Can the cynics explain this (mediums)

[Disturbia81]

I've always been sceptical of them and know there are a lot of charlatans.
But have heard stories from people over the years who wouldn't lie. But remained cynical

A friend and I went to a group one, there were about 150 people there. He spoke to 10.
We used fake names on the booking so no research could be done on us.
Didn't talk about anything while there.

Anyway he mentioned a surname that had come to him, it was her brothers so she put her hand up. Then he got all her family names, relationships between them, specific funny things said, how he died, even how he looked when he was found etc.
She was in shock but got so much comfort knowing her was with her still.

He couldn't have known any of this.
I want to believe but also want to see if anyone can logically explain it?

I am watching a derren brown video on YouTube where he is following a psychic medium for a week and going to his shows and he’s said sometimes the information is wrong because spirits don’t have voice boxes and they tell him stuff through energy. This is very interesting!

She also said that my Mum was going to come in to the possession of a guitar in a very unusual way and that shortly after that, my Mum would win the lottery.

I love this 😄 Future forecasts are a safe bet, because nobody's going to hunt you down if you're wrong. They're usually very vague time-wise, too.

I wonder if the performer actually said a guitar, or a musical instrument? Either way - if a guitar comes flying over your back hedge, you're very likely to recall the prediction and take it as amazing evidence; how could anyone have predicted that??! Except, of course, she didn't say "a guitar flying over your hedge in June 2019".

If thirty years pass with no musical instruments making their way into your life, you are not going to remember that failed prediction, are you? Even if you did, why on earth would the performer care.

Lottery - mate, I only buy lottery tickets twice a year, and I won this Christmas just gone. £67.50. It's a win, isn't it? The real prediction here is the much less exciting: "If you regularly play games of chance, you are likely to win something at some point".

Had the PP's mum been told the amount she'd win and the approximate date, it'd look more like a spooky prediction ... but, again, the performer wouldn't really give a shit if it didn't happen, as long as she'd made it far enough in the future! She just looks a lot better for, basically, making a very mundane statement seem special & magical.

Apparently, according to my SILs daughter who went to a medium, my mum 'came through'. At least, she was told that 'someone called Margaret was there', so SILs daughter (second marriage, so not my niece) said that she had known someone called Margaret.

But that was it. No message, nothing to say, other than that she was 'there'. I KNEW my mum, if she'd actually 'come through' they'd never have managed to shut her up.

I watched some more YouTube videos, including some of James Randis show and that was very interesting. One man said he had a fantastic reading from a medium, but when someone and one of them was his neighbours dog. Also watching some readings was really interesting for example the medium said Lyle is here to talk to you and the woman said oh no, there’s no Lyle but there’s a Laura and the medium was like oh yes yes Laura and went on to give the reading and the person said that they’d had a fantastic reading.

But watching a few things where Darren Brown gives readings, I don’t know how he does it. I understand cold reading but he said things like you dreamt that you was married to Alan Titchmarsh and another woman he told her that her mum died when she was in her 50s and they hadn’t been close and she’d lost her dad as a teenager. I don’t know how you cold read that, it’s amazing to watch.

Plus, it’s not like your mom’s name was Grizabella or Constantina. Calling out “Does anyone know a Margaret?” in a room full of 30 - 50-something women is hardly a massive leap of faith. Ditto Anne or Mary, or George or Albert.

If I was going to make a guess about which well known figure women of a certain age who go to mediums might dream about romantically, Alan Titchmarsh would be top of the list.

I'm a non believer but know someone (another non believer) who recently came into contact with someone claiming to be a medium. She wasn't charging anything. She told the acquaintance she had someone with her, correctly named her, and correctly knew the affliction she had lived with before dying. The rest of the details I won't bother mentioning as they were obviously generic but it did shock me that she could know a name and a medical condition, neither being that common or obvious. My non believing acquaintance shrugged it off but I have to say, it gave me pause for thought. (Still a non believer though.)

Sorry^^ naysayers, but those pieces of information were unimaginative/common things to say because they are connected to so many people's life events or are ambiguous enough that they could apply to most people. 'I see a baby in each arm' could mean many things to many people, in your mum's case she had sadly lost twins so it's a good fit. Musical instruments aren't rare. Lottery wins are common. Lottery players will have won on 3 numbers at some point. Scratch card wins are very common. Some people don't even play the lottery but a psychic tells you you're going to win, chances are you will then start playing, and possibly have a win at some point.

@Cjhu Derren Brown has made programmes explaining how he does it. It's fascinating.