Have YOU ever been to a psychic? Do YOU believe in telepathy?

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Have you ever been to a psychic, if so what happened, or do you believe in telepathy, or have you had any telepathic experiences while on drugs or when not on drugs?

 

[iridescentblack]

I once or twice went to a fortune teller. Everything she read, and predicted, came true, including the splitting of an island in my lifeline, which happened some years later. I cannot give away too many personal details about that, though.

I believe in telepathy. I consider myself a telepath. I have not tried anything "harder" than weed for many years. But here's my telepathy story:

A woman I met years ago approached me one day and said something kind of awkward, but I kinda just stood there like a lemon. She kept making attempts to make small talk but I was zombified from heavy medications. When those medications started to wear off, I started hallucinating a lot. She appeared in my vision one day, a silhouette of reds and blues, a perplexed or bewildered look on her face. I somehow got the impression she had recently seen the new Devilman series on Netflix and wanted to know what I knew about vampires... kinda weird. Fast forward a few months; we rarely ever talked. But I saw her in my mind often. Neither of us worked and had a lot of spare time, I suppose. I spent a lot of time imagining scenarios she and I were involved in. Not really like fantasizing. More like creative imaginings. But one day I upset her, in these "fantasies" and the next time I walked out of my apartment and saw her in the flesh, she didn't even say hi to me. Whenever things were good, between us, though, telepathically, she would talk to me or say hi.

Kind of a fucked up story, but I really do believe she's the one the fortune teller mentioned. After all, she was 29 or 30 when I met her and the fortune teller said my "twin flame" would be five to six years older than me and that I'd meet her when I was 25. She didn't use the term "twin flame", though.

I've given some serious thought to this, day in and day out. I know that Buddhist monks sometimes go through the same thing. They practice celibacy for years and then all of a sudden make eye-contact with a member of the opposite sex. After that, instead of spending their time meditating, they make up fantasies where they end up with feelings, then end up getting married, then divorce, and remarry, all in their minds!

At any rate, I consider this woman a friend more than anyone. She was kind to me at a time where the entire city I lived in had ganged up against me. I understand a lot of people believe my experiences with telepathy (certainly not just with her) to be delusions, but I don't care. I know most of those people don't believe it because they are incapable of experiencing the miracles that dwell within it's mystery.

EDIT: I also notice I start thinking about a person before I notice their text or post or whatnot on social media or otherwise. I don't attribute this to telepathy because I feel telepathy is too vain a word. Not to capitalize on what it is, I'm not expressing my thoughts well. It's hard to express what I mean to say when all I really want to say is through the art of a sort of divine love, if you could call it that. I just wish people were more open to the idea of how close we are when we seem so far away.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I once or twice went to a fortune teller. Everything she read, and predicted, came true, including the splitting of an island in my lifeline, which happened some years later. I cannot give away too many personal details about that, though.

I believe in telepathy. I consider myself a telepath. I have not tried anything "harder" than weed for many years. But here's my telepathy story:

A woman I met years ago approached me one day and said something kind of awkward, but I kinda just stood there like a lemon. She kept making attempts to make small talk but I was zombified from heavy medications. When those medications started to wear off, I started hallucinating a lot. She appeared in my vision one day, a silhouette of reds and blues, a perplexed or bewildered look on her face. I somehow got the impression she had recently seen the new Devilman series on Netflix and wanted to know what I knew about vampires... kinda weird. Fast forward a few months; we rarely ever talked. But I saw her in my mind often. Neither of us worked and had a lot of spare time, I suppose. I spent a lot of time imagining scenarios she and I were involved in. Not really like fantasizing. More like creative imaginings. But one day I upset her, in these "fantasies" and the next time I walked out of my apartment and saw her in the flesh, she didn't even say hi to me. Whenever things were good, between us, though, telepathically, she would talk to me or say hi.

Kind of a fucked up story, but I really do believe she's the one the fortune teller mentioned. After all, she was 29 or 30 when I met her and the fortune teller said my "twin flame" would be five to six years older than me and that I'd meet her when I was 25. She didn't use the term "twin flame", though.

I've given some serious thought to this, day in and day out. I know that Buddhist monks sometimes go through the same thing. They practice celibacy for years and then all of a sudden make eye-contact with a member of the opposite sex. After that, instead of spending their time meditating, they make up fantasies where they end up with feelings, then end up getting married, then divorce, and remarry, all in their minds!

At any rate, I consider this woman a friend more than anyone. She was kind to me at a time where the entire city I lived in had ganged up against me. I understand a lot of people believe my experiences with telepathy (certainly not just with her) to be delusions, but I don't care. I know most of those people don't believe it because they are incapable of experiencing the miracles that dwell within it's mystery.

EDIT: I also notice I start thinking about a person before I notice their text or post or whatnot on social media or otherwise. I don't attribute this to telepathy because I feel telepathy is too vain a word. Not to capitalize on what it is, I'm not expressing my thoughts well. It's hard to express what I mean to say when all I really want to say is through the art of a sort of divine love, if you could call it that. I just wish people were more open to the idea of how close we are when we seem so far away.

Can you become friends with that woman or talk to her about herself, and yourself?

 

[iridescentblack]

I've since moved from that area. I had a severe breakdown because of my psychopathic neighbor who was always playing loud music and the fact that no one was willing to kick him out, despite the many threats I got from him. I never really was in the right mental state to talk to her much. Now that I am, I'm just too far away.

I plan to travel back to that area sometime this year and see her again.

 

[nuttynutskin]

I had a tarot reading once just on a whim and nothing predicted happened. I don't really believe you can predict the future, although I think tarot can maybe be an ok tool for introspection. I have had premonition like dreams.

 

[Nicomorphinist]

I think it was harmaline as found in the Mao inhibitor flavourings in ayahuasca that was called telepathine for a long time then the use of the name trailed off quickly mainly because it already had a name (harmaline) . . . of the things commonly grouped together as supramundane, praeternatural, paranormal &c I am inclined to think telepathy and some forms of clairvoyance compete as the most probable and therefore most likely to, maybe 500 years from now, be explained by science even if systematically harnessing them is quite far off or impossible, because there must also be environmental factors beyond direct human control involved.

I have the psychic abilities of a fence post -- insofar as people can have them; I think people have a dozen or more senses rather than five which is why we are no longer picking ticks off one another in the jungle and/or savannah, and quite a few of these are called clairvoyance, remote viewing or whatever, it is just that they have to be developed and almost no one knows how to do so; the chakra hypothesis makes sense to me for that -- and was interested in going along on a ghost documentation mission not so long ago as a control for that reason . . . but even if there is one chance in a thousand of some demon following me home I would rather not. When misapprehensions of all manner of things and fraud and pranks and the occasional open eye visual and pareidolia intensified by dissociatives, κ opioid agents, acid, or sleep deprivation are ruled out I figure there are still about 1-2 per cent of those cases that mainly could be but are not yet explained by science, or are truly supramundane, and come from a whole zoo of things, from very rare cases of what survives after bodily death getting waylaid for some reason, to people who may be leaving this world appearing to people they knew to try to summon help to the energy of thoughts of living people congealing into something with a life of its own to retrocognition to scientifically undescribed critters to any number of other things. Something as seemingly extraordinary and clear-cut as bilocation in all probability has several explanations ranging from the miraculous to the satanic to the occult to the paranormal to some mundane explanations as well I would think.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I had a tarot reading once just on a whim and nothing predicted happened. I don't really believe you can predict the future, although I think tarot can maybe be an ok tool for introspection. I have had premonition like dreams.

What did the tarot cards claim? I never used them but I watched someone else use them.

I once lived in a city with a local nearby psychic or they advertised fortune telling but it was expensive at $50-$60. I just spent the money on used books, beer or cocktails, tickets to see live music, high quality weed, and food instead.

I have had dreams that were basically premonition but it was not any sort of major prediction.

On mushrooms I experienced telepathy where the friend who I ate them with knew exactly where I had bought a shirt I was wearing. The exact town, store, and I had not told him where I had been and it could have been any number of towns or cities in other nearby states.

I also remember being with my grandmother and I was sitting there silently while other relatives were talking but I was thinking about yerba mate. My grandmother then mentioned how I really love to make and drink yerba mate and how she drank it during the second World War as coffee, and tea were not available, but yerba mate was. I had not mentioned to her anything about yerba mate before and I had not ever told her before then how I drink it.

I met and became friends with a man online who apparently was psychic. He said he had been hit by a car and then developed the ability. I would show him pictures of myself, people who I met in bars who were strangers to him, and relatives of mine who he would have never known anything about or would have never seen pictures of before. I told him nothing about these relatives or people but he somehow knew things about them that only I knew. He also knew sexual fantasies and desires I had that I had told nobody about. Unfortunately he died and I hope that there is an afterlife and that he is at peace and with his parents.

I have never taken Ayahuasca or DMT. But friends of mine who have said how they experienced telepathy with others who had also taken Ayahuasca in the ceremony they had with a guide. One friend did not want to take a full dose so he was given a lower dose, had no visuals or ego death or psychedelic trip and he experienced telepathy between the guide and other people who had all consumed Ayahuasca.

 

[nuttynutskin]

What did the tarot cards claim? I never used them but I watched someone else use them.

I once lived in a town with a psychic or they advertised fortune telling but it was expensive and I just spent the money on used books, beer or cocktails, high quality weed, and food.

I have had dreams that were basically premonition but it was not any sort of major prediction.

On mushrooms I experienced telepathy where the friend who I ate them with knew exactly where I had bought a shirt I was wearing. The exact town, store, and I had not told him where I had been and it could have been any number of towns or cities in other nearby states.

I met and became friends with a man online who apparently was psychic. He said he had been hit by a car and then developed the ability. I would show him pictures of myself, people who I met in bars who were strangers to him, and relatives of mine who he would have never known about or had seen pictures of before. I told him nothing about these relatives or people but he somehow knew things about them that only I knew. He also knew sexual fantasies and desires I had that I had told nobody about.

I'm open to the idea that people can have psychic abilities, but I am skeptical. The tarot woman claimed that I'd move to a different state within a year.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I'm open to the idea that people can have psychic abilities, but I am skeptical. The tarot woman claimed that I'd move to a different state within a year.

I have been told that people who are actually psychic do not charge money for it.

I know people who go to see people who are supposedly psychic and they pay a lot of money to sit in an audience with 80-200 people and then people are supposedly selected at random by the psychic, and told things that are supposedly true about themselves. I would not be interested in this as you have no idea if it is all a scam.

 

[cduggles]

I had a palm reading by a famous scientist that was fairly accurate. I know, right?

 

[Mycophile]

I have never been to a real psychic, but i do think my mom has some psychic abilities and that they can exist.

About 20 years ago my grandfather, my mother's father, had been in the hospital for literally about a year, and he could have died at any point.

There was no way to say whether or not he'd die the first day or in a few years, he just was eventually going to pass.

My grandmother, his wife, had passed a few years earlier.

My mother is a Jungian-psychoanalyst so she studied dreams a lot and is very in touch with her own dreams.

The night before my grandfather died my mother saw her mother, my grandfather's wife, in a dream, and she was sewing a quilt.

Quilts are very often representative in dreams of a person's life story, and their completion often represents the end of a life.

So in the dream my grandmother had just finished sewing her quilt and she said to me my mom ''After all these years, your father is finally ready to move''

And my mom said that in the dream when her mother said the word ''move'' it was REALLY powerful, like the earth was shaking and it definitely did not just mean ''move'' in the normal sense.

My mother woke up, but still didn't necessarily think much about the dream.


A few hours later the phone rang and my dad picked up and called to my mom who was in the other room but he didn't say anything, he just called her name, and my mom immediately yelled ''MY FATHER DIED!!''

And he had just passed away minutes earlier.


I've told the story to skeptics who all said ''well, he was in the hospital so he was dying so she knew yada yada''....but he'd been there a year or so and there was no reason to believe it would be that day or that she'd have that dream.

She most definitely DID predict his death, and she has predicted other things too, usually in dreams, but she never is able to do it by will which is what psychics who charge money claim, and i don't know if that is really possible in that way.

For her it usually comes in a dream without her realizing that whatever it was was going to happen till later on it did and she made the connection.

So I really do believe that psychics exist.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I had a palm reading by a famous scientist that was fairly accurate. I know, right?

What did he or she claim about you or say from reading your palm that was true?

I had a palm reading from an HIV+ sex pig who lovex fisting-he had red hankies all over his apartment- that my ex cheated on me with, and some of the things he said about me were true but I have no idea what my ex had told him about me before I was forced to meet the paramour in person, and I have been told I have the qualities and temperament, and body language of a writer, or academic.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I have never been to a real psychic, but i do think my mom has some psychic abilities and that they can exist.

About 20 years ago my grandfather, my mother's father, had been in the hospital for literally about a year, and he could have died at any point.

There was no way to say whether or not he'd die the first day or in a few years, he just was eventually going to pass.

My grandmother, his wife, had passed a few years earlier.

My mother is a Jungian-psychoanalyst so she studied dreams a lot and is very in touch with her own dreams.

The night before my grandfather died my mother saw her mother, my grandfather's wife, in a dream, and she was sewing a quilt.

Quilts are very often representative in dreams of a person's life story, and their completion often represents the end of a life.

So in the dream my grandmother had just finished sewing her quilt and she said to me my mom ''After all these years, your father is finally ready to move''

And my mom said that in the dream when her mother said the word ''move'' it was REALLY powerful, like the earth was shaking and it definitely did not just mean ''move'' in the normal sense.

My mother woke up, but still didn't necessarily think much about the dream.


A few hours later the phone rang and my dad picked up and called to my mom who was in the other room but he didn't say anything, he just called her name, and my mom immediately yelled ''MY FATHER DIED!!''

And he had just passed away minutes earlier.


I've told the story to skeptics who all said ''well, he was in the hospital so he was dying so she knew yada yada''....but he'd been there a year or so and there was no reason to believe it would be that day or that she'd have that dream.

She most definitely DID predict his death, and she has predicted other things too, usually in dreams, but she never is able to do it by will which is what psychics who charge money claim, and i don't know if that is really possible in that way.

For her it usually comes in a dream without her realizing that whatever it was was going to happen till later on it did and she made the connection.

So I really do believe that psychics exist.

My cousin had a dream about her dad dying and he was not sick or in hospice or hospital, but was older. She woke up, went to visit him and my uncle had died unexpectedly to the rest of the family in his sleep.

 

[nuttynutskin]

Tricks of the Psychic Trade
How psychics talk (and manipulate).

Karen Stollznow Ph.D.
Speaking in Tongues

Posted Jan 30, 2012

Psychic mediums perform one-on-one sessions for sitters. Stage mediums typically offer personal readings, but they also perform short psychic readings to an audience. Unless the stage medium performs a hot reading, otherwise known as cheating, the main tool is cold reading. This involves observation, psychology and elicitation to provide the appearance of psychic powers. Let's look at the typical formula used by stage mediums, and explore some commonly used linguistic and psychological techniques.

Naming is a fundamental part of any psychic medium reading. The medium mentions a common name, in order to find willing subjects for readings. Additional names or initials may be added, to narrow down the contenders to a single subject. I recently witnessed a different technique used by up-and-coming medium Rebecca Rosen at her Denver show. She began her performance by reading a list of names of spirits that had "lined up all day to leave messages for the audience." This way, the audience was already drawing connections to the names and preparing for a reading. Her list included:

Joe, Robert or Bob, Dan, Jerry, Nick, Chris, Ben, Jesse, Corey, Katherine, Jim, Betty, David, Bill, Dale, Kevin, Julie, Carol, Seymour, Tyler, Taylor, Sherri, Rose, Abe, Ozzy, Joan, Doris, Dorothy, Shirley, Helen, Bernie, Pete, Don, Tom, Ed, John, Al, Scott and Pauline. (1)

This catalog of common names would resonate with any English-speaking audience. But as Ian Rowland, author of the Full Facts Book of Cold Reading once said to me, in a large audience "The hard part would be to be find a name that wouldn't work." To safeguard against this slim possibility, Rosen also resorted to the generic "Mom", "Dad", "Grandma" and "Grandpa." Merely hearing familiar names personalizes the performance for those who don't receive an individual reading.

I call the listing of names the "Magic Mirror Effect," after the former children's television show Romper Room. At the end of each episode the host pretended that she could see the viewers through her "Magic Mirror." She would recite a list of random names, to give the impression that her farewell is personalized. After a few episodes, even kids realize that the host can't actually "see" them. This stage act works on adults too, if our vulnerability and grief permit us to believe.

Once a subject has been chosen, the medium attempts to validate the reading by supplying detail. Firstly, they guess the cause of death. Some mediums claim to be medical intuitives or empathetic; that is, able to feel the physical pain and symptoms of a living or deceased subject's illness, enabling diagnosis, or identification of the cause of death. But no one is ever diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease; mediums cite statistically common illnesses and causes of death. Cancer and heart disease are perennial favorites, but most mediums have their failsafe diagnoses and cures. For example, Sylvia Browne is known for diagnosing everyone with a thyroid disorder and recommending everyone take a lecithin supplement.

This is followed by more validation in the form of a psychic reading of the deceased, and usually the subject too. Mediums give horoscope-like personality readings that use Barnum statements. These involve generalizations about character that can apply to many people. For example,
You can be a very considerate person, very quick to provide for others, but there are times, if you are honest, when you recognize a selfish streak in yourself. I would say that on the whole you can be rather quiet, self-effacing type, but when the circumstances are right, you can be quite the life of the party if the mood strikes you. (2)

Then they list a number of objects and occurrences that could be meaningful to most people: Rebecca Rosen mentioned a ring with a reset stone, a necklace with a broken clasp, a broken zipper, a rainbow, a broken phone, and carrying spare change. These are non-specific items that give the illusion of specificity.

Mediums often claim the spirits communicate via sights, sounds, and even smells. This frames the spirit world in a way the living can understand, as an extension of the natural world. John Edward claims most of his messages are visual; the spirits point to parts of their bodies to reveal their cause of death, or show him something to communicate to the subject. Edward then uses a common trick, posing who-what-where-why questions as statements to elicit information from the subject. For example, "He's showing me a book. What does this mean?"

These strategies tailor the reading to fit the subject, meanwhile making the subject do the work by making the connections. This is a process known as subjective validation, when the subject finds personal meaning in the reading. As Ian Rowland says," In the course of a successful reading, the psychic may provide most of the words, but it is the client that provides most of the meaning and all of the significance." (3) Audiences are receptive to these tricks because they are there to believe.
The medium may make specific claims that cannot be disproven at that time. On the Montel Williams Show, Sylvia Browne made the bold claim that an audience member was the love child of an affair, "Your father is not your father." The woman was shocked at first, but soon started to relate to the claim; admitting that she never felt like she "belonged in the family." (4)

I saw Sylvia perform live in Salt Lake City. She gives a lecture to her audience and then does some select individual readings, choosing her subjects via a raffle ticket system. Sylvia (and her spirit guide Francine) only answers one question per person. Doubtlessly, she had heard them all before, and she has a stock reply for every question and situation.

She provided earthly advice, "I'm in a bad living situation," complained a woman. "Move!" Sylvia commanded simply. She made vague, ‘explicit' non-verifiable predictions, "Will I find another lady?" "Yes. Within the next two years. Her name is Meredith." She dispensed pat diagnoses for common, non-specific health complaints, "I have a strange health issue," a woman reported. "I know," replied Sylvia, "Get your thyroid checked." Some readings exploited popular sympathy, "There isn't one 9/11 soul who didn't make it." But stock readings were her staple, "Your father's here with me now. He's proud of you." If someone queried her reading, she'd reply indignantly, "That's what I said!" This ‘clarification', and the audience's laughter, would confuse and embarrass the dissident into silence. (5)

It is a game of hits and misses, although the "hits" aren't indicative of accuracy, they are merely perceived as correct. It is common for mediums to deny the misses by turning them into hits, even if they have to blame the subject. Rebecca Rosen had a stable of "outs" for her misses. She would dismiss the subject's denial and reprimand them into making it fit; "Look into it", "Make the connection", "You have to own it", and "You have to honor what's coming through." If Rosen hit a dead end she wouldn't acknowledge she was wrong, she would move on, the message was clearly for someone else. There were lots of spirits trying to get through, and she would "read who needs to be read."

Or the medium blames the dead for his or her mistakes. During James van Praagh's appearance on Larry King Live he was asked to explain why he'd said a person had been deceased for ten years when they had died only a year before.

What happens is more than likely, because you're dealing with frequencies of energy the spirit might not know how to communicate," Van Praagh answered. "There's a skill to it. They might send thought to my mind very quickly, I might not be fast enough to pick up the exact translation of what they're saying. So that's how that works. I'll hear like Mary and it'll be Marie or Nikki and it'll be something else.6

After nailing down a name, guessing a cause of death and validating the reading for the subject, the medium closes the reading. Most finish with a simple yet personal stock message, such as, "He loves you", "She watches and protects you from the spirit world", or, "She is happy on the other side". These farewells act as confirmation bias for spiritual beliefs, and comfort the subject. But in no way does any "comfort" excuse the deception of psychic mediumship. Then the psychic medium moves on to another subject in the audience and repeats the process.

Tricks of the Psychic Trade

How psychics talk (and manipulate).

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[Aeon Psyche]

Have you ever been to a psychic, if so what happened, or do you believe in telepathy, or have you had any telepathic experiences while on drugs or when not on drugs?

I've had many telepathic experiences sober. But drugs can definitely enhance this. It is not widely known but the general rule to telepathy is that anxiety will make it impossible and love will strengthen it. I've talked to my girlfriend telepathicly many times because we love eachother so much. : D

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Tricks of the Psychic Trade
How psychics talk (and manipulate).

Karen Stollznow Ph.D.
Speaking in Tongues

Posted Jan 30, 2012

Psychic mediums perform one-on-one sessions for sitters. Stage mediums typically offer personal readings, but they also perform short psychic readings to an audience. Unless the stage medium performs a hot reading, otherwise known as cheating, the main tool is cold reading. This involves observation, psychology and elicitation to provide the appearance of psychic powers. Let's look at the typical formula used by stage mediums, and explore some commonly used linguistic and psychological techniques.

Naming is a fundamental part of any psychic medium reading. The medium mentions a common name, in order to find willing subjects for readings. Additional names or initials may be added, to narrow down the contenders to a single subject. I recently witnessed a different technique used by up-and-coming medium Rebecca Rosen at her Denver show. She began her performance by reading a list of names of spirits that had "lined up all day to leave messages for the audience." This way, the audience was already drawing connections to the names and preparing for a reading. Her list included:

Joe, Robert or Bob, Dan, Jerry, Nick, Chris, Ben, Jesse, Corey, Katherine, Jim, Betty, David, Bill, Dale, Kevin, Julie, Carol, Seymour, Tyler, Taylor, Sherri, Rose, Abe, Ozzy, Joan, Doris, Dorothy, Shirley, Helen, Bernie, Pete, Don, Tom, Ed, John, Al, Scott and Pauline. (1)

This catalog of common names would resonate with any English-speaking audience. But as Ian Rowland, author of the Full Facts Book of Cold Reading once said to me, in a large audience "The hard part would be to be find a name that wouldn't work." To safeguard against this slim possibility, Rosen also resorted to the generic "Mom", "Dad", "Grandma" and "Grandpa." Merely hearing familiar names personalizes the performance for those who don't receive an individual reading.

I call the listing of names the "Magic Mirror Effect," after the former children's television show Romper Room. At the end of each episode the host pretended that she could see the viewers through her "Magic Mirror." She would recite a list of random names, to give the impression that her farewell is personalized. After a few episodes, even kids realize that the host can't actually "see" them. This stage act works on adults too, if our vulnerability and grief permit us to believe.

Once a subject has been chosen, the medium attempts to validate the reading by supplying detail. Firstly, they guess the cause of death. Some mediums claim to be medical intuitives or empathetic; that is, able to feel the physical pain and symptoms of a living or deceased subject's illness, enabling diagnosis, or identification of the cause of death. But no one is ever diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease; mediums cite statistically common illnesses and causes of death. Cancer and heart disease are perennial favorites, but most mediums have their failsafe diagnoses and cures. For example, Sylvia Browne is known for diagnosing everyone with a thyroid disorder and recommending everyone take a lecithin supplement.

This is followed by more validation in the form of a psychic reading of the deceased, and usually the subject too. Mediums give horoscope-like personality readings that use Barnum statements. These involve generalizations about character that can apply to many people. For example,
You can be a very considerate person, very quick to provide for others, but there are times, if you are honest, when you recognize a selfish streak in yourself. I would say that on the whole you can be rather quiet, self-effacing type, but when the circumstances are right, you can be quite the life of the party if the mood strikes you. (2)

Then they list a number of objects and occurrences that could be meaningful to most people: Rebecca Rosen mentioned a ring with a reset stone, a necklace with a broken clasp, a broken zipper, a rainbow, a broken phone, and carrying spare change. These are non-specific items that give the illusion of specificity.

Mediums often claim the spirits communicate via sights, sounds, and even smells. This frames the spirit world in a way the living can understand, as an extension of the natural world. John Edward claims most of his messages are visual; the spirits point to parts of their bodies to reveal their cause of death, or show him something to communicate to the subject. Edward then uses a common trick, posing who-what-where-why questions as statements to elicit information from the subject. For example, "He's showing me a book. What does this mean?"

These strategies tailor the reading to fit the subject, meanwhile making the subject do the work by making the connections. This is a process known as subjective validation, when the subject finds personal meaning in the reading. As Ian Rowland says," In the course of a successful reading, the psychic may provide most of the words, but it is the client that provides most of the meaning and all of the significance." (3) Audiences are receptive to these tricks because they are there to believe.
The medium may make specific claims that cannot be disproven at that time. On the Montel Williams Show, Sylvia Browne made the bold claim that an audience member was the love child of an affair, "Your father is not your father." The woman was shocked at first, but soon started to relate to the claim; admitting that she never felt like she "belonged in the family." (4)

I saw Sylvia perform live in Salt Lake City. She gives a lecture to her audience and then does some select individual readings, choosing her subjects via a raffle ticket system. Sylvia (and her spirit guide Francine) only answers one question per person. Doubtlessly, she had heard them all before, and she has a stock reply for every question and situation.

She provided earthly advice, "I'm in a bad living situation," complained a woman. "Move!" Sylvia commanded simply. She made vague, ‘explicit' non-verifiable predictions, "Will I find another lady?" "Yes. Within the next two years. Her name is Meredith." She dispensed pat diagnoses for common, non-specific health complaints, "I have a strange health issue," a woman reported. "I know," replied Sylvia, "Get your thyroid checked." Some readings exploited popular sympathy, "There isn't one 9/11 soul who didn't make it." But stock readings were her staple, "Your father's here with me now. He's proud of you." If someone queried her reading, she'd reply indignantly, "That's what I said!" This ‘clarification', and the audience's laughter, would confuse and embarrass the dissident into silence. (5)

It is a game of hits and misses, although the "hits" aren't indicative of accuracy, they are merely perceived as correct. It is common for mediums to deny the misses by turning them into hits, even if they have to blame the subject. Rebecca Rosen had a stable of "outs" for her misses. She would dismiss the subject's denial and reprimand them into making it fit; "Look into it", "Make the connection", "You have to own it", and "You have to honor what's coming through." If Rosen hit a dead end she wouldn't acknowledge she was wrong, she would move on, the message was clearly for someone else. There were lots of spirits trying to get through, and she would "read who needs to be read."

Or the medium blames the dead for his or her mistakes. During James van Praagh's appearance on Larry King Live he was asked to explain why he'd said a person had been deceased for ten years when they had died only a year before.

What happens is more than likely, because you're dealing with frequencies of energy the spirit might not know how to communicate," Van Praagh answered. "There's a skill to it. They might send thought to my mind very quickly, I might not be fast enough to pick up the exact translation of what they're saying. So that's how that works. I'll hear like Mary and it'll be Marie or Nikki and it'll be something else.6

After nailing down a name, guessing a cause of death and validating the reading for the subject, the medium closes the reading. Most finish with a simple yet personal stock message, such as, "He loves you", "She watches and protects you from the spirit world", or, "She is happy on the other side". These farewells act as confirmation bias for spiritual beliefs, and comfort the subject. But in no way does any "comfort" excuse the deception of psychic mediumship. Then the psychic medium moves on to another subject in the audience and repeats the process.

Tricks of the Psychic Trade

How psychics talk (and manipulate).

www.psychologytoday.com

That is funny about the names. I have relatives who have very common first names for the regions and countries of continental Europe we are from, but you would not be able to translate them or find an equivalent in English to their names at all.

 

[Nicomorphinist]

I guess the way that the envelope-reading trick is done is that they answer the one they just opened when they are holding another one up to their head and whatever, and then at some point near the end appear to discard one as blank or a duplicate. I would like to see a candidate for public office or another host of a press conference try that, for the whole spectrum of reactions it would evoke including the pseudo-sceptics falling over one another to try to skewer them on Twitter or talk radio or wherever . . . one really needs a sense of humour about a lot of things, well, just about everything, or they start to look like a dick in short order, another nugget of wisdom from George Washington's Farewell Address, by the way . . .

 

[cduggles]

What did he or she claim about you or say from reading your palm that was true?

He read my palm. From my lines, he predicted that I would become ill and be close to death twice in my early 20s. He predicted two bad events would happen simultaneously within a year (a nasty breakup and a completely unexpected death in my family happened within a year, literally simultaneously and independently).
He has predicted some easier times ahead (this was all before I was 20), so I’m looking forward to them!
The interesting thing was that he offered kind of jokingly and then obviously was uncomfortable telling me. Also, he discovered a now common pathogen, and so it was weird that he did this sort of thing.
At the time, I didn’t believe any of it.
So we shall see. I hope he was right, as the bad stuff has passed, and the future was a great one otherwise.

 

[iridescentblack]

I feel I can relate to some of that, cduggles. My prediction from a fortune teller was, "You are going through a rough time. By the end of it, you'll be stronger." I think I've gotten past the rough time part, almost.

I just think it's kinda funny/weird or possibly just a coincidence I went to the same fortune teller a year after I had had my palms read, didn't have any money this time, so I gave her a silver coin worth about 5 dollars, and she gave me the same reading as the first time. Pretty much word for word. Could mean she just gives all the young men the same schpeal. Who knows?

I have heard a bit about these cold and hot readings before, nuttynutskin, and find the tactic absolutely hilarious. I watched a video some weeks ago about this subject and a "psychic medium" even went as far as to shout at the person in the audience they were wrong about the details he had clearly pulled out of his ass. Hahaha

It really gives some of them a bad name, but I agree that a gifted psychic would not actually charge money. Especially for something like an aura reading. But it varies from person to person. Some people may charge in order to put food on their tables.

 

[Aeon Psyche]

It takes way greater intelligence than one can accomplish on earth, to be able to tell the future. I cannot do it myself but I can visit aliens who are able too with soul teleportation. But they will probably just tell me that it is best not to know yet.