Ian Rowland – The Cold Hard Facts of Cold Reading

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

Ian Rowland is a Mentalist and Mind Reader living near London, UK. The world’s foremost authority on cold reading, he is the author of the Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. In this book, Rowland has defined and categorized the different types of psychic readings, and created a taxonomy of cold reading techniques. Rowland was the first person to lecture on cold reading to the Magic Circle and his book has been described as “the definitive work” on the subject by Derren Brown, James Randi, Martin Gardner, Teller, and Banachek.

Read more and listen to the interview at
www.pointofinquiry.org/ian_rowland_the_cold_hard_facts_of_cold_reading/

[Ma'amJo]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if a book like this could be serialised in a newspaper, so that millions of people, and not just the sceptical ones, could get to see the tricks for what they are. If only.

[catharine]

Maybe we could all chip in and take out a full page advert in one of the daily papers...sure it wouldn't cost much

[asdfg]

I rather enjoyed Ian's advice on skepticism about preaching to the converted, not having a clue how to communicate properly, and even using the term 'skeptic'.

He sounds just like me!

And 'you can't rationalise out what was never rationalised in' - I seem to have used that line myself recently regarding 'educating people by explaining things to them'...... somewhere.

[bobdezon]

I have a signed copy, yay!

[asdfg]

So have I.

[Amaris]

Just logged in to post this link and Jigsaw I did think of you and the points you have made when he was talking about the skeptical approach Excellent listening.

[lovelyyoungman]

Feb 20, 2010 11:56:42 GMT @asdfg said:

not having a clue how to communicate properly

;D

[bujin]

I don't have a signed copy, but Mr Rowland was kind enough to refund £5 from the cost of the book. I bought it off his website and had to pay extra for the delivery because his website wasn't up to date. I emailed him to tell him and he offered to refund the delivery charge. I emailed him back to tell him that I wasn't bothered about the refund - I was just telling him so that he could update his website, and he then thanked me for the info and refunded £5 off the cost of the book.

See? It pays to be nice to people. Sometimes...

It's an excellent book too. Well worth getting if you're interested in the subject. I'll have to have a listen to the POI link later.

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

Am I the only one who doesn't like him?
I found him to be incredibly rude and arrogant

[fluffet]

I did wonder why on being known as the "cold reading guy" he says tongue in cheek to the interviewer -
"Yeah....Theres no other facet of my life that people talk about" as if somehow this miffs him a little.

On the cold reading and his mention that a common misconception amongst skeptics is that your always trying to get hits ....and that instead you can NEVER be wrong when cold reading because you make every statement fit.

I see what hes getting at in that it doesnt matter what you say its how you make it seem relevant to the person but surely this relies on the person your reading accepting one of the "fits" your punting and how skilled you are at the banter of making it fit ...what if they simply turn around and say no thats utter rubbish regardless of all you attempts ?

Can you make ANY statement fit for someone when cold reading ?

I dont think you can , I think you can make a hell of a lot of statements seen relevant but not ANY statement.

Did agree with much of the rest of what he said however ...i dont think you can NEVER change ANYONES views through rational explainations/discussion simply because ive seen it happen albeit on rare occasions.
Its knowing the difference of when that approach may work or can be applied and when it simply wont in anyway and adopting a very different one.

I feel that Skeptics in fact anyone from any standpoint or belief or view need to move away from a title and the need to fit it (misconceptions and all )and start being a person with individuality , treat and approach each case , person, discussion, experience individually on its own merits ...as a seperate issue unique in its factors rather than treat them/it as a perceived stereotype or pigenholed title/group as can often happen. There are no true skeptics and there are no true believers there are just people with varying degrees of subscribance to the what they perceive those titles are and a million factors inbetween that make it impossible to approach them all with the same exact manner or a set of immovable rules that guarantee sucess when debating with them.

There is no one fits all best approach because there isnt an all to start with just indivduals what works with one will not with another, maybe the real issue is to stop trying to argue what the best overall approach is and start acknowledging that there isnt one .....there are many depending on the individual and circumstance and its acknowledging these factors thats important .



Titles carry misconceptions, you can waste years trying to correct them in others till your happy to be called it or simply drop the title and be an individual .

[Ma'amJo]

lovelyyoungman you do amuse me.

[wombatwal]

A very interesting and thought provoking interview.
I have always thought that these sceptical sites/forums were essentially talking to the converted.
But occasionally you do get a "believer" on these sites which is a lot more interesting.

Jon said
"Am I the only one who doesn't like him?
I found him to be incredibly rude and arrogant"

I did not pick up any rudeness or arrogance. I think I quite like him.