<p>The one thing to consider - if it is true it may not be coming from a place of goodness and light…</p>
<p>I’ve been to a few, mainly when the psychic home parties were all the rage. I view them as entertainment- no different than spending money going to a movie. One of them was someone who worked with a local police department and would get impressions from pictures. I showed him a picture of my mom and he immediately said “It’s too bad she has emphysema. It’s going to be rough for her.” How do you tell that from a picture? I don’t know. I showed him a picture of my ex-husband, who I had just left and he said, with no cues from me about who he was “This man is very dangerous and I hope you’ve broken all ties with him or you will be harmed.” I left him because he was becoming increasingly emotionally abusive and had started to get physically abusive. That was pretty right on. </p>
<p>The other one who was pretty close, but not as detailed was in November '12. She said I was going to have a new job within a month and there was just lots of money associated with it- money like I’d never had before. Well, that part came true. I did ask her about a relationship I was in at the time and she said “Stop worrying about whether he’s Mr. Right. It’s totally ok if Mr. Right Now.” That was more vague and could go either way, but he was definitely Mr Right Now. </p>
<p>The others were just really vague and I could tell when they were fishing for information from me. I do believe that some have a gift, but most are just good at reading people’s reactions to some basic questions and playing on that. I’ve had a few psychic experiences myself- primarily with my mom- who I was very close with. We seemed to have a very strong connection that way. I could be thinking about calling her and the phone would ring and it was her. When I was a teen, I’d come out of my room asking what she wanted because I thought she called my name and she said “I didn’t call you yet, but I was about to.” There’s not been anybody else that’s happened with. The morning my grandfather passed away, I woke up and thought “Nonno passed away” and right after that the phone rang with the news that he had died. Those experiences have been very rare, but there have been a few. </p>
<p>I went to a fortune teller once in my early 20s in a psychic convention, I think. I picked his booth and his fee was inexpensive. Everything he predicted came true and the warnings he gave me did materialize. I just did it once and don’t see the point in shelling out money for more predictions. I have had encounters with entities which are probably what you call ghosts. It is not an encounter you look forward to. It’s probably why I always buy new houses. </p>
<p>As a youth I remember buying a box of mind tricks by the Amazing Kreskin. One was a pendulum on a string, that a person held, and magically, guided from powers beyond, it would start swinging and spell words on a chart below it. Similar to Ouija Board. It worked! Then my Dad suggested I pin the top of the string against a tabletop. It didn’t swing. It became clear that it was me, unknowingly, causing it to swing. My dad, a very down-to-earth practical one, brought up the idea of a ouija board. “If supernatural powers can move it”, he’d say, “then why not just lay it down and let it move? Why must people hold it?”</p>
<p>And I haven’t forgotten reading about Harry Houdini, wanting so much to believe in messages from beyond the grave. As I remember, his widow tried for years to communicate with him, but they had a secret code, and so she would know if it was the real Harry trying to reach her. Erik(later Erich) never did. And that, is a clue to what their secret code was…</p>
<p>I went though, to a “psychic” at about 20, strictly for entertainment. She said I’d live to be 99 and have 6 kids. I was horrified! That sounded awful to me then! Now, in my 50’s with one (adult)son, I don’t think she will be right.</p>
<p>I don’t get the “keep an open mind” approach to some fantastic idea that has never been proven. Would you also keep an open mind about there being hamsters on Jupiter who wear tutus? Why not?</p>
<p>I’m with Hunt. A genuine psychic who is poor? Why don’t they just spend a few nights at the roulette table? Or play poker-- hey, if you’re psychic, you know when the other people are bluffing.</p>
<p>Cold reading is an amazing skill, but it has nothing to do with any paranormal powers. It’s just plain old skilled manipulation.</p>
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<p>To be fair, a genuine psychic may not have such a crass and dishonest approach to money.</p>
<p>I went to someone on the borderline of this kind of thing. She was a well-known medical person in eastern Europe, who could diagnose whatever was wrong with you basically as you came into the room. She was well-known for recognizing cancer. But she had a lot of training and one could assume she had heightened powers of observation and perception. She never asked for money and lived in very modest conditions. There was a donation box for money and sometimes people brought her food, a dozen eggs or whatever.</p>
<p>I know someone 50 years old who fell from a height and badly fractured his pelvis. The were contemplating putting screws and a plate in because the X-Ray looked bad but he convinced them to just let it be and allow him to heal as best he could. After leaving the hospital, he was limping badly and told it was likely permanent. He saw a healer who told him everything would heal perfectly and he’d lose the limp. To the shock of all the docs, he did. Shortly thereafter the healer died, supposedly partly from losing energy and taking on the harms in healing. </p>
<p>Our mechanic said he was in horrific pain for many years. He started having to wear two back braces every day so he could function, even with the pain. One day, a customer came into his shop for a repair and said, “You’re in great pain in your back and shoulder. Remove your braces and I will heal you.” The mechanic was extremely skeptical but figured he had nothing to lose. The guy touched his shoulder and back and the pain left and never returned! The mechanic is stunned to this day!</p>
<p>I have a relative who is uncannily intuitive and can “read” people extremely accurately. In preschool, she’d come home and be able to tell how each of her peers felt and why, every day! She can always sense my mood, as well as the mood of folks she just meets! </p>
<p>I predict posters will post opinions on both sides of this story, but mostly feeling that its a scam</p>
<p>Questbest, come back in 3 years and let us know how your friend liked the Long Island Medium.</p>
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This reminds me of when my daughter, then about 10, had a slumber party. At the time we possessed 2 Ouija boards. The girls ran down to the basement to retrieve one, then back upstairs to use it. Two minutes later, my daughter called, “Mom, where’s the other Ouija board? This one is broken - it doesn’t move.”</p>
<p>That was fun for us.</p>
<p>The “donation angle” is an integral part of the con. Money is crass and dishonest, it gets in the way of the vibrations and spirits. Therefore, I am not paid, but there is a donation box on your way out or in. :-/ </p>
<p>more to the point, the OP might want to read this excellent essay “Why do people believe in the palpably untrue?”</p>
<p><a href=“Why do people believe in the palpably untrue? - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com”>Why do people believe in the palpably untrue? - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com</a></p>
<p>
I have no direct experience in the matter, but Michael Crichton believed that at least a handful of psychic readers might be legit – and you would think that a Harvard-trained MD and author of novels about cutting-edge science would be a total skeptic. His lessor-known book Travels talks about his actual world travels as well as his psychic experiments.</p>
<p>There’s a lot of weird stuff in cutting edge physics, like quantum entanglement, which Einstein called “spooky action at a distance,” and 11-dimensional string theory (is time really linear or do we 4-dimensional beings just perceive it as such?) which might one day explain these sorts of premonitions. </p>
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So you’re an atheist?</p>
<p>As a scientist and a skeptic, I do not believe in psychics or mediums.</p>
<p>As a aficionado of cheesy TV, I agree with Atomom - I LOVE “Paranormal Witness.” And there’s that teeny tiny part of me that wants this stuff to be true, just like there’s a teeny tiny part of me that would never let my daughter play with a Ouija board. </p>
<p>"Collecting anecdotes about experiences that we feel we can’t explain without appealing to paranormal forces is not compelling scientific evidence, even if the anecdotes number in the millions and even if the storytellers are anointed saints with Noble prizes. Such a process puts too high a premium on our ignorance and laziness. Just because we can’t come up with a naturalistic explanation for an event, whether it be one we’ve experienced ourselves or one that someone else has claimed to have experienced, does not mean that the supernatural or paranormal explanation is the best one. </p>
<p>As my favorite athiest (oh yes, I am one too) Richard Dawkins put it “it’s lazy thinking” Quantum entanglement and 11 dimensional string theory may one day explain a lot, but they certainly do not explain away psychic hucksterism. (BTW M Crichton lived here in Hollywood, and if you ever lived here…you would know that that explains a HECK of a lot)</p>
<p>As I understand the meaning of skeptic, it can mean a doubter, but it can also mean one that denies the existence of something.
Personally I think it odd for a word to mean both doubter, and non-believer.</p>
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Yup.</p>
<p>“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”</p>
<p>Why not let each take from it what they like - watching the comfort and peace that The LI Medium brings to those she reads is good enough for me. I would go in a minute if the opportunity presented itself…if I thought for one minute that she could bring a message from my mom- and I would hold that morsel tight until the day I died…what harm is hope?</p>