Bizarre things my mind conjures up

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Your atheist psychic was doing something known as ‘leading’. It’s a common practice among charlatans of this sort.

You saw something unusual when you were high? Ok, I’m convinced.

People who use their ‘psychic powers’ for criminal purposes are known as ‘criminals’. There is no such thing as psychic powers. Grow up.

Boru

Well the bicycle part thing was kind of specific, wasn't it?

Not at all. What these confidence tricksters do is start with generalities and let the victim fill in the specifics. Here's how these things tend to go:

Madame Zelda: 'I'm getting something to do with a bicycle. Does that mean anything to you?'

Pigeon: 'Why yes - I have a bicycle that I'm repairing!'

Madame Zelda: 'That why I'm seeing bicycle parts.'

If the pigeon wasn't repairing a bicycle, he had some memory  or experience with a bicycle and the con artist would have played off of that. And if Madam Zelda was truly psychic, she would have opened with, 'I see a disassembled Raleigh MK-2 Chopper 5-speed. The third gear sprocket has a chipped tooth.'

But this sort of thing isn't unique to psychics. People who pray on the gullibility of idiots have always used the same techniques.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

My father was an identical twin ... so were his sisters. Two pairs of identical twins in the same family. One of my aunts immigrated to Canada. One day her sister in London suddenly experienced a state of extreme distress while at work and had to go home.The next day she was ok. She wrote to her sister in Vancouver, Canada. At the exact time she'd become distressed her sister was being told by a doctor that her infant son was probably going to die (he didn't).

My father's twin had a similar experience when my father had a serious accident.

One of Britain's most senior psychiatrists said: "Psychiatrists who don't believe in telepathy should find another profession".

Another "senior psychiatrist" told one of his patient's ... who brought up the subject of telepathy: "Telepathy is impossible! All people who believe they have telepathic experiences are mentally ill".

In 1984, a six year old boy fell off his bicycle, hit his head, and lay in a coma for three weeks. When he awoke, he could speak fluent, unaccented German. His parents didn't alert the media, because they were German, their son was German, and this happened in Germany.

One New Zealand's amateur blacksmiths said, 'Psychiatrists who DO believe in telepathy should have their medical licenses revoked.'

Boru

[no one]

Hoomans:
Wife is so wuff and scawy, won't somebody pwease pwotect us. 


The logic behind perceived hooman importance is quite laughable.

[Ahriman]

Hoomans:
Wife is so wuff and scawy, won't somebody pwease pwotect us. 


The logic behind perceived hooman importance is quite laughable.

Wanting to feel safe is not really the same thing as self-importance. You're basically just making fun of humans for being scared and weak.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Hoomans:
Wife is so wuff and scawy, won't somebody pwease pwotect us. 


The logic behind perceived hooman importance is quite laughable.

Wanting to feel safe is not really the same thing as self-importance. You're basically just making fun of humans for being scared and weak.

(Bold mine)

Got it in one.

Boru

[Mister Agenda]

I have a friend who used to be a telephone psychic, until the Great Recession came along and reduced a lot of disposable income. He's an atheist and doesn't believe in psychic powers...and he told his clients he didn't believe in psychic powers...but they assured him that he was wrong and psychic.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hoomans:
Wife is so wuff and scawy, won't somebody pwease pwotect us. 


The logic behind perceived hooman importance is quite laughable.

Wanting to feel safe is not really the same thing as self-importance. You're basically just making fun of humans for being scared and weak.

Praise Darwin!

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I have a friend who used to be a telephone psychic, until the Great Recession came along and reduced a lot of disposable income. He's an atheist and doesn't believe in psychic powers...and he told his clients he didn't believe in psychic powers...but they assured him that he was wrong and psychic.

Harry Houdini had the same problem. As much as he tried to assure his audiences that what he did was stage magic, not real magick, they wouldn’t believe him. Even Arthur Conan Doyle - who should have known better - long insisted that Houdini had the power to de-materialize his body and pass through solid objects.

The will to believe is very, very strong.

Boru

[Simon Moon]

Doesn't believe in an afterlife - talks to dead people.  I thought dead was after life.

Something seems a little off here.

Most people (or perhaps all of them) believe in an afterlife, even if they claim to be an atheist.

I have no beliefs in an afterlife.

All the things that make me, me, are a product of brain function. Once my brain stops functioning, there is nothing left to live in an afterlife.

[Mister Agenda]

Doesn't believe in an afterlife - talks to dead people.  I thought dead was after life.

Something seems a little off here.

Most people (or perhaps all of them) believe in an afterlife, even if they claim to be an atheist.

Good rule of thumb to follow: if someone claims to be an atheist, it's very unlikely that they're not an atheist. The odds that someone who uses that turn of phrase is being an asshat are much higher.