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My friend just went to a medium......

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AxeGrrl:

Actually, this friend just went to a 'group reading' (have never heard of this before).  The medium in question is someone my friend knows through work, I think, and has given my friend at least one (individual) reading in the past and she was impressed with some of the things the medium said (like describing a scene that fit her childhood).

About this 'group reading' she just went to, she said "this woman (the medium) is unbelievable".

The last time she talked about this medium (quite a few years ago) she said 'you should go see her sometime'.  Needless to say, I have no desire to.  I don't want to appear nasty or contrary-just-to-be-contrary, but first of all, it's someone she knows personally, so I have no idea if she's ever talked about me to this person ~ that possibility alone would 'spoil' the entire thing, as far as i'm concerned.  But anyway, I'm seeing this friend tomorrow.....

what questions should I ask her about the whole experience?

Any advice/suggestions?

vespine:
I'm actually in a very similar situation. The mother in law of one of my wife's friends works as a psychic and my wife (who is almost as skeptical as me) thinks it would be a good idea for me to go, just to check it out. I've never been to a psychic, I think it would be interesting but I'm also hesitant for similar reasons, I have no idea what this person might have heard about through idle conversation and I'm also not convinced I couldn't be fooled. I studied and practiced magic for several years (not professionally), but when I go to see a good magician there are still tricks I can't work out.

Heck, I watched a show called "Fool Us" which has British magicians doing tricks for Pen and Teller, some of which THEY couldn't work out!

Actually, writing this reply has reminded me Richard Wiseman wrote a book called "Deception and self-deception: Investigating Psychics " (1997) This looks like it would be a worthwhile read, I've had my eye out for this book for a while but haven't managed to source a copy...

AxeGrrl:

--- Quote from: vespine on Jun 24, 2012, 07:56:53 PM ---and I'm also not convinced I couldn't be fooled. I studied and practiced magic for several years (not professionally), but when I go to see a good magician there are still tricks I can't work out.

Heck, I watched a show called "Fool Us" which has British magicians doing tricks for Pen and Teller, some of which THEY couldn't work out!

--- End quote ---


Ditto!  and I wouldn't necessarily want to accuse this medium of being a scam-artist, since I think there are some who aren't deliberately fooling people, but who have come to sincerely believe that what they're doing really is psychic/supernatural.

And thanks for the Wiseman book suggestion, I'll keep my eyes Emma-Peeled for it :)

Neon Genesis:
Show your friend episode four of the anime series, XXXholic.  While the episode ends up having psychics in it, I think it does a great job for an anime series of showing what a psychic would act like if psychic powers were actually real and the character Yuko actually does a good job of discrediting cold readings.

seaotter:
Can you talk to her about some of the techniques that mediums use like cold reading and some of the crap that the "scam" guys do, like Sylvia brown or what's that talking to the dead guy?

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