...to think that clairvoyants/tarot readers etc are just a load of crap?!

[candyandyoga]

So, friend is having a tarot/clairvoyant night and asks if I want to come. When I was younger I used to really believe it all this but now, I am very cynical and think there are very very few genuine 'fortune tellers' out there - if any...

Aibu to think that this is all just a load of old shit or are there really people out there who can tell us our future?!

[FarBetterNow]

Calamity: Ok, I am not mentally ill, I am not deluded and I am not a thief.

I live my life to the principles of Harm No One.
I find your comments ignorant & offensive.

[RationalThought]

FarBetterNow "The date we die is set before we are born."

You really believe this? So I can drink, smoke and eat as much as I like and not die earlier than I would otherwise have done?

[ssd]

can anyone explain this then?

when a psychic tells you the name of a deceased relative, how they died, what they were wearing and what the room looked like, their age and the keepsakes they left, without ever meeting you before, how do you explain this?

[notbotheredreally]

i remember important stuff very well , but i just cant seem to remember the boring stuff , sorry what did your last post say seeker :)

[DoctorAnge]

That woman Sally (?) who puts on that little girl voice when talking about a dead child waiting for someone in the audience to pipe up.

Then driving off in her 90k car to the next show.

It's so utterly sick.

[HazleNutt]

There is a lot of interesting cold reading info available if you just google. Explains most of the "but how could they know??" statements.
One example: "On one occasion I observed a tealeaf reader. The client actually spent 75% of the time talking. Afterward when I questioned the client about the reading she vehemently insisted that she had not uttered a single word during the course of the reading. The client praised the reader for having astutely told her what in fact she herself had spoken."

[CrapsWithBears]

Paul Zennon demonstrates how it's done ssd it's not that difficult, you just have to practice a bit first.

[bruffin]

I was listening to Iain Lee on LBC one night. He had a letter from someone who claimed to be a psychic and had dreamed about Iain and his house. He described the furniture and the work that was being done. Iain was gobsmacked how accurate it was. He rang him up and spoke to him and again was amazed at the accuracy
Earlier in the programme he talked about selling stuff on ebay and one of the things was fairly unusual. This was a running theme on the programme and and had mentioned the stuff earlier. So i looked on ebay and found the stuff he was selling and there and behold all the things the "psychic" mentioned were in the photos on ebay.
I emailed him and he was disgusted how easily he was taken in.

[ssd]

haven't clicked on that yet crapswith, but I didn't answer him or say yes or no, I just sat in stunned silence, he never asked any questions, just started talking to me

[CalamityKate]

If anyone can point to any real PROOF that ANY of these "abilities" actually exist then I will apologise for my "sweeping statements".

Real proof that is. Clue: anecdotes don't count.

Until real PROOF exists then there is no reason to think that my previous post doesn't sum the whole thing up.

As for being deluded - well nobody thinks they are. That's kind of how it works

[CrapsWithBears]

You don't have to say yes or no, they could probably read you via non-verbal cues which you wouldn't realize you were doing.

[seeker]

If somebody gets James Randi's million bucks then I might be persuaded.....

[seeker]

In areas like Bradford where there was a big weaving industry, psychics ask if anyone had a grandmother with a missing finger. It was a very common industrial injury- somebody usually did.......

[CalamityKate]

Seeker - quite.

It's a no brainer really isn't it?

Derren Brown and others of his ilk can replicate what "mediums" claim to be able to do.
There has NEVER been any real proof that what they claim is real.

Therefore, common sense suggests that they are using the same methods that Derren Brown et al use; very much non-psychic ones.

Whether they THINK they've got some sort of gift (the well-meaning deluded ones) or not, the methods are the same.

[CalamityKate]

My friend always harps on about a medium she went to see, who "amazingly knew" that her dad liked clean shiny shoes.

This was after she'd correctly guessed that he'd been in the army.

An ex serviceman who liked shiny shoes. Who'd have thought it?!

[Gossipmonster]

I have a friend whose son died of cancer a few yrs ago (early teens)

She is always posting on FB that she is going to these Physic's and it makes me feel :( as they are just taking money from a vulnerable person clutching at any possibility of contact with her son.

I don't believe any of it any more than I believe in God.

[CalamityKate]

It's revolting Gossipmonster.

These people are parasites.

[Bumpotato]

I only thought about the "psychics" and how evil they are when there was a documentary on a couple of years ago. Some bereaved people were paying thousands, fucking thousands, to these people.

It ceases to become "entertainment" at anything over a few quid.

[ItsOkayItsJustMyBreath]

I once went to see a well known medium (well known amongst the medium circuit apparently, Paul something?) to see how well he did.

I thought I'd test him a bit though. I shoved a jumper up my top (to look pg) and put my nan's old wedding ring on my wedding finger (I was single and without DS at the time). I just thought, if he picks me then I'll agree with anything he says. He had such a time with me! He kept talking about 'new footsteps in the sand', 'new arrivals calming my mind' and the presence of a loved one being with me to guide me. None of it made any sense to me, he even told me that my mum would watch over me from the spirit world (as far as I know, she is alive and kicking).

So, as a medium/ psychic, he didn't even know that I was faking being pregnant. How come he was/is a big name in this circle?

[expatinscotland]

'We are all absolutely entitled to deal with grief and bereavement in any way that we can and any way that helps those left to survive.'

Then I hope it's never your dead child or loved one being exploited to put a sticking plaster of lies on someone else's grief, because quite frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach. No one is 'entitled' to FA.

[CalamityKate]

Oh yes. Sally Morgan putting on the voices of dead children.

There are no words to describe how much I loathe what she does. Vile creature.

[expatinscotland]

I have a friend who is being exploited similarly, gossipmonster. She's going to these so-called churches, learning to become a medium to make contact with her son who died of cancer a couple of years ago. It's appalling.

[carlywurly]

I've got a cd recording from a reader from a couple of years ago who was incredibly accurate, and was very specific.

I've also got a good friend who reads tarot, for free, and regularly tells me things she cannot possibly have known from me.

I also once went to a psychic show where the bloke referred to my grandma by her full (unusual) name, both first and surname and relayed a true story about her. That was bizarre.

So I'm a lot more open minded than the majority on this thread to the possibility of some people being genuine, but do also agree there are an awful lot of frauds about.

[CalamityKate]

It isn't being closed minded to say that there has never been proof. It's stating fact.

[SolidGoldBrass]

Well, Doris Stokes used to read the obituary notices in the local papers before every show... She also had 'helpers' chatting to the audience as they were queueing to get in. That's one way of getting a good reading. Another thing a lot of these con artists do is make you wait for an appointment so they can do some digging. If you are one of these poor sad deluded sods who consults woo-peddler after woo-peddler, quite a few of them will have been sharing the information with each other...

As to comforting the bereaved, a mate of mine posted a piece on Facebook the other week, which is utterly wonderful and if I ever have to do a funeral again I'm going to steal and paraphrase it (because it's addressed to a heterosexual adult man so needs adapting for anyone else) - it's basically a truthful comfort for the bereaved, to the extent that those we have lost are essentially still with us because energy cannot be created or destroyed.



^The warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.

According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly.^