I Will Read Your Mind!

Yes, you got me right.

Through this ordinary blog, I will scan your thoughts and see the depths of your soul.

All you have to do is look closely at the screen and focus.

Don’t try to transfer your mind to me, that’s my job.

Just simply open it, and let me in.

OK, are you ready?

Focus...

Relax...

Breathe...

And let me in...

...

...

Mm.. yes I can definitely see it.

...

Yes, it’s so vivid.

...

...

And STOP!

I’m done.

You want to see what I’ve got?
Here it is.

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
You have a tendency to be critical of yourself.
You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage.
While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside.
At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing.
You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations.
You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof.
You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others.
At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved.
Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.
Security is one of your major goals in life.

Am I close?

If you find this fascinating, then you are experiencing what is called a Forer Effect.
It is basically a situation where a person feels a personality reading is accurate, while in fact it is vague and apply to a wide range of people.

The observer is Bertram Forer, a psychologist, who in 1948 gave his students a personality test. After the test, he handed everyone their results separately and asked them to score it on a scale of 0 (worst) to 5 (best). None of the students knew that their results were actually the same. The average score turned out to be 4.26, confirming its ‘accuracy’.

Do you want to know what the students read?
You’ve read it.
It is the statements above.

Pretty twisted, eh? :)

This technique is popular among mentalists, fortune tellers, mediums, con artists, etc.
I don’t know if there are real psychics, but certainly fakers exist.

If you still want another example, here’s another one.

You have a box of old unsorted photographs in your house.

Is it close?