I am a complete beginner in Cold Reading, and would like some reccomendations on books to buy. Knepper's Completly Cold struck my interest, but I don't know if that is for newbies or not. What would you all reccommend?

(I am not planning on being a "reader," but want to develop this skill as a mentalist.)

The Café's "Search" facility is your friend. Not only will it show you that this question has been asked countless times before, but it will also provide you with enough answers to keep you busy for years to come.

Hi Rickreation,

I would first recommend to make a few uses of the search tool of the Café: many subjects with similar topics have been opened already, and you may find useful answers in these threads.

Reading these threads, it seems like Full Facts on Cold Reading (Ian Rowland) would be a nice choice to start in order to grasp all the techniques used in Cold Reading. For the real work, well, the threads are ready to be read

Good luck

Cheers,

M.

If you have some difficulty to find the search button the exact name is :Cafe Quicksearch.
You write inside the little rectangle cold reading book for instance then you click on "Go" otherwise it doesn't works
Voila ! you know everything

FWIW Ian is running Cold Reading masterclasses again this year. I went last year and can only recommend it. It takes off where his book leaves you and really does help you develop CR skills with some killer lines and, well, not routines exactly but practical, useable frameworks.

Now I'm curious.

If you're not going to be "a reader" then what would you use these skills for? How would you incorporate it into your act?

I agree with others, Rowlands' book is one of the best places to start.

Richard Webster,Dewey, Earle are also good resourses too.

Bob Cassidy also has an excellent book on the subject too that I would highly recommend.

Getting the skills to do a cold read is one thing.

Figuring out what to do with those skills is another.

Reuben, actually, cold reading has assisted investigators with interviews of suspects. In some cases, the suspect confessed as he told the investigator that he was afraid to lie due to the investigator knowing all about him.

Glenn

A tiny bit off the exact subject, but the poker players, :book of tells" has interesting info on reading folks

Lee Earle's Gentle Art of Cold Reading, or Junian Moore's The James Bond Cold Reading are the best resources for complete beginners.

I watch The Mentalist on TV and fake it.

Best practice -- sit down with friends -- tell them what you think of them from their appearance that day and what their future might be -- BUT -- do not use familiar words.

So -- won't get a good job but "will find challenging work that has a potential of producing more income then you need.:

Or -- You gotta get sick now and again -- but : Sometimes health will determine your attitudes and abilities. You should guard your health interest by eating the best heathy diet you can afford -- get some sleep and avoid substance that will harm your mind and body. Also, remember accidents cause a lot more problems than illness. Be careful for the next 18 month or so and do not let your attention slip while driving (boarding, commuting, etc.)

It is the practice of saying and "scatting" the words that gives authenticity and confidence -- not just reading them or learning scripts. Thy it on a clerk at a store using their palm -- or -- goodness -- as a pick up line.

CR supplements effects. It enriches the presentation. I have used very basic CR with the Carnie Tarot and ESP cards and I just BS with what I already know. I have no CR books as of yet. Rowland's book is supposedly available as an ebook for $4. f you try to download it though, you will be signed up for a myriad of porn and dating sites. That's what I get for trying to take a short cut. If I can find the link I will post it so no one else has to put up with the kind of spam I did.

Don't post the link. No sense in advertising the rip-off site at all, but thanks for the thought.

Ian Rowlands text is indespensible, also Brad Henderson has a slim volume I found helpful, it's called Dances with Wolves or someting like that. Also check out William Larsen Sr. book in the psuedo pyschometry section has some great standard passages.

Yeah. A google search will reveal it anyway. Best to buy from Rowland directly.

Thanks for the mention Tony. I wrote the book when I realised that most mentalists wanted to use Cold Reading to enhance their effects, but didn't want to give readings as such. And as I always had terrible problems with remembering stock lines and how to use them I came up with my own system which became the James Bond Classic Reading. If you're allegedly using body language and NLP to have insights in to someone's personality having stock lines can be a good place to start. What I never saw taught was how to actually use them without sounding like a weirdo, so that's what I tried to do.

I've got to admit and I've said it before, it's easy to become over-read and saturated with information when you first start. There are many people out there that have read everything there is on cold reading and still haven't used the information to enhance their performance or even given a reading. To go with the flow, which is really part of 'The Dance' that Brad Henderson talks about, you need to know about these techniques but at the same time not worry about them too much.

This is from experience. I got very bogged down in methods when I first started and it took me longer still to forget everything I'd read and kind of start again with really basic stuff. Opening your mouth in the first place can be the hardest thing to do but it's actually one of the first places you must start if you're not just going to waste an awful lot of your own time becoming a dictionary of Cold Reading and not an actual practitioner.

@rickreation A good thing to do is decide which effects that you currently do could benefit from having cold reading woven into them. Then you actually have a goal and a purpose for learning CR to apply to something you're already comfortable with.

The book is called The Dance. No Wolves. It is available from most dealers. I personally am down to my last two boxes, so I expect it to be out of print soon(ish)

Thanks for the plug.

Rickreation,

As a beginner, I can give you my 2 cents.

Doug Dyment's site, Deceptionary, led me to Richard Webster's works. I ordered Quick and Effective Cold Reading....which made a lot of sense to me. Recently, Richard revised the format of it, into a very manageable book form. It reads better than the manuscript version. Also, he's been very encouraging in correspondences.

With my intent on doing side work in palm reading; here are other resources purchased. All have been very helpful in understanding palmistry and conveying cold reading in a genuine manner.

Doug Dyment, Cold Front
Brad Henderson, The Dance
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading
Richard Webster, Palm Reading for Beginners
Julian Moore, Speed Learn Palmistry, James Bond Classic Reading

Beginner results:
Recently, I was waiting in line for a ride at Disneyland with a group of 8 adult friends and acquaintances. To kill time I did a short reading of a friend's hand, and ended up being asked by all 8 to do readings for them. Some may have been skeptical but they all wanted a reading from me...and they continued talking about and looking at each others hands for the next 30 minutes after my readings.

As a non-professional I was surprised at how engaged they all were and how as a beginner my readings were well received. For something that can be viewed as really corny, they treated me like I was an authority on the palm reading.

Rick, you may not want to be a reader, but learning a system could be a benefit to your mentalist work.

all best,

Savels

Certainly true. I agree.

The public is infatuated with this kind of stuff. When I am at a private residence and do a few of my really good psychic thingys the specs really come alive. I introduce it at the end as "a few things I am currently working on."

J

I recently picked up Julian Moore's Speed Learn Palm Reading and I am getting a termendous amount out of it. It was just wha tI was looking for.