Psychics /mediums - How Genuine?

[mizfiesta]

I guess most of us know of a Psychic, locally, who does readings in peoples homes. Whether they've been to one themselves or know someone who has.
I've always wondered if the majority of Psychics truly believe themselves to have some sort of gift - whether they actually have or not. Or do they know fine well they don't? Are they out and out charlatans? Or have they convinced themselves they have a special gift?
I guess there's a lot in this world that we don't understand. As Shakespeare wrote, "There are more things in heaven and Earth...", and maybe there are a few special people in the world who definitely have some sort of 'gift'. But for the majority? The ones that sit in peoples houses and charge upwards of £40, do they?
I guess my point would be that if they're giving a 'reading' but they truly believe they have a gift and are helping someone, I wouldn't mind parting with cash. But for someone to sit opposite you and know they're talking rubbish - possibly speaking about people we have loved and lost - is that just not SO wrong?

[naomi24]

:o)

[EDDIE51]

Do you remember 'Psychic Sally'? she was famous a while back before her methods were exposed.
She held meetings all over the country. Those who paid for tickets were told to arrive 2 hours in advance to 'get to know people'
Free drinks and food were provided to encourage socialising.
However a dozen or more of the 'audience' were actually her 'stooges' planted in the crowd and wearing hidden radio microphones. These people would go round the crowd introducing themselves as someone who needed help in contacting a deceased relative or partner. They would chat to the real audience members and find out who they wanted to contact and what they wanted to know.All the time the radio mics were sending all this information to a back room where others of her team were making notes of all the information they had obtained.
When the show started 'Sally', who was wearing a hidden ear piece connected to her team in the back room, would announce something along the lines ''I have Brenda from Blackburn here , who is trying to contact her daughter Sandra from Southend''
The names would be one of those her team had gathered at the 'social' before the show!
Of course 'Brenda' would want to assure 'Sandra' that she was fine and living in paradise with other old friends and relatives.
The old mediums years ago would send team members to the next venue a month or so before the show where they would make a note of all the obituary notices in the local paper. Thus when the show started they could announce ''I have Len Jones who lived in North Street and passed over last month with me, he has messages for his family''
It's all a sham, if you look at the (Very small print ) at the bottom of any Psychic show announcement there is a clause ''This show is for entertainment only'' . That covers them against getting sued!

[Mamyalynne]

I too agree with Naomi on the topic - the human mind/psyche/soul , whatever we wish to call it is deeper than most of us will ever know.

It would be rare indeed to find anyone with a true gift performing on stage.

[Cloverjo]

Eddie, thank you, imho we can stop there.
I went to a mind-reading show in which my neighbor was appearing. We had dinnner afterwards. The secrets he told me convinced that it's all a load of [whatever word you want to put here]

[EDDIE51]

At a social club I used to attend we had a 'Psychic Night' once.It was all intended as a bit of fun and I decided to do Tarot readings.
I had a pack of Tarot cards and a book called something like 'Tarot Reading for beginners' under the table where I could slip a quick look at it without the person I was 'Reading' being able to see what I was doing.
As I dealt each card I slipped a quick glance at the book and made up my 'reading' according to what I read.
Most of the people knew it was all a joke and had a laugh, but one or two were really convinced I could read their future. It got a bit scary with one guy who was sure I could really 'see things', I had to tell him The Tarot has 'closed for you' but you will find happiness soon.
That convinced me that some people are so desperate to 'believe' that they will swallow any old rubbish.

[joko]

oh i have a long story of an awful woman i became friends with, who claimed to be psychic ... we were friends generally, but it began to irritate me to watch her using her so called powers on people - all cold reading coincidence and gullibility etc - we eventually stopped hanging out when i began to sublty confront and disect her claims.
there 'may' be something in it in an extreme minority but most of the people who make the claims are the problem - they cannot be trusted regardless of their own motives for what they do = i have never once heard of something that can be catagorically proven - its all just hearsay, anecdotal, spin, belief etc etc

[Cloverjo]

I find it very sad that people are eager to believe these things. I am now on the committee of my local village hall. There used to be a lot of 'angel readings' or similar. They don't appear now.
I'd love it if they came back and I could wangle a free seat to see what they say.

[joko]

the derek acorah exposure was to do with a planned fake involving a supposed spirit called Creed Kafer ( Derek Faker)
they leaked the details online - made up a whoe story about this creed guy, wife, etc the lot = Acorah (secretly researched) and fell for it hook like and sinker 'tapped into' all the nonsense they'd made up - you can see it online
its hilarious
the female presenter also couldnt stand him because she knew he was full of it too - there are clips also of her making odd comments against him

[Old_Geezer]

It is my understanding that the "entertainment only" bit was a legal requirement not a method of not getting sued. I used the wonder why Songs of Praise didn't have the same obligation when it was broadcast: but I decided that some folk's beliefs must not be for mocking whilst others' were obligatorily mocked.

[Old_Geezer]

Interesting to see the theory that if some folk in a defined group do something that proves they all must. I hadn't realised that was true until now.

[WELSHYORKIE]

I've been to see a medium who lived in Lancashire booked only in my first name (being a sceptic I gave no other info so no research could be done) and she proceeded to tell me things about me, my late wife, my children and my mother which no one else could possibly know. I gave her no information whatsoever and even wore no wedding ring and covered my tattoos up so that she could get no hints. In my view, only those who have these sessions know if the medium is genuine or not - for me this woman was genuine - her daytime job is one of a County Court judge, hardly what you would expect of a charlatan!
As for other mediums/psychics - I have an open mind but I am very sceptical of some of the claims they make.

[Peter Pedant]

Thank you MacMurrrrrdo - the ref on cold reading was great !
and I can set up as a medium ....

it runs in the family - my brother professional in Something Else always does the village fate ( yeah geddit ?) as a medium -
one year he did " Latest - O and A level results available ...."

and I said for chrissakes how do you get over that one ?
a merry business for the church tower - all the kidz wanted to know how they had done. Professional secrets he said....

For Jourdain - Synchronicity Carl Gustave Jung is worth a read
( I got up to Chap 5 ) - his take on why Jill may think "O I will ring up Jack" and her Jillz phone rings the very next moment - and it is Jack !

[Ellipsis]

Don't be taken in by claims of supernatural abilities ...

We live in a scientific age. If anybody can point me to some scientific evidence that psychic abilities are genuine, I'd be happy to see it. Until then ... it's nonsense, yet can be very harmful indeed

Go to see a Derren Brown stage show. He performs some amazing psychic tricks - really amazing, mind blowing - and very entertaining. The thing is, he tells you they're tricks. He's good friends with James Randi, Penn & Teller and other entertainers who are quite happy to own up to the fact that they're tricking you and taking your money for entertainment purposes.

There is nothing you could see a claimed psychic do that these entertainers could not also do. Nothing.

[jno]

Cloverjo, a bit late, this, but no. My accident wasn't in the papers, and anyway it was in another country (for some reason I wrote "another town" when I meant "another country"). There really was no way he could have possibly known. Also, it was pre-Google! Mid-1990s, I think.

[Old_Geezer]

Something isn't nonsense simply because someone is sceptical. At one time folk didn't believe in evolution. And as for being given evidence, well if one is not prepared to go investigate for oneself then I doubt anyone is going to do the work for them just to have it poo-pooed. There are plenty of mediums out there to be amazed at when they feed you details that you later check and find to be true. You just have to sort the wheat from the chaff.

[jourdain2]

PP - I've read Jung's 'Synchronicity', in fact I've read a reasonable amount of psychology. Nothing explains the odd instances which have happened. Nothing like the coincidences you mention. One which frightened me was when a friend introduced me to a female friend of his when we happened to meet, I'd never met her before. We were chatting away over a coffee (as you do - we'd bumped into each other in a café) when quite suddenly I looked at this lady and saw - well, to quote Webster 'The skull beneath the skin'. It was horrible, I didn't know what to do except keep quiet and the moment passed.

A couple of weeks later he told me that she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and she did, in fact, die a few months after that. I had a bad time wondering if I should have said 'Go and see your doctor'. Thank goodness it hasn't ever happened since.

[jourdain2]

Misquoted, sorry. Eliot - 'Webster was much possessed by death and saw the skull beneath the skin'. No one has picked up on this so I may be left in peace. I don't really want to go on about it.

[Ellipsis]

Jourdain2, I have seen "the skull beneath the skin" once or twice on different people, including quite regularly on one particular person. That doesn't make me, or you, psychic. It's a feature of a particular skin type, lighting, bone structure ... I don't know. Maybe in some circumstances it indicates that somebody is close to death, but not when I've seen it. More that somebody was quite thin or gaunt, with clear or translucent skin, in the right light. I've never really thought much about it but I know exactly the effect you mean.

So you saw the skull beneath the skin on a particular woman and, soon after, the woman died. That does not make you psychic.

If you had met that woman frequently before, in similar light, you may have seen the effect regularly. Most of the time it would not have been a sign of her impending death. The fact that you only met her once, and saw it that once, and haven't seen it on many if any other people, has led you to believe - wrongly - that it's a sign of death that is only seen by psychics and that you have psychic ability.

Hopefully that's a comfort rather than a disappointment to you, since it means you did not cause her death by failing to tell her what you saw.

[jourdain2]

Ellipsis - thanks.