According to James Alcock, everyone is vulnerable to falling for psychic scams. That is especially true when the scams play on the belief system we learned as children. Alcock is a psychology professor at York University and teaches a class on belief systems. “Everybody’s vulnerable,” he says.
“You could take a person who doesn’t believe in curses, won’t believe in psychics, is very careful about responding to spam emails, and yet they could be suckered by some financial adviser.” People usually learn about psychics, curses, spells, and witches when they are children, and the belief in these paranormal things is a significant component of many different cultures.
Even though most psychics are genuine and authentic, others use this title to deceive and rip people off. They are very good at picking up on people’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Alcock believes they use these weaknesses against their victims to take advantage of them.
“There’s a need the person has, or the psychic creates the need, and then they fill the need,” he says. Even though Alcock is not a psychic, he gives his students what he calls a “cold reading” every year. He does this to see how much he can figure out just by being their professor.
Cold Readings Do Work Sometimes
He believes that fraudulent psychics use certain “tricks of the trade” to interpret people and get a sense of what they are like, then use that to acquire their confidence and trust. “When you’re talking to a psychic, you’re giving feedback, even if you’re trying not to,” says Alcock. “We’re constantly giving feedback; a good practitioner will pick up on these things.”
Alcock states that his careful observation method and nonspecific statements seem to work. He knows this because, now and then, one of his students will approach him privately after class and ask him if he is, in fact, a psychic. They believe this because he seemed to have known all about them, including highly personal things that happened to them at some point in their lives.
“Usually, what I said was, ‘something tragic’ happened, but the person fills in the blanks and later thinks that’s what you said because they assume that’s what you were talking about. A good performer can be extremely convincing,” he says. Don’t be a victim to a psychic who takes advantage of you and your vulnerability! Stories like these are why I only trust these honest psychics with great reviews.
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