Tradecraft – The Art & Science of Cold Reading

Tradecraft takes the form of a straight-forward no-nonsense manual, similar in format to last year’s excellent Mastering Hypnosis from the same publisher. There is a feeling of relief upon reading the opening paragraph, in that someone else has done all the work, all the research, and here is the result: concise commentary and information – waiting to be absorbed.

Cold reading, when combined with ‘mind-reading,’ can produce some quite amazing results. In the introduction, and for the purposes of this manuscript, cold reading is defined as, “A process by which the reader creates the effect that he or she has knowledge of an unknown subject’s life – past, present and future.” The chapter goes on to explain in more detail what it is and why it works, positive and negative readings, and importantly “The ethics of cold reading.”

You’ll find yourself smiling at just how clever some of the discussed methods and techniques really are. There are hundreds of actual examples and “lines” as well. In a “married men over 35” list 9 out of the 11 items listed fitted me perfectly, and really felt personal too! You’ll want to try it all out yourself but I would suggest holding back and studying it first. However there’s no reason why you shouldn’t start to work some of this material gently into your current ‘mind-reading’ presentations.

The layout is excellent, the content spot-on, and it’s a real pleasure to read.

Highly recommended.