Are psychics frauds?

[Dave Potts]

Has anyone ever actually met their tall, dark, handsome stranger?

My brother-in-law is currently working on a project to do with psychic prediction and I suggested he look to the AB community for some input, but he's gone all shy, so here goes. Do you believe that psychics / clairvoyants are fraudsters or is there any substance to their claims of insight. Anyone had any personal experiences with Gypsy Rose Lee or one of her contemporaries? Were you somehow 'aware' that I'd be asking this very question? Any comments, interesting web links or wry observations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[happysax]

I believe in psychic phenomena like telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, etc. I'm not saying they're supernatural, however, but unexplained natural phenomena. I believe everybody possesses such powers, some more than others, and there are bound to be some genuine psychics out there. As for predicting the future, I believe it is possible to predict A future, but future events can be changed if a person is forewarned of them.

[tracymort]

Some are some aren't like you can get a dodgy plumber or a good one, the same goes for any profession.

[anthomson]

I spent a while studying a local psychic who claims to be the most accurate in the country. I was absolutely amazed the first couple of times I saw him, people seemed to agree with almost everything he said. However on subsequent visits I started getting a feeling that I heard many of the stories before and I have since become convinced that he is probably warm-reading. He opens with what would appear to be a very accurate reading but this is open to the entire hall of 400 or so people so you would expect them to apply to at least one person (and if they don't he blames the audience and moves on). Once he targets a specific person the 'reading' becomes much less detailed. You have recently spent �40 (who hasn't), you once owned a red car - that type of stuff. He always seems to have one really accurate reading but I discovered that in two subsequent shows in different parts of the country this readings was repeated maybe suggesting a plant in the audience. Also many readings seem to concentrate on people who have been murdered or killed in strange ways (which will have been well documented in the local press). It would be quite hard to actually prove he is a fraudster but I would certainly say that what he does could be easily replicated by a fraudster and is certainly not proof of life after death.

[Kit]

My mum's a psychic, but not a very useful one. It's kind of unconscious, in that she'll suddenly do something for no apparent reason, not know why and afterwards find out what was happening. For example, she'll often take an unexpected turning and drive a different way, and find out later that the road she would have taken was blocked, flooded etc. I've also rung home after a minor car crash, to find that Mum has known about it all day but not known which one of us was involved. As I said, not particularly useful. My gran found out by accident that she could read a crystal ball when she did it for a lark at a fete, and found that she could do it. I'm not the slightest bit psychic - but then you knew I was going to say that, didn't you?

[Janetex]

I am psychic, usually in the form of clairvoyant dreams, my "real" dreams as I call them. Mostly it is an awful burden. I rarely tell anybody what is going to happen and it is not always perfectly clear. My daughter is psychic in other ways and this has been a nuisance too.

[del_1690]

I agree with Tracyh when she says that there are good ones and bad ones. I had brushes with the supernatural as a child. I saw ghosts, heard noises, received messages, etc, etc. This all stopped when i was around nine (thank god). One time I woke up at my grans very upset. As she consoled me I said my daddy's baby was being rolled down a hill. My gran thinking I was nuts asked me to explain. That same time, my father's car was being burned out and getting pushed into a ditch. Freaky but true! My gran also has the "gift". She saw her brother standing in her bedroom 3 days after he died, regularly gets touched and shouted at in an empty room and has out of body experiences, which we actually proved to be true. This was due to the fact she saw a photograph on top of her wardrobe of myself, my dad and my uncle. She recalls thinking "theres my boys" which is all very well. Unfortunately the wardrobe is 6 inches taller than her and she has arthtritis and cant extend her arms. On the other hand, I recently worked for Jobcentre Plus and they now advertise for clairvoyants, tarot readers, psychics and other mediums, usually with the sentence "full training is provided".

[worder]

Are you kidding? If I had, I'd have kidnapped or married him. Seriously, I beleive in some psychics, from my own experience, I would give you the #, but I cannot find it, he was on the radio, I called him, everything he told me was on the nail. We have a great one, here in the States, Sylvia Brown, she's on the Montel show, Wednesdays, 5pm. If you donot beleive in them you will after you see her. She knows things about people and murders, specially, that it lives you speechless. She also has some books out.I also beleive that there is a family psychic relation, many times I'll be thinking of one of my daughters, I have three, and in she appears in a few minutes or later in the day.Same goes with a subject related to one of them, and then the phone rings and she'll be asking a question related to the subject.Whenever something like that happens, I tell them that thoughts must travel.

[Squirrel]

I'm one of the people that doesn't believe that any form of psychic power, precognition, spirit etc. exists at all. Vivid as their visions may seem, "psychics" and other people who think they are magical are really just being tricked by their mind. It's a perfectly understandable and common thing to happen, one that has made us all think at some time "Do I have any special powers?" Of course, the answer is "No", but what makes us think we're special in the first place? Amongst other reasons:

1. The need to feel special or unique or better than other people in some way. (There's no need to feel embarrassed about admitting it.)

2. You tend to remember unusual events and forget the boring ones. For example, hundreds of times this week the name of a much-loved friend or family member has probably popped into your head. Just for a minute, then it is forgotten. There is nothing remarkable about that. Every once in a while you will be thinking of that friend and then, like magic, they phone you up! To your mind, that has forgotten all the boring thoughts you've been having recently, this must seem like an amazing coincidence. To some people, it will seem like more than that ' perhaps God made it happen, perhaps their psychic powers made them foresee the phone call'etc. I could ramble on all day about fake this and fraudulent that, but this is the internet and you can find all that kind of stuff by yourself if you want to.

[Tat]

i agree with Squirrel. although it'd be kinda cool if it were true. i'm waiting to be proved right. i've been to psychics and they were always way off the mark. i'm also a very strong atheist which probably has something to do with it.