Page 10 | DP believes some psychics are real, I think he's lost it

Dpi8 · 2023-12-21T00:09:25+00:00

A discussion about a documentary I watched last night descended into an argument today when chatting over dinner. It was about Derren Brown and how he tests so called psychic mediums in an attempt to prove that it's a load of old rubbish - which I agree with him on. He got majorly arsey with me when I told him about cold reading and the other techniques they use, such as using vague statements that could apply to most people in the sitters demographic. IE, telling an elderly lady that they have a parent in the spirit world who had a dodgy knee. I asked him for some examples from which he reached his conclusion that some are genuine but he wasn't forthcoming with anything of any substance, simply mentioning some bloke from the Ghost Adventures series who wanders around buildings 'debunking' certain things for plausible deniabily then making up shite of his own to 'prove' the contact. This is a hill I'm prepared to die on as I will not accept that such tosh is in any way genuine. AIBU to say that absolutely all psychics are full of shit?

ValerieMoore · 21/12/2023 22:31

if it’s not 274 I would just be randomly guessing now

ValerieMoore · 21/12/2023 22:32

But I think there’s a 3

fluffy2buffy · 21/12/2023 22:48

Singasongofsixpence24 · 21/12/2023 00:51

I've namchanged to say I am psychic and it's mostly awful. I don't practice professionally and have lost many 'friends' because all they want is card readings/ healings and what do you think will happen/ any weird feelings etc. Because I'm accurate its quite addictive for them. When I put up boundaries they soon stop calling. It's very hard to know a person's loved one is going to die and not be able to tell them or worse again know when and where and how my own mother would die. Sadly I often really hope I'm wrong or some details are wrong but too often they're not. It's really very painful and can be nightmareish at times. I don't tell new acquaintances that I can do anything like that anymore.

I think they're are more fake than genuine, I have zero talents myself. But have met a couple of people in my life that have made me have a sense of belief. I have also seen a ghost before. Do you ever meet psychics and think - no you're not? Must be very hard and scary as a child.

fluffy2buffy · 21/12/2023 23:04

I saw it mentioned up thread as I've been described as an empath but I'm not, I just grew up in trauma and then lived with it for many years. Being hyper vigilant means I can spot how someone is feeling from very slight body language cues so I know if someone's unhappy etc. I am the person that everyone tells they're life story to 30
Seconds after meeting. But it's exhausting totally exhausting. And not a gift, it's reading people. People drain my energy and very few people increase my energy.

EmmaEmerald · 21/12/2023 23:38

@Frabbits

Okay, well you're not going to be convinced, but the short version ...I saw one abroad many years ago... I'm going to guess most fortune tellers don't tell people "you're not allowed to speak until I I've finished", then tell 20somethings how long their parents will live, or give specifics about a job offer coming their way within a month. That's just a small taste of it.

No questions allowed till she was finished with her monologue.

Since then, I've been to a couple of fairs in England and people start by asking me questions...they look very alarmed when I say it's up to them to tell me stuff 😂

At the time, I didn't realise my experience of being told to sit down and shut up was unusual. She mostly had her eyes closed.

some people are just very astute, of course, so some of what she said can be filed in that box. But she was very confident in her predictions about my folks, which, in some ways, were painfully accurate.

IncompleteSenten · 21/12/2023 23:40

Ooh I'll play. 238. 😁

Tourmalines · 21/12/2023 23:44

Yea , anecdotal evidence means nothing

HearMeSnore · 21/12/2023 23:59

Does he like reading? If so give him "Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks" by Christopher Brookmyre for Christmas.

It's fab. Hilarious and gripping, with fascinating insights into the world of woo.

BeardOToots · 22/12/2023 05:50

.

Whitecup24 · 22/12/2023 06:45

Just woke my DH up laughing 🤣

Personally I totally believe as I have numerous friends who are mediums (loosely mediums talk to spirit, psychics predict the future - I only learnt this through them) and have had for years so I’ve seen / heard / witnessed enough to believe they’re talking to passed relatives of mine and it gives me huge comfort on a personal level….however my DH doesn’t believe at all but he humours me and doesn’t try and ‘win’ the argument nor do I try and insist he holds the same beliefs as me. That’s the weirdest part of the OP not the psychic stuff

KnittedPond · 22/12/2023 06:58

Whitecup24 · 22/12/2023 06:45

Just woke my DH up laughing 🤣

Personally I totally believe as I have numerous friends who are mediums (loosely mediums talk to spirit, psychics predict the future - I only learnt this through them) and have had for years so I’ve seen / heard / witnessed enough to believe they’re talking to passed relatives of mine and it gives me huge comfort on a personal level….however my DH doesn’t believe at all but he humours me and doesn’t try and ‘win’ the argument nor do I try and insist he holds the same beliefs as me. That’s the weirdest part of the OP not the psychic stuff

It’s not a matter of ‘insisting someone holds the same beliefs as you’, more the equivalent of not wanting to be married to someone who thinks the earth is flat.

merrymelodies · 22/12/2023 07:10

I agree with your DP.

NonPlayerCharacter · 22/12/2023 09:54

Sorry all. I'll put you out of your misery. It was 200.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/12/2023 10:09

KrisAkabusi · 21/12/2023 21:55

My DM, who was always a hyper-sensitive type anyway, was occasionally telepathic over very long distances, but only when a family member was in some sort of trouble or acute distress. She would dream exact details, at the time it was happening, and tell us, and they would later be confirmed.

So, by your own words here, there were times when family members were in distress, but she never realised. And if they were in distress during the day, she would never know because she only dreamt about it? Did she ever dream that people were in distress but they were fine, tucked up in bed?

No, not that I know of at all.
The first time it happened I was only about 11. DM woke up utterly convinced that her sister in Canada had had a baby. She already had 3 children and there had been no word of another. (This was decades ago, when you phoned only in life or death circs.)

DM was quite specific - she’d woken at 6.30, looked at the clock and gone back to sleep until the alarm at 7. During that time she’d had that very vivid dream.

We largely forgot about it until about 3 weeks later, when there was a birth announcement card in the post, giving not just the date, but also the (Canadian) time of birth.

When we worked it out, it was exactly during that half hour when DM had her dream. My aunt explained that she hadn’t mentioned the pregnancy, since she’d had two miscarriages.

I know only of one similar case, which happened around 20 years later, which concerned me, at the time 2000 miles away from DM. Although I knew it had happened before, I was utterly spooked and never told her she’d been spot on.

Of course the scoffers will always scoff, say it was coincidence, etc., but I know different.

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 22/12/2023 10:21

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/12/2023 10:09

No, not that I know of at all.
The first time it happened I was only about 11. DM woke up utterly convinced that her sister in Canada had had a baby. She already had 3 children and there had been no word of another. (This was decades ago, when you phoned only in life or death circs.)

DM was quite specific - she’d woken at 6.30, looked at the clock and gone back to sleep until the alarm at 7. During that time she’d had that very vivid dream.

We largely forgot about it until about 3 weeks later, when there was a birth announcement card in the post, giving not just the date, but also the (Canadian) time of birth.

When we worked it out, it was exactly during that half hour when DM had her dream. My aunt explained that she hadn’t mentioned the pregnancy, since she’d had two miscarriages.

I know only of one similar case, which happened around 20 years later, which concerned me, at the time 2000 miles away from DM. Although I knew it had happened before, I was utterly spooked and never told her she’d been spot on.

Of course the scoffers will always scoff, say it was coincidence, etc., but I know different.

Show quote history

How do you know different?

And was every family event communicated psychically to your mother? If not, why was the psychic connection so selective?

MackEndSea · 22/12/2023 10:30

I’m torn on this. I’m a logical thinker so in theory I shouldn’t believe in psychic powers but - I’m pretty sure I have them. Either that or there have been a hell of a lot of weird coincidences in my time.

WhatsTheUseOfWorrying · 22/12/2023 10:35

MackEndSea · 22/12/2023 10:30

I’m torn on this. I’m a logical thinker so in theory I shouldn’t believe in psychic powers but - I’m pretty sure I have them. Either that or there have been a hell of a lot of weird coincidences in my time.

Everyone experiences many weird coincidences through life. Some remember more of them, especially if they believe in something other than chance.

It’s a weird coincidence when someone picks the winning numbers for a lottery jackpot.

IncompleteSenten · 22/12/2023 10:36

I think it would be more accurate to say you believe different. The threshold for knowing is much higher than for believing.

NonPlayerCharacter · 22/12/2023 10:41

What you'd need is a list of every potential coincidence that didn't happen - every dream or feeling that didn't come true, every random decision or occurrence that never coincided with anything significant and so on - and compare it with the number of times the inexplicable coincidence did happen. Then work out how many times you'd expect random coincidences to occur, and see how the probabilities stack up.

It's impossible to calculate, of course, but we do know that a number of coincidences are to be expected. It would be far stranger if things never ever coincided.

IncompleteSenten · 22/12/2023 10:46

About weird things though. I used to have a flip top mobile phone and when it was close to me, I could tell when it was about to ring.

My dad saw me once reach for it before it rang and he freaked out 🤣

I believe it either made a noise I wasn't consciously aware of or had some sort of electrical spike or something along those lines. Something physical that I heard or felt right at the top or bottom end of our range and just outside of what we think we can hear or feel iyswim.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/12/2023 10:49

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying , TBH I don’t call telepathy - between live humans - ‘psychic’ ability anyway. I reserve that term for communication with the dead.

The brain is an incredibly complex organ and scientists still don’t know what every part of it does. (A nephew with a PhD in neuroscience would confirm that.)

When you think what ordinary, relatively cheap, everyday appliances nowadays are capable of - e.g. emails or texts within seconds from the other side of the world, never mind an entire book whizzing within seconds into my Kindle - I can only too readily believe that some people’s (and some animals’) brains are capable of transmitting and receiving information, too. Only the mechanism is not yet understood.

NonPlayerCharacter · 22/12/2023 10:52

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 22/12/2023 10:49

@WhatsTheUseOfWorrying , TBH I don’t call telepathy - between live humans - ‘psychic’ ability anyway. I reserve that term for communication with the dead.

The brain is an incredibly complex organ and scientists still don’t know what every part of it does. (A nephew with a PhD in neuroscience would confirm that.)

When you think what ordinary, relatively cheap, everyday appliances nowadays are capable of - e.g. emails or texts within seconds from the other side of the world, never mind an entire book whizzing within seconds into my Kindle - I can only too readily believe that some people’s (and some animals’) brains are capable of transmitting and receiving information, too. Only the mechanism is not yet understood.

But then why can't the phenomenon be reproduced under lab conditions? Even without an explanation, it should be possible to perform it.

Britpop123 · 22/12/2023 10:55

NonPlayerCharacter · 22/12/2023 10:52

But then why can't the phenomenon be reproduced under lab conditions? Even without an explanation, it should be possible to perform it.

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Exactly. It’s not that it’s a phenomenon that can’t be explained, it’s one that doesn’t happen

CatinSlippers · 22/12/2023 10:55

I am not a believer in psychics and think most are outright charlatans and thieves.

My friend though had a psychic who was able to tell her very specific information about a deceased family member.

This was 25 years ago before widespread use of internet and the person involved lived in a foreign country.

The information was later confirmed by a distant family member.

It was very specific in that the person had taken something from a third country and smuggled it back using a homemade piece of equipment. My friend could not have known about it.

PToosher · 22/12/2023 11:36

When my son was small I used to do a bit of card magic with him. With a bit of sleight of hand I was able to guess 'his' card.
One night at bedtime, stringing the evening out, he picked up the card deck picked a card and asked me to use my magic powers to guess it. Obviously if the card deck isn't in my hands I can't manipulate it. So I said I'd try but wasn't feeling very 'magicky'. He stared intently at the card and I called out the first card that popped into my head.
I got it right, much to his delight.
So he did it again. I got it right again.
I know the odds of that are about 2500 to 1.
He did it a third time and I got it right again. The odds are 140,000 to 1.
I was quite shaken up about it to be honest and declined to do it in future.