance of scoring a "hit" with any person. Memorize just a few of these statistics for your psychic readings.

For example, 6 of the top 30 most common male names in the US are James, John, Joseph, Jason, Jose, and Jeffrey. "J" names account for 15% of all males. (After "J", "R" and "D" are the next most common.) If you say mysteriously "I'm hearing from somebody with a name beginning with "J" that has some connection to...(whatever the issue is) " Then you leave it up to the subject to search his brain for the name and the specific connection to the issue. This is known as "fishing," see step 4.

By the way, for female names, try the letters "M" then "J" then "K."
Step 3

Have a list of stock phrases ready.
Use them to start your readings, and give you time to both analyse what you can see about the person, and also time to appear mysterious and heighten the effect. Palmistry, tarot and other fortune telling manuals are a key source of good phrases. Here is a list of proven phrases, taken from a study on the "Barnum Effect" done by Bertram Forer in the 1940s:

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.
While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof.
You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
Step 4

Go fishing!
You can assume that most people's problems are related to: work, illness, money, marriage, children, death. You can make other assumptions based on what you know about the subject's life. Examples: a woman in her 30s probably has thoughts about babies; a man in his 40s is likely to be indulging in a hobby or passion he gave up in his youth; a young mother is likely to have concerns about her child's health and schooling. You don't have to be specific about what kind of concerns. Make a general statement, phrased as a question, and then let your subject fill in the blanks. You feed the information back to them as if it were a specific, correct statement by you. The subject will remember it not as him feeding you the info, but merely as him confirming your information, received from the beyond.
Step 5

Listen.
Your subject is probably anxious to talk about his problems and concerns. Let him! Often the subject knows the answers to his questions, he merely wants confirmation that he is on the right course. And, like most of us, he wants to talk about his situation. So let him talk, and then repeat it and confirm it back to him. You will be surprised at how much credit you will get for giving him information that he originally gave to you!
Step 6

Flatter the subject. Tell him what he wants to hear.
Notice that successful psychics never say things like: "Your beloved mother was an evil sinner and now she's burning in Hell! I can hear her screams!" Always tell them good things: "Your mother loves you, and she wants you to know she's doing just fine, don't worry." The subject wants comfort and reassurance from your psychic reading.