Pop-Psychics in the 21st Century

Greetings once again to one of my rant-articles. This is yet another subject that is a pet peeve of mine. Pop-Psychics are what I call them. You have seen them, the ever so popular Sylvia Browne, John Edwards and my non-favorite Miss Cleo.

These are people who are obvious frauds. Come on, do you really believe Miss Cleo is a “Shaman”? She claims it, that does not mean it is true. So why then do so many, otherwise intelligent people believe these frauds? I'll tell you why. It is due to their apparent abilities. I say apparent because when I am done here, you will understand the source of their “powers”. For years you have been fooled and tricked into calling the 1-900 numbers. You sat hanging on every word of Montel Williams while “Psychic” Sylvia Browne reunited a mother with her long passed child. You tuned to the Sci-Fi channel to see the re-runs of “Crossing Over” then quickly turned to the WB to watch John Edwards most recent adventures. You believed, but you were duped.

They all use a technic called “Cold Reading” .

Let me give you an example of a cold reading...
You're watching your TV and suddenly a “Miss Cleo” commercial comes on. You see her there with her tarot cards, talking to some sucker paying $3.99 a minute to talk to her...

MISS CLEO: “I see a woman with long wavy hair?”

Note that this is in fact a question. It is also a suggestion by Miss Cleo. She is fishing for hints and clues as to the person that the caller is inquiring about. The caller will react by a deep breath, gasp, laugh, moan, just about anything that will lead Miss Cleo on. Sometimes the person will even volunteer more information about the hint such as...

CALLER: “yes, my boss was having an affair with her, that is why I quit my job.”

Then, after the caller gave all the info, Miss Cleo takes all the credit:

MISS CLEO: “yes, I just turned the card and I saw her.”

Of course this is a commercial for Miss Cleo's hot-line so you do not see what happens if there is no “woman with long wavy hair”. It usually would go like this:

“PSYCHIC”: “I see a woman with long wavy hair?”
CALLER: “No, that doesn't ring a bell with me...”
“PSYCHIC”: Well, there is a strong connection with someone with long wavy hair, we just do not see it yet”.

Then later the “long wavy hair” will be forgotten as the psychic gathers more accurate data. Notice how these “psychics” only tell you what you already know. I have always wondered why someone would pay $3.99 a minute to have a stranger tell them what they could simply recall themselves.

Now the question remains, “how can some of their guesses be so accurate?”

Well, the art of cold reading works in three different stages. First, it is the information gathering. While on the set of “Montel Williams”, Sylvia Browne will walk around outside the studio and talk to the audience members before they are seated. During this time she is collecting information such as, names, illnesses, recent events in their lives, etc. Lets say a ”Psychic” speaks to a man who recently lost his job. Well, more often than not, a person will have financial problems after they are fired. So it is safe for her to say:

“PSYCHIC”: “You Sir, you are having great financial difficulty right now.”
“MAN”: “Yes, I just lost my job.”

To everyone else in the audience and everyone watching TV, it seems as though our “Psychic” has had a “vision” of this man's recent bad luck. In all actuality, she knew this from talking to him about 30 minutes before. This is the second stage of the scam.

The third stage is the re-enforcing of their “visions” with psycho babble. Such as:

“PSYCHIC”:” yes, there has been alot of this recently. My spirit guide has much sympathy for everyone who has lost their job.”

Now you ask, “how do we know that this is how Sylvia Browne gets her information?”

Well, in 1989 magician James Randi tested Sylvia on live television. During that test, she was not allowed to talk to anyone in the audience before hand and everyone was instructed to answer only with a “yes” or a “no”. Sylvia's performance was extremely poor at best. She blamed it on “bad vibes”. In late 2001, James Randi challenged Sylvia to a second test and she accepted on Larry King Live. To this day she has made no arrangements to actually take the test a second time. James Randi has also challenged John Edwards who has to this day not accepted.

If you are ever in a position where you are going to get a “psychic reading”, the best way to know how authentic the “psychic” really is, is to tell them as little as possible. Then ask them to tell you something that you did not already know.

Another trick of "psychics" is to get you caught up in a tarot card reading. This is the best "in person" way to scam people out of money. If you sit with a "psychic" for an hour to get a reading, you amy notice that they spend as little time as possible on the actual reading and most of the time chatting with you. What they are doing is gathering information from your conversation and then saying that they got this information from "the cards".

If these people could really do what they claim, then why have none of them won the lottery? Why does it seem that every "reading" you get requires a "follow up" reading?

In early 2000, America's Most Wanted ran a story about a woman who scammed a couple out of $125,000. She led the couple on for months and said that she was "working to remove a curse". All the information this woman knew about the couple was given to her through conversations she had with them before and during their "tarot reading". It is within scams like this that the "cold reading" is the most dangerous. There have been documented cases where so called "psychics" have caused people to commit suicide, hand over large amounts of money, broken up marriages, made people lose their jobs and put families at odds with each other.

Before believing a "psychic", educate yourself on the dangers of the scams they play. You just may save your own financial well being and possibly your own life.

~Shadow~

http://www.magickalshadow.com

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