Psychics and whatnot

[Macee]

I did a search and all the other threads on this topic were archived.

Anyway, I am a skeptic and don't necessarily believe in psychics, however my mum went to one and came home with some interesting news.
She picked up that my grandpa died a few months earlier from something in the stomach region, he died due to liver failure from years of alcohol abuse and said my dad is suffering from the same thing, also an alcoholic.
My parents are seperated and she told my mum if she tried the marriage could work, this I see as random talk and don't see this as accurate.

Then she went on about me. That I am emotionally detached. Which I was at the time, and don't see my dad as a dad, I don't, she thensaid I was gonna be in the trade business, I was doing a pre apprenticeship at the time and now looking for an apprenticeship, she said I had a good heart (aww :D) and that I would eventually be working for myself. Went on to talk about my brother and said he was very soft, which he is. She said my sister was not going to be a follower, but a leader, in personality I presume.
Now this had shocked me to be honest cause I have always been a skeptic. Don't really know what to think now :/

Also I remember a facebook quiz a few years ago, back when everyone done quizzes. I tried searching for it, found it but it was removed.

You basically entered your birthday and it gave you a profile, that was extremely accurate. I was shocked by this and all of my friends that tried it were shocked. I haven't been able to find it since, anyone have a link? lol

What are you experiences with psychics and this sort of stuff? do you know someone who is a psychic? all full of shit or not?

I don't believe in phone psychics though, and of course my mum could have made the whole thing up, who knows?

 

[Jabberwocky]

I want to believe. However- I think most psychics are fraudsters or deluded. Even if they have some insights from time to time I don't think psychic stuff happens at will and reading as a profession becomes cold reading techniques and the art of being vague but meaningful sounding.

I try to recognize that a psychic reading could be serving an important psychological purpose for the recipient even if everything is not on the up and up, so I don't always bear down on a psychic reading with all the critical reasoning I can muster.

But who knows? I've not tested every reader in every situation. I have my own biases in assessing such things. I think it is good for believers and skeptics to stay weary of proffesional psychics. I think there is little denying that much swindling and manipulation has happened under the guise of the swindler being a psychic.

 

[777xog]

I was born and raised in a Spiritualist community, and my grandmother practices...
(she's a hell of a lot better than most of the clowns running the camp XD)

I'll say the level of competency in mediums varies a LOT. Kind of a sad fact. There are a lot of people drawn to new age ideas that aren't really cut out for the dedication it takes to really do justice to the practice. I think most have good intentions, though surely there are some less honest ones as well.

Having said that, there are legitimate mediums to be found, and it comes more naturally to some than others. Also takes a good bit of practice - clearing your mind and whatnot.

Keep in mind that the reality we experience on a day-to-day basis is limited to what our 5 senses will accept. Other energies may still be there beyond our normal perception. To suggest that a medium's work is not possible, even when presented with great evidence, is akin to suggesting micro-waves can't exist simply because we can't see them - you're completely neglecting the fact that this phenomena heated your food in 30 seconds! We just happened to figure out instruments for detection on the latter one.

I'm skeptical of skepticism.

 

[MrM]

Watch some stuff with Derren Brown in it. He is quite capable of performing most 'psychic' routines better than most 'psychics' can, then afterwards he shows you how he did it.

He did one show called 'Messiah' where he travelled to America (he's based in the UK where he is too famous to get away with this) and pretended to be a psychic. In the end he has all these other 'psychics' saying he's the most psychic psychic they've ever met.


I found these on youtube.

He's the kind of person who'd end up telling your mum your first and middle names after speaking to her for 5 mins or so along with other fairly convincing details, after doing a bit of cold reading and similar.

Keep in mind that the reality we experience on a day-to-day basis is limited to what our 5 senses will accept.

This is incorrect. It's scientifically recognised that people have more than 5 senses. Your sense of balance is as much a sense as your sense of taste (which bumps it up to 6 straight away) and there are other less obvious senses, including the ability to sense stomach ph (albeit subconsciously) amongst others. No one has yet, however, found a 'ghost sense' capable of sensing the afterlife.

 

[Legerity]

I don't believe there is anything special about psychic abilities or intuition. Some people are more in touch with these "senses" than others. I am quite skeptical of phone psychics or other cheesy types like this, but I don't doubt that these abilities do exist and are perfectly natural.

Whether or not something is proven by science doesn't really tell us if it is real or not. Research usually just means that there are people willing to fund a study that fits into their preconceived ideas of what is true

 

[MrM]

I don't believe there is anything special about psychic abilities or intuition. Some people are more in touch with these "senses" than others. I am quite skeptical of phone psychics or other cheesy types like this, but I don't doubt that these abilities do exist and are perfectly natural.

Whether or not something is proven by science doesn't really tell us if it is real or not. Research usually just means that there are people willing to fund a study that fits into their preconceived ideas of what is true

I do doubt these senses exist and are perfectly natural. I think that the simpler explanation is more probably true; having seen someone accomplish these things without any psychic powers at all i think it is more probable that the rest of the mediums are also fakers and frauds than that they have this amazing power that they use to tell grieving family members uncle tommy still loves them.

If anyone could really talk to the dead it could be proven quite easily. The fact this hasn't happened is another reason to doubt the whole thing. If there were real mediums then and you could get historians talking to ancient historical figures and being told where to dig to make amazing discoveries. No one would have to draw up a will; just do it after you die via a registered family law qualified medium. Murder investigations would be a hell of a lot easier when you could get the description from the victim. Rich celebrities would have a team of dedicated round the clock mediums so that they could keep tweeting after death. I could go on.

And finally, i am not sure why you winked at me, but i can tell you research isn't about proving preconceived ideas. It's about gathering data to see if it supports a hypothesis or not; some of the more interesting scientific discoveries occur when people discover their hypothesis to be wrong (for example, light, it's bound to be either a wave or a particle, right?).

 

[Legerity]

If I wink it is to remain light-hearted and avoid getting myself agitated over certain topics of discussion. Nothing personal.

There are forsentic intuitives that work with law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and other countries. I do not know much about her in particular, but a google search came up with this one: http://www.drsallyheadding.com/

Scientists want to find significant results and get publications, that's just how it works. This doesn't mean that it's all they care about, but if they want funding then this has to be taken into consideration. In order for a study to happen, there usually needs to be previous studies whose findings support its rationale. Researchers want to hypothesis to be correct. If the hypothesis is incorrect, it is also possible to analyze the data differently until something is found.

It is not common for a study to occur that completely breaks out of a paradigm that already exists. Certainly there can be interesting discoveries when a hypothesis is proven to be wrong, but usually all this means is that a study has less of a chance of getting published because the results were not significant.

I love the concept of science; asking questions, disproving theories, etc. But the philosophy and practice of science are two different things.

 

[n3ophy7e]

I have been to see a psychic once. I was skeptical and me and my best friend went only for a laugh. When I left after the reading, I had a completely different attitude.

The psychic said a lot of things in my reading, because it went for about 30 minutes and she was just talking the entire time. She used tarot cards. I know for a fact that there were a lot of things that she said purely for my enjoyment, e.g. that I would have a baby soon, and that I will have 4 children etc etc, you know, typical things that a girl of my age wants to hear So I'm willing to accept that she was just playing me when she said that kinda stuff.
Please keep in mind that I kept a straight "poker face" the whole time, I was extremely aware of not giving her any visual or vocal cues for her to say anything in particular, as I know that is a trick they use.

BUT amongst the fluffy stuff she said, she also said a few things which were absolutely astonishingly accurate. Stuff that I had never told anyone else, and really seriously unusual and obscure stuff as well that you would think no one could ever just guess or say on a whim. I was in shock. My best friend was sitting there the entire time and must've thought the psychic was completely full of it because I'd never mentioned any of what the psychic said to my friend before. But after our readings I took my friend out to lunch and explained a thing or two to her about the things the psychic had said.

I dunno if the psychic just took a chance with what she said and it was a 1,000,000 to 1 chance/coincidence that it applied to me. But seriously, however she did it, I have no idea.

It was for the best though because I took the psychic's advice and sorted out some pretty major aspects of my life according to what she'd said. So regardless of how she knew those things, at the time I was at a fork in the road and it helped me to make the big decisions necessary to get to where I am today, and I am extremely thankful for that.

 

[MrM]

OK so the psychic said a lot of stuff. Some of that stuff was scarily accurate but a lot of it was just for your enjoyment?

That's how these people work. Say a lot of things, see what sticks and allow the recipients mind to fill in the blanks and concentrate on those areas that seemed to fit.

You say you were keeping a pocker face, but if she was an experienced 'psychic' then you were effectively sitting across from an expert poker player so i don't think this will have made much difference.

 

[Macee]

Yeah I'm really torn on the issue, while I don't doubt that there are frauds, a lot of them.
I can't see how they can get specific information when you don't tell them anything.

 

[MrM]

Watch Derren Brown. He does some very impressive things in terms of getting specific information out of people.

Once you've seen a self confessed trickster use his techniques to do stuff more impressive than some of the 'psychics' manage, you'll be able to gauge the level of ability it's possible to appear to have whilst actually having no special psychic powers at all.

 

[Macee]

I did, I was pretty amazed. How does one find out exactly how he done things?
especially the drawing guessing.

He did have feedback though, when he was pretending to be john edwards douchebag.

Also does anyone remember that facebook quiz? I mean it wasnt one or two things right, it was the whole thing, nothing wrong at all.

 

[MrM]

I did, I was pretty amazed. How does one find out exactly how he done things?
especially the drawing guessing.

You get more of an idea as you watch more of his stuff, also i suspect if you read his books he'll give more information.

Also does anyone remember that facebook quiz? I mean it wasnt one or two things right, it was the whole thing, nothing wrong at all.

I don't, but unless you believe they had actual psychics working at the other end at facebook (they'd need an aweful lot of them) providing the information then this proves that either you can automate some simple routines and get very convincing 'psychic' like results or that facebook really is psychic. I don't believe facebook is psychic.

 

[voxmystic]

Yeah, I think there are real psychics. I think everyone is psychic to some extent, we just bury it under intellect when we're really young. Probably as we learn to speak. Still, we touch the 'sixth sense' from time to time as things like deja vu, or love at first sight.

I had a premonition once about a car wreck. I once felt it when someone I loved died unexpectedly. I didn't know what that horrible, empty feeling was for nearly a week. Almost everyone has a story or two like this.

That being said, I think most professional "psychics" are faking it most of the time.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

I'm somewhat psychic. I've talked about it on bluelight before only to be attacked and demanded that I show "proof" for something I cannot really show proof for, therefore I tend to keep this part of my life to myself on here. I'm on other more spiritual based forums where I talk actively with others like me about this sort of stuff.

I'm not the sort of psychic that is on the hotlines. I don't magically guess information taken from people's heads or anything like that. I'm a sensitive, an empath, and somewhat of a precog. I think everyone is to some degree, like vox said. But most people are not vibrating at the right level to recognize it, or they rationalize away their experiences because for whatever reason they've been taught that this stuff is hard to believe. I was never taught that, and I've been this way and had many psychic/spiritual/and or paranormal experiences all of my life, even as a young child. (as far back as I can remember)

I don't use the word psychic much in reference to myself because people seem to have far too negative attachments to the word because of stuff they see in movies and psychic hotline infomercials. I prefer the phrase strongly intuitive... which like I said, a lot of people are. It is more than that, but once again I've been attacked a lot on this forum for sharing my experiences so I'll just stop now.

(ps- I agree that a lot of those "showy" sort of psychics and magic people like Darren are not at all actual psychics... that is a whole different thing than what I am speaking about in myself)

 

[MrM]

deja vu, or love at first sight

These things are not senses. They are mental states.

It's like happiness. You don't have a sense of happiness (even if you might use the word 'sense' to describe your feeling). You experience happiness as a state of mind.

When you 'sense' happiness in someone else you are not using some actual happiness sense organ. You are using all your other senses combined with your knowledge of people to look at how they smile, listen to how they talk, observe their body language etc.

I don't fully understand deja vu but i think it's a state of mind. Love is clearly a state of mind along the lines of happiness (if more extreme).

I'm a sensitive, an empath, and somewhat of a precog. I think everyone is to some degree, like vox said.

Without ridiculing your abilities, i would agree that everyone has these to an extent. I would also argue that what you think is a 'psychic' power is actually a learned ability to read body language, listen to tones of voice, etc. Basically the stuff derren brown claims he does and claims that some 'psychic' who really believe they are psychic rather than actual frauds do subconsciously.

Assuming you're not a total nutter or con person i'd assume you were using these skills that almost everyone has just without realising what they are. Perhaps you are slightly more sensitive than average to these kind of clues.

I think that everyone has these abilities to a degree, and it's only really obvious when they misfire for some reason. I'd argue that perhaps some things like autism are examples of where people lack these intuitive social abilities to read other people around them.

One time my flatmates had an argument before i woke up that i slept through. Because i was only just awake i didn't pick up on the frosty environment and couldn't work out why they were being rude to me. Normally this is the kind of thing most people, myself included, would pick up on from body language and other hints that betray a tense atmosphere.
If you take the opposite of this situation; someone who for whatever reason is particularly good at reading these clues in a certain situation, they might honestly beleive they were psychic if they didn't understand the process.

 

[ocean]

Deja- Its a shame that some people have 'attacked' you for sharing that part of yourself. People can be silly.

I for sure believe that there are people who are psychic, I believe there are mediums and all that. I think that everyone has the ability but some are just more in tune with that part of themselves- and some shut it down.
Society doesn't find it very acceptable always which creates a mental barrier imo. Children are supposed to be more in touch with this side of themselves and their past lives (yeah, I believe in past lives)- There have been many reports where you can't really argue with the evidence (of the past lives part).....so I think that somewhere along the way children are taught that it isn't an acceptable thing and the mind shuts that out.

I am intune- I don't claim to be psychic or a medium- but have had more experiences than I can remember that have shown me that these things are real. I've been raised wirh a family that is accepting of this sort of thing- so that may have something to do with me being open to it.
I don't blame anyone for not believing- questioning is good. Sometimes it is hard to believe something you haven't experienced....
And there are all sorts of people out there- of all kinds- liars and real people. Psychic or exaggerators.........

I hope people with more experiences like deja express them here and feel comfortable doing so........It is refreshing to see someone open to that part of themselves

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

Without ridiculing your abilities, i would agree that everyone has these to an extent. I would also argue that what you think is a 'psychic' power is actually a learned ability to read body language, listen to tones of voice, etc.

Not really... I am not that sort of "psychic". I am not in any way a mind reader. Most of my psychic experiences have to do with the paranormal, channeling or precognition. Also, sometimes I just know things. It is hard to explain, it is just like if you look at a yellow wall and "know" it is yellow, sometimes I just know things in that same way, except things I shouldn't know. Haven't been wrong so far. It is intuition. Everyone has it, it gets stronger the more power and respect you give it within yourself.

Deja- Its a shame that some people have 'attacked' you for sharing that part of yourself. People can be silly.

Thanks. I am not much of a debater nor do I want to be. I am also not a skeptical person because of the life I've lived. If since birth you've been experiencing things which most say are not scientifically possible then you get to a place after awhile where you are pretty open to everything being true to some degree. So it is hard for me when people demand proof and then attack you when you can't offer proof. I don't see how an experience can be proved. I say I saw/talked to a spirit today, how am I supposed to prove such a thing? People say personal experience is not proof but this reality is all I've ever known. For me the proof is MY LIFE.

 

[ocean]

^Exactly.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

If you take the opposite of this situation; someone who for whatever reason is particularly good at reading these clues in a certain situation, they might honestly beleive they were psychic if they didn't understand the process.

I wanted to add that this is somewhat just personal semantics here... You said that as if being intuitive, empathic and knowing how to read people/situations was something normal and separate from being "psychic", something far fetched. I view a strong emotional IQ and the ability to read and examine situations, people, things, etc as a part of being psychic. I don't think there is a clear line... we all use logic and intuition together to some degree, it seems to me. I think people who are considered psychic by most are just stronger on the intuitive side, but it isn't as if when one has a psychic vision about something they aren't using their logical mind as well to come to the conclusion they come to. It all works together.