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?

That prize money was rescinded years ago. Not that it really existed to begin with (it was some bonds or something as I recall)

OP, have a watch of Tyler Henry.

I recently went to a local medium & she told me all sorts of weird things that weren't public information on my parents who have both died in the last couple of years. I was skeptical but no amount of skepticism can explain it!

I never understood how a psychic my family used to get readings from helped the police?! She seemed legit, and knew things she couldn't have possibly known. I'm not talking about "your Mum says she loves you" stuff. I'm talking about intricate details, when she was told nothing. She didn't even know my relative's name; it was a free walk in where you could donate any amount you liked if anything.
I used to think that when you die it is like before you were born, where you don't exist at all. Now I am thinking but you have been born, it is different. I don't believe in human forms, voices etc as that is impossible, the body has gone!

I am thinking we have a soul, and that turns into energy that can interfere with electrics, sense emotion etc. The matter (the body is left behind). I know since my Dad has died the strangest things have been happening, that have never ever occurred before.

@CookiesandCreamTea if there was an energy that you describe that could affect electrical items then it would be easily detectable by scientists. No one had detected such an energy.

That's what I used to think too. Now I wonder if it is just the case, that science isn't technologically advanced enough yet, to detect it. Could it be on a frequency that cannot currently be detected.

I don’t believe in ghosts/psychics etc I’m not saying there’s nothing to it but there’s nothing to convince me it’s real but the other night when I opened this thread for the first time at about midnight my bathroom tap turned on for 3/4 seconds and then turned off. Me and husband both in bed, him asleep, no one else in the house, lived here ages and it’s never done it before, so I admit I had a second where I thought… hmmm 👀 😂

Thankyou I'll check it out!

@Cjhu Ooh spooky 😆

Just wanna say thanks again for all contributions, I'm enjoying the debate and reading them all.

Can i update next Wednesday after I have been? Mn only. No fb /insta or other...
Our reader is Top Notch... They have apparently insisted we all partake in a pie supper mid read.... Will the place be bugged to catch any personal information going round I wonder?

Talk to someone about something fake and detailed, like how you're there to see if your aunty Jane who just died in a car accident will come through to tell you where her emerald ring is because your cousin Emily is so sad she doesn't have it to remember her mum by and see what happens!

I was skeptical but no amount of skepticism can explain it!

Scepticism isn't supposed to explain anything. if you are the one with the extraordinary claim, you need to show it, and/or explain the mechanism.

Weird stuff happens all the time. Statistically coincidences are as common as dirt. Correlation isn't causation. If you believe in something with no proof and no cause, it's your job to describe and prove it.

Yes report back and I agree, drop some fake info in the interval..

OP, have a watch of Tyler Henry.

I watched some Tyler Henry. You have to be kidding.

I look forward to the update op. There are so many fake mediums, playing on people's dispair to make money. It is sickening.

I have to believe there is something after death, or what is the point of life? We have a consciousness, where would that go? It can't just be a brain and a body or wouldn't we all be the same, or like AI's? All of us are so different etc, I just can't understand where what is inside you goes.

I think so too, where does that energy go? The soul?
But then I'm very practical also and think we just switch off when our brain does. Our soul is just our personality which is our brain and that just stops getting blood to it and turns off. It just ends.

It's very hard on this fence 😆

Thinking of fake makes me and dd can use between us in the interval... Maybe Marg and Tina?

I think it’s human nature to try to find some explanation for things we can never know of. I prefer to accept that life is a very mysterious phenomenon and that we are a tiny part of something much greater. So, these self-styled psychics to me are not going to provide me with any insight into this mystery we are all part of. Some things we will never know the answer to and I accept that as well as my limitations as a human being.

@AskNotForWhomTheBellCurves it was a flyer posted outside the college psychology dept 😜. Back in college any gig that laid cash was a must, ethics came later

The below quote sums up how I feel, we just don't know. I suppose it would be soul destroying (please excuse the unintentional pun) to think there is nothing!

'We have no real evidence of consciousness existing without a brain. On the other hand, we don't actually have a whole lot of evidence of consciousness existing within a brain, either. All we know for certain is that they go together.'

Ace post 🖤

So how did he know this random post liker was coming and he could barely see her at the back of the room, and didn't know what she looked like

He didn't know. 'Mediums' wouldn't just prepare for a handful of people, for that very reason, he'd prepare for lots and see which one gets a hit. He didn't need to see her, or know what she looked like, because you said he asked if there was anyone with the surname XXXX - and she put her hand up, volunteering herself. And at that point, she'd bought in to it wholeheartedly.

There's elements of preparation, research and cold/warm reading etc all employed at the same time. You say he got everything right - that's because she told you he did. You admitted you don't the details yourself, so you're relying on her tellings.

As an example: Let's say he reeled off four names. The first three are correct (could be down to research or could be Barnum effect. The last one he says is Edward - except it isn't Edward it's actually Edmund, but by that time she is so invested, she gives him a bye - 'oh he might have misspoken' or 'oh he was usually known as Ed so easy mistake' etc. She tells you he got all the names right, straight off - because that's what she's told herself.

The same is true for the 'specific' facts. Unless you personally know the full detail of said specific facts, she is an unreliable witness. Only two of the specific facts out of four may have been largely correct. She'll forget the two that weren't when recanting the story.

There's also the very real likelihood that the names and 'facts' would have been true for a number of people in the audience. Your age, demographic etc can all be used to come up with a picture that is likely to have some truth in it. A seasoned medium will be all over that.

One last question, I'm not sure how old you are but do you remember Paul Daniels? Do you believe Paul Daniels made an elephant disappear on live television (there were also independent witnesses present with him)? If not, why not?

All that proves is that the mediums back in the day had to work a lot harder.

The internet has made it all so much easier for them. Pfft. They don't even earn their money.

Fascinating thread!
I am totally sceptical and a great fan of Darrren Brown (and as a direct result of this thread have bought the audio book ‘Tricks of the Mind’ that I actually do already own as a paperback… )there are things that science hasn’t yet been able to explain -like consciousness.
Some years ago my Ex-husband and I read about Houdini and how he was always able to debunk mediums, but visited lots, going for a real one. He and his wife (or mother?) agreed a code word to be used by the first one that died, so the survivor would ask the medium to ask the dead person the code word. I think I’ ve read that the code word did come through because his widow was pressured by her second husband to reveal it?
Anyway, my exh and I do have a code word and would be fun to trawl the mediums after his (or my) death and see if that comes through 😂

Obviously nobody can say how your particular medium did this particular stunt.

But presumably the way all the others do- research of various types, cold reading, lucky guesses, Barnum statements and the selective memory of the willing participants.