Game shows and BS superstition.

[Brian37]

Ok so I am channel surfing, and stop briefly on a new version, rehashed version of the 1970s game show "Card Sharks". 

So during the game one lady contestant kept claiming by implication she had clairvoyance. So much so even the host asked if she was. 

Ok so she goes to the bonus round after beating her rival. The host asks her how much she thinks she is going to win, and she says, "360,000, I had a premonition." And it was one of those things you could tell she wasn't joking about any of her comments about her "powers". Anyway, she gets almost to the end to the last card she has to guess, and her "bank" is only $200,000, not the 360k she predicted. If she had bet all of it she would have gone home with 400k, also not the exact number she "predicted". BUT she bet 160k, AND LOST, leaving leaving her with 40k, also not the 360k she "predicted".

I really hate shit like this. Ok, yea she went out winning something, but that is not the point. She simply got lucky up until the end, she did NOT hit the exact mark she claimed she would. 

This isn't nearly as bad as "psychics" like Sylvia Brown who made a living conning people into giving her money getting them to buy her bullshit books. If I remember correctly Brown "predicted" James Randi having a "heart condition", which at the time would not be a stretch considering his age at the time. And she also "predicted" her own death year and was way off.

[Foxaèr]

So why torture yourself by watching it?

[Sal]

So why torture yourself by watching it?

Glutton for punishment? Seems masochistic to me.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Ok so I am channel surfing, and stop briefly on a new version, rehashed version of the 1970s game show "Card Sharks". 

So during the game one lady contestant kept claiming by implication she had clairvoyance. So much so even the host asked if she was. 

Ok so she goes to the bonus round after beating her rival. The host asks her how much she thinks she is going to win, and she says, "360,000, I had a premonition." And it was one of those things you could tell she wasn't joking about any of her comments about her "powers". Anyway, she gets almost to the end to the last card she has to guess, and her "bank" is only $200,000, not the 360k she predicted. If she had bet all of it she would have gone home with 400k, also not the exact number she "predicted". BUT she bet 160k, AND LOST, leaving leaving her with 40k, also not the 360k she "predicted".

I really hate shit like this. Ok, yea she went out winning something, but that is not the point. She simply got lucky up until the end, she did NOT hit the exact mark she claimed she would. 

This isn't nearly as bad as "psychics" like Sylvia Brown who made a living conning people into giving her money getting them to buy her bullshit books. If I remember correctly Brown "predicted" James Randi having a "heart condition", which at the time would not be a stretch considering his age at the time. And she also "predicted" her own death year and was way off.

One problem I see here is that you’re expending emotional energy over claimed psychics. That’s kind of a waste.

The chief problem is that you’re watching game shows.

Boru

[Brian37]

So why torture yourself by watching it?

I wanted to see her miss her "premonition", which she did.

[HappySkeptic]

I remember watching an old Canadian TV show as a kid called Beyond Reason.

The panelists are given a minimum of information based on their New Age discipline:

palmistry
astrology
clairvoyance
astrology
graphology

They proceeded to make assertions that the guest says yes or no to. The most correct assertions wins, with extra points if they can guess the identity of the guest (name or unique position)

I was always skeptical of it, though I recognized it a game of 20 questions. However, on one episode, all the panelists got the name quickly, with the clairvoyant just saying the "name came to her" without even asking questions.

I assume they all saw the guest backstage.