What's new

Best Cold Read Tactics/Resources

Regal Tiger

Cro-Magnon Man
Cro-Magnon Man
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
1,032
I'll start with some of mine: MBTI and Enneagram

If you know MBTI then you'll know that it comes from Carl Jung's Cognitive Functions, and then the Enneagram is an older system that goes into the negatives, as well as the positives. Healthy mindsets/growth mindsets as well as the not so healthy ones. Those are my go-to


But before I start researching cold reading as an isolated topic I also wanted to share a few more things I thought were pretty good that I learned from a magic-trick/mentalism course I bought (I didn't fully understand that it was a magic trick course, but it was still good). These are the notes that I took, which sadly weren't a lot but I still thought were good (again, not an actual cold reading course):

1) Compare System: Look at them for a second and turn away. Then in your head, compare them to someone you know. Then describe that other person, starting vague and gradually getting a little more narrow. Barnum statements he mentions are a good way to get started, and he describes them like a funnel. The Barnum statement sort of starts the funnel

2) Claim Ignorance: The example he uses is Mjoilner, Thor’s hammer. If, during a trick he noticed that word, he wouldn’t say Mjoilner, he would say “I’m seeing something, it’s sturdy, can whack people, blablabla and then hammer. Then on the reveal, what the hell is this?”. Another example was star wars lightsabers. I'm getting something that's green... okay not green but there are green ones? Ok, so this one is red? I'm also getting something a little more evil... ok is this from the Star Trek thing where they sword fight with glow sticks?
--> these are the examples within some of his mentalism tricks where he already knew the answer, but just kind of dragged it out. But you can also claim ignorance when you do know something and I've done this a lot in my own life and noticed this effect in general: it's better to pretend to be stupid than it is to pretend to be smart

People underestimate you more, they aren't as inclined to believe you have ulterior motives. However during my college years especially I enjoyed showboating how intelligent I was and people were more wary of me. Just a small little thing I think can help in life in general (unless it's something professional, or something that's an actual passion of yours, people expect you to know your shit vs knowing you're shit in that case)

3) Primacy and Recency: First and last impressions stick in the mind easier. Basically, get riskier in your cold reads in the middle. If there is a miss, then you can literally cover it up with the more guaranteed hit you have to end with. People will forget about the miss (there is obviously a limit to this though). Just don't acknowledge the miss at all, unless, again you already know the answer and can cover it up like in the lightsaber example "Ok, there are green ones but this one isn't green but rather it's red"

4) Questions: Use questions when you’re unsure and can use them to get more information. Going back to the lightsaber example: "Ok, this one's not green but there are green ones? Ok I'm picking up two other colors, is this one red? If yes: great. If no: then it must be the other color I was picking up, blue"

5) Descriptive Language: Instead of telling someone they have anxiety, say something like “there are situations you start to feel overwhelmed and need to calm down” → basically just describing anxiety
→ I do the same thing during hypnotizing as well as sexting. Instead of just saying the word, I describe the word itself. Poetry is kind of the same, draw it out


Anywhoo, I wanted to start this thread before I deep dive into the world of cold reading a bit more because Spidey (his name) was showcasing some awesome little cold reads during his explanations that were rather specific. Some were Barnum statements, which is funny that I recognized them when they came up, but a lot of them weren't Barnum statements at all but were actual reads

I thought that was so cool, and it got me thinking about my lay report from like a month or so ago. I used cold reads twice during that whole thing and I wanna get more into it
 
you miss 100% of the shots you don't take
Top