Ian Rowland

Ian Rowland is a corporate speaker, trainer and consultant based near London, England.

He is also a member of the Inner Magic Circle and often uses magic and mentalism effects to illustrate certain points in his corporate training presentations.

In 1998, Rowland published the first edition of his book, The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading. This book has sold tens of thousands of copies all around the world. Rowland published the book independently, and has never used a conventional publishing company.

In 2010 Rowland was invited to lecture to the FBI. He is the only person from outside the United States that the FBI have ever hired for training purposes.

Rowland has also been hired to lecture to the sports psychologists working with the British Olympics Team, and the Ministry of Defence.

He was featured in the 1996 Channel 4 documentary Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins, where he demonstrated various techniques used to simulate psychic phenomena. He claimed to be able to recreate all the abilities shown by self-professed psychics, without having to resort to any supernatural or paranormal explanations.

On the ABC TV magazine Primetime, Rowland demonstrated that, purely by using cold reading, he could convince members of the public that he could communicate with the dead. He is the only performer to have demonstrated this ability for the media.

He has been a contributor to The Straight Dope Message Board and guest contributor of Staff Reports under the user name ianzin.

Citing Rowland's explanation of how cold reading is used in the psychic industry, journalist Malcolm Gladwell has criticised the practice of offender profiling by the FBI.

Ian Rowland occasionally assists at monthly meetings of the Young Magician's Club, at The Magic Circle headquarters in London, helping under eighteens to learn about magic. He also runs public classes in Applied Cold Reading in London.

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Wikipedia