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

[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]

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!

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?

[vespine]

Part of the problem that I've encountered when having conversations with people who believe in psychics is they "know" there are a lot of frauds and people who are not "genuine", but the ones they've seen are the real deal.

[341gerbig]

Part of the problem that I've encountered when having conversations with people who believe in psychics is they "know" there are a lot of frauds and people who are not "genuine", but the ones they've seen are the real deal.

Bingo and Ditto for me

[khendar]

Part of the problem that I've encountered when having conversations with people who believe in psychics is they "know" there are a lot of frauds and people who are not "genuine", but the ones they've seen are the real deal.

Bingo and Ditto for me

Classic No True Scotsman.

[seaotter]

Just kills me. If you show me how the trick is done.... Fool me once.....

[vespine]

This is sort of on topic, just doing a bit of a search I found this:

Ray Hyman reviews "The Afterlife Experiments" a book supporting the "talking to the dead" hypothesis by Gary Schwartz PhD (Psych Harvard). (TV psychic John Edwards was one of the participants of these studies)
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/how_not_to_test_mediums_critiquing_the_afterlife_experiments/

Reply by Gary Schwartz
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/how_not_to_review_mediumship_research/

Hyman's reply to the above
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/hymans_reply_to_schwartz/

I've only ready half the 1st article but it's quite interesting so far.. Probably doesn't help with the OPs (or mine) specific query, but further demonstrates just how nuanced and difficult such a subject can be to properly and skeptically assess.

[Neon Genesis]

I wonder why no psychic ever saw 9/11 coming until after 9/11 happened.

[vespine]

OH! I just remembered:

The best tip I ever got was that if you ever did go to see a psychic make sure to RECORD IT! Ask in advance, from what I've heard (which isn't a great deal) a lot of "psychics" don't mind if you record their reading. Tell them it's for your own personal reference because you have a poor memory, which isn't even lying!

If they don't agree to be recorded, work out how to record it inconspicuously on your phone or get one of those "spy" key chain recorders or something.

Our brains can't help but be biased by confirmation. By the time you're walking out the door you'll have forgetten half the misses, but you'll never forget the hits! Regardless of how skeptical you are.

[seaotter]

I wonder why no psychic ever saw 9/11 coming until after 9/11 happened.

Because the man never listens!

Btw not even a hard prediction. The bastards had already tried to blow it up. Tom Clancy has a high jacked jet flying into the Capitol during a joint session of congress. I guarantee their are hundreds of folks running around who actually dreamed 9/11. Hard to convince such a person they don't actually have psychic abilities or at least that they aren't real.

[vespine]

I just found this, looks like it will be a good read, only just read the intro so far.

http://www.aske-skeptics.org.uk/testing_psychics.html