Debunk my OH's woo story please!

[LadyShirazz]

So I am a life-long non-woo skeptic and atheist; my OH is a bit more of an "anything's possible" type, though with no strong views in any one particular direction.

Occasionally we get on the subject, and one time he's told me this story several times:

Back in the eighties, OH and first wife were walking down the Mile End road, which was not an area they lived in or frequented much, and had ended up in sort of randomly that day. They were passing a fishmongers and the wife on the spur of the moment wanted to pop in for crab, so in they went.

Cockney geez at the counter is talking to a man with a turban on - not a fellow staff member, but at the same time doesn't look exactly to be a paying customer either. Once fish is bought and paid for, the bloke at the counter gestures towards the turbaned man, and says that he can tell fortunes. Cockney guy then suggests OH put a fiver on the counter, and if the turbaned chap got their fortunes right, he would give it to him, and if he didn't, he would give it back to them again.

So alright, they are game. The man in a turban then picks up some of the brown paper for wrapping the fish, makes some scribblings and gives a scrap each to OH and wife saying that this would be the name of their mothers - and was right in both cases. He then hands OH another scrap saying that this was his current salary, and was correct - OH claims to the penny. He then turns to the wife and says that her last boyfriend was a bad man and had hit her, which was also true. There was some other stuff, but annoyingly OH muppet says he can't remember - but either way the man got the five pounds.

Now technically I know he didn't tell their future or fortunes, but just their "presents" - and even then only fairly random bits and pieces of that. On the future, all OH remembers is that he was predicted to live in a white house one day - and he hasn't yet.

AIBU to demand a rational explanation for this??

I'm hoping someone is going to come along and tell me this was some sort of con going on in the eighties East End - and explain all the details. I for one am struggling to explain how the chap could have produced such accurate (if piecemeal) information on the basis of a random encounter, and I've watched all of the Derren Brown series too!

Any thoughts....?

PS: Before you say it, OH definitely wasn't making the experience up. We've been together nearly ten years now, and I know for a fact he is entirely lacking in the necessary imagination, or moreso the ability to remain consistent over subsequent retellings, were he not telling the truth... :)

Just let him enjoy his memory .
You don't have to prove him wrong .

Derren Brown has done some cold-reading type tricks that I've found astounding - no idea how he does them unless there's some kind of evil cloak and daggery going on

This thread made me think of a bit in Jonathan Creek where the magician is filming street magic, grabbing member of the public to 'think of a number between 1 and 50'. Eventually, on something like take 37, someone says the number he's got written on a piece of paper in his pocket - and they're like how did you know that?!

I went to a fortune teller once, about 18 yrs ago. I had my newborn baby son with me, and the fortune teller said they could see another baby on the horizon - a girl. It had taken over 4 years to conceive our son, so I got very excited and squealed 'a girl' at which the fortune teller quickly replied, 'well the potential for a girl'. Even though I know it's rubbish, I felt let down! (I did have a girl 3 years later )

Years ago, I remember going to a Fortune Teller whilst on Honeymoon in Hong Kong. There were loads of people telling fortunes in the area.The guy wrote something down for each month of the year. One of the months he wrote divorce. He was correct, but about 15 years out, rather than 6 or 7 months!

Years ago a friend kept pestering me to go with her to The Spiritualists Association of Great Britain In London. So I relented and made an appointment.

I am an atheist and totally non woo but I can find no explanation for what the woman told me that day. She said I worked in a very stressful job made worse by my manager who, when screaming at me or someone else, would turn American Indian red in the face. True and he was American and half American Indian. She said I should get out asap which I was in the process of doing and I would be happy in my next job, which I was..

Then she said she had contact with my old boss who had died the previous year. I had worked for him for about eight years when I was in my 20s and she went on to describe how he and his wife treated me like a daughter which was true, even though they had a son and daughter. I would stay with them, they would take me out with the family. She described gifts he had bought me on his frequent trips to America, all true.

She said my grandmother had given her a message to give to my Mother not to let her leg get worse and go to the doctor immediately. I subsequently told my Mother, she confirmed she had been having a problem with her leg, went to the GP and ended up having an operation.

So it beats the hell out of me. I can't explain it away.

OP - I reckon, if this happened exactly as you've reported your OH's account of it, that the whole thing was set up beforehand by his wife, and she'd already given the man in the turban their mothers' names and your OH's salary details.

As you say in your PS, your OH utterly lacks imagination, so it's probably never occurred to him to speculate whether his wife in fact steered their route along the Mile End Road that day; or why she suddenly decided she wanted to buy crab as they passed that particular fishmonger's. Maybe she was playing a practical joke on him that she expected him to rumble but he didn't?

...I may be completely wrong, of course, but your report of his account got me thinking: both my DM's and my DMIL's first names were utterly unique, each of them was the only woman in the UK with that name, and I couldn't imagine any random "psychic" in a turban successfully writing them both down unless somebody had told him them beforehand.

Just my two-penn'orth, but it may be worth asking your OH whether his XW was the sort of person to set up an encounter like that?

I drove my mother to a psychic and when I got there she had paid for me to have a reading as well. I was told lots of vague general stuff but she also told me my sister was getting married that year. Close but it was booked for the next year. No she insisted she was getting married that year and it would be abroad. Close as I said her wedding was booked for the next year and she was marrying someone from abroad and was going to live there but she was getting married here.

For a variety of reasons which aren't relevant my sister told us a few weeks later that she was going to her fiances country and getting married that summer. So the psychic was right but even the bride and groom didn't know about it at the time.

The funny thing is she saw my mother after me and never mentioned it which I thought was a bit weird.

I don't know if she was genuine or it was a trick but if it was a trick I can't imagine how she did it. I still don't believe in psychics so I guess I am a dyed in the wool sceptic.

Dry what your Mother remembered and what I remember ? I have no idea the circumstances of your Mothers reading but I remember mine.

And as I said, I won't recall it here because I have already had the mickey taken from me before

Are you sure he isn't just winding you up?

Mentalists can do all these types tricks, find one explain the story and see if they can replicate it to some stranger or if they know someone who can replicate it.