COMMENTARY
There's nothing psychic about seers
By Tom Brislin
I don't know you. But I know a lot about you.
"You're enthusiastic, outgoing, generous, ambitious and take pride in what you do." Right? "You can easily get lost in your daydreams and escape into a world of your own." Tell me that's not true.
"It's not easy for you to forgive and forget," I'm sure. "You are also very open-minded and like to keep others happy." Got you nailed there, I can tell.
"You carry a quality of controlled and disciplined energy and are more aware of responsibility than other people." Am I psychic or what?
What, actually. All I've done is taken the first sentence from one "Astrological Profile," the second from another, the third from a third, etc. Cleverly worded sentences, yes. But they are filled with such glittering generalities that anyone can buy into them.
The five profiles were prepared by a local media maven turned self-proclaimed astrologer. The profiles were featured in another newspaper that decided to have a little fun with pseudoscience. It's not clear, however, whether they hoped to debunk, or were just massaging, the longings of the true believers.
The profiles "fit" the Island luminaries they were prepared for, of course, because they fit just about anyone.
Who isn't "quite self-critical at times, although others may not know it"? Who doesn't "especially hate to be given bad or wrong information"? Are there any out there who wouldn't admit that "keeping your weight at the level you want may be a constant challenge"? And who could deny that "you will have many lifetimes within one lifetime"? "You may not see this yet, but you will see it played out as the years go by."
If these generalized statements could, indeed, apply to anyone, why not put them to the test?
I took one of the profiles, written in the other newspaper feature for an Aries, duplicated it for all 12 zodiac signs and gave it to my mass-communication students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. Each received the identical profile, but packaged on different-color paper, labeled and illustrated with his or her "birth sign."
They were asked to rate how well the descriptions fit them, and how likely they would read a newspaper feature on astrological profiles.
Only one Aries student thought the profile was "very much like me." Interestingly, so did four who identified themselves as Sagittarians, two Geminis and one Libran. In fact, the 32 students who participated said on average the profile was "more like me than unlike me" (average 3.8 on a 5-point scale).
Not surprisingly, those students — about half of the total — who said they were more likely to read a feature on "astrological profiles" were also more likely to find this particular profile "fit" them, regardless of their actual zodiac sign.
Power of the positive
It's interesting that even when there are conflicting statements, we cling to the ones we want to believe and shuffle off the others. If a psychic, or seer, or gazer gets close on three things and misses the mark on seven, we'll express amazement at the three and discount the rest.
That's what "psychics" count on, in fact. It's the basis for one of their favorite techniques, called "cold reading." That's when your palm, or your cards, or the chicken bones are read without any prior knowledge about you. It's actually quite simple to pick up a lot of information quickly. Most of the "hits," of seemingly paranormal powers are, in fact, just feeding back information that you've provided in the cold reading.
I was actually a psychic for a day.
The Colleges of Arts and Sciences held a Critical Thinking Fair a few years ago. My colleagues demonstrated such things as how numbers generated by spins of a roulette wheel are truly random (sorry, there's no system out there), and how easily we let ourselves be fooled by the illusions of magic.
My job was to hold peoples' hands. Actually, to read their palms. And I was pretty good. I even wore a sorcerer's hat.
You can get a lot of information from someone just by noting how they respond to questions with body language and involuntary reactions, like tenseness or little muscle jerks in the hand you're holding.
I started out with statements of glittering generalities, like the astrology ones. I noted they seemed to be having problems with a certain person (and who isn't at any point in their lives?). I got them to give me the name of the person, and the relationship to them, through a few simple techniques of pretending to visualize letters in their names, the other person's gender, body size, etc.
The secret? People want to tell you things. They want to believe you. They also want you to believe THEM, and in their personal crises. We all do.
Unmasking the illusion
It didn't surprise me that I could create the illusion for them. What did surprise me was their reaction after the short "psychic reading," when I explained how I did everything, how I got them to tell me things through flattery and logical guesswork, and how I bluffed through my obvious mistakes. ("You don't know anyone whose name has an 'N' in it? Well, one will approach you soon. When he does, be friendly, but exercise caution!")
It wasn't that they were angry or felt cheated. Quite the opposite. The reaction from both young and old was: That's really interesting how you did that. But tell me, what do you really think I should do about my boyfriend? Or girlfriend. Or parent. Or boss.
It didn't matter that I was a fake. What mattered is that they wanted to believe.
And that's what keeps psychics, astrologers, tarot readers, palmists and every other practitioner of the paranormal in business. There's still a longing for a seer, even though we can see right through them.
Tom Brislin is a professor in the University of Hawai'i-Manoa School of Communications.
