How do clairvoyants know things??

[Homer2]

I have never believed in this, I saw one once just for fun at my aunties house and she wasn’t great. She did say a few things that were accurate, but I put this down to being guesses or general vague things that would be relevant to the majority of people.

However, recently my friend went to one. She recently lost her dad and her partner. Without telling the clairvoyant anything, she knew how her partner died and what his name was. She mentioned my friends dad blowing kisses in a weird way, with the palm of his hand instead of his fingers, which is something he did used to do. How would she know these things??? I don’t honestly believe in it, but can’t understand how she’d know such specific things

It isn't closed minded to think that claims require evidence.

No "clairvoyant" or similar has ever been able to demonstrate any psychic ability in a controlled environment.

Cold reading is a well known trick, that can be performed well by people who don't claim any supernatural ability. Hot reading is a known scam.

If there was any vaguely plausible evidence that someone had genuine supernatural abilities, then we'd have to consider that perhaps they do - even if we dont understand them. But there isn't.

Being "open minded" is a virtue. Being gullible isn't.

We knew sound existed, but didn't understand it.

We have no reason to think psychic abilities exist.

That's a pretty important difference.

There's a biochemical change in pregnancy that some people pick up through scent. It's pretty well established with cancer too. I can see the issue with trying to look surprised when there is announcement, if you knew before them 😂

I had a colleague who was a nurse working with people who were critically ill / receiving palliative care. She used to know who was next to pass away because she would see the spirits of their relatives who had already passed surround their bed in the hour before they passed themselves. 100% accuracy. She didn’t tell many people about it because she knew people would disbelieve her and she certainly never told the patient or their living relatives. I think it was quite a burden for her.

Oh no Moggerhanger I've had sleep paralysis on & off since I was a teen, mostly stress induced but I never made the connection until well into my 20's, I never knew that about the eye movement so thanks for that tip just in case!

Mine always starts off the same normal dream & then suddenly (it seems anyway) the sound of a ball, like a hard ping pong ball hitting the floor & then rolling.. I know how that mad that sounds, & then terror for however long it takes, apparently there's no movement or distress from me according to one or two regular sleeping partners over the few decades it's been happening but it's really unsettling for me obviously when I wake up

Have you ever had any other incidences? apologies if you've already answered, I'm just catching up from earlier

@moggerhanger just saw you haven't good! Phew!

Also @ThatCyanCat just read about your experiences too, just regarding the feeling of pressure on your chest or bed, I've had that too but mostly just a foreboding feeling for me, like something is around the door or in the corner just out of sight, anyway there's some stunning paintings from around 1700's on relating to demons etc in the room/on the bed/on some poor lady's chest, they're stunning but also creepy AF & they're meant to be directly about SP..I'll try to post one

This.

Some people are vulnerable/gullible and want to believe these tiny snippets of vague information. It tells people nothing really. She forgives you. She's watching over you. Etc etc etc

Not to my knowledge. The first time I had sleep paralysis I didn't know what it was and I did wonder if it was something supernatural... my whole body absolutely frozen, could not even open my eyes, then sensed something in the room, felt like it was sitting on the bed and then on me. Scary, for sure.

The next day I found out about SP and suddenly remembered hearing about it elsewhere, talked to a doctor friend who explained it was about the muscle paralysis that kicks in when you sleep to stop you sleepwalking and acting out your dreams staying switched on for a short while after you wake or partly wake. When it happened again a few weeks later, I wasn't scared at all, just thought "oh no, not again!"

I do have quite an active imagination and very vivid dreams so maybe there's a connection there.

The fascinating thing for me about sleep paralysis is that what you ‘see’ or sense in terms of a malevolent presence is strongly culture-specific. Like if you’re from a culture that believes in vampires or haunting by wives who died in childbirth or demons or whatever, that’s what you’re likely to ‘see’.

That's the core of it. If anyone had demonstrated psychic abilities in test conditions, we could accept there is this phenomenon and we do not know what causes it. Probably wouldn't assume something that defies every known law of physics but we would know the phenomenon itself exists.

But as nobody has ever managed to do it under test conditions, there is simply no phenomenon to explain.

There are lots of posts on this thread along the lines of: “I’m sceptical/non-believer/atheist, BUT…”
then go on to describe how they’re convinced by a psychic they saw who knew things no one could know.

In 2014 I went to see Derren Brown on stage as DD was a big fan. He did a psychic medium thing as part of the show. He told one woman about her late dad: his name, nickname, appearance and hobbies (motorbikes). The woman was crying at the end.
DB was at pains to point out he had no ‘gift’ and was cold reading. Not sure how it’s possible to be so accurate about nicknames, hobbies etc. but it is a trick, just like making a card disappear or sawing a woman in half.

I'm always a bit bewildered by people thinking their loved one is sending a message to say they’re OK. They’re not OK. They couldn’t be worse. They’re dead!

Oh, but this is death rebranded as ‘floating about blissfully in some kind of strangely non-specific pastel-coloured afterlife of peace and harmony’.

@Scorchio84 that painting is spot on, isn't it!

This is an interesting watch - Derek Acorah being revealed as a fake on Most Haunted. I agree with Ciaran's distinction between being a sceptic and being a cynic. I'd love for supernatural stuff to be true! I want to believe...but not without evidence, please.

When I saw the first post about sleep paralysis I thought of this painting and was going to post it. When I had my first experience of it, I didn’t know what it was. It happened during a period of extreme stress and I had gone back to bed, late morning with the most awful migraine. I must have fallen very quickly into a deep sleep and don’t know for how long before I was disturbed by the sound of a floorboard creaking outside my bedroom door and then the noise of the door being opened. That particular door needed to be pushed firmly closed until you heard a clicking sound and then couldn’t be pushed open by one of the cats. I purposefully made sure it was firmly shut so I could have peace. I heard the noise of it being opened suddenly, as it did when turning the knob it needed a forceful shove with a shoulder to get it open. At this point I was trying to drag myself to consciousness because I knew someone had come in but my whole body just wouldn’t move, I felt completely fixed to the bed. I was desperate to tear my eyes open because I was well aware of someone moving closer and then standing over me. I was screaming in my mind and trying to move my head. I could “see” my bedroom as though through a grainy, monochrome veil. Everything was there but was like an imprint over something else, something like a woodland. Lots of research on the subject afterwards mentioned the ability to see your dream overlaid onto the reality. I couldn’t see who was looking at me but it wasn’t a dark or ominous presence, it was light. I was aware of “It’s ok, everything is going to be all right,” and then a hand on my forehead… I appeared to be sitting up! A forceful push which made me fall backwards, back into my body, back into a deep sleep which I woke naturally from without the migraine into the peaceful, early afternoon light of my bedroom. My door was firmly closed. Everything felt good and I’ve never forgotten this experience. It has happened since but not for years and it was always when I was completely fatigued, with a migraine and unable to stay awake during a morning or afternoon.

@HatStickBoots your post just gave me goosebumps holy shit!!! Your experience ties in so much with mine, the auditory hallucination with& again yeah stress related, even your description aboout it being able to see your bedroom but grainy, mine is usually kind of a navy/grey hue..

I took part in a study years ago, it was organised by some college over here, I'm sure Istill have the back & forth emails seeing as I never delete my emails 🙈& also like you I've read up on it over the years so what you said is very interesting about it being a dream overlaid in reality

I found an article last night while looking for that painting,haven't read it yet but I will after school & I'll see if I can link it

Sorry for the derail @Homer2

Yeah it really is, so disturbing, it's by Johann Heinrich Füssli's "The Nightmare" & like it's from the late 1700 so SP is obviously not a new phenomenom by any stretch.. the macabre side of me really wants a reproduction for my room 😂He also did a few variations but this one is my favourite

This is so funny! Love Ciaran OKeeffe.
It’s funny he’s so gracious and almost apologetic about exposing Derek Acorah as a fake, rather than gleeful, as I’d have been.

This is the Derek Acorah who claimed in the gutter press that Madeleine McCann was dead and he’d been in touch with her. What a sick, evil bastard.

During COVID I was bored so bought two readings on this site called Fiverr that were supposedly going to tell me when I'd meet the love of my life - I was (and still am) happily single but figured it would be a bit of fun.

Both claimed I'd meet my match in 2022 - it was obviously 2020 at the time. So not so far away that I'd lose hope if I was pining for someone but also far enough away I'd probably forget about the reading 😂

One of them also wrote 'He will be the opposite of you - he will be popular and well liked.' Okay then!

My Mum saw someone a while ago who said some things that turned out to be true but most of it was relatively vague and could be interpreted however you want. I don't necessarily believe it but do think it's a bit of fun.

Yes, that's why animals often flee before an earthquake or volcano starts.

This reminds me of one charlatan I saw at a friend’s party. She claimed to be in contact with an old lady with curly grey hair so pretty generic and probably matched a lot of grandmas! Then said that the grandmother had been very ill before she died - no shit, Sherlock!

I am very religious but I don't believe in any of this.

I am very spiritually attuned so if anything was going to happen I would know.

Fools!!!

It’s such a fascinating topic! I love it. There’s so much more too.

I went to one with dh. The chap said, quite accurately that I was sceptical. Not hard to guess from the look on my face.
He then said my DH would find a job somewhere with “white vans or trucks” which covers 99% of major electronics workplaces in the U.K. in 2016 (I googled it) DH was wearing an electronics workwear polo.
He said I was a “born teacher” (surprise surprise I gave up teaching a year after) and that I had clearly “found my passion” (NOPE: medical care is where I love my life!)
I realised shortly after I had a conversation in the toilets during the break about work with my MIL.
Honestly, I think it’s a major case of being good at reading people’s body language, paying attention to every tiny detail and using statistics in your favour. Once you’ve said “is someone here missing someone with a J in their name? John? Jane?” Someone in the audience will inevitably decide it’s their mum and go “is it my mum? Janet!” And that’s it.
Facebook, Google and a lot of background research, plus hanging around toilets!!