Believe what a medium has said?

[wellhelloyou]

Has anyone had a reading from a psychic medium (or like) and had something exactly came true? Not something vague but something specific almost word for word?

I still believe some people have physic powers, but I don't think it can be summoned up to order, hence why those silly experiments usually fail

But isn't that rather too convenient? And even if we accept that all the summoned-to-order stage acts are charlatans, they're still appearing to do the "impossible" things so many believe

So if fake stage acts can do it, and the various myth-busters can do it too, what reason is there believe the anonymous, "real deal" psychics aren't also taking folk for a ride?

Messages get a bit hazy in transmission from the spirit world.

Maybe it was a salt mine in Canada. Or Poland. Or Siberia.

Ah yes, it must have been the mine in Winsford, Siberia Kissing

Easy mistake to make.

A genuine psychic person doesn't advertise the fact, you are right.
Some people believe and some don't, it's some people's faith and philosophy of life. We hear atheists telling their children that the Bible is a story and not true and how their children shouldn't be made to study christianity. We have all sorts of different faiths and most of this if executed correctly is another belief.

Some people believe and some don't, it's some people's faith and philosophy of life.

If psychic stuff is limited to a faith, a way of understanding the world and our place in it, then it should stay there. But psychics don’t do that: they claim powers. They claim to be able to overcome everyday limitations of, er, dead people not being able to talk. Or ordinary mortals not being able to see into the future.

That’s not faith. It’s the most outrageous claim to being supernatural.

Romany, you made a specific, major claim, as if it were historical fact, as evidence of a relative’s psychic powers, for which there is no substantiation anywhere. There is a huge amount on the Internet about the history of the Winsford salt mine, including a specific memorial to each of the 34 mine employees who died in WWI, yet not a mention of a major accident involving 20 fatalities, which, according to your family story, took place within a few years of the mine reopening with brand new hi-tech machinery in 1928.

Don’t you think this is a classic instance of the kind of combination of hearsay, misinformation, faulty memory, exaggeration etc — all possibly done with no malicious intent — that makes people believe in psychic powers, misremember psychic readings, and present as outright fact something that simply isn’t true?

Aquiline

It's what I was told growing up, I never met the aunts, the one I did meet had nothing to do with the readings. My mum had no reason to lie or fabricate, it was nothing to her either. Just something she told me about her family history and the area. It wasn't very highly populated then, I'm sure there would be reports. I can't ask my mum she's been dead 11 years.

But Romany, you're presenting second or third hand UNTRUE apocrypha as evidence of the existence of clairvoyance. It's nonsense.
At least appreciate that such "evidence" will convince no one, even those open to idea of the existence of psychic mediumship.

It wasn't very highly populated then, I'm sure there would be reports

There are no reports; it didn't happen.

I can't ask my mum she's been dead 11 years
The irony of this statement, from someone supporting psychic mediumship, is off the scale!!

Lifecraft you're right, the programme was for entertainment purposes only, I foolishly didn't realise at the time. However I still believe some people have physic powers, but I don't think it can be summoned up to order, hence why those silly experiments usually fail

Strange then that they can be summoned up to order when the psychic has a show on, or is in their tent giving readings. If the psychic knows in advance they have a show on at 7:30 on Saturday evening at the local theatre, they can summon up the power. But if they know in advance they are being tested in a lab at 3:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, the powers can't be summoned up.

And by "silly experiments" I assume you mean a series of tests designed to actually prove or disprove their claimed abilities?

And they don't usually fail.....they ALWAYS fail.

What Lycanthropology said, Romany. I'm not suggesting you are lying, or that your mother was, but you are unthinkingly passing on as factually true, as evidence of psychic powers, something which is most likely just a sort of family legend, with little or no basis in fact. Didn't it ever occur to you to check your sources before telling people this as 'evidence' for the existence of hereditary clairvoyance?

Family stories are notoriously unreliable. Its like when an vase is taken to the Antiques Roadshow and the owner says it was great great great granny's wedding present and she got married in 1875 but on examination the item was made in 1920. No-one has deliberately lied, stories just get mixed up, passed on wrong or miss assigned so g g g granny's other blue vase was her wedding gift, or the one she had for a wedding gift got broken and was replaced much later or someone was told by their mum that it was granny's vase they assume she meant her grandmother but she actually meant her mother and so a generation gets added.

I can't ask my mum she's been dead 11 years

@Lycanthropology The irony of this statement, from someone supporting psychic mediumship, is off the scale!!

Absolutely brilliant

There's been some classic stuff on this thread, but this exchange is a MN classic.

The PP who told the story about the premonition of a relative dying reminded me of something.

We're going back years to DS's first Christmas aged 1 month. I remember saying something about "your first Christmas Eve" and this voice in my mind going "And your last..."

Well, to cut a long story short, he's still here years later. He was admitted to hospital the day after that and 3 or 4 times during his first year due to breathing difficulties later diagnosed as asthma. The voice was obviously new-mum neurosis (which I had badly at the time) finding a new way to torture me.

But if I'd been inclined to believe such nonsense, I'd maybe have interpreted it as "Oh thank goodness I had that premonition, otherwise I'd not have got him to hospital in time and he would have died!"

Confirmation bias and coincidence, along with anxiety explain most "premonition".

The tales really do grow taller down the line when it comes to reporting other people’s experiences of this.
And the memories of what was actually said during a meeting with a psychic become rather tidied up and more accurate after the event.

It’s not necessarily lying or anthing, just wishful thinking, the unreliability of memory, and the tendency towards embellishment that we all have when communicating with others.

I can't ask my mum she's been dead 11 years

As others have pointed out, that is a massive facepalm statement 🤦🏻‍♀️

• I see a dog...something with a dog..

Believer: yes we had a dog/I always wanted a dog/I was afraid of dogs/my departed grandma had a porcelain dog collection/my uncle was bitten by a dog/I almost ran over a dog once, our house was next to a greyhound race track/my dad's favourite pub as Duck and Hound etc etc

Belivere later: the psychic told me all about grandma's collection, how did they know?

Psychic: He died, didn't he, your granddad?
Punter (aged about 40): Yes
Psychic: (running her hands down from her neck to her waste) Something in this area (which is the throat, heart lungs, all internal organs, and is what 99% of people die of)
Punter: No, he injured his leg and died of an infection in the wound.
Psychic: (holding hand over her chest) Strange, I'm getting the chest....did he have trouble breathing, at the end?)
Errrr...he was dying...of course he had trouble breathing. Dying usually comes with lack of breathing, you fucking scam artist.
Punter: Yes! He did, he did!

Punter, after the show. She knew my granddad, knew he was dead and how he died. How could she know all this detail if she wasn't genuine?

Ouiji board stories boil my piss

I find them hilarious: Hasbro induced horror!
Far more exciting than ‘Risk’ , though so is paint drying, to be honest.

My DM believes it all, because she wants to.

She thinks finding feathers (you know, standard pigeon coat) means "the angels are watching."

Yes- we’ve already had a solemn warning about ouiji boards. Shortly to be followed, presumably by a harrowing account of a possessed Hungry Hippos set. Mousetrap obviously comes pre-possessed.....

I have seen psychics a few times with friends. Two of those were really odd, one starting talking about a friend of mine and he somehow had her mannerisms, and way of speaking. It did freak me out rather.
The other just talked, she didn’t ask me much at all, and the things she said were accurate and really pretty obscure. I don’t know how I feel about psychics tbh, I tend towards the nonsense view, but those two experiences do make me wonder.

Yes- we’ve already had a solemn warning about ouiji boards. Shortly to be followed, presumably by a harrowing account of a possessed Hungry Hippos set. Mousetrap obviously comes pre-possessed.....

Kerplunk...it's the antidote to voodoo. Pulling the pins out.

Yes-start with Strong Poison and go on to Gaudy Night. They are the best of them. Clouds of Witness is fun too. And Murder Must Advertise. I wouldn’t bother with Five Red Herrings unless you fall hopelessly for Peter and are desperate for a fix

A woman after my own heart! Except I'd add The Nine Tailors to the list. I hated Five Red Herrings the first time I read it, went back to it decades later to check whether it was as unreadable and annoying as I thought, and it turned out it definitely was.

PuzzledandPissedOff, Whose Body is okayish, but it's early Sayers and definitely not her best. Also one or two nasty elements of anti-Semitism that you can only excuse on the basis of the time when it was written.

She thinks finding feathers (you know, standard pigeon coat) means "the angels are watching."

Take her to Trafalgar Square, you can't move for fucking angels!

She thinks finding feathers (you know, standard pigeon coat) means "the angels are watching."

I know a couple of people who believe this too

I like Have His Carcase, too, to continue the Sayers derail -- but far inferior to Gaudy Night. The Nine Tailors is excellent, but doesn't have Harriet, though.

Beware the cursed Snakes and Ladders set, while you're at it, obviously.