Category Archives: Beliefs

244. Urban Myths

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This episode is all about urban myths. Get your thinking hat on in this episode because it’s time to evaluate a few stories and beliefs and decide if they are based in reality or if they’re just the product of an overactive imagination, or rumours, or just plain old-fashioned bullcr*p! I will also teach you some very useful language connected to expressing if you think something is true or not. There are vocabulary notes, transcriptions and more details below. [Download]

Small Donate ButtonIn This Episode we will:
Consider what an urban myth actually is
Look at a news story about a commonly held belief from another country (and decide if it’s really true or not)
Look at some useful language – phrases and sentences we use to say “That’s true” or “That’s not true” – useful, natural vocabulary!
Consider some commonly told and surprising ‘facts’ and decide if they’re true
Talk about some of the UK’s favourite superstitions (if we have time – if not, that will be another episode in the future some time)

What’s an urban myth?
Essentially, this is a story or a fact which people spread around as if it is true, but in fact it is probably just made up. Often these urban myths or urban legends are personal stories or anecdotes, typically 2nd hand ones (like, “this happened to a friend of my brother’s girlfriend’s cousin and it’s absolutely true!”) and often involve something horrible, scary and shocking. Urban myths may also be just commonly held beliefs about something which are not based on any real evidence or fact, but are perpetuated out of misinformation, or as a hoax.

Superstitions on the other hand are similar but not the same. A superstition is the widely held belief that certain actions are lucky or unlucky, like the idea that the number 13 carries some magic power, or that not making eye contact when you take a drink and say “cheers” with someone, you’ll have 7 years of bad sex. Where’s the evidence that this is true? There is none, and yet many rational people still hold on to these ideas. In fact, many rational people still have that element of suspicion in the backs of their minds whenever they do some potentially unlucky behaviour, like walking under a ladder or opening an umbrella inside a house. Perhaps some of these superstitions are grounded in truth, but in many cases they’re just weird little glitches in our thinking. Every culture has its own unique urban myths and superstitions. In this episode we’re going to explore a few urban myths – one from Korea, some from The UK or America. I’ll tell you some things and you can use your critical thinking to decide if they’re really true or just a myth.

Then if we have time I’ll tell you about some of the most commonly held superstitions in the UK.

Examples of urban myths?
I’ll tell you a couple of stories that I remember being told by kids at school as if they were true.
The caller
The worm
The spider’s nest

All those stories are supposed to make you go “Oh my god!” and people make them true just to add some extra horror. None of them are true.

Discuss
1. Do you believe everything you read in the papers?
2. What about things you read on the internet?
3. How about things you hear by word of mouth?
4. Where does misinformation come from? Is it always shared by word of mouth or online?
5. How do you know if a story is true or just an urban myth?

Believe it or not? Truth or Urban Legend?
1. Look at the newspaper headline “The Cool Chill of Death” (The Metro, Monday 14th July) What is the article about? Make some predictions.

Vocabulary (before we read the article)
2. Match these words with their synonyms & definitions before you read the text.
Words & Expressions in the Article
1. on the loose (c)
2. humble (g)
3. rumble & grumble (b)
4. to be convinced that… (d)
5. a vacuum (e)
6. hypothermia (a)
7. an urban myth (f)

Synonyms & Definitions
a. a fatal condition caused by low body temperature
b. scary noises (e.g. made by thunder or a monster)
c. not in prison – free
d. be sure/certain that…
e. a space with no air in it
f. a story which is not true, but which people think is true
g. modest

3. Read the first paragraph & check your predictions.

Reading Comprehension Questions
4. Now read the rest of the article and find answers to these questions.
a. What is fan death?
b. What are two explanations of fan death?
c. Which of these is a realistic explanation?
d. According to Dr Yeon Dong-Su, what two factors could cause hypothermia to occur?
e. According to the article, why is fan death unlikely to be real?
f. What did Robin Prime do?
g. What two things shocked him?
h. How do tall stories become widely held beliefs?
i. Could a fan suck all the air out of a room? Why/why not?

The Metro, 14 July
THE COOL CHILL OF DEATH
Be afraid, be very afraid. For as summer continues, there’s a new killer on the loose. It rumbles and it grumbles and it is the humble electric fan. For in South Korea from Seoul to Seongnam, people are convinced you can die by leaving one turned on in your bedroom overnight.
Various explanations have been given for how the fans kill people – from their cooling effect resulting in hypothermia to the vacuum created around the victim’s face. These explanations fly in the face of medical opinion, yet Korean newspapers report an annual average of ten fan deaths and some Korean doctors are convinced of the hazards of sleeping with a fan switched on.
Clinical support
Dr Yeon Dong-su, dean of Kwandong University’s medical school, has investigated dozens of cases of fan death and insists they do occur. ‘Many people say these victims die from lack of oxygen but that is not true,’ he says. ‘Hypothermia does not only occur in the winter when it is cold. The symptoms can also take place if a person has been drinking and turns on a fan in a closed room. Most people wake up when they feel cold but if you are drunk, you will not wake up, even if your body temperature drops to below 35°C (95 °F), at which point you can die from hypothermia.’
It seems more likely than not that fan death is actually little more than an urban myth – most of the newspaper reports omit other causes of death from heart attack to gunshot wound – but it’s very hard to find a Korean who doesn’t believe in the phenomena – to the point where fans in Korea are fitted with timer switches to ensure their owners avoid certain death.
Possible ‘cot death’
A spokesperson for the Korean tourist board says: ‘This is certainly a serious and widely held belief in Korea. It appears to come from reports of people dying in the night and the common factor is the fan was running. The actual cause of death could have been something totally different, including cases of what people in the West would call cot death.’
Fan death has also become a cult internet phenomenon, thanks to message boards populated by English teachers in Korea who are baffled by their students’ belief in this notion. Robin Prime, who set up the website www.fandeath.net, says: ‘I was shocked at how powerful my Korean friends’ and students’ belief was and at the lack of critical thinking about the issue.’
Urban myth expert Dr Robert Matthews of Aston University explained how a shaggy dog story becomes a widely held belief across a country. ‘Urban myths often have a grain of truth in them that then suffers from the ‘Chinese whisper’ effect, with the facts being lost behind ever more embellishment,’ he says. ‘Clearly, it’s true that an extractor fan could suck all the air from an airtight box. And it’s also true that people sometimes die from inadequate ventilation. It’s a safe bet that many of those deaths will also have occurred in homes fitted with fans simply because many homes in South Korea have them. Hey, presto! You’ve a dodgy link, plus an irrelevant scientific fact to back it up. The truth is, of course, that buildings are notoriously leaky, and fans don’t have a hope of sucking out all the air.

To be clear: Some Koreans (not all) believe that if you go to sleep in a closed room with a fan blowing directly on you, that you can die.

I have spoken about it with numerous Korean students, and many of them were adamant that it is true. But is this true or just a myth? Is this something that happens everywhere, or just something that affects Koreans?

5. Discuss the Article
What do you think of the article?
Do you think the writer is being a bit snobbish about South Koreans?
Do you believe in fan-death?
Do you ever sleep with a fan on at night?
Fan death is said to be just an ‘urban myth’. Do you know any other urban myths like this?

Arguments For Fan Death (by people who say it really is real!)
It slices the oxygen molecules in half, you can’t breathe them and then you suffocate to death.
You can die of hypothermia because the fan prevents you from sweating and then you freeze to death.
It creates an air-sucking vortex, like the eye of a tornado, which creates a vortex/vacuum and then you can’t breathe.

More details & opinion on the Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Useful Language For Saying “It’s true” or “It’s not true”
Do we use these expressions to say we think something is true or not true?

That’s not true
There’s no way that’s true
That is so obviously made up
It can’t be true
It sounds pretty far-fetched to me
I think it’s not true
It smells a bit fishy to me
It’s possible, but unlikely

That’s true
I reckon that’s definitely true
There’s a good chance that’s true
That sounds pretty likely to me
I’d say that’s probably true
It sounds pretty convincing to me
That might/could be true

More Stories – Are they TRUE or just URBAN MYTHS? – You decide!
You are going to listen to descriptions of 6 stories which people talk about, but which may or may not be true.

Are the stories true, or just myths? You decide.

  1. Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine
  2. If you give alka seltzer to a seagull, it will explode
  3. Walt Disney’s body is cryogenically frozen
  4. There are albino crocodiles living in the New York sewer system
  5. Red Bull contains extracts from bull’s testicles
  6. Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola company

Remember the useful language above.

TRANSCRIPTS

Coke used to have cocaine in it
Luke: Hi Deb. Do you like coca-cola?
Deb: It’s ok, it’s very very sweet.
Luke: Yes, but it’s quite moreish don’t you think?
Deb: Yeah, well when I open a bottle I tend to drink most of it in a night.
Luke: Right, which is probably the caffeine.
Deb: Yeah
Luke: There is a lot of caffeine in Coca-Cola, which makes it quite addictive, but apparently there used to be more than just caffeine in it.
Deb: Well, like what?
Luke: Well, apparently in the early days it used to contain cocaine.
Deb: No!
Luke: Yep. Now, as we all known cocaine is a, kind of, an illegal drug, and actually you could find cocaine in Coca-Cola, right?
Deb: So is that, does that explain its name then, where it gets its name from?
Luke: Well, perhaps yeah. I mean, the… Cocaine comes from coca leaves. That’s where it’s derived from, and if you look at the ingredients on a can of Coca-Cola you’ll see coca leaves there, but these days they actually extract the cocaine from the coca leaves before they make the Coca-Cola.
Deb: So you’re not going to get high when you drink Coke nowadays.
Luke: Unfortunately not, but it used to contain cocaine. There you go. So…
Deb: I didn’t know that.

Feed Alka Seltzer to a seagull and it will explode
Luke: Right, Deb, you know Alka Seltzer, right?
Deb: Yeah, that’s the stuff you take if you’ve got a bit of a dodgy stomach, right? Dissolve it in water and it makes you feel better.
Luke: Yep, that’s it, exactly.
Deb: What about it?
Luke: Well, have you ever fed alka seltzer to a seagull?
Deb: No. Why, should I?
Luke: No you shouldn’t.
Deb: Why not?
Luke: Because it’ll, kind of, go off like a bomb. Now, apparently, right, the chemicals and stuff inside a seagull’s stomach react to the Alka Seltzer. There’s a strong reaction and it produces lots of carbon dioxide, and because seagulls can’t burp or fart there’s nowhere for the gas to go and it just builds up inside the seagull until eventually “boom” it just explodes everywhere.
Deb: So the seagull just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and then bang, gone…
Luke: Exploded, splat. Exactly.

Walt Disney is cryogenically frozen
Luke: OK Deb, right, here’s a good one.
Deb: OK
Luke: You know Walt Disney?
Deb: Yes, he created Disneyland, didn’t he?
Luke: That’s right. He was the founder of Disney, the very well-known film studio. Well, apparently, he used to be a very very rich man, you know, when he was alive, of course. He was a very private man, and quite a strange man, right? And actually when he died, yeah, people say that his body was frozen.
Deb: What do you mean, frozen?
Luke: Well, put into liquid nitrogen, in a cryogenic chamber.
Deb: Why would he do something like that?
Luke: Well, it’s that his body could be perfectly preserved in ice so that in the future when the technology is ready, scientists can bring him back to life. He thought when he died that in the future there would be the technology to allow him to be brought back to life.
Deb: It sounds like the kind of film that he would have created.
Luke: It does. It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.
Deb: Yeah totally.
Luke: It’s pretty strange. If you can imagine Walt Disney frozen in a chamber somewhere in a big castle in Disneyland. It’s a bit like Dracula or something.
Deb: Or sleeping beauty, but you know, he’s not probably…
Luke: I don’t know whether he was good looking or not. Let’s stick with Dracula, it sounds cooler.

There are albino crocodiles living in the New York sewer system
Luke: Right, okay Deb, now, you know New York.
Deb: Yep, Big Apple, big city on the east coast of America.
Luke: That’s right, they call it The Big Apple. I don’t know why. Anyway…
Deb: Maybe they have big apples there.
Luke: Who knows. Apparently New York has a massive sewer system under the city. Huge underground tunnels with big reservoirs of water. There’s, like, lakes of drinking water and tunnel filled with water that run under the whole city.
Deb: It’s all connected to the Hudson isn’t it.
Luke: It’s connected to the Hudson River. It may also be connected to the sea as well in some way. Right, now according to this website that I was looking at, yeah? There are loads of things, like, living down there.
Deb: What, rats and stuff?
Luke: Yeah, but more than rats. I’m talking about alligators.
Deb: Rubbish!
Luke: Well, apparently there’s, like, quite a few down there, and they’ve been there since the 1930s. Originally what happened was, rich families from New York would go on holiday to Florida. There are loads of alligators in Florida, and they’d bring back tiny little baby alligators as pets for the kids, and then when the alligators got too big, yeah, this is like in New York… Once the alligators got too big…
Deb: And then became a bit dangerous I suppose.
Luke: Yeah!
Deb: They might eat the kids.
Luke: Exactly, yeah! Well, once the… even about a foot or two long they’re difficult to keep. They would flush them down the toilet.
Deb: Oh, that’s really mean!
Luke: It is mean, but what happened to those alligators is that they didn’t die. They just went into the sewer system and then survived down there, because apparently it’s quite warm, there’s lots of water, lots of food for them to eat like rats and things, and so they managed to survive, yeah. So, apparently there are reports of sightings of these things by sewer workers, but they’ve never been caught. But what’s interesting about these things is, because they’ve never actually seen the light
Deb: OK because it’s always dark down there
Luke: Because it’s always dark. They’ve gone blind, and the colour of their skin has changed. They’re actually albino.
Deb: So they’re white.
Luke: They’re white with red eyes, and they eat babies.

Red Bull contains extracts from bull’s testicles
Luke: Do you ever drink Red Bull?
Deb: No I can’t stand the stuff. I got drunk on it once, with vodka and it now makes me very ill.
Luke: OK, well apparently, it’s got loads of caffeine in it, which kind of gives you that energy.
Deb: It gives you a high doesn’t it?
Luke: It gives you wings. But apparently, caffeine is not the only thing in Red Bull.
Deb: Water?
Luke: There’s also, well, water and sugar and stuff, but also there’s another ingredient called taurine.
Deb: Taurine.
Luke: Well, taurine basically is extracted from bulls’ testicles. It’s like a magic ingredient which gives you energy and vitality and it comes from bulls’ balls, bulls’ testicles.
Deb: Don’t the bulls mind, people sneaking up on them and taking their taurine!?
Luke: Well, I expect so. I don’t know how they get the stuff out of the bulls’ testicles.
Deb: I wouldn’t want to do that job.
Luke: I wouldn’t want to do that job either! But apparently the taurine is extracted from the testicles, and this is one of the ingredients that gives you the energy. If you think about it, yeah, the word taurine comes from the latin word taurus, which actually means bull, and we know that bulls have a lot of energy and a high sex drive, and they get the taurine from the bull’s testicles and put it in the drink and the result is you get more energy and you become, sort of, more powerful and maybe a better lover.
Deb: GOh so it can affect your sex drive too.
Luke: Yeah, haven’t you ever…? Well,…
Deb: Well I might start drinking it again.

Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola
Luke: Ok, Deb, here’s a well-known one.
Deb: OK, go ahead
Luke: We all know the image of Santa Claus, right?
Deb: Yeah, big fat guy, red clothes, big beard.
Luke: White hair, yeah red clothes, very jolly.
Deb: Big rosy cheeks.
Luke: Says “ho ho ho” a lot. He’s the symbol of Christmas.
Deb: Yeah
Luke: Now, what’s the history of Santa?
Deb: It’s got something to do with Germany, hasn’t it? Something to do with Saint Nicholas?
Luke: Yeah, that’s what people say. Some connection to Christianity perhaps. Well, the fact is, it’s actually related to Coca-Cola. Apparently, the Santa that we know today was just created by Coca-Cola for their advertising campaigns.
Deb: Really?
Luke: Yep. It has nothing to do with old folklore or traditional stories or Christianity. It was actually just designed by an artist in the 1930s to sell Coca-Cola. Now, if you think about it, he’s wearing Coke’s corporate colours.
Deb: The red and white.
Luke: Red and white, and Coke have always done big advertising campaigns at Christmas.
Deb: Yeah
Luke: So he was just invented by Coca-Cola.
Deb: Oh that’s really sad. I thought it had a bit more history and tradition to it.
Luke: No, it’s just an advertising campaign.
Deb: Oh, that’s rubbish.

So, which ones do you think are true, and which are not true?
Leave your comments below this episode. Use some of the language in this episode.
I will post the answers here later.

That’s it, thanks for listening!

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urbanmyths

URBAN MYTHS – THE ANSWERS

116. Could it be you…?

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Please let me know if you feel like the personality profile in this episode relates to you in particular. *Full transcript below*

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Transcript
Welcome to episode number 116 of Luke’s English Podcast. This episode features an experiment into the linguistic tricks that are used in mind reading and fortune telling. I must say at the beginning that I do not really believe that psychic powers exist. I think mind reading looks like a magic power but actually it is just a trick. This episode and the next one, are about this subject. There is a full transcript for this episode available at http://teacherluke.wordpress.com.

I’ve been interested in magic for a long time. I do a few card tricks and some other things. I’m a complete amateur, but I find it really interesting. Recently I’ve been finding out about mind reading, or psychic reading to find out how it is done. I’d like to do an experiment in this episode to test some of the techniques used by mind readers, psychics and fortune tellers. What I am about to say in this episode is not really true, it’s just an experiment to test some linguistic techniques used by psychics who claim to have supernatural powers. However, I don’t believe in supernatural powers.

Obviously, now I’ve told you that, the experiment into mind reading in this episode probably will not work, but I feel it’s very important for me to be honest with you so that I do not betray a relationship of trust that I have with you my listeners. I could have just said some things which are not true to make my mind reading experiment work, but I don’t believe it is fair to deceive you, even if it is ultimately just for fun.

The reasons I am doing this experiment into mind reading are:
-I want to test some techniques
-I think it could be really interesting and engaging to listen to (and it’s really good for your english to be engaged when you listen)
-This episode should contain lots of useful language which you can read in the tapescript online -Together we can learn about mind reading, psychics, fortune tellers, horoscopes and just the way people’s thinking can be manipulated. It’s quite an interesting study into human nature.

I will explain more in the next episode. I know all this might sound strange, but it’s all part of my effort to keep Luke’s English Podcast interesting! For now, let’s carry on with the episode…

This might sound strange but…
I’ve been doing this podcast for over 3.5 years now. Nearly 4 years in fact. That’s about 116 episodes in which I’ve been talking alone into a microphone. I really try to make it engaging by imagining that I am talking to one person in particular. I imagine there is one person in front of me and I talk to that person. That helps me to make the episodes sound natural and to make a connection between me and the listener. When I first started doing the podcast I didn’t really have a sense of who I was talking to, but now after nearly 4 years of doing this, for some reason I’ve got more and more of a sense that there is someone on the other side, and I don’t just mean that there are people listening, I mean that there’s one person on the other side who I know really well now, and that we have a connection like a friendship or something like that.

It’s a very strange feeling and I don’t know how to explain it but it just feels like there’s a person coming through, like one person who is listening and who I’ve made a connection with, to the point where I really know that person well, I mean really well. And last night I had a really vivid dream that I was talking to you and that we really connected on quite a deep level. I don’t know if it is possible that some kind of connection has been made even though we’ve never met but still I got a strong sense of one personality in particular. Maybe it is because my life has undergone some changes recently that I am more open to these connections. I don’t really know, but the dream was very vivid and clear and now I have a really clear picture of you and your personality in my head. I’m just wondering who you are and if you are out there listening to this right now.

Then what I did this morning as soon as I woke up was to write down a kind of personality profile of the person I’ve been meeting in my dreams. A lot of it is about a personality type, but I also sensed some specific information too. Now, I want to know if the person I had a connection with in the dream is out there, listening to this podcast. Could it be you? Maybe you feel like you’ve got a connection with me which is more than just as a listener. So, please if you feel like this description which I wrote this morning relates to you personally then please let me know by adding a comment. Look for details in this personality profile that seem to relate to your personality. It really could be you that I felt a connection with.

I am looking for one particular person. Is it you? Let me know. Here’s the profile I wrote this morning. If I’m wrong about this, then I’m wrong, but this really came very strongly to me. So here it is.

Personality profile:
I feel that you are a person who sometimes goes through periods of self-examination in which you privately analyse your thoughts, your actions and the direction your life is taking, even if this doesn’t always bring you clear results. This is in contrast to the ability you have developed to seem very socially engaged when you are with other people. Despite the fact that in private you are very introspective and sensitive, when you are with other people you manage to be very sociable and even the life and soul of the party, but only in a way that convinces other people. Privately you know that this is just an appearance which you use to make yourself look socially at ease. Sometimes you worry that you think too much about yourself, and that this is not normal. Perhaps you feel you should think less about these deep things and just enjoy your life fully, but ultimately you still find you have to make a lot of effort to be a certain type of person when you are with other people.

This means that you will often be at a gathering (like a party or an occasion when lots of people are together) and find yourself playing a part, as if you are an actor in your own movie. While on the one hand you’ll be talkative and funny, you’ll also be detaching yourself to the point where you will find yourself watching everything going on around you and feeling utterly unable to engage. Later you’ll play conversations back to yourself in your head and wonder what you or other people really meant when they said things. You carefully consider conversations that other people wouldn’t give a second thought to.

How have you learned to deal with this conflict? Through exercising control. You like to show a calm, self-assured and fluid kind of stability to other people, but because this is self-consciously created, it can create periods of frustrated silliness and a delight in extremes, or at least a delight in being seen to be extreme. You most easily recognise this control in how you are with people around you. You have learned to protect yourself by keeping people at a distance. Because in the past you have learned to be disappointed by people (and perhaps because there were issues with you adjusting to your sexuality), you instinctively keep people at arms’ length, until you decide they are allowed over that magic line into your group of close friends. However, once across that line, the problem is that an emotional dependency begins, which leaves you feeling very hurt or rejected if it appears that they have betrayed their status as a trusted friend.

Because you are prone to self-examination, you will probably be aware of these traits that I’m describing. However, you are unusually able to examine even that self-examination, which means that now you have become concerned about who the real you is. You have become all too aware of different sides of yourself which you present to the world, and you wonder if you have lost touch with the real and spontaneous you.

This might sound strange but when you were a child did you have an accident that involved water, or falling? This probably isn’t something you remember completely clearly, in fact you may have just heard older family members telling the story of an accident you had, or a moment when you were in danger as a child. I think you have a scar on your body too, possibly on your knee or leg, which was the result of an accident you had when you were younger.

I feel that you are quite an independently spirited person and you really like to make up your own mind about things. You’re someone who doesn’t just accept what everyone else is doing, but rather you want to find your own way to understand something before you are completely convinced. For example, if there is a band or a movie which everyone seems to like you won’t just accept everyone else’s opinion. Instead you want to make up your own mind about it first. Often you’ll find that although the rest of the world seems overly enthusiastic about this film, band, book or whatever, you can’t help seeing it in a different way and can’t really understand why everyone else seems to love it so much. Actually, when you see friends who just like things because everyone else does then you feel a kind of disappointment in them.

Generally you are a cheerful and friendly person but there has been a time in the past when you were very upset or sad. You still think about that moment sometimes and you haven’t fully get over it, or dealt with it yet, but you will in time.

You are very creative, and have tried different ways to use that ability. It may not be that you specifically, say, paint; it may be that your creativity shows itself in more subtle ways, but you will certainly find yourself having well-formed ideas which are clear to you but which others will find hard to understand.

You set high standards for yourself, and in many ways you are a bit of a perfectionist. The problem is, though, that it means you often don’t finish things you’ve started, because you are frustrated by the idea of doing something that is not perfect, or the idea of starting something again from the beginning makes you tired. However, once your brain is engaged you’ll find yourself moving freely without being blocked. Very much this will likely lead to you having considered writing a novel or something like that, but a fear that you won’t be able to achieve exactly what you want stops you from completing it. Nevertheless, you have a real vision for things, which others don’t really see. Particularly in your academic/college situation, you are currently fighting against things which block your desire to express yourself freely.

I sense that at the moment you are experiencing some tension with a friend or possibly a family member. Your relationship with your parents (and I get the feeling here that one is no longer around, or at least is emotionally absent) is under some strain. You wish to remain fond of them but recent issues are causing frustration – from your side far more than theirs. In fact they seem unaware of your thoughts on the matter. Partly this is because there are ways in which you have been made to feel isolated from certain groups in the past – something of an outsider. Now what is happening is that you are taking that outsider role and defending it to the point of consciously avoiding being part of a group. This will serve you well in your creative and career pursuits. You have an enormous cynicism towards those who prefer to be part of a group rather than risk being an individual, and you always feel a sense of disappointment when you see your ‘close’ friends seeming to follow that route. Deep down it feels like rejection.

However, despite all your introspection, you have developed a fantastic sense of humour that helps you to make connections with other people quickly and cleverly. Sometimes your sense of humour causes you to make jokes or comments that other people don’t really understand, but you enjoy it so much that you’ll often rehearse jokes or amusing voices to yourself in order to ’spontaneously’ impress others with them. This is a healthy desire to impress, and although you hate catching yourself at it, it’s nothing to be very worried about.

There’s also an odd feeling that you should have been born in a different century, like you feel that you would be more suited to another time in the past. You might be able to make more sense of that than I can.

You have a generous nature and you love to give things to other people, or help other people, although sometimes you have acted in quite a selfish way, and this preys on your mind sometimes, leaving you with a slight sense of guilt.

There are some strong monetary changes taking place in your life at the moment. Both in the recent past and what’s in store over the next few months represent quite a change. Perhaps your money situation has been on your mind recently.

You have links at the moment with America, or maybe the UK which are quite interesting, and will quite possibly produce worthwhile results. You’re naturally a little disorganized. A look around your living space would show a box of photos, not organised into albums, out-of-date medicines, broken items not thrown out, and notes to yourself which are significantly out of date. Something related to this is that you lack motivation. Because you’re resourceful and talented enough to be pretty successful when you put your mind to things, this encourages you to put things off. “I’ll do it later” you seem to say to yourself, because you know you can do it later, but then if you don’t do it, you might feel a bit guilty. Equally, you’ve had dreams in the past but you’ve given up on them a little easily when your mind eventually wanted to be somewhere else. There are in your home signs of an adventure into playing a musical instrument, which you have since abandoned, or are finding yourself less interested in. (This may alternatively relate to poetry and creative writing you’ve briefly tried and left behind you.) You have a real capacity for deciding that such-and-such a thing (or so-and-so a person) will be the most important thing in your life and be with you for ever. But you’d rather try and fail, and swing from one extreme to the other, than accept the little that you see others happy with. You would rather take a few risks to get what you really believe in than just be happy to live a comfortable if boring life like some other people you see.

In conclusion: It’s very interesting doing your reading, as you do present something of a puzzle, which won’t surprise you. It’s a little difficult to do your reading – not because of the way I’m doing it online like this but because the person I’m feeling is quite a complex one. This probably isn’t a surprise to you, as you are well aware that your personality is complicated. In fact I feel that even you find it difficult to understand your own thoughts and feelings sometimes, and that this even causes you to experience problems with your sleep occasionally, and that when you can’t sleep all these puzzles with yourself and your relationships with others come back into your head. These feelings are particularly strong during those sleepless nights you experience from time to time.

I get the feeling are certainly bright, but unusually open to life’s possibilities – something not normally found among achieving people like you. I’d say you should probably be less self-absorbed, because it tends to distance you a little from other people. Also you should let go of some of the control you exercise when you present that stylized version of yourself to others. You could let people in a little more, but I am aware that there is a darkness you feel you should hide (much of this is in the personal/relationship/sexual area, and is related to a neediness which you don’t like).

You really have an appealing personality – genuinely. Maybe because you have quite a strong personality that it is coming through to me like this. Many thanks for doing this, and for offering something far more substantial than most other people.

Remember, if you feel that what I have said relates to you personally then please leave a comment under this episode. It’s not the first time I’ve been able to read so much of a person’s character. It has happened to me before, but never over the internet like this. As I said before, maybe I’m wrong and these feelings I’ve had don’t mean anything, but on the other hand if you feel like I have somehow managed to describe your personality then leave a comment and we’ll see if I have managed to make a connection with you.

Stay tuned for the next episode of the podcast in which I will talk more about this. Remember you can see a complete transcript for this episode and you’ll be able to read it more carefully and study some of the words and expressions I have used, or just find exactly how the personality profile refers to you specifically. I am looking forward to your responses.