How Mentalists Read Your Mind The Art Of Cold Reading or Mind Reading | Page 72

of thin air - in such a way that by looking carefully it is possible to
see that something fishy is going on. "After they have seen the films
we find that goats describe what happened quite differently from
sheep, the sheep however are much more likely to leave out the
sequences that show there is cheating going on."

Learn the tricks of reading people's minds
One popular demonstration of telepathy, favoured by people like
Uri Geller, involves asking people to choose a number between one
and ten or to draw a simple figure. The " psychic" then uses his
powers to say what it was. What he won't reveal is that there is a
definite hit chart when it comes to the numbers people are likely to
choose.
In one study with nearly 200 people the most popular number was
seven, chosen by 63 people. Six was chosen by 37 and eight by 23.
Only four chose one and one chose ten. So guessing six, seven or
eight ups your psychic powers immediately.
Even images have their top ten. When 700 people were asked to
think of a picture, 94 choose a house, 93 a circle and 77 a square.
Only 17 choose a star of David and 16 a face.
Asked for two geometric forms, out of 600 people, 203 chose a
circle and triangle as opposed to 66 who chose a triangle and a
square.