Why do psychics ask so many questions?

[XenoFish]

It's the belief in ghost and spirits that gets people suckered into scams. Real psychics/mediums, not a single one exist. 

[+Desertrat56]

1 hour ago, stereologist said:

We have all seen videos where someone is trying to connect to the spirit of a loved one. They begin to explore with a number of questions or statements.

"I'm sensing a name like John or maybe Jeremy or ..."

"Did someone have a relative that was recently in an automobile crash?"

We are all well aware of these statements and questions that set up the process of talking to someone about dead friends or relatives or loved ones. Why are the statement and questions at first so nebulous? Why the switching at times from John to Mary to Robert to whatever?

An example might illustrate what I a talking about. Here is John Edwards on the Larry King show talking about being read.

http://people.cs.ksu.edu/~wyrm/transcript.html

This was something he could have looked up online, but he does it piece meal getting just the first letter.

Here is a suggestion. The psychics are dealing with spirits that are playing charades. That is why the psychic gets things slowly. The spirit indicates first letter. The psychic says "J". They get a nod or the spirit is shaking their hands no, no, no.

Apparently spirits are on average substandard charade players. That is why the psychic has to get confirmation from the audience.

That might explain why Sylvia Brown was such a terrible prediction maker, she was incompetent at charades as well.

What you describe, guessing names is what John Edward and that Long Island Medium do.  It is called fishing.  They may have some ability but now they have to perform all the time, they are media personalities.  It is something you can use to determine if you are spending your money on a real "psychic" or not.  There are some mediums who never ask about the name, they say,"Who is John to you?  He is telling me ..."  Or they say something like "There is a woman here who wants me to tell you ..."  no attachment to the name.  Then the information you get is what you use to determine if the message is real for you or not.

Also, reading to a large room of people is different than reading individuals.  If mediumship is real and you are sitting before a large group there might be a huge clamor of entities wanting to get their message across.

As for Sylvia Brown, she made a lot of money talking nonsense people wanted to hear and she was probably suffering from dementia by the time she was on that talk show.  People pay to hear what they want to hear.  I heard about Sylvia Brown telling that woman her daughter was dead when the daughter was held captive and watching the show.  It was horrible for both mother and daughter to go through that.  If people were more willing to get their own information from "whereever" people like Sylvia Brown would not have the responsibility and the money from making stuff up. 

We all could be mediums if we choose to, or read tarot cards, but instead people want someone else to tell them how to think (religion and government authorities), what happens when we die (religion and "psychic") etc.  Even some people sign up for services to tell them what to eat (weight watchers, doctors, Jenny Craig, Blue Apron, etc).  So, how can you blame the people who call themselves "pschic mediums" for getting on the bandwagon with a nice gravy train? 

 

 

 

[freetoroam]

8 minutes ago, Desertrat56 said:

So, how can you blame the people who call themselves "pschic mediums" for getting on the bandwagon with a nice gravy train? 

Because it is theft and deceit.

Not everyone is prepared to make money out of coning people.

[+Desertrat56]

1 hour ago, freetoroam said:

I can not posibly give you an answer as i do not believe in an after life and obviously do not believe they can communicate with dead people.

So, I hung out with a woman who called herself a psychic medium.  She was neither as far as I could tell, but people loved her and she actually supported herself that way.  She was in my apartment doing a reading for me (gratis) and did say "you are a shaman, why do you not have anything shamanic in your house?"  So she picked up something but she was blind to all the crystals and other shamanic paraphernalia that I had everywhere.  Her problem was he mental filters, she had expectations and misinterpreted almost everything unless someone actually fell into her picture of reality.  So, she could have been a psychic medium but she wasn't because she always had to interpret everything.  She was also annoying to go to dinner with.  Once there were 4 or 5 of us at a restaurant and she kept scribling notes and jumping up to give them to people with her business card.  Much like the Long Island Medium on television does.  Quite annoying.

Edited April 21, 2019 by Desertrat56

[+Desertrat56]

7 minutes ago, freetoroam said:

Because it is theft and deceit.

Not everyone is prepared to make money out of coning people.

But people give them the money willingly, even more willingly than people buy stock knowing it most likely will be stolen by the stock market owners.  Do you consider stock brokers deceitful thieves? I do.

[Minimalists]

Ever watch this guy?

https://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/discernment/johnedward.html

[Minimalists]

1 hour ago, Desertrat56 said:

But people give them the money willingly, even more willingly than people buy stock knowing it most likely will be stolen by the stock market owners.  Do you consider stock brokers deceitful thieves? I do.

Yeah people give them money so that they can hear what they want to hear....

[freetoroam]

3 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

But people give them the money willingly, even more willingly than people buy stock knowing it most likely will be stolen by the stock market owners.  Do you consider stock brokers deceitful thieves? I do.

Stock broking is a risk, but you can make money. People  know that.

You do not go to a medium for the same reasons you do to a stockbroker.

Mediums are not companies, they are individuals who are good at picking up on peoples emotions and probing for answers before they ask the questions. 

There are many deceitful people out there,  thats the world we live in. Mediums believe they have a gift involving dead people, bit different from someone wanting to put their money into shares of rice.

 

[Piney]

5 hours ago, Desertrat56 said:

But people give them the money willingly, even more willingly than people buy stock knowing it most likely will be stolen by the stock market owners.  Do you consider stock brokers deceitful thieves? I do.

Liars prosper . 

[the13bats]

8 hours ago, stereologist said:

My questions relative to this thread are:

1. Can the dead talk to each other or do they use charades?
2. Can the dead talk to mediums or do they have to use charades?

what are your answers to those questions?

both assume there is an afterlife of conscience dead, do you believe that?

 

[the13bats]

im a bit surprised this post was started by a person sometimes very snide to true believers in other areas, is now suggesting the dead have to bumble around playing  parlor games to get their vauge messages across, unless you are leading to something.

i have no clue what happens when we die but i dont believe we keep our consciousness from this life nor do i believe their are haunts, ghosts spirits or anything like that, or even if there were they would have to channel through some attention junkie poser psychic geek

the only so called proof is true believer stories.

so no i dont buy some otherwordly game of charades, nope, its just the guessing game make the pieces fit that psychics play to scam people.

Edited April 22, 2019 by the13bats
call me capt typo

[stereologist]

2 hours ago, the13bats said:

what are your answers to those questions?

both assume there is an afterlife of conscience dead, do you believe that?

 

Good question.

1. I don't believe the dead communicate or exist.

2. I don't believe mediums communicate with anyone, just the wallets of their targets.

I was just thinking about another possibility as to the reason for the odd questions posed by mediums other than the "it's real" vs the "cold reading" camps.

[stereologist]

The thing I find so funny is that I am often told that as a skeptic I can't think outside of the box.

I find that skeptics are often better at coming up with alternatives than those telling others that they need to think outside of the box.

[the13bats]

2 hours ago, stereologist said:

Good question.

1. I don't believe the dead communicate or exist.

2. I don't believe mediums communicate with anyone, just the wallets of their targets.

I was just thinking about another possibility as to the reason for the odd questions posed by mediums other than the "it's real" vs the "cold reading" camps.

since i agree with your answers and they are the replies i expected im curious about your "another possibility" as if the answer comes from the believers side its gonna still fit into the nature of bogus readings whether we call them "cold" or whatever, i wont speculate more on that at the moment.

2 hours ago, stereologist said:

The thing I find so funny is that I am often told that as a skeptic I can't think outside of the box.

I find that skeptics are often better at coming up with alternatives than those telling others that they need to think outside of the box.

its the nature of "true belief" by defination.

with a few exception i see no correlation between intelligence and being a skeptic or a true believer, i do in general and prehaps it will surprise some see the skeptics as being far more alternative in their thinking open to any possibility where a TB is only open to the paranormal supernatural explanations.

ive seen it countless times a skeptic suggests some prosiac explanation which going on available evidence is the most likely explanation a TB wont like that so they have to start with the counterattack flawed since they were never attacked to begain with, the word "proof" is not a word TBs like at all, and knowing why i cant blame them.

the TB will use that whole, "think outside the box" "open your mind" etc as little barbs insinuating that the skeptic is of lower inteligence and closed minded to have presented that down to earth likely explanation.

the TB  wouldnt mind if their jabs had a reverse psychology effect and the skeptic took a 180 and said "oh wow your right." but they pretty much know it wont happen, and that brings us to an example of what i see time and again, TBs are very fast to take any no matter how coddled, suger coated and kindly stated skepticism as a very deep very stinging personal insult.

TBs for whatever reason desperately need validations, they want what is only proof in their minds  to be the undeniable smoking gun evidence hailed by all that they proved whatever, when that doesnt happen its a blow to a large fragile ego.

 

back to your perhaps ghosts play charades idea, if i was a phychic or TB trying to sell its real i would have ran with that like when i call them out they love to spew "it doesnt work like that" but say the plane ghost are on its hard to get thru to the material world and the gift of a phychic has to put together pieces many times so sure, guessing a name starting with common names first letter isnt to get a reaction from a mark, oops i mean believer but rather just how the happy haunt is managing to get that information to flow to the dear phychic...sorry cash only no checks or credit cards accepted.

the bat is done, the TBa can now tar and feather me. 

 

[freetoroam]

4 hours ago, stereologist said:

Good question.

1. I don't believe the dead communicate or exist.

2. I don't believe mediums communicate with anyone, just the wallets of their targets.

I was just thinking about another possibility as to the reason for the odd questions posed by mediums other than the "it's real" vs the "cold reading" camps.

 I would like to know how many mediums actually believe in spirits?

Those who are using tricks and deceit surely must not believe in spirits? 

[Habitat]

1 hour ago, freetoroam said:

 I would like to know how many mediums actually believe in spirits?

Those who are using tricks and deceit surely must not believe in spirits? 

What about that old girl in England during the war who was telling people about ships being lost ( the Hood and Barham, from memory)at sea, before even the Admiralty knew about it ? I think she was locked up for the rest of the war as a security risk !

[the13bats]

24 minutes ago, Habitat said:

What about that old girl in England during the war who was telling people about ships being lost ( the Hood and Barham, from memory)at sea, before even the Admiralty knew about it ? I think she was locked up for the rest of the war as a security risk !

pretty vauge, and of course lots of ships lost in wars...got any links?

[Habitat]

7 minutes ago, the13bats said:

pretty vauge, and of course lots of ships lost in wars...got any links?

Two major battleships, I can't recall much detail, but she lived in one of the naval ports. At some meeting she told a bunch of people that one of those ships had just been sunk, and naturally as some in the meeting had relatives aboard. there was great concern.  A naval officer went and contacted the Admiralty, and was assured the ship had not been sunk. But a few hours later, the news arrived, it had indeed been sunk prior to her mentioning it. Which might be a co-incidence, except when it happened again, the authorities acted.

[the13bats]

7 minutes ago, Habitat said:

Two major battleships, I can't recall much detail, but she lived in one of the naval ports. At some meeting she told a bunch of people that one of those ships had just been sunk, and naturally as some in the meeting had relatives aboard. there was great concern.  A naval officer went and contacted the Admiralty, and was assured the ship had not been sunk. But a few hours later, the news arrived, it had indeed been sunk prior to her mentioning it. Which might be a co-incidence, except when it happened again, the authorities acted.

two hits is good but still considering all things im not sold she had any ability, had she done it dozens of times my interest would grow but i was rather disillusioned when i learned old news reports were not cut in stone facts, in fact papers would make up stories to get readers many were cool accounts i bought at face value when younger i wasn't happy they were made up, so we have no way to weed out embelishment in this ship story,

 

[onlookerofmayhem]

My mom is a big fan of Sylvia Browne. I think she was a human piece of garbage. Telling people their children were dead and later they were found alive. Oddly enough, she doesn't like James Van Praagh. 

Every dead person that comes through is happy and forgiving and at peace. So I guess hell doesn't exist. Or maybe the dead can't communicate from there.

Mediums ask the dumbest probing questions in order to illicit a response they can build on.

James Randi did a transcript of a reading in which the medium rattled off dozens of names.

What the person(receiving the reading) was asked how many names the medium had mentioned they thought it was only 5 or 6.

People who want to talk to dead people are so desperately deluded the will take any crumb and happily believe that it is real.

 

[XenoFish]

7 minutes ago, onlookerofmayhem said:

Every dead person that comes through is happy and forgiving and at peace.

You'd figure that a great many of them would be angry. I mean as supposedly rampant poltergeist activity is and scratching ghost are. 

[Essan]

19 hours ago, stereologist said:

We have all seen videos where someone is trying to connect to the spirit of a loved one. They begin to explore with a number of questions or statements.

"I'm sensing a name like John or maybe Jeremy or ..."

"Did someone have a relative that was recently in an automobile crash?"

We are all well aware of these statements and questions that set up the process of talking to someone about dead friends or relatives or loved ones. Why are the statement and questions at first so nebulous? Why the switching at times from John to Mary to Robert to whatever?

 

I think it's pretty obvious  

[the13bats]

many years back i spent a lot of time in Cassadaga fl, the self proclaimed pyschic capital of the world, its a very small town and they had a weekly service in their big church where the phychics in training would give free readings,

i watched, listened and honed my cold reading skills, i saw zero that even vaugly proved to me these people had any type phychic ability what so ever,

around 2000 a grandmother and grandson went missing from deland fl,  it was a big mystery and the family was under suspensions, the grandmother was never found but the poor boy sadly was, in of all places Cassadaga, not from a phychics vision no, but rather something saw a van in the wooded area they found him. so much for phychic capital of the world.

[Minimalists]

They remind me of those televangelists who tell you to send your money to the lord then give you their address...WTH! I guess jesus never left a forwarding address.

[onlookerofmayhem]

7 hours ago, Alien Origins said:

They remind me of those televangelists who tell you to send your money to the lord then give you their address...WTH! I guess jesus never left a forwarding address.

Ala Peter Popoff. Another piece of garbage. 

"Peter Popoff (born July 2, 1946) is a German-born televangelist. He was exposed in 1986 for using an earpiece to receive radio messages from his wife, who gave him the names, addresses and ailments of audience members during Popoff-led religious services. Popoff falsely claimed God revealed this information to him so that Popoff could cure them by faith healing.^[1]"

^{https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Popoff}