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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
In the delightful book, Scams from the Great Beyond, by Peter Huston, we find this Universal Psychic Reading, which applies to almost everyone:
You have a great need for other people to like you 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 about 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 on being 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, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your goals in life.
That fit you pretty well, didn't it? This fits almost everyone. Now do you see how your horoscope can sound so accurate?
I received email with this information about the above universal psychic reading: This is supposed to have been written by psychologist Bertram R. Forer in 1948, mostly by collecting ideas from an astrology book. This is apparently reported in The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 44:118-123.