Genuine psychics, by contrast, generally won't fish around for details in advance; they'll seek instead to concentrate on an "inner" contact with the client. They'll also have no problem with the person taking notes, or even tape-recording the session, for later assessment. The information offered is typically non-trivial, precise and original, and refers not only to the future (which is always hard to assess on the spot!) but also to the present and the past.

Though the tactics of pseudo-psychics should be fairly easy to detect, the situation is not always clear-cut. Even charlatans can accidentally stumble on some real psi information (like stage magicians who sometimes pick up things which weren't part of their act!). And even sincere and gifted psychics may mix some psychology with parapsychology, or be perfectly on target about some things and mistaken about others.


External sources of more information:
Guide to Cold Reading