Astrology and cold reading

Fortune-tellers, psychics and spiritualists are often accused of using a technique known as “cold reading” to cheat their clients. But can the same accusation be made against traditional astrologers?

Cold reading is a set of techniques that can be used to give the appearance of having deep and intimate knowledge about another person. It works by allowing the person to tell you their own story without them realizing that they are doing it.

In a cold reading the practitioner will begin by making some statements or suggestions about their subject, and that carefully note their responses. The statements will seem specific to that person but are broad enough that they can apply to a large percentage of people. The cold reading really begins when the subject confirms that something said was true; the practitioner will then expand upon that point and make other suggestions or statements based upon it, using their common sense as a guide, and again wait to see which statements the subject confirms and again expanding upon them.

In this way the cold reading proceeds, becoming increasingly more “accurate” as it goes on. In fact, this is one of the best way to tell when someone is using cold reading: the judgement of the fortune-teller will start out generalized and inaccurate, but through a process of communication it will become quite specific and accurate.

The greatest perpetrators of cold reading are self-proclaimed psychics, those who profess to read minds and see the future, and spiritualists, those who profess to speak with spirits and ghosts.

But can the same accusation be made against traditional astrologers? Let us examine the situation by comparing the process of an astrology reading with that of a psychic or spiritualist reading.

In a traditional astrology reading, the astrologer examines a chart of the heavens, cast for some sort of significant moment – typically, either the time of the client's birth, or the time that the client asked the astrologer a question. The astrologer then draws information from that chart using a set of ancient techniques, all of which can be found in written sources. The basis of the reading should be the chart, and in an ideal scenario the astrologer should ignore any information external to the chart. This includes such things as “tells” from the client, common sense judgements, etc.

In a psychic reading, the practitioner does not examine a chart or indeed anything else other than the client themselves. The practitioner must therefore rely solely on the information they can draw from the client, whether through use of genuine psychic powers, or by cold reading. My contention is that the number of people with genuine psychic powers must be extremely small (perhaps even zero) and that the vast majority of self-proclaimed psychics use cold reading techniques, whether consciously or unconsciously.

An illustration from a work by Robert Fludd (1574 - 1637 AD) showing traditional forms of divination, including prophecy, geomancy, genethlialogy (astrology), chiromancy (palm-reading), and physiognomy.This is the crux of the issue; where is the fortune-teller getting their information from? The traditional methods of divination work by examining a particular object or phenomenon and interpreting its meaning. The astrologer examines the stars, the cartomancer reads tarot cards, the palmist reads the lines on your hand, the augur reads the flight of birds, the haruspex reads the entrails of animals, etc. If a diviner works strictly by examining his medium, cold reading cannot possibly enter in. One can perhaps accuse a diviner of having strange beliefs or being self-deluded, but they cannot be accused of fraud, because the client manifestly gets what they paid for – an interpretation of the arrangement of stars, or of the fall of cards, or of the lines on your hand, etc.

But psychics and spiritualists do not examine anything to get their information; at least, they examine nothing tangible. So where are they getting their information from? Unless they have real psychic powers, the information can only be drawn from either common sense, cold reading, or both. Put simply, they are either genuinely gifted with miraculous powers, or they are frauds.

Equally capable of fraud are those people who combine traditional divination (astrology, tarot, palm-reading, etc.) with self-proclaimed “psychic powers.” Indeed, these sorts of fortune tellers can be among the most insidious, because the source of their information is inscrutable. Imagine a tarot reader who claims to also be a psychic – throughout the reading, the client will have little to no ability to determine whether the fortune teller is drawing information from the cards, from genuine psychic powers, or from fraudulent methods such as cold reading.

For this reason, I suggest that those seeking knowledge of the future should seek out a diviner that examines something tangible for answers, such as a reader of tarot, a geomancer, or an astrologer, rather than a psychic, who has nothing tangible to draw answers from. In lieu of any genuine “powers”, psychics must necessarily rely on cold reading, common sense and so forth if they are to achieve any accuracy.

The point to all of this is honesty - honesty about where we are getting our information from. It is perfectly ethical for an astrologer or tarot reader to use their common sense and make inferences about their client, as long as they tell the client what they are doing. It is when we use common sense, or cold reading, and pretend that the information comes from mysterious "powers" that we become true frauds.

For most clients, the goal in visiting a fortune-teller is getting useful information. The client will not particularly care whether this information comes from an astrology chart, a “psychic power” or plain old common sense; if it will help them in their situation, they will be happy. Being honest with the client about where the information comes from cannot hurt, unless you are setting out to deceive people.

Even sceptics must admit that an astrologer who bases his judgements upon an astrological chart, and is honest about where he is getting his information from, is not “cold reading” and cannot be accused of deceiving his clients.