Psychic Cold Reading In Theory and Practice - Mentalism. Cold reading is a skill that is currently making the news in a variety of different places. There has been considerable interest in modern psychics, especially the better-known television psychics who are able to attract vast audiences. Yet nothing of this is new. Cold reading has been with us for as long as fortune tellers, certain priests and priestesses, medicine men, con artists, salesmen and of course psychic mediums. In other words, it is entirely likely that the art and practice of cold reading is almost as old as that oldest of professions.