Do you believe in psychics?

[EwwwwDavid]

I've been to a few psychics over the years and some things they've said have been weirdly accurate, some not so much.
I had a very tragic bereavement about 12 years ago and haven't seen one since but done things I was told almost predicted what would happen.
Does anyone have any similar stories?
Ps im very much atheist and not at all 'woo' but sometimes reflect on things that are weirdly accurate.

@Drybird2020

I'm the woman in the random village with the spooky local.

It was a very unsettling experience and has bothered me for years.

For a long time afterwards I considered going back there and trying to find the woman and ask how she knew this stuff/get more details, but I realised it wouldn't do me any good.

Some of it I've been able to rationalise: I must have looked awful, I'd just been devastated by the most awful, shocking loss. An empathic person could have realised I'd had a traumatic experience, some PPs have described having similar abilities, all non woo.

What seemed very woo was the specific detail she gave about my siblings death, the unusual cause and exact part of the body affected. Also some other vague stuff that I didn't understand.

I'm more than happy for anybody to debunk/explain it! I'd be happier with a logical explanation.

Newspapers? Mutuals?

I visit one particular one every year or so, not because I necessarily ' believe ', but its a bit of 'me' time, some people like a massage or facial or getting their nails done, I pay someone to talk about me for an hour

@Pumperthepumper yes, it was in the newspapers. But afterwards!

To emphasise how random the setting was, I had come off the motorway and was driving a route through a series of villages I had never been to before. I stopped at random for a break. This woman came shuffling out of her house in her slippers, put rubbish in the bin and turned as if to go back in the house then turned back to me and said 'I'm a psychic. I've got a young man here and he's very surprised to be dead.' And then she went on about the cause of death.

[quote Drybird2020]@Pumperthepumper yes, it was in the newspapers. But afterwards!

To emphasise how random the setting was, I had come off the motorway and was driving a route through a series of villages I had never been to before. I stopped at random for a break. This woman came shuffling out of her house in her slippers, put rubbish in the bin and turned as if to go back in the house then turned back to me and said 'I'm a psychic. I've got a young man here and he's very surprised to be dead.' And then she went on about the cause of death.[/quote]
So you didn’t know he was dead at this point?

@Pumperthepumper It had just happened. I was on the way to my parents' place at the other end of the country. A few days later the story was in the papers but it was not public at this point. Family and close friends knew. The death happened overseas and it took a few days for all the details to come through.

[quote Drybird2020]@Pumperthepumper It had just happened. I was on the way to my parents' place at the other end of the country. A few days later the story was in the papers but it was not public at this point. Family and close friends knew. The death happened overseas and it took a few days for all the details to come through.[/quote]
Ok. Here’s my guess then:

She saw you looking ill and sad, guessed it was with bereavement and threw some statements out for you to catch. Your mind focused on the significant ones, and confirmation bias confirmed the rest. The bits you didn’t understand were the bits she threw out that didn’t land. She saw someone vulnerable and exploited it.

@Pumperthepumper it's hard to think that someone would be so cruel intentionally but maybe she really believed she was a psychic and interpreted what she noticed about me as a psychic moment. I'd be more comfortable with that.

The bits I didn't understand were more general and could apply to anyone who died suddenly and young, missed opportunites, preoccupation with my wedding band, something about our mother. So yes, that could have been fishing.

She gave details of the injuries that were very specific, but we did not learn them until the results of the post mortem report a few days later. That's what really throws me.

I don't like thinking about this and I have told very few people IRL.

They definitely weren't vague details, they were very specific indeed. Stuff from the wife's childhood about a family pet, in jokes and things that truly no one else would have known

I believe you, JollyHostess, but then I never doubted the specific details - only where they actually came from

Embroidery of what happens really is seen so often, nearly always with "they couldn't possibly have known" tacked on and the sitter's own part in it minimised - and of course with each telling there's the chance to add a bit more, especially if the listener wasn't there to see what really took place

[quote Drybird2020]@Pumperthepumper it's hard to think that someone would be so cruel intentionally but maybe she really believed she was a psychic and interpreted what she noticed about me as a psychic moment. I'd be more comfortable with that.

The bits I didn't understand were more general and could apply to anyone who died suddenly and young, missed opportunites, preoccupation with my wedding band, something about our mother. So yes, that could have been fishing.

She gave details of the injuries that were very specific, but we did not learn them until the results of the post mortem report a few days later. That's what really throws me.

I don't like thinking about this and I have told very few people IRL.[/quote]
No, I know. I can appreciate its horrible. And I’d like to give people the benefit of the doubt too, I know it’s really hard to think otherwise.

I really don’t want to upset you, and I’ll back off if you say so, but I’d suspect this is what happened (don’t read if you don’t feel up to it)

The specific injuries become more significant with the knowledge later; a generic ‘head injury’ later confirmed could easily lead an upset, shocked, bereaved person to remember the conversation as ‘very specific head injury’ but forget about ‘neck injury/back injury’ or any of the other things she’s likely to have said.

Similarly, in a shocked, bereaved and upset state, chances are when a spooky old lady started speaking to you about a death, you immediately gave out details about your brother. You weren’t as guarded as a person on a pier vaguely asking for details of a great-grandmother’s missing necklace.

I’m sorry about your brother.

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

Not really answering your question and I might get told I’m mad for writing this but I’ve had dreams that have come true, about 3. I dreamt my brother would split with his girlfriend and told him about it they then split a week later. Also dreamt about something else that came true a few days later it’s very weird but I’m not in any way phycic my family have laughed and joked about it

I dreamt my brother would split with his girlfriend and told him about it they then split a week later

There could be a few reasons for that. If he was involved in the breakup then you might have influenced him as he was thinking about it anyway on one level and you put it to the front of his mind. If it was his partner who never knew then couples split all the time. Eventually you’ll have someone dreaming of something like that which will happen in real life.

@merrymelody

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

Which theories are more far fetched than supernatural abilities?

I DO however believe in physics, which I keep misreading psychics for, in thread title.

@merrymelody

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

...what?

@merrymelody

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

What, so cold reading, random guesses, some of which are correct, a ‘sitter’ providing far more information than they’re later aware of, and the ‘psychic’ giving generic information which is later remembered as more surprising and specific than it was, are more far-fetched than the notion that Gary the Psychic Barber or Madam Zelda on the pier is actually being contacted by your dead relatives to pass on information about the initials of your future children or that Fido is at peace now and Great Uncle John is keeping an eye on him?

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

Some of them, maybe, but it all tends to fall apart when you've seen actual proof of trickery and watched the whole thing done by someone who's quite frank about having no psychic abilities at all

All it really leaves is the wish to believe it - in other words confirmation bias - though it was hilarious when someone said that Derren Brown does what he does because he's actually a brilliant psychic himself

@merrymelody

Many of the theories on here to prove that psychics are frauds are more far-fetched than psychic abilities themselves!

Agree to an extent… The story constructed by a pp to explain the spooky random villager is quite a stretch! Not saying the explanation is actually ‘she was psychic’ but it’s got to be better than ‘she saw you and guessed you had just lost a relative’ for starters. I go out looking like a horror all the time, and not once have I been stopped by a random and asked those things.

@EarlyModernEnglish that was me. What’s a more rational explanation than mine, please?

@Pumperthepumper
Not sure. It’s just that your isn’t that rational/likely is it??

[quote EarlyModernEnglish]@Pumperthepumper
Not sure. It’s just that your isn’t that rational/likely is it??[/quote]
But you can’t think of a more rational one?

Why is mine not? She saw somebody looking devastated, shocked and upset. Panicked even. Is it such a leap to think ‘sudden bereavement’? I don’t think so. And she wouldn’t even have to guess that- just ‘sudden bad news’ and a bit of fishing.

@EarlyModernEnglish and even if you do want to believe in a paranormal connection, why would the ghost start giving cryptic information out? Why not say ‘my name is Sarah Green, my address is 123 Fake Street and my date of birth is 13.07.73’?

I believe. I have seen some very good ones who were spot on and didn't know me from adam. One in particular who told me my dad's first name, his job, how he died (was an unusual passing), his birthday and in particular one particular phrase he would say to me over and over in the lead up to my wedding. Only my dad and I knew of that phrase. Having never met me, lived over 20 miles from me and only had my first name how could she have known any of that?

Most, quite possibly all, people who claim to be psychic are frauds. Some of them might genuinely believe they are, but that doesn't mean they are.

A lot of "psychic" occurences and predictions are just coincidences. If I make a prediction about everyone I meet, some of them will turn out to come true. Anything that can possibly happen will happen eventually.

I remember the times I think "the phone's about to ring" and then it rings, because it's weird and I wonder "how did I know that?" I probably forget the times I think it's about to ring and it doesn't.

A lot of things that seem "unknowable" are actually completely predictable. I can't think of anything that has happened that couldn't have been expected to happen. Unlikely, but not impossible.

It's impossible to rule out psychic ability altogether though. Without knowing everything, nothing can be ruled out. A lack of evidence does not mean something is not true, only that it can't currently be proved. That's why murderers are captured years after their crime, using techniques that didn't exist at the time. The evidence was not found or not understood, but that didn't mean the crime hadn't taken place.

Clearly that doesn't mean we should accept things as true without evidence. But neither should we dismiss things that can't be disproved. The belief psychic ability doesn't exist is just that, a belief, one based on lack of evidence rather than based on evidence.

@gonnabeok

I believe. I have seen some very good ones who were spot on and didn't know me from adam. One in particular who told me my dad's first name, his job, how he died (was an unusual passing), his birthday and in particular one particular phrase he would say to me over and over in the lead up to my wedding. Only my dad and I knew of that phrase. Having never met me, lived over 20 miles from me and only had my first name how could she have known any of that?

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