One of the fascinating things we talked about at the weekend, blessed to have an expert on the subject in our midst, was the art of cold readings and how people can be utterly convinced by them. The person doing the cold reading, perhaps a communicator or a psychic, fishes subtly for information, and is adept at adapting to the body language of the person he is reading, or the owner of the horse that he is reading. He will say something like, "I am seeing a masculine figure," and as the owner thinks "no..." he will say, "no, it's a woman, but she is quite masculine in her manner...". Spotting the body language they can flip their information, and bulldoze over their mistakes. The student, a person with a professional interest in this so-called art, suggested that more than 90% of psychics are con-artists and that the more that people had paid for their reading, the more they cling to it. The reader is adamant, and says things with an absolute certainty, constantly talking, whereas the people that really have the answers are more hesitant about what they say.
Another phrase he used, which I may well pinch, is that people hold on to their beliefs as if they are fingers, when in fact they are only a ring on a finger, which can be taken off.
In these days when we are inundated with information about our horses, and desperate to have all the answers, is it any wonder we go to people who can give us a definitive answer? I have often thought that I can read a horse better than many animal communicators, simply through their body language, and wrote a long time ago about a pony called, Kennedy, whose headcollar was growing into his face. A communicator came to see him and listed a number of things that he had concerns about whereas all I could hear was, "My head, my head, be careful with my head." Don't misunderstand me, I don't mind anyone working with a horse that does no harm, but, having been a lawyer, I usually like to have a bit of real evidence.
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| Kennedy: I need to talk to you about something |
