Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A primer on dangerous scams!, July 17, 2006
Part I of Steiner's book is called "You Can Be Taken." No matter who we are or how smart we think we are, we are vulnerable to the snares of the con man. Why? It's not because we're greedy or stupid. It's because we are trusting. We trust people we think are sincere and being sincere is certainly a quality of trustworthy people. However, as Steiner points out, if what the person is selling is nonsense, it doesn't matter that she's sincere. As Steiner says: "If you consult an astrologer to make life decisions, you are giving up control over your own life. You are living your life based upon mystical nonsense. That is true whether the practicing astrologer whom you consult is a fraud or a sincere true believer"(6).
Steiner's book is a how-to manual in protection from cons and scams. He begins with the warning that anybody can be taken, including you. If you fail to learn lesson number one, don't bother reading the rest of the book. He describes how he uses cold reading to fool people into thinking he's psychic. Cold reading is the name given to a set of techniques used by psychics, astrologers, palm readers, numerologists, "or any of numerous other mystical practitioners of nonsense" (21). The reader "starts cold, with no information" about his or her client.
"The reader begins with generalities which are applicable to large segments of the population. He or she pays careful attention to reactions: words, body language, skin color, breathing patterns, dilation or contraction of the pupils of the eye, and more. The subject of the reading will usually convey important information to the reader: sometimes in words, and sometimes in bodily reactions to the reading."
"From observation, the reader will feed back to the subject what the latter wants to hear. That is the overwhelming guiding principle of the mystics: Tell 'em what they want to hear. That will keep them coming back for more."
In addition to cold reading, Steiner explains that psychics are often quite sensitive and perceptive people. They pick up on subtle clues. This surprises most people and leads many of them to attribute this sensitivity to being psychic. Thus, the sensitive, perceptive person gets a lot of feedback from others about their psychic abilities. "Hearing that enough, the person begins to believe that he or she is indeed psychic" (29).
Steiner doesn't think most psychics are frauds. He thinks the majority are sincere but wrong, and that none of them truly help the police solve crimes, despite what the media and the public might think. In fact, both the media and the public provide the same kind of after-the-fact finding of meaning that dominates cold readings when they give psychics credit for assisting the police. The alleged psychic detective supposedly helps the police locate the body of a murder victim. The psychic senses the body will be found near running water and, shock of shocks, the body is found by the edge of a river. Steiner was once in Iowa where this happened. His question? "Where in Iowa do people live that is not near running water?"
After the psychics, Steiner takes on the astrologers. He considers astrology to be a pseudoscience. But he also argues that it is a form of bigotry because it prejudges people. He has a hilarious chapter entitled "Hitler was an Aries."
Steiner's chapter on the blood readers (chapter 8) is a riot. The theory is based on a Japanese book translated as You Are Your Blood Type. It is a deliciously funny story and I won't spoil it for you: Get Steiner's book and read it for yourself. (You already know the main plot. Substitute blood type for sun sign, palm lines, forehead furrows, foot shape, birth date, facial features, bumps on the head, etc.)
In a single chapter, Steiner takes on the Ouija board, tarot cards, remote viewing, reincarnation, alchemy, channeling, dowsing, biorhythms, the Bermuda triangle, Edgar Cayce, and Nostradamus. He relates these items to personal experiences in interesting and amusing ways. His style is easy, entertaining, and enlightening.
Part III could save you a lot of money. It's about various cons, swindles, and scams, including pyramid schemes and the three-card monte. Part IV is called "the cruelest scams." Here Steiner assails psychic surgery, faith healers, and those who claim to communicate with the dead. He writes of the latter: "It is unconscionable that these bunco artists prey on bereavement, love, superstition, and human emotions to rob the bereaved of not only their money, but of the opportunity to come to terms with reality. By perpetrating the illusion that their customers can actually communicate with dead love ones, the crime of fraud takes place in one of its most hateful settings." According to Steiner, "There is no reliable evidence---NONE, not the slightest shred--that living humans can communicate with the dead" (150).
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't call that Psychic, July 22, 2001
Anybody that calls Psychics or subscribes to money pyramids should read this book before throwing away their money.
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2 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't buy it, April 25, 2006
This guy is a crackpot and completely full of it. The only person he's worried about financially is himself, and is definitely the expert on ripping people off.
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by Robert Levine
