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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask if anyone has ever had an irrefutable experience with a psychic?

239 replies

BlueDressingGown · 19/04/2015 23:41

I'm just going to be really honest and say that the reason I'm asking this is because I'm afraid of death. I really want to believe that there is something after death, and so in the past I've thought about speaking to a psychic. If they could tell me one thing - just one thing that couldn't be explained away - I could say to myself 'Ok, there is something else out there' and be content and not let the idea of 'the end' terrify me too much. Yes I should probably seek counseling.

So my question is - does anyone have an irrefutable experience with a psychic - something they were told that can't be explained away? Mostly the experiences seem to point towards it all being a load of hooey (which is what I believe, but I want to believe it's not). Psychics seem to give very general readings and most are frauds that pick up on things that the person has said and regurgitates them, right? My friend saw a psychic and apparently her dead father 'came through' and told her that she was having her garden done - and it was true! Like your dad would bother coming up from the spirit world to tell you some mundane crap from your own life that you already knew!

OP posts:
LucyBabs · 21/04/2015 00:09

hak It was the way the medium spoke she "had" my Dads sense of humour.. hope that takes sense! Me and my dad had unresolved issues and she detailed these to me. She asked me no questions she just told me things.
She said to me without questions Your Dads name is XXX XXX

There was no flaky "he's in a better place" he's sorry blah blah it was so accurate. I have felt better ever since as I feel I've made a kind of peace with my Dad now

expatinscotland · 21/04/2015 08:55

No, Lucy, why would I? There's no way to communicate with the dead. If people want to believe that, they are free to do so, but it's an illusion.

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 21/04/2015 09:07

A friend of mine had an experience with a psychic that shook her - he didn't do any accurate predictions, but he picked up that her brother had died young of a head "trauma" - so far so not very difficult - but he also produced a nickname that the brother had for my friend, and an odd habit that he had too.
She was convinced.

SouthernComforts · 21/04/2015 09:13

Bensam Flowers so sorry for your loss.

And Angry expat that has made me so mad for you Flowers

Sheitgeist · 21/04/2015 09:28

My goodness, if psychics were really real, imagine the huge amount of good they could do. Imagine how much help they could be in crime solving. How they could fill in the gaps in our historical knowledge.
At the very least, they could be hugely famous and affluent themselves, not shysters with small ads in local papers and half empty shows in small theatres.

But they aren't.

KidLorneRoll · 21/04/2015 09:47

These miraculous stories of people being told details that the reader "couldn't possibly have known" are always, if recorded or scrutinized, explainable. It's usually a combination of cold reading, sometimes prior research and confirmation bias.

I can do it, have done it as party trick and I'm not a medium. It's easy, once you know a few tricks.

Of course, if you want to believe that it's someone talking to the dead, by all means, but maybe take a step back and have a wee think about which of the two explanations is the most likely.

Hakluyt · 21/04/2015 09:51

I find it extraordinary that people appear not to have watched Derren Brown........

INickedAName · 21/04/2015 09:58

Expat and bensam I'm sorry for both your losses.

I know many people see it as a bit of fun, but it can be damaging. My mum lost her sister and they had unresolved issues and someone suggested my mum try a psychic to speak to my aunt, as my aunt believed ( had also been told she'd beat her cancer!!) and would visit many herself my mum spent years and lots of money seeing various psychics. I've heard a few recordings and my blood boils as they really are grasping.
I also ended uo seeing Derek ocarah as a mate didn't want to go alone and her mother dropped out last minute, what a load of tosh, a lady thought he was talking to her son who had passed recently, he may have given her comfort but it just felt wrong, he wasn't giving her info, he just prompted her and she told the story. When he was walking round giving it "I have a young man who passed very recently?" There were lots if people with hands up near me who all looked crushed when they were not selected.

I went to see one with work once ( again after someone dropped out),the person was supposed to be truly amazing with year inadvance booked up, I truly am a sceptic, so the night started wonky, but by the time he got to me, he knew my name and lots of personal things about me, but didn't actually tell me anything, but the people I was with took this as his brilliance and not the fact that my mother in law had just been in giving him enough info to peice the last person together and that my name was on the fucking booking.

It's wrong, taking advantage of the grieving or people with ill loved ones, they are both vulnerable times for someone. The damage done there far outweighs any entertainment value in my opinion.

INickedAName · 21/04/2015 09:59

Saw the derren brown program hanky, it was brilliant and exposed it all for what it is.

INickedAName · 21/04/2015 10:00

Hanky? Wtf!
Hakluyt I meant.

Hakluyt · 21/04/2015 10:07

One of my favourite stories was about the people wandering up and down the queue at a psychic show promoting a free draw to win an IPad. All you had to do was give your name and address...........

Hakluyt · 21/04/2015 10:08

Grin at hanky.......

LuckyCornish13 · 21/04/2015 10:12

The Million Dollar Challenge has been around for 51 years and offers 1 million dollars to anyone who can prove any paranormal powers/activities. No one has ever passed the preliminary test.

web.randi.org/the-million-dollar-challenge.html

INickedAName · 21/04/2015 10:13

I've just remembered Derren Brown also did a programme on seances, which is also worth a watch.

Limer · 21/04/2015 10:54

Psychic: You're not pregnant, are you?

Gullible Punter: No

Psychic: Aha, I thought not.

...............

Psychic: You're not pregnant, are you?

Gullible Punter: Yes

Psychic: Aha, I thought so.

HazleNutt · 21/04/2015 11:00

Psychic: You're not pregnant, are you?

Gullible Punter: No

Psychic: Well, someone you know is!

(um, don't we all know someone who is pregnant?)

Hakluyt · 21/04/2015 11:00

Psychic "There's somebody called...John...James....trying to come through..."

Gullible Punter "My dad's name was Jerome........"

Psychic "That's right- Jerome!"

CatthiefKeith · 21/04/2015 11:12

I had an experience with a psychic I can't explain:

My best friend at school and I once made a pact, that whichever one died first would come back and haunt the other, as you do at 13.

We grew up, he joined the navy, we lost touch. One day his brother called me, to say he'd been killed in a horrific bike accident. Funeral was family only, I was devastated.

A year or so later I went to see a psychic, who told me my friends name, his mums name, details of the accident, the fact he was a talented musician, even the pact we'd made 10 years earlier. I was very comforted. Until a few years ago I still had a tape recording of that reading. (You will understand why at the end of my post) I listened to it many times and am 100% sure I didn't give him the answers. He just picked them out of the air.

Thing is, I had that reading, and two years later I went to Cornwall and bumped into my 'dead' friend busking. Unbeknown to me, his brother had developed MH issues, and had made the whole thing up.Shock

Maybe my psychic could read minds, or my body language, but he sure as hell didn't get them from the other side that day! Grin

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 21/04/2015 11:17

That's really interesting, Catthief! Shocking about the brother though Shock

Hakluyt · 21/04/2015 11:19

Sorry to be an arse- but I have heard that particular story in various forms loads of times......it's even been posted on here before...........

CatthiefKeith · 21/04/2015 11:25

Probably from me Hakylut - I've been around a long time and have retold it several times.

I can hand on heart promise it is true. The medium was a chap called 'Psychic Steve' and apparently once won international medium of the year.

It was quite embarrassing having to tell people that actually, no, he isn't dead after all. Blush

CatthiefKeith · 21/04/2015 11:28

Thumb, his brother was in a really bad place at the time, I think it was probably some kind of cry for help and he got in too deep to fess up.

He is doing much better now I hear, although his brother and I sadly lost touch again about 8 years ago.

I post this periodically to show that it really is a load of old bollocks, and that somehow, even though I can't see how, that man picked up whatever vibe I was giving off. Because he quite clearly wasn't talking to a dead person!

CatthiefKeith · 21/04/2015 11:30

In fact Hak, now I think about it, I'm sure we have had this conversation before, where you thought I was posting to illustrate that woo exists, when actually I am trying to prove to people that it's a load of old hooey?

Or was that someone else? Apologies if I'm wrong.

TillyGotTangled · 21/04/2015 11:38

I am such a rationalist but after an experience with a fortune teller a few years ago I was totally convinced.

She advertised as a fortune teller only and when my mum went to her she told her she couldn't give her a reading as she was too distracted by the woman who was in the room with her needing to give a message to her daughter with the initial of my name. She gave my mum a full refund.

I left it at least 3 months, booked in and drove almost 50 miles to see her when the curiosity got the better of me. She had no indication as to who I was.

When I went in she said before I sat down "There's a woman Elizabeth (my great granny's name) who has been desperate to speak to you for a long time". She went on to say that Elizabeth wanted me to know that even though I thought I had got away with it, she knew about my lie and about David. She said she couldn't understand why Lizzy thought it was funny when it was such an emotive topic for me. She also wanted me to know she was waiting at the gates for me with my baby and to stop worrying.

I had lost a baby at university that was the result of a one night stand. I didn't even know his name but to save face I lied and told everyone at home my boyfriend's name was David and he wanted nothing to do with the baby and had left.

After being raised as a strict Catholic (now lapsed) I had spent up until that moment petrified that my wee boy hadn't got to Heaven as I was too distraught to have him baptised. It was the first thing that gave me peace.

I've never went back to her or another one since but now firmly believe there HAS to be something more. There just isn't any other explanation.

senrensareta · 21/04/2015 11:43

This is one of those discussions, like religious belief, that goes around in circles because those that want to believe will see things in such a way as to reinforce that and those who want to disbelieve do exactly the same. We would all love definitive proof but there will never be anything to convince everybody
I think, apart from those charlatans that use it to make money or mislead the gullible, you might as well just agree to differ(although I do love seeing the different experiences and views on these threads so I'm glad we don't Grin)

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