Cult Smashers: Part Twenty Seven

On the drive back Nate asked Sally the obvious question. “I get most of what was going on, but how did Randi know specific details? For example, how did he know Katy had her house listed for sale?”

“Remember when we signed in and I volunteered our fake names and email addresses? Katy was asked for her’s too. She gave the real ones. That allowed a helper to look up her up on line. That would have included a search for her picture---to ensure they had the right person. Then they could search for all sorts of things---including finding out where she lived. This would be cross-referenced with a Real Estate site that would have told Randi’s people it was up for sale. He used the cold reading techniques he started out with to paint a picture and get the audience thinking he was just going to use things like Barnum statements.”

Sally paused while she shifted lanes. Once she was back in a safe place for a few miles, she continued the conversation. “But because his minions had both figured she would be a good subject and that there was a specific factual statement that Randi could aim towards, she was selected to come up on stage. At that point, the people with the spot lights were given pictures of her and they picked her out of the crowd. Randi ‘warmed her up’ to the point where it wouldn’t seem too strange that he knew she was selling her home. That’s important, if a piece of information comes like a bolt out of the blue without any window-dressing aimed at diverting people’s attention from the obvious, it would be too easy to figure out what happened. Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a totally cold reading. The info that was found and fed to Randi would be called a ‘hot’ reading. And she was such an easy subject that he started out with her and then moved onto the others---some of whom were much more skeptical. She warmed up both the other people that had been selected and the audience too.”

Sally again changed lanes, and then took a turnoff that would bring them directly back to the Elder’s retreat centre. “Randi is just a ‘B’ class stage magician. But the influencers that we will be dealing with are pretty much cut from the same cloth. Since he was in town, I thought it would make things more ‘live’ for you if you could see the technique in action---without the distractions that come from it being more than just harmless entertainment.”

She paused while negotiating a stop light. “The key take-aways I want you to remember are the specific techniques of both a cold and hot reading, plus the strategic sense of how to manage individuals in order to control the entire audience.”

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Furthermore I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!