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

Right-click here to download this episode.

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.