to not understand how you can just ‘become’ a psychic

[acquiesce]

OK so I went to school with a girl who I still have on FB. She has always been heavily into MLM, until her most recent one failed and she took herself off social media until yesterday when she posted this message

‘From tomorrow I will be offering psychic readings. I have been practicing on family and friends to gain more confidence and light. Going forward this will be part of my light work and so the price for this will be £10 per reading’

And so many commenters are lapping it up!

She’s so irritating but so fascinating. I don’t know how she makes money from this though, how are people this gullible? And wtf is light work???

I’m clearly doing something wrong working!

Right, you don’t know me but apparently I’m a fool because I have a different view point and experince to you... okay then...

I used to be friends with sonebody who 'became' a psychic medium.

She did it by attending a course where she was shown 'how develop her intuitive sixth sense' - ie how to learn how to cold read and manipulate people.

Morally it's one of the lowest things people can do, imo.

legally it has to be advertised as "entertainment"?

hmm...I would quite like to do this for a living! If it's got a big disclaimer saying "entertainment" then how can anyone turn up seriously expecting something real?

I've said it before but I'm always puzzled by the "cold reading" stuff.

You can't make any assumptions about anyone based on how they are dressed, wearing a ring etc etc. Maybe you could in the Victorian age but not now.

If I turned up for a psychic reading today I'd be wearing every item of clothing I own

You don’t just become phychic no.

I was born this way but I don’t practice or use it in anyway. Only my husband and close family know.

I’ve got a perfectly normal job.

Amarriedcatlady

I don't know anybody who believes the earth is flat, but I don't need to know them personally to say that they are at the very least extremely gullible and credulous.

Jessikita

What do the dead tell you?

Have you asked them what it's like being dead?

Course you are, Jessikita.

Did you see upthread that there's a $1 million prize out there for anyone who can demonstrate psychic abilities under laboratory conditions? Yours for the taking, surely? Seeing as you're so psychic and all.

It is entertaining done live, though, even when it's explicitly stated that it's not real, i.e. when Derren Brown does it (saw him live). It's great fun because there's that "How did they do that?" that you'd also have with a magician.
Those who claim to be real psychics though... not fun.

It's a load of wank.

Anyone claiming to be psychic is lying or deluded. Nothing but contempt for the Sally Morgans of this world.

Right, you don’t know me but apparently I’m a fool because I have a different view point and experince to you

You can't have a different viewpoint about objective reality without being a fool. It's entirely possible for to reasonable people to disagree about brexit, because it is a subjective choice. If two people disagree about the shape of the Earth, one of them is a fool.

You can't make any assumptions about anyone based on how they are dressed, wearing a ring etc etc. Maybe you could in the Victorian age but not now.

Of course you can. I will make an assumption about someone turning up in Uggs and a Superdry Hoodie. Or someone wearing boho tunic top and big jade necklaces. I can assume someone wearing a wedding ring is married. Someone without a ring but a tan line as recently separated. A cross necklace for spirituality. If tarnished, possible a family heirloom.

You can read people based on their clothes, make up, hair style, body language, accent, pronounciation, etc. Its silly to think your outward appearance doesn’t reflect some of your character.

However, due to free will, readings are pointless because no matter what you are told, you can change the outcome anyway.

So sometimes they guess correctly. When it’s wrong, it’s because of free will?

Some 26 years ago I went to a local psychic show just for fun. I had a huge belly, size of a house. The psychic seemed really pleased with herself for accurately psychicking that I was pregnant!

Richard Dawkins did a show on the BBC about this years ago.

He went to a psychic fair and caught a 'medium' out on camera.

Because Dawkins is old it's a fair assumption that his parents are probably dead. The 'medium' obviously thought that and started to say he was getting a man who could be Dawkins father. (on the voiceover Dawkins reveals that his father is actually still alive).

He gave non-commital responses to the 'medium' who took that as the cue to start telling Dawkins that his 'father was proud of him and was watching over him'

Dawkins let's this go on for a couple of minutes before revealing that his father is actually very much alive.

Cue a flustered and embarrassed psychic 'clarifying' with the spirits that it's not Dawkins actual father he is speaking to, but someone who was 'like a father to him'.

Load of absolute bollocks.

Some of them are genuine

Your fb friend could have it least shown some commitment to her new career by changing her name by deed poll to Psychic Sandra or Margaret the Mystical. I'm not convinced she's a dedicated seer.

I dismissed people like this as foolish but mainly harmless, but have recently reassessed my position.

A temporary nanny scared my child by ‘reading’ his palm. I am so fucking angry as the stupid grown adult in all seriousness told my 7 yr old that he would never marry or have a family, and would go through life alone, as his ‘family line was short and faint’, and ‘as red as blood’ in color.

Stupid nanny convinced my little boy this was true. Who the hell says that kind of crap to a seven year old? DS was scared to grow up and says he doesn’t want to be lonely forever and he’d rather go to heaven to be with (two family members who are already there), than by himself all alone.

I only found this out after nanny had finished their stint with us, filling in for permanent nanny’s absence - I was looking for someone who’d be able to fill in for a few gaps that are going to happen over the next few months, as our main nanny has to go backwards & forwards a few times for a personal reason, but clearly this temp nanny ain’t stepping foot back into our home ever again.

I don’t get how anyone thinks this this kind of nonsense is ever ok? Hen nights and silly fun is one thing, but spewing it to vulnerable people who’ve just lost someone, or whoever might actually be taken in by it is just vile.

Hmm I'm getting a voice coming through. Their name begins with a P or an F, T, W, M or N. They were a significant person in your life or maybe a pet. This is freaky, there's no way I could be making this up.

That's awful ThisIsShit. An example of how this sort of "Psychic" bollocks can cause real distress for people.

I love how a psychic's "gifts" are so vaguely defined: do they foresee the future? Do they read minds? Do they communicate with the dead? Do they get messages about the future from the dead? (How would the dead know?)
Such a load of tosh.

Nobody can see into the future and know what is going to happen. No matter what they use - cards, runes, or spirits or whatever. Well that's what I think anyway.

I read tarot for myself and friends and not as a business so no money exchanged. They are not fortune telling as such, they are for guidance. That's how I use them anyway.

None of them are real.

To be fair, I don’t think they’re all either lying or mentally ill. I think some of them probably genuinely think they have a gift. I do think they’re in a tiny minority however.

I’m a psychic. Everyone reading this is going to die. I am sure of it.

Pretending that cards have any usefulness for guidance, whether you charge or not, is almost as bad as pretending to get messages from the dead. But not quite.