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What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 3, 2012 at 11:22 am
(This post was last modified: March 3, 2012 at 11:24 am by mavis.)
I was talking to a dear friend of mine about psychics, and she told me of a visit to a medium two weeks prior to our discussion where, with her mother, they went in for a reading. The medium was friendly, but the conversation turned serious and she unintentionally remarked about how the maternal grandfather, recently deceased, had practiced bestiality, and that was weighing heavily in the mother's heart as she contemplated his passing. The mother broke down and admitted that it was true to her disbelieving daughter.
How do we explain cases where a medium seemingly knows a family secret, or otherwise details about family members that aren't present? Clearly, these results can't be derived from simple cold reading techniques alone.
It seems to me a foolish thing to regard all mediums as knowing charlatans - some appear to genuinely believe that they have a connection to spirits and want to help others. This medium said that she often charges nothing whatsoever for visits and simply wants to help families in her spare time.
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 3, 2012 at 11:25 am
It is all bullshit, m'dear.
They will have provided all the answers themselves, that is how these arseholes work.
Sly buggers.
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 3, 2012 at 11:25 am
Lucky guess.
Not to mention these "mediums" are so general in their speech that people here what they want to here.
Medium "Your father did something horrible"
idiot "How did you know he practiced bestiality?"
Medium "His spirit is here right now and communicating with me"
You see, the VAST majority of information a medium gives you is what you give the medium.
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 3, 2012 at 11:27 am
(This post was last modified: March 3, 2012 at 11:29 am by The Grand Nudger.)
They do not know any family secrets. Try hot and cold reading, enjoy. Why you feel that these two techniques are "clearly" not involved is a mystery to me, since each and every case of such abilities that has ever been investigated leads directly to one of these two things (speaking only of the cases that were not complete fabrications, top to bottom - "he said, she said" shit).
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 3, 2012 at 9:01 pm
(This post was last modified: March 3, 2012 at 9:02 pm by Cyberman.)
An excellent website called BadPsychics (sadly no longer available) used to feature videos showing such mediums (media?) at work. If memory serves, they were often actual televised productions overlaid with a sceptical analysis indicating every attempt at fishing for information, every wrong assertion, every leading question that lead nowhere, even every camera edit (suggestive of material filmed that did not fit the image of the medium being anything other than truly psychic). In every case the episode ended with the client expressing amazement at the amount of personal information the medium apparently knew, information which, as the analysis revealed, the client supplied themselves. In short, the medium digs for and presents such information, adding perhaps a dash of common human experiences; the client supplies the context.
Incidentally, BadPsychics attracted a lot of attention from the psychic camp when it emerged they had a mole in their midst channelling information to the website about their activities and working practises. The rumours turned out to be true and the mole was revealed to be none other than Ciarán O'Keeffe, at the time still the resident parapsychologist of the show Most Haunted and originator of the infamous "Kreed Kafer" incident which brought down Derek Acorah.
As for those who might believe their abilities to be genuine, my favourite quotable atheist Colonel Robert Ingersoll put it best in 1884, admittedly in a different context:
Quote:It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 12, 2012 at 5:08 am
Mediums...
Motherfuckers preying on desperate people who are grieving the loss of a loved one - Absolute scum of the earth
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RE: What of mediums who somehow know family secrets?
March 12, 2012 at 6:56 am
(This post was last modified: March 12, 2012 at 6:58 am by NoMoreFaith.)
“Look , Storm, I don’t mean to bore ya
But there’s no such thing as an aura!
Reading Auras is like reading minds
Or tea-leaves or star-signs or meridian lines
These people aren’t plying a skill,
They are either lying or mentally ill.
Same goes for people who claim they can hear God’s demands
Or spiritual healers who think they've got magic hands.
By the way,
Why do we think it's OK
For people to pretend they can talk to the dead?
Isn't that totally fucked in the head?
Lying to some crying woman whose child has died
And telling her you’re in touch with the other side?
I think that’s just fundamentally sick
Do we need to clarify here that there’s no such thing as a psychic?
What, are we fucking 2?
Do we actually think that Horton Heard a Who?
Do we still believe that Santa brings us gifts?
That Michael Jackson didn't have face lifts?
Are we still so stunned by circus tricks
That we think that the dead would
Wanna talk to pricks
Like John Edwards?
Storm - Tim Minchin
I will also refer you to the Tim Minchin quote in the sig.. sums it up beautifully. I normally hate quoting instead of arguing my own point of view, but in this instance it sums it up just perfect.
Self-authenticating private evidence is useless, because it is indistinguishable from the illusion of it. ― Kel, Kelosophy Blog
If you’re going to watch tele, you should watch Scooby Doo. That show was so cool because every time there’s a church with a ghoul, or a ghost in a school. They looked beneath the mask and what was inside?
The f**king janitor or the dude who runs the waterslide. Throughout history every mystery. Ever solved has turned out to be. Not Magic. ― Tim Minchin, Storm
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