by Scott Knickelbine

Created on: July 29, 2007

I bet you already know why I think mind-reading is fake.

Despite hundreds of studies spanning more than a century, no one has ever been able to document telepathy in controlled conditions. Whenever so-called "mind readers" are tested in ways that prevent them from doing previous research, guessing, using confederates, etc., they always fail miserably. And tests for psychic abilities in normal folks always turn up results consistent with random chance.

What those psychics you see who seem to be able to tell things about a person they couldn't possibly know? They're using tricks that have been the stock and trade of stage magicians since at least the 19th century. These include:

1) Cold reading: making educated guesses about a person based on appearance, age, sex, body language, facial expressions, etc, then following up on the right guesses and quickly correcting the wrong ones. Some people are uncannily good at this - including some who admit to what they're doing.

2) Gaining information on people beforehand, either through confederate interviews, public databases, or simply having them fill out a questionnaire before the performance (a favorite ploy of miracle evangelists).

3) Using a confederate who pretends to be a random individual but is actually in league with the psychic.

Magician and psychic debunker James "Amazing" Randi offers a million dollar reward for any psychic who can demonstrate his/her abilities in an environment that prevents cheating. He's still got his money, and I predict he'll never lose a penny.

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