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Original poster

Do you believe some people have the gift of being able to talk to spirits?

126 replies

Funkyslippers · 27/04/2024 15:02

I'm a non believer because nobody has ever convinced me otherwise. Even if the medium is correct on a lot if things how is it even possible for them to communicate with spirits? I'd love to hear people's opinions. This has come off the back of visiting a very well recommended so-called medium who was clutching at straws all the way through and in the end I left early & she didn't charge me!

OP posts:
BaconCozzers · 27/04/2024 15:48

Of course not.

These people might "talk to spirits", but the spirits don't talk back to most of them. Those who genuinely believe they do get replies are bonkers as well as being scammers 😆

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 27/04/2024 15:50

No, because spirits don't exist!

AlisonDonut · 27/04/2024 15:51

No

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Spooky & paranormal
Original poster
Funkyslippers · 27/04/2024 15:58

BigBoysDontCry · 27/04/2024 15:06

No. The only way people live on is in our hearts and memories. We won't meet them again in any physical/spiritual form but we can engage with their essence in our brains. I'm fine with that, it's comfort enough.

Why did you go see them OP?

I went because I'm intrigued I guess and I've lost someone close to me recently so wondered if she'd pick up on that. This medium was highly recommended as a friend recently lost 2 members of her family and she was apparently very accurate, had both of them with her apparently! But I think, well it's her job, she's been doing it for 20 years so she should be good at it (whatever it is). She just wasn't any good with me which convinces me even more that it's just not possible to communicate with the dead

OP posts:
DrJoanAllenby · 27/04/2024 15:58

I believe that when some people have imbibed too many spirits they are rather inclined to think they can converse with the dead.

Original poster
Funkyslippers · 27/04/2024 16:03

TwilightSkies · 27/04/2024 15:28

Yes. Genuine mediums etc are a tiny minority but they do exist.
Most of them don’t charge, or charge a very small amount.
They do it to help people.
The fakes (of which there are many) give the real ones a bad name.

But how is it even possible was my question? If these genuine mediums did exist why don't police use them more to help with missing people etc?

OP posts:
Original poster
Funkyslippers · 27/04/2024 16:05

TroysMammy · 27/04/2024 15:27

No. Don't you wonder why they only speak to the spirits that have a connection to the living person they are in close proximity to?

Well someone with a thick black moustache came through in my reading. I know nobody with a thick black moustache, so it would appear that either she's a fake or I have a connection to Adolf Hitler 🤣

OP posts:
Arrestedmanevolence · 27/04/2024 16:06

No, people live on, but through their footprint on the world. I remember my Gran for example when I cook because she taught me a lot of the basic rules. And I teach my daughter the same so my Gran will live on through her and her ability to make muffins.

Elphame · 27/04/2024 16:13

Ah the Mumsnet echo chamber strikes again.

Yes I know a couple but genuine ones are very few. The ones I know are very selective of who they tell as well.

AMinutesPeace · 27/04/2024 16:19

I sometimes talk to the Gin but I don't think that's the kind of spirits you mean, OP...

On the whole, I agree with most pps that it's a money-making and sometimes attention-seeking scam, preying on the vulnerable bereaved. I wouldn't pay to see a medium as the evidence suggests that they cold read, trawl the media and social media for information and cast their nets wide with the sort of comments applying to as many people as possible.

I'm naturally a sceptic but, because of some personal experiences over the years that I can't explain, I'm open to accepting that we might well not have all the answers about what happens after death. The experiences include things that happened after the deaths of my parents, a stay in a holiday cottage and a relative who had accurate dreams about (then future) sudden deaths.

I'll go as far as to agree with one pp that a tiny minority of people might have such a gift (or burden, as I imagine it might be a mixed blessing), but hopefully they would only seek to use it to help people, not seek money or publicity from it. I also agree with another pp that it is comforting to hope that lost loved ones are waiting for me and for my DC 'on the other side'.

financialcareerstuff · 27/04/2024 16:19

I think the classic readers/tarot/mediums are 99% pure bollocks- I would guess 50% know they are charlatans, and the rest fancy themselves as skilled and reason everything to confirm that bias (like 'I'm an empathy' stuff.)

However, I do believe we aren't even close to working out how the 'spirit'/ essence/ soul/ will/character/presence/ unspoken communication' stuff works. And I think in the classic 'Western' world we are closed down to all of it, with a heavy bias towards western forms of rationalisation, allowing us just the one form of magical thinking in organized religion around one God.

Personally, I don't think there is anything more irrational about believing eg that spirits can leave bodies, pass through others as host, or that we can sense or channel things with loved ones (eg a twin) from a distance, than that one God created us, there was a miracle birth, resurrection etc.... or for that matter big bang theory.

There are countless mind-blowing mysteries, which we haven't even begun to solve about how beings work. I think I would be pretty arrogant to conclude I knew what had no basis, and what did.

TheCadoganArms · 27/04/2024 16:22

No

To be honest when I occasionally meet people who seriously believe in this kind of woo I tend to think they are a bit thick.

FragileWookiee · 27/04/2024 16:26

I'm on the fence. Out of interest I replies to one of those tarot reading things on here with the "I'll pick a card for you" so when she replied to me I googled the card and what she had said was word for word from Google.
But I have had a lady stop and speak to me once and she claimed there was a blonde haired male with me in spirit and the way she described him, it was someone who I have lost. She didn't know me and vice versa and money didn't exchange hands. But it has stayed with me all these years later.

Soontobe60 · 27/04/2024 16:28

TwilightSkies · 27/04/2024 15:28

Yes. Genuine mediums etc are a tiny minority but they do exist.
Most of them don’t charge, or charge a very small amount.
They do it to help people.
The fakes (of which there are many) give the real ones a bad name.

No they dont.

idontlikealdi · 27/04/2024 16:30

No

theduchessofspork · 27/04/2024 16:31

Nooooooo

Heliss · 27/04/2024 16:31

No. Went to quite a few when I was young and daft. It's just cold reading. If you sit still and don't say anything, they find it harder to read you so come out with the old chestnut 'you're not open to this, so it won't work'.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 27/04/2024 16:35

It is different because it requires training at many other disciplines, is conducted in privacy and after long and rigorous examination of the circumstances, and for no human mundane purpose. I go into the theology, but I don’t feel that you would be open to the explanation.

Original poster
Funkyslippers · 27/04/2024 16:42

Heliss · 27/04/2024 16:31

No. Went to quite a few when I was young and daft. It's just cold reading. If you sit still and don't say anything, they find it harder to read you so come out with the old chestnut 'you're not open to this, so it won't work'.

That's kind of what happened to me

OP posts:
maximist · 27/04/2024 16:49

I talk to spirits. Right before I mix them with tonic and drink them.

ManchesterBeatrice · 27/04/2024 16:50

No

SittingBackAndWatchingTheClowns · 27/04/2024 16:50

NO, certainly not

BeaRF75 · 27/04/2024 16:51

No, because there is no such thing as "spirits". Once we're dead that's it. Nada.

Snugglemonkey · 27/04/2024 16:53

No. I don't believe in spirits even.

BlancheSaysYes · 27/04/2024 16:56

The I'm a Tarot card reader AMA threads on here are a bit daft. The so called reader says pretty much the same thing to everyone. There's something worrying you at the moment but it will all sort itself out in the end, try not to worry too much about what others think of you, be careful when you cross the road tomorrow, watch out for a woman in a blue coat who means you harm 😂