Have You Ever Been Tricked By Someone Claiming To Be Able To Contact The Dead?

[naomi24]

Driving home today I was listening to Jeremy Vine interviewing A J West about his new book, 'The Spirit Engineer', which examines, among other things, the reality or otherwise of the spirit world and the trickery used by charlatans to convince people that they are actually contacting the dearly departed. Mr West threw out a couple of 'cold' readings and asked listeners to phone in if they thought anything he said referred to them personally. I arrived home before anyone called so I've no idea of the outcome. Interesting nonetheless.

So … have you ever been tricked by a trickster - and when did you realise you had?

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-spirit-engineer/a-j-west/9780715654330

[ToraToraTora]

No and I never will be, all of these "psychic" types are charlatans, end of.

[ToraToraTora]

"Mr West threw out a couple of 'cold' readings and asked listeners to phone in if they thought anything he said referred to them personally. " - well that's cold reading on a massive scale, he could say anything he like and someone would find it it "familiar" - that's what they do pray on the minds of the weak and clueless.

[Arksided]

weak and clueless ...are you psychic TTT, cos that's amazing and I can honestly say we've never met.

Joking aside I agree with you.

'Does someone out there know a Bob... he had an head and two feet... he had a pet sensing a dog... no, no it's a cat, no wait definitely a goldfish.... anyone?''

[Arksided]

'no wait... he knew someone that had a goldfish... anyone?'

[naomi24]

That’s the sort of thing, ark. I wonder if anyone here listened to the rest of the programme?

[mibn2cweus]

In my experience most people are too ashamed or insecure to admit to being tricked by a trickster. Of course none of this applies to your's truly. I'm way to smart to let anything like that happen to me.

[mibn2cweus]

^ smart!

[mibn2cweus]

That was supposed to be 'too' smart but the symbols I used < > eliminated the 'too'. I'll get my hat.

[barry1010]

naomi, you can listen to the whole show on iPlayer.

I've never been tricked by that sort of thing but did get extremely angry when I walked in to my GP's reception and saw a huge poster advertising a psychic evening. My GP knew nothing about it - the receptionist had put it up and soon took it back down again.

[Tilly2]

If you Goole Jeremy Vine (today), you can listen to the programme again Naomi.

[Tilly2]

...Google!

[Arksided]

You do that Mr White ;-)

[Prudie]

I have an open mind although I've never been contacted by a dead person! Just statistically the millions who believe they have can't all have been tricked surely?

[mibn2cweus]

Maybe - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0010gnb

[AuntPG]

I believe you can get message from the other side but not how some of these charlatans work. It's more like being a conduit for an energy that probably we know nothing about. Its happened to me, I got a message, like an earworm, that made no sense to me until later in the day . I found out someone I'd never met, a daughter of someone my Oh worked with, had been killed in an accident very quickly that afternoon. I have no idea where it came from. Anyone who does this sort of thing for a living is hoodwinking people, but some people find comfort in it. Its up to them if they want to waste their money.

[mibn2cweus]

Begins at 1:33:00

[emeritus]

https://youtu.be/Rd79Ie_vWyQ

[jno]

as I may have mentioned before, I once visited an osteopath in a foreign town. She asked her friend to sit with me while she was in the next room for a few minutes. He held my hand, and I think my pulse. He then told me three things about myself. One was wrong. The other two, about my medical history, were perfectly accurate. He couldn't possibly have known about them. So how did he?

I'm not inclined to ascribe supernatural powers to him, but he clearly had some skills that ordinary mortals do not.

[ToraToraTora]

prudie: "Just statistically the millions who believe they have can't all have been tricked surely? " - yes 100% of them have been fooled or are fooling themselves. Like all the other areas of the wonderful world of total ***. James Randi Founded the sceptics society and offered $1m dollars to anyone who could demonstrate any sort of paranormal etc abilities under mutually agreed scientific tests. No one ever claimed it, from Homeopathy to deviners, all total and utter horse carp.

[ToraToraTora]

jno: "The other two, about my medical history, were perfectly accurate. He couldn't possibly have known about them. So how did he?

I'm not inclined to ascribe supernatural powers to him, but he clearly had some skills that ordinary mortals do not. " - oldest one in the book! PMSL!