A Primer on Cold Reading

The art of cold reading has convinced millions of people that gimmicks like crystal balls, palm reading, tarot cards, and other alleged paranormal abilities are real. People walk away from astrologers, mediums, and psychics saying "there's no way he could have known that" or other exclamations of amazement. But are these skills really paranormal, or can they be explained by a series of techniques just about anyone can master with practice? Longtime investigator Jim Underdown teams up with psychologist and author Richard Wiseman to deconstruct what is really happening in a typical psychic reading and sheds some light on why the experience sometimes seems so real.

You can listen to A Primer on Cold Reading online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

A Primer on Cold Reading is an episode from Point of Inquiry by Center for Inquiry.

This episode is 37:39 long.

This episode was published on Feb 5, 2025.

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