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

[Dpi8]

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?

i come from a family where a number of us have seen/ felt spirits....theres absolutely no financial gain for any of us ,its not something that is "performed" for anyone else. You are entitled to believe what you want ....however would you post about or argue likewise if your husband was a Christian or anyone who practises any sort of religion?

OP I see you've had a bad experience

I would imagine 99.9% are frauds. I've never seen anyone about contacting the dead.

But I have come across people with bizarrely accurate knowledge and specific predictions. Mostly fortune telling, not stuff you could cold read.

Many people who think they are empath, are in fact hypervigilent, usually triggered by some type of trauma. For example the child of an alcoholic who is put in charge of the parent, or who has to manage the parents moods. They watch for microfacial expressions and they pick up on extremely subtle indicators. They don't even realise they do this, if they sense something earlier than other people then they may identify or be identified as having certain psychic abilities.

Some people have honed their perceptive skills to athlete levels, usually as a coping mechanism.

I wasn't talking about who should prove or disprove anything.

so, you're joking about the ghost?

Most of the self described empaths I've seen on here have been pretty unpleasant and think they have deeper feelings than other people. They also think that anyone who doesn’t dramatically show emotion can't be feeling it, which is just about the most unempathetic thing imaginable.

One got so angry at being told she wasn't some special higher being that she started abusing someone and told her she had obviously never experienced trauma. The poster was a bereaved parent with many posts on the relevant boards (even a psychic could have looked it up). The empath was told this and continued to abuse the parent before thinking to offer any condolences. A particularly egregious example, but pretty much in line with most of them.

OP I think it’s daft to argue/fall out over this. Is it really any different from someone believing in an invisible sky fairy? Cos billions do that and billions don’t.

I’m a hypocritical sceptic.

My rational mind wants to say this doesn’t exist but I have experienced way too many odd things ghosts and premonitions and god it seems odd typing it out but I’ve had messages from dead people I don’t know for people I do. I assess whether it’s worth saying anything. I never do it on demand (I can’t) and sometimes I think maybe I’m going mad but the things I’ve said have been true or come true. There’s nothing creepier than seeing someone in your bedroom you don’t know trying to tell you something. I wish it was my loved ones coming to me but that rarely is the case (usually if someone is dying) which means I tend to know before I’m told. I don’t enjoy it, I don’t want it, it’s just there and it shouldn’t come true but it does.

This would niggle at me too OP. It's not a question of having different opinions - some opinions are wrong. This is one of them. It's entirely irrational and I'd question the judgement of anyone who fell for this nonsense. Eg if a person is this credulous, they're probably be more prone to making poor financial/life decisions. It's not a good thing.

You don’t have proof that psychic ability does not exist. I mean .. wow you saw a programme about Darren Brown.. I mean that is hardly evidential to your argument.
You both have equal quality evidence to back up your argument. That amounts to fuck all evidence. Therefore agree to disagree and peace be with you both on the matter.

The burden of proof is on those making the claim, so until I see peer reviewed empirical evidence to support it then is a real as god, Father Christmas, the tooth fairy and indeed any form of superstition.

I do not know if this helps. When my DC was almost 3, we took a rather long car trip, just the two of us.
At some point, out of the blue, she remarked: " Mummy, the car is hungry". I then checked, and, to my shock, I was running out of fuel.
The petrol station sign was fast approaching, and I pulled over.
I then realised that the next station was 50 miles away, and I would have had to stop way before reaching it.
My daughter did not know anything about cars, and, more importantly, from her position, she could not see the fuel level.
Did she have 🔮 powers? Did she simply want to stop? Did she just decide that the car needed food because she wanted food?(I do not think so, as she refused to eat).
I have always wondered...

You don’t have proof that psychic ability does not exist.

There's tons of evidence it doesn't exist and no reliable evidence that it does. What number am I thinking of?

😂😂😂😂👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

42?😜

No, but I know why you chose that one. It's mostly harmless.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Agreed.

There's loads of opportunity to prove it but thus far nobody has. That foundation in the USA had a million quid hanging around all ready to go to anyone who could demonstrate something paranormal. It hung around for half a century which is surely enough time for even the tardiest of ghosts to get their act together. However not one person did.

FWIW I love a bit of Derren Brown.

I agree with PPs that undoubtedly there are many who claim to be psychics and just take advantage of people.

However I have experienced some unexplainable things and would have called BS if someone had told me it had happened to them. I don’t think you can completely disregard the possibility.

YABU to be so angry about it - what a weird battle to pick

No, I'm not joking.

I spent better part of two years catching sight of a human shaped figure out of the corner of my eye at home. He wouldn't be there when I looked properly. He often made me jump out of my skin, standing at the top of the stairs was a favourite trick of his. He also spent one night lobbing a spoon around my kitchen.

But noone else ever saw him, and him turning up coincided with the shittest period of my life, where my mental health was in the toilet. I was in an absolutely horrendous job, and my Mum was dying. I was under huge amounts of stress. When the stress started to vanish so did he.

So I'll happily admit that I've been haunted, but it was by my own brain rather than a ghost.

Why are you asking? i.e. is it to get some insight as to whether you're being unreasonable or not about this one thing, or are you re-evaluating your compatibility?

I ask because I empathise with this but at the same time don't know if it's applicable to why you are asking. I had a partner a few years ago, who, as it turned out, really believed in horoscopes. Not a big deal on the face of it, but turns out digging a bit deeper, it impacted his thinking a lot, because he explained a lot of what happened in life, including his marriage breaking up, by people's horoscopes. I'm really into psychology, have had bad experiences with religion (the point being I now really value critical thinking) and I couldn't get past it, finally realising that we were incompatible. It doesn't mean that horoscopes are definitely false (who knows really? - it's just unlikely to me) and I don't care if other people believe in them, just that I don't want to spend the rest of my time on earth with someone who doesn't think critically about things. It was the gateway to realising we had completely different ways of thinking generally.

So, are you just incensed at this belief in general, or is it that having a partner who thinks something ridiculous is some kind of dealbreaker? That's the question you should really be asking yourself, IMO. If it's the first one, then just forget about it; who cares? If it's the second one, then move on with your life without him. You won't change his mind anymore than he will change yours.

TBF to those who believe in God(s) and the scriptures of the great faiths, they subscribe to a belief system that is centuries or millennia old, seeks to explain great mysteries of life and that has inspired great scholarship, music, architecture etc. It has also produced many millions of wonderful selfless acts - as well as terrible ones, of course.

Madame Blavatsky and Derek Acorah not so much.

😅😅😅😅😅sitting on the bus laughing

Don't be daft.

Buy him a book entitled "The men who stare at goats", for Christmas.

Judgmental, much?!

It's an inoffensive opinion that harms no one so how is it wrong?! Besides, what might seem irrational to some, may be very rational to others.

Believing in a bit of woo is hardly an indicator of poor life choices.