'He was talking to me before I came this evening. He died of a heart attack.'
Eyes scan the faces in the audience for some kind of response. Choosing just about the most common Man's name is bound to hit home somewhere. This con merchant adopting the same routine, virtually every live show. A prime example of 'make it up as you go along' "cold reading".
And then, when there is still no response, the script is changed to:
'He might have been known as Jack because he sometimes called himself Jack. Anyone?'
And so the cold reading continues with very generic GUESSWORK by this devious individual until some very naive person in the audience takes the bate, and the con merchant can reel off the pre-rehearsed script ... in order to convince their audience they have the gift of mediumship, when they clearly haven't.
It is a big concern, because this person in question, is NOT the only one. There are many out there who con their way through evenings, making the naive audiences part with their money, and conning this audience with made up clap trap. We know it goes on, and sadly in the end it tars the very genuine and naturally gifted mediums with the same brush. Put enough of these charlatans out there and very soon word spreads that all are exactly the same. So the minute a very genuine medium has a bit of a bad night, or has to ask generic questions because they are having difficulty making a connection, they are then branded with the same tag as the deceptive charlatan mentioned above ... its very sad that these con merchants are getting so much popularity and attention, when in truth they should not!
They can be very convincing with their sale's pitch and their fancy titles and their expensive looking web sites ... something needs to be changed. There needs to be some way of getting these clever charlatans banned from conning people in the way that they do!
