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zoobyshoe
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I was reading the Wikipedia article on cold reading and came across this statement in the list of "Barnum statements" that can be used during cold readings. A "Barnum statement" is a statement that sounds specific but is actually applicable to most people.
This particular one about having an accident involving water as a child really strikes me as too specific to apply to most people. The fact that, I, myself, did have an accident involving water as a kid does not change this. We went swimming once at a local lake. Someone had thrown a broken bottle in the water and I stepped on it. We had to abandon the swimming to take me to the doctor to get stitches.
That, of course, strikes me as a pretty specific sort of accident that wouldn't apply to most people. In other words, the suggestion of 'an accident involving water' becomes erroneously specified in my mind to 'cutting your foot on a broken bottle while playing in the water,' and I would credit a psychic who threw that out with being much more specific than they actually were. Which makes this particular Barnum statement an especially effective one: you unconsciously recast it to have described your particular childhood accident involving water.
Anyway, I would like to ask people to post reports of their accidents during childhood involving water. Just about everyone should have one.
This particular one about having an accident involving water as a child really strikes me as too specific to apply to most people. The fact that, I, myself, did have an accident involving water as a kid does not change this. We went swimming once at a local lake. Someone had thrown a broken bottle in the water and I stepped on it. We had to abandon the swimming to take me to the doctor to get stitches.
That, of course, strikes me as a pretty specific sort of accident that wouldn't apply to most people. In other words, the suggestion of 'an accident involving water' becomes erroneously specified in my mind to 'cutting your foot on a broken bottle while playing in the water,' and I would credit a psychic who threw that out with being much more specific than they actually were. Which makes this particular Barnum statement an especially effective one: you unconsciously recast it to have described your particular childhood accident involving water.
Anyway, I would like to ask people to post reports of their accidents during childhood involving water. Just about everyone should have one.