Embarassing performance for "psychic"

[Reverend Conehead]

IMO, so-called "psychics" are the lowest of the charlatans. They prey on the very real grief experienced by people who have lost loved ones, deceiving them into thinking they can communicate with them. It's an effective and extremely unethical way to separate people from their money via their painful emotions. Here's an article about one such scammer who fell on her face during a performance:

http://mylespower.co.uk/2014/05/18/a-rather-embarrassing-night-for-psychic-sally-in-middlesbrough/

I laughed so hard when I read that.

In Facebook for a while I kept getting notices that Jon Edwards was coming to my area and I could buy a ticket to see his show. I think they were about 30 bucks a pop. Fill up a huge auditorium with thousands of people to see his ripoff deception and that's quite a nice profit. No, Jon Edwards, you cannot tell me anything about my deceased Great Uncle Hermann. You're a con artist.

Harry Houdini used to expose these charlatans back in his day. Today Criss Angel and James Randi have been doing the same. Good for them.

I wrote a story making fun of psychics. You can find it here if you're interested:
http://mrzecat.myartsonline.com/french_40cor.html
I wrote it in French, but if you don't know that language, just scroll down. An English translation follows.

My advice is not to ever pay any "psychic" or "medium" or "clairvoyant" one dime of your hard-earned money. They won't impart any truth that you could not have figured out on your own. They won't exorcise any demons. What they will do is exorcise as much money from your bank account as they can.

 

[Hoofbite]

Randi has been doing it for years, hasn't he?

Has offered $1M for a definitive demonstration and nobodies been able to collect.

 

[EGTuna]

THere's countless videos on Youtube exposing "psychic" frauds. The worst one besides John Edward is THe Long Island Medium. What they never show is her staff interviewing the people she agrees to see for 30-60 minutes. They're all frauds. Houdini gave his wife a secret word for after he dies that only she knew so that she could go to psychics and see if any of them could provide the secret word, and -SPOILER ALERT- none of them could. Funny how everyone that Edward and The Long Island Medium talk to they always say nothing but positive things to their loved ones. If these frauds called themselves grief counselors, I'd have no issue, but they don't, so I hope they all go bankrupt. THere's one psychic who claimed one of the chicks that was being held captive in Cleveland spoke to her from the grave. Oops.

 

[WV Cowboy]

... one of the chicks ??

SMH

 

[Denim Chicken]

I believe legitimate psychics may exist.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

I believe legitimate psychics may exist.

I believe they do.

 

[burmafrd]

I think some do; but only a tiny fraction of those that 'claim' they are.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

The thing that always befuddles me, and I don't understand why someone who's being told they're deceased loved one is there at that very moment, telling them through the "medium" some very specific message. WHY, does NO ONE ever ask the "medium"..."IS THERE A HEAVEN, AND IS THAT WHERE YOU ARE?"

It seems like the most obvious question. Yet I've NEVER heard one of these people even attempt to address this.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Anyone who believes in such crap.. please stop, you're being an insult to your race.

There's a plethora of evidence on how these people operate. They only reason they make money is because there simply are that many stupid people in the world.

Just stop.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

Anyone who believes in such crap.. please stop, you're being an insult to your race.

Ummmm, how does "race" play into it exactly??

 

[BoysFan4ever]

Anyone who believes in such crap.. please stop, you're being an insult to your race.

There's a plethora of evidence on how these people operate. They only reason they make money is because there simply are that many stupid people in the world.

Just stop.

I appreciate the advice but I'm old enough to make my own choices.

 

[LittleBoyBlue]

I believe legitimate psychics may exist.

They do.
One came off the street into my place of business and told me 3 things that he could not have known at all.
Things that were only my thoughts.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

Ummmm, how does "race" play into it exactly??

Is this humor that went over my head? =/

The Human Race? Should I have used Species?
Was it not obvious that is what I meant? My bad if so.........but I think it was pretty clear that I was not referring to ethnicity.

You guys believe whatever you want. This is absolutely something that could be tested and proven by people claiming to be psychic, but it never has been. I wonder why.


It's simply not real.
You guys grab a psychic and Santa Claus and go look for the Loch Ness Monster, pick up big foot on your way. =p

 

[jimmy40]

Back in my Sears service tech days I went to a palm reader/psychic's business(she and her family lived in the back) to fix her washer or dryer, I don't remember which anymore but after a few minutes she came back and asked if I found what was wrong with it and I looked at her and said, it seems like you'd know what was wrong with it. She wasn't amused.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Is this humor that went over my head? =/

The Human Race? Should I have used Species?
Was it not obvious that is what I meant? My bad if so.........but I think it was pretty clear that I was not referring to ethnicity.

You guys believe whatever you want. This is absolutely something that could be tested and proven by people claiming to be psychic, but it never has been. I wonder why.


It's simply not real.
You guys grab a psychic and Santa Claus and go look for the Loch Ness Monster, pick up big foot on your way. =p

You're right. They employ numerous tricks to appear impressive. One is to make very general statements that seem to be accurate like, "I sense that you care about people a lot." Another is to plant people in the audience to overhear conversations and pass the information back to the so-called psychic. You could test psychics simply by putting random images or words into envelops and, under scientific testing conditions, see how many the psychic can identify.

Btw, I didn't know that about Houdini's secret word. Brilliant.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

A lot of people also believe in ghosts, hence all the pointless ghost hunter shows on television. I don't believe psychics exist at all, but I want to give the actual psychics a little bit of credit. I don't think they're ALL in it just to scam people. I think there are probably a lot of psychics who come from cultures and countries where rituals like that are common, and they actually believe they have some kind of gift. I can't fault them if they actually believe they're gifted. It's more honorable than some conman putting on the psychic outfit and doing the whole song and dance. But there are a lot of superstitious cultures who believe in a lot of mumbo jumbo.

 

[Denim Chicken]

The Stargate Project[1] was the code name for one of several projects established by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency to investigate claims of psychic phenomena with potential military and domestic application, such as "remote viewing", the purported ability to psychically "see" events, sites, or information from a great distance.[2] These projects were active from the 1970s through mid 1990s, when they were transferred to the CIA and eventually died out due to lack of funding, conclusive results and supposed mismanagement by involved government agencies.[3] The project followed up early psychic research done at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), The American Society for Psychical Research, and other psychical research labs.[4]

 

[Phoenix]

The Stargate Project[1] was the code name for one of several projects established by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency to investigate claims of psychic phenomena with potential military and domestic application, such as "remote viewing", the purported ability to psychically "see" events, sites, or information from a great distance.[2] These projects were active from the 1970s through mid 1990s, when they were transferred to the CIA and eventually died out due to lack of funding, conclusive results and supposed mismanagement by involved government agencies.[3] The project followed up early psychic research done at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), The American Society for Psychical Research, and other psychical research labs.[4]

Sounds like "The Men Who Stare At Goats" kind of thing

 

[speedkilz88]

Sounds like "The Men Who Stare At Goats" kind of thing

They found a portal through a pyramid in the 90's and disappeared.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Sounds like "The Men Who Stare At Goats" kind of thing

You are absolutely correct. That's actually what the book was based on.