Tricks Some Psychics Use To Fool People Into Believing They Have 'Special Powers'
With a perfectly-timed head tilt and a withering gaze, a psychic can pretty much get anyone to believe anything they say. Think you’re immune to these tricks? Think again: at some level, all humans are susceptible to psychic trickery when their heartstrings are pulled, and some of the best charlatans out there are the ones who know just how hard to tug. Luckily for us, these clairvoyants’ most mind-boggling tricks are finally being exposed.
Covered in chills
“You think of yourself as an introvert, but you have a large group of friends. Sometimes you struggle with making big decisions. You often feel bogged down by other people’s suffering, like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.” If someone told you this in a soft, soothing voice, you’d get chills, right?
Our most human quality
If so, you just fell victim to one of the oldest tricks in the book. Note how the above “reading” doesn’t really say anything insightful at all. We all have introverted and extroverted qualities, and we all have trouble making big decisions from time to time. The last part, however, appeals to the most human quality in all of us.
A psychic's advantage
No one wants to deny the assertion that they are a responsible, empathetic, and caring person. If you’re told that you’re good, then you’ll probably believe it, because the alternative is often too uncomfortable to bear. In this way, the psychic always has the advantage...
Searching for answers
How do psychics always have the upper hand, you ask? Because you go to them willingly! Hardly anyone visits a one on a whim. Most people see psychics because they haven’t found answers in any of the traditional places — therapy, religion, etc. — and are desperate to find it anywhere else.
"All-seeing" psychics
For example, a man who recently lost his wife to cancer may be burdened with questions — is she out of pain? Is she angry with him? — that a therapist or priest cannot directly answer. If you’re desperate for insight, you will probably find it anywhere, especially in the “all-seeing” eyes of a medium who pulls out all the stops.
The benefits of being tricked
Some people think it’s despicable, self-proclaimed seers using people’s emotional vulnerability for their own financial gain. In response to this, however, some psychics argue that the grieving husband actually benefits from being duped. How does that make sense?
Emotional healing
Some believe that a psychic reading — one the receiver believes to be genuine — can help people heal emotionally from a traumatic event. And aren't hundreds of dollars and the painful re-opening of an emotional wound a small price to pay for healing? Even if you disagree, you still may have fallen for a clairvoyant's more deceptive tricks.
Filling in the blanks
An emotionally vulnerable person is more likely to give up essential information to the psychic, whether they realize they’re doing it or not. If a “mother-like figure” comes forward, this could apply to anyone’s mom, sister, or grandmother. But when the grieving husband and father hears this, he’ll fill in the blanks for the psychic. “That’s my wife!”
Tugging on the heartstrings
Vague descriptions are truly the bread and butter of a phony. When addressing a room of people, a psychic asking if anyone has a deceased father would probably see more than a few raised hands. Then, the “psychic” would really start to tug on the heartstrings: “Whose father had a heart problem?”
Psychics are usually vague
Since heart disease is one of the world’s most common afflictions, almost everyone knows someone who has passed away from heart-related conditions. In contrast, the question “Whose mother-in-law passed away in a hot air balloon accident?” would be a good way for a psychic to lose people’s trust, not gain it — except, of course, under extraordinary circumstances.
Trust is everything...
Trust is the backbone of a medium's job. Without it, the they wouldn’t even get past “hello.” Trust is also the reason why a psychic can blatantly screw up a reading without it blowing up in their face. If they miss the mark, they simply have to restructure the question.
Their "connection"
If a psychic makes a claim about your life — “You have trouble standing up for yourself” — that you know for a fact isn’t true, then it’s easy enough for them to save themselves. A fortune teller might save face by saying, “You actually feel this way on a subconscious level.” They play up the idea that they are in “connection” with a deeper understanding of life than you are.
They're secretly crafty
In this way, a psychic can usually recover from even the biggest mistakes. If you know for a fact that your aunt doesn’t have a message from beyond the grave because you just spoke to her that morning, there are still plenty of crafty ways for a psychic to wriggle out of trouble.
A psychic's saving grace
They could say, “Perhaps it’s someone your aunt was close to,” or, “The message is from an aunt-like figure.” And of course, there’s always a psychic’s saving grace: “The spirit world doesn’t always send the clearest messages.” They can always just claim to be passing along information from the supernatural realm. Who are we to say that this isn’t true?
"Innocent" messengers
After all, if a medium frames themselves as the humble messenger whose only goal in life is to communicate messages from the spirit world, then it doesn’t really matter what they say, as long as it strikes a general chord with the message’s recipient. And for most psychics, it’s easy to tell when a message has hit a nerve.
All about body language
A client may not say anything during a reading, but it can be very easy for a psychic to tell when they’re on the right — or wrong — track. A furrowed brow can indicate skepticism or confusion on the part of the client, a clear sign to the psychic that they’re going in the wrong direction.
Subconscious signs
On the other hand, quickly-blinking eyes are often a sign that someone is trying to hold back tears. Someone suddenly becoming quiet, but fidgety, is a clear indication that they’re uncomfortable with the reading...which means the message has probably hit close to home. Your body language gives away more than you realize.
Our hardwired brains
As humans, we’re hardwired to smile, nod, and reassure. Since psychic abilities are rooted in mystery, we never know what to expect during a reading. We often default to encouraging nods when the seer is right and sympathetic grimaces when they’re wrong. Even appearances can tell them everything they need to know!
A million implications
If you’re young and wearing a wedding ring, for example, it implies that you have experienced the typical milestones and stressors of newly-married life. This opens up so many doors for the psychic. They know that at some point you’ve probably argued with your spouse, worried about money, or thought more than usual about your future.
Sabotaged by your clothing
The psychic would probably say something like, “I’m sensing that you’re grappling with a big decision, an investment of some sort, or maybe a change in routine.” Judging by your reaction to this, the psychic would know that you're planning on buying a house, starting a family, or changing careers. All because of your age and wedding ring!
They're secretly judging you
A medium judges a book by its cover in hopes of getting the upper hand. They look closely at your clothing, hairstyle, behavior, and so on. Someone eager to participate usually sits closer to the psychic, for example, and someone who keeps mostly to themselves (quiet clapping, no sudden movements) is probably more of a closed book.
Easier than ever
But even the most closed-off people can still be fooled by a psychic, and in the most blatantly obvious way possible: the internet. Clairvoyants back in the day depended on sleight-of-hand and hokey tricks to gain strangers' trust, but nowadays, learning intimate information about someone is as easy as a Google search.
Thanks, internet
We all share life updates on Facebook, post photos of our social lives on Instagram, and get candid about political issues on Twitter. It’s really not so crazy that your psychic knew eerily-specific details about the recent loss of your pet parakeet, because you probably posted a goodbye photo on Facebook!
How?
Trickery aside, psychics are still incredibly popular to this day, whether they’re used as conduits for healing or for entertainment purposes only. But what about the rare times when, despite knowing all of the above, you still find yourself stunned after a reading, wondering how the psychic did it?
"What if?"
Well, a psychic’s greatest trick is the fact that no one will ever be able to discredit all psychics. There will always be a quiet “what if?” echoing in the mind of even the strongest skeptic. And sometimes, the most stubborn skeptics make for the most convincing magicians...
Houdini was a skeptic
Harry Houdini wasn’t one for seances or the heebie-jeebies. He prided himself on being a skeptic of all things supernatural: Everything had an explanation, he believed...even his own death-defying acts that made him a legend.
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Obsessed with thrills
All you really need to amaze people, Houdini thought, was a little imagination and creativity, and as he would eventually prove in his acts, he couldn’t have had better timing. By the time Houdini first started wriggling out of handcuffs, the world was obsessed with thrills.
Doing the impossible
Daredevils, aviators, spiritualists, psychics, inventors — if the act involved getting shot out of a cannon, flying high into the air, talking to the dead, or doing something “impossible," then people wanted to see it. In this way, Houdini knew he could flip the script entirely.
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The age of invention
The early 1900s was the age of invention, when ingenuity was valued above all else. This was especially true if, like Houdini, you were an immigrant raised to believe that anything was possible in America...even feats commonly believed to be impossible.
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"Milk can escape"
Houdini’s classic “Milk Can Escape," for example, left audiences reeling when he first performed it in 1908. The act — advertised with the line “Failure Means A Drowning Death” — required Houdini to be handcuffed and locked inside an oversized milk can filled with water.
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He'd never fail...
Houdini would invite the audience to hold their breath along with him as he struggled to free himself. There was always a heart-stopping moment when everyone thought that this was the time Houdini would fail, but he’d always emerge from the can, dripping wet but alive.
Houdini's props and mechanics
Of course, the one question everyone had was: How? The Milk Can Escape is just one of Houdini’s many tricks involving complicated props and mechanics. The many chests, straitjackets, crates, and tanks he used were special. They weren’t exactly sold in stores.
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His bizarre inventions
Unfortunately for us, many of Houdini’s secrets died alongside him in 1926. He had a creative, unrelenting mind, and though we’ll never be able to peer inside it, his genius still exists in the bizarre devices he left behind.
He was an inventor
Houdini is usually referred to as an “illusionist," “escape artist," and even “daredevil," but no one ever thinks to call him an “inventor.” As his escape artist devices have been sold and auctioned off over the years, though, this has started to change.
Living a dangerous life
When Houdini wasn’t perfecting stunts, pursuing an acting career, or trying to be an aviator, he was inventing ways to take his tricks to the next level. It isn’t until you hold one of his devices for yourself that see just how dangerous his life on and off the stage really was.
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Houdini "souvenir"
The magician Teller, of the comedy magic duo Penn & Teller, told Smithsonian Magazine how he once purchased an original device that was invented by Houdini, thinking it would be a “good souvenir.” As it turned out, the device wasn’t as innocent as it seemed.
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"Elaborate mechanism"
“What I didn’t realize is that it is an elaborate mechanism,” Teller said. Once used to keep Houdini tightly bound by ropes, it was actually the way he was able to escape. “With a simple movement of your foot, you could sever all of the ropes simultaneously,” Teller explained.
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The magician's code
How come no one knew Houdini was such an avid inventor? Because patenting his inventions meant doing something that would not only ruin his career, but betray one of the strictest magician’s codes: It would have meant telling the world how he did it.
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Revealing his secrets
If Houdini wanted to patent his inventions, he’d have had to go into great detail about how they worked. He would’ve had to illustrate the mechanics, the inner-workings of the stunts that made him famous. That just wasn’t something he was willing to do...for the most part, that is.
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Houdini's patents
Over the years, Houdini did manage to patent some of his inventions, such as a toy Houdini that escaped from a straitjacket and a unique diving suit that allowed the wearer to escape quickly while underwater. Some patents, though, were simply forgotten…
Abandoned inventions
Houdini once invented and patented a watertight chest that could be locked inside a larger water-filled chest. He intended to show how he could escape from both chests without unlocking them, but despite patenting the trick, it was never used on stage.
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The loophole
He also patented a complicated trick that would have allowed him to be frozen inside a giant block of ice, but that, too, was never performed for a crowd. Why patent ideas if you’re never going to perform them? For Houdini, this might be because he — unsurprisingly — found a loophole.
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Copyrighting his inventions
Instead of giving away all of his secrets in exchange for a patent, Houdini was able to copyright his inventions. He famously did this with his “Chinese water torture cell” trick, which he performed in front of a single person in order to file for a copyright.
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Innovative mind
This raises another question: How was Houdini so famous for his tricks if only a few audiences ever saw him accomplish them? Houdini clearly had a brain for invention, and that wasn’t contained to mechanics. He was also an expert at creating his own buzz.
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The "disappearing elephant"
“As an innovator, he’s the guy who kind of figured out how to use the press,” Teller said. He would also take commonly-performed tricks and make them his own, like when he transformed the already-famous “disappearing donkey” trick into the “disappearing elephant.”
No such thing as magic
“We still don’t know how he did the elephant trick,” said Houdini-expert John Cox. “He would Houdini-ize these more common feats of magic. His mind was always innovating, always inventing.” For Houdini, the magic was always in the mechanics.
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