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?

@TheShellBeach
But how did reel off all the names straight away from her saying yes

Thanks for your contribution. It happened.

You won’t get a direct answer on here! I had a similar experience many years ago at a spiritualist church (well, the colleague I went with did). He was a complete non-believer, didn’t offer a thing as it wasn’t a q&a thing, tge chap asked him if he would take the reading and he said yes thinking it would be amusing, and was told specific stuff that was very personal to him. I’ve asked about this before on MN but no-one has ever been able to give me a straight answer as to how the spiritualist knew.

I wonder if it's just googling.

Even if giving a fake name, you'll have had to give an email address to have the tickets sent. They might have especially picked a "sceptic" whose name is different from the email name (Loafers McShoes as fake name with What A Hat@hotmail for instance), then looked up the details of What A Hat on social media.
Then it looks extra special spooky but is just basic google skills and clever selection of a mark.

My experience happened in the days before emails and Google - you paid your money at the door, it was a drop in thing, the spiritualist didn’t know who was in the audience, the spiritualists were announced on the night.

Again, a stranger on the net saying it happened does not mean it happened.

You are asking for an explanation that requires a starting point of blind faith. I'm sure you can see why that's really not possible.

Also, you may be describing what you believe to be the whole and absolute truth. That does not mean it is.

You definitely need to submit this to someone who investigates this stuff. They’d be fascinated! As would I 😄

These people are truly scum. Praying on the vulnerable and gullible. They’re obviously clever tricksters but should be honest about their trickery so people were not pulled in by it.

Sorry quoted wrong! Email address used was a throwaway. We really wanted to test it!

I was actually thinking, if they DID have someones name (they didn't with my friend) that the serious ones have access to someone in the police who can look up how someone died?
Someone in the medical field?
He said a lot of specifics to people about the death that was totally private.
If that is their career they might go to these lengths

It's like everything in life there are good better mediums and ones who are not

Just that,

going from personal experiences ...

My mum did this, spontaneous drop in and the woman instantly said "you've just lost a baby called xxx who died of xxx" totally freaked her out.

You say this because you are not skilled at cold reading.

Love the spiritualist church near me. Glad you enjoyed it.

Here's how I'd do it.

I'm a medium now called Madame Shyster

I live in Milton Keynes but I'm doing a show in Rugby.

Hmm.. Google - Accidents in Rugby.
Hmm.. car accident in 2020. boy died at 18.
There's an article that mentions his mum Sheila
A video that interviews his sister Sharon and a photo with a caption saying its his dad Brian.
The video shows Sharon joking about something involving a goldfish that the boy always said.

Now I'll Google a few more incidents and a few more names. I'll do this for a radius of about 30 miles from Rugby because I know people will travel.

The day of my rugby show comes around and I have a list of surnames of recently died people from Rugby and the names of relatives and stories and any information I could have found.

So the show starts and I read out a few names, no takers. Then I call out the boys name who had the car accident.

Someone puts up their hand... youngish, maybe 30, so not the parent of the 18 year old, possibly sister..

"Now he passed not too long ago, but not recently recently, less than 5 years ago"
Target nods..
"He was you g when he passed .. under 25"
Target Nods..
"He says he misses his mum who's name starts with a S.. I want to say shelly, Sharon, Sheila"
Target says Yes to Sheila. Confirming that she is the sister
"Now he's telling me, he used to joke with his sister about a fish .. does that mean anything?"
Target nods.
"He also mentions someone called Barry or Brian ?"
Target nods..
"Is that his dad?"
Target nods.
"Well he wants you to know he's here with you and misses you all..."
Targets eyes watering...

End and move on.

Next name..

People often mistake generalisable things as very specific. Read the stuff on the Barnum effect.

You're just talking nonsense now and not helping at all.
I WANT it to be disproved.
But you're going on about me not telling the truth etc
It happened. I'm ignoring your posts now but open to all other explanations 😊

@StragglyTinsel Then cold reading in itself is an amazing skill, they should just be honest about it.
To read things off people who haven't said a word, wow.

@KissTheRains It was natural causes so no info on google, only she knows how he was found.
He didn't fish.. he said exact names straight away. Right ages etc

🤣 fair enough. Can't fault you. That's normally what happens when people don't like what they're hearing. I don't blame you.

Don't reply or I'll know you're not ignoring me.

Good luck with finding your explanation. I'll leave you to it.

My psychic ability tells me you are thinking "good. Fuck off."

Well I'm going to go against what everybody else has said , I'm a believer so there 😬

We al have things more in common than you think.

These people are skilled in reading people's reactions and deducing information based on their age and outward appearance and even their accent.

Once they get a nod and a yes it's easy to elaborate.

Well you've found a genuine article then.
Obviously once all the logical explanations are exhausted like news report, inquest details, Facebook pages, go fund mes, coroner reports, cold reads, Barnum statements etc once all of that has been explained, what ever remains is obviously the truth. 👍

I had a reading on Facebook messenger. My Facebook has nothing on it at all. She told me only to answer yes / no and to give no information. She did voice messages. I text yes / no.
she got EVERYTHING right. No fishing or asking if I know a ‘j’ or anything like that. It was literally like she was chatting to my parents and just passing on what they were saying.
there was an incident nobody knew about except me and my brother and she told me all about it. Again my brother isn’t on my Facebook, I don’t have a profile picture, I use fb for events in my area and that’s it. I was 32 and lost parents and all grandparents which isn’t the norm and she gave me initials and names.
I 100% believe she can communicate with those who have passed and recommended her to several friends who were cynical and she got everything right with them as well.

But getting all the names right in one go?
He wasn't stood there ummimg and ahhing, or guessing, or saying "begins with s..."
It was all bang on.
Ahh I want to understand 😂

It's so hard isn't it when you can't find a logical explanation.
I've always prided myself on never being a sucker because I'm a realist.
So I don't want to be this time!
I can understand if there is a name given to a medium and he has time to prepare, somehow access police reports etc.. I get it.
He just had no info provided though