Psychic Swindlers

[bigmack]

I'd like to try this. Seems lucrative.

Psychic: I see a relative and the letter G, or L or S?
Poor shnook: Yes. My brothers name was Leonard
Psychic: And I see a shovel or a hammer?
Poor shnook: Yes. He had a tool chest.
Psychic: I see a woman. Maybe his wife or girlfriend?
Poor shnook: He was gay
Psychic: Did any of his lovers have a mother?
Poor shnook: Why yes!

Hucksters, the lot of 'em.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u70/macktime/psy.png

[Native Texan III]

If they actually asked such questions then they might well be hucksters but they don't.

canard ( ) n. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.

[ArlJim78]

Cold reading is a series of techniques used by mentalists (/wiki/Mentalism), illusionists (/wiki/Magic_(illusion)), and con artists (/wiki/Con_artist) to determine or express details about another person, often in order to convince them that the reader knows much more about a subject than they actually do.

[falconridge]

Hucksters, the lot of 'em.
All save the Antlered Oracle from Frostbite Falls, MN ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMzUYpsQtqU

[bigmack]

All save the Antlered Oracle from Frostbite Falls, MN ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMzUYpsQtqU
:lol: Rest assured if Super Chicken were around he'd be bustin' up the 'Sylvia Brown caper' like a pitbull on a poodle.
http://www.whydidthechickencrosstheroad.com/sounds/super-chicken/chickencharge.wav
___________________________

Critics of Edward assert he performs the mentalist techniques of hot reading and cold reading. Choosing the first reading from a two hour tape of edited shows as a sample, magician and skeptic James Randi found that just three of twenty three statements made by Edward were confirmed as correct by the audience member being read, and the three statements that were correct were also trivial and nondescript.

In another incident, Edward was said to have used foreknowledge to hot read in an interview on the television show Dateline. James Underdown of the Skeptical Inquirer attended a Crossing Over show in November 2002 and said "there were no indications of anyone I saw collecting information... none of his readings contained the kind of specific information that would raise an eyebrow of suspicion. ...

John Edward was a bad cold reader. He, too, struggled to get hits, and in one attempt shot off nearly forty guesses before finding any significant targets."

Another criticism has been that Edward's accuracy on television is inflated by the editing process. After watching the broadcast version of the show he had attended and recorded, Underdown attributed a great deal of Edward's accuracy on television to editing and wrote, "Edward's editor fine-tuned many of the dead-ends out of a reading riddled with misses."In 2002, Edward said, "People are in the studio for eight hours, and we have to edit the show for time, not content. We don't try to hide the 'misses'." :D

[Greyfox]

The vast majority are hucksters.
However, some people are more gifted than others with psychic abilities.
They aren't using those abilities for your love life or financial affairs.
"Men Who Stare at Goats" is an interesting movie and read.

[WeirdWilly]

If they actually asked such questions then they might well be hucksters but they don't.

canard ( ) n. An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story.

You are right. Sometimes they use spies in the crowd waiting before the taping. "Penn and Teller's Bulls**t" had an excellent episode on these con artists.

I am a peaceful person, and not a psychic, but I could see myself punching and kicking John Edward for the way he has defiled people's memories and images of lost loved ones.

[nijinski]

Some people are more perceptive than others .
I happen to think too many of them just prey on vulnerable people.

[bigmack]

Some people are more perceptive than others .
Perceptive of what; dead people?

[nijinski]

Perceptive of what; dead people?
No , just in predictions , bit hold your guns mack this lady agrees wih you.

[Robert Fischer]

the stage-show style magic predictions is a big turnoff.

vast majority of these things are ripoffs.
Guess that isn't unlike most businesses however...


I knew a bright lady who used "psychic" stuff as kind of a medium to being a counselor.
In her case, she helped sustain a living with that "hustle", and had some high-end successful clients as well.

she was probably an exception to the rule.

always - a grain of salt :ThmbUp:

[prospector]

i believe we all have something in us..don't know what
when i was in Nam i was point on many recons..i always got a buzzing feeling everytime i was nearing a boobytrap or ambush..i can't explain the feeling..just know i wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for that feeling..
i once had a dream i walked around a corner going into a village and was shot down by 3 vc...2 weeks later i'm going into that same village, remembered the dream, and waited..i shot those 3 to hell and back..
like i said, i can't explain it..just know it exists..

[RichieP]

i believe we all have something in us..don't know what
when i was in Nam i was point on many recons..i always got a buzzing feeling every time i was nearing a booby trap or ambush..i can't explain the feeling..just know i wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for that feeling..
i once had a dream i walked around a corner going into a village and was shot down by 3 vc...2 weeks later i'm going into that same village, remembered the dream, and waited..i shot those 3 to hell and back..
like i said, i can't explain it..just know it exists..

:ThmbUp:

When my Cherokee friend Jim "The Hat" was alive he described things in and around my house totally unique to here and had never been told or seen pictures of them. When I asked him about it he told me he could meditate at night and ask for visions of things important to him and these "messengers" or Spirits in the Cherokee Spirituality would show him things in his mind. He said that this stuff was in his family and culture for thousands of years.

His mom and grandma used to read coffee grounds and tell people what they saw. One day these 2 ladies were at Jim's house for a reading and midway through his mom stopped suddenly and said they were finished. Jim had never seen this before and after the women left he asked what was wrong. His mom wouldn't answer but after a second prodding she did.
"Jimmy these ladies are not going to make it home tonight and there is nothing I can do about it. THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS"

The following morning it is all over town that 2 women the night before were driving home and their car got stuck on railroad tracks and were killed by a passing train. It was the women at Jim's house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxdAqv5SnCg

[Tape Reader]

For openers I would describe myself as: suspicious, cynical and one that can spot a con artist a mile away. But otherwise open minded.

I have visited psychics on occasion for curiosity, but more truthfully for some evidence that the soul lives on. Two psychics that I found to be "interestingly accurate", to put it mildly, were Ellie Crystal and George Anderson. I was not looking for advice but just hints that there was some truth to the hereafter.

George Anderson was my first experience. If I saw the slightest hint that he was fishing, I would deliberately mislead him. He got to the point of frustration and insisted on coming back to certain friends and neighbors. When I shared some of his findings with close friends and relatives, the skeptics insisted that he must have done prior research on me. I don't believe that.

My visit with Ellie Crystal was about fifteen years later. IMO, I was now much more educated in mysticism and went into the session calmly with no preconceived expectations. I told Ellie that and she said "Sure, and shrugged her shoulders." I didn't do any misleading with Ellie, but when I found her wandering off to other "significant" revelations, I quickly brought her back to who I was interested in. She taped the session for me and now years later, with emotions somewhat subsided, it still makes a great deal of sense to me.

My further education on this topic has led me to some classic books by Rudolph Steiner, George Kuhlewind and others. IMO, there is a BIG difference between deep thinking philosophers, and carnival parlor tricks.