Psychic experience

[hellokitty]

Has anyone gone to a psychic? How was your experience?

A few days ago I was having a down day and decided to go to the mall for some odd reason (no intention to shop). I must have been sitting down watching people for about 10 minutes or so when a woman with a baby stroller approached me and said "you have such a beautiful aura; I can see it glowing all around you, but something is stopping it from glowing to its full potential lately." In response to my blank stare and silence, she proceeded with "you are having a bad day and I can help you look at things that you might have missed. You see, I have the ability to read auras and energy. If you want I can offer you my services and because I like you I won't charge you my normal rate." My first thought was - I was sitting down for reasonable amount of time for anyone to conclude I was sad or worried based on my body language. Second thought - discount? yeah right! Who does she think she is fooling?

I shared this anecdote with a friend and she happened to actually be a strong believer in psychics. She goes to see a psychic once a month, different ones sometimes, and says that each one tells her the same thing - so I should try it once at least.

I am skeptical about them, and so I was wondering if any of you guys have gone to see one and what you thought about it?

 

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[DennisD]

At the beginning of 2011 I got a JOB as a phone psychic for a few months. And let me tell you:

There's no such thing as psychics.

In my time learning magic and performing magic shows (how I saved for college.. I was a magician in high school) I spent a lot of time with this group. I knew many stage hypnotists, psychics, magicians, illusionists, mentalists, sword swallower, metal benders, and flame eaters. I thought I wanted to be a psychic because i enjoy psychology and deductive reasoning, as well as performing.

(Because of this I'm also pretty well versed in pseudosciences such as reflexology, hypnotherapy, animology, tarot, acupuncture, neurolinguistic programming, and even chiropracty to an extent..)

Unfortunately, psychics as you describe them just aren't real. It doesn't make them liars or cheats.. many of them believe they are doing good and believe they are psychics. A lot of these people are just very good with people, and pick up subtle cues and subconsciously make deductions based on your appearance, age, weight, skin color, clothing, whatever. They have a 'sense' about things based on what they observe and can know a lot about a person. They don't know 'how' it happens, so they assume it's supernatural if they're religious or superstitious.

Then there are the other kinds of people who KNOW they're lying. This was me. They're performers who learn the art of 'cold reading' and they learn little shortcuts. Are your hands rough? that means you're bluecollar. Tanlines? Jewelry? Comfortable shoes or professional shoes? I knew a guy that worked the 'guess my age' booth at carnivals. His secret? You can tell any woman's age based on how lose the skin on the back of her wrist was.

 

[dknise]

There's no such thing as psychics.

Alright Mr. Randi, please look into the work of Dean Radin. Making the claim that psychics don't exist because you were once a fake psychic, is like scooping up water from the ocean in your hands, seeing nothing, and claiming there's no whales.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I got a JOB as a phone psychic for a few months

OMG, this will be an amazing part of your story. You should be able to write a great book on this experience alone!

 

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[DennisD]

OMG, this will be an amazing part of your story. You should be able to write a great book on this experience alone!

Haha, I started to write a screenplay on the experience in Celtx but I had to cut down on activity not directly related to growing a business.

The job actually made me feel horrible. I always left the caller feeling GREAT about themselves. They were pumped up, ready to tackle the day, but after every call I felt dirty. It formed part of my moral code I follow today... I now know where I stand on the issue of "is it ok to lie to a customer if it does no harm, and might possibly do GOOD?"

More and more I'm starting to think about the relationship between skepticism and entrepreneurship... and if I ever DO write about the experience, it would probably be more leaned towards that message.

Alright Mr. Randi, please look into the work of Dean Radin. Making the claim that psychics don't exist because you were once a fake psychic, is like scooping up water from the ocean in your hands, seeing nothing, and claiming there's no whales.

Distinction:
The claim wasn't made because I was a fake psychic, the claim was made AND I was a fake psychic.

The first thing I want to state is that I LOVE paranormal research. It would make me SO happy if it turned out there were psychics out there. It would give me a childish sense of WONDER and I'd be giddy and excited. I want to feel that way so bad.

At the same time, I'm very frustrated by most people who believe this stuff, because there's FAR too many assumptions made. There's a lot of trust given to strangers, a lot of merit put on personal stories and experiences, it's all a lot of blind belief without looking at the external.

It's frustrating when people don't understand looking at the unit-price in the supermarket to find out whether buying a 3 liter of soda is a better deal than buying a 24 pack... and then put full belief in a story that "my friend's house is haunted, we keep putting her dad's mug in the cabinet, yet every morning it's back on the table". One's based on an actual calculation and one's based on anecdotal evidence that is most likely mistaken.

Cargo Cult
Are you familiar with the term cargo cult? It's a social/religious phenomenon that occurs under colonial situations where one significantly advanced civilization creates a Connolly on the land of a relatively primitive society.

The tribes people see the VAST amount of goods the newcomers have, and because they don't understand modern manufacturing, the tribespeople deduct that the newcomers obtained the goods by spiritual means. The tribespeople start ritually imitating the behavior of the colony. They create imitation landing scripts, build fake radios out of coconuts and straw, they use lanterns to signal for imaginary planes... in hopes their gods and ancestors will distribute goods (cargo).

It's pretty similar to the new age belief in psychics and crystals and auras. There's the mindset of 'I don't care HOW it works, as long as it DOES". Statements like "I like to believe there's something more out there" leads me to believe these new-age tribespeople are looking to believe in something regardless of fact. Looking to believe in something for the sole sake of feeling better about themselves.

I call horoscopes the gateway belief for gullibility. It's easy to be taken advantage of when you suspend your disbelief because you want something to believe in.

Radin

Just took a look through some of Radin's "research" and it's pretty cute. I'll buy one of his books to give him a fair shot, but from what I've seen so far I'm not impressed. It screams of a man desperate to believe there's something more to make himself feel better about his place in the universe.

We're on the cutting edge of neural human-machine-interfaces right now, I predict these parapsychologists all coming out of the woodwork when we create the first commercially successful computer operating system controlled by your brain. They'll all say it's an extension of what they've been doing for years, and then they'll try to use unrelated scientific advancements to validate themselves, as this sort of thing is what they meant when they talk about 'psychic phenomena'.

Does Anybody Here Have a Firm Stance?

It's actually something I wanted to talk about for a long time on the forum but I didn't know how superstitious people were and I didn't want to make any unnecessary enemies.

I was wondering how many entrepreneurs were skeptics. Many of us here have seen through the facade that is 'slowlane.' Many of us know that The Secret, The Law Of Attraction, Think And You Will Recieve, and other mantras are humbug designed to make us feel good inside, without actually having any basis in reality.

I wonder how many of us believe in things like ionic bracelets, horoscopes, magnet therapy, and auras?

Does anybody here have a firm stance one way or another?

 

[dknise]

The first thing I want to state is that I LOVE paranormal research. It would make me SO happy if it turned out there were psychics out there. It would give me a childish sense of WONDER and I'd be giddy and excited. I want to feel that way so bad.

We're probably not thaaaat different after all, cause I LOVE paranormal research as well.

Cargo Cult
Are you familiar with the term cargo cult? It's a social/religious phenomenon that occurs under colonial situations where one significantly advanced civilization creates a Connolly on the land of a relatively primitive society.

Unfortunately, every paranormal research field, and every conspiracy has a majority feel of a cargo cult. It often times invalidates the legitimate questions or events that occur in them, which is superrr frustrating.

Radin

Just took a look through some of Radin's "research" and it's pretty cute. I'll buy one of his books to give him a fair shot, but from what I've seen so far I'm not impressed. It screams of a man desperate to believe there's something more to make himself feel better about his place in the universe.

I wouldn't call his research "cute." It's real stuff, with real results, and real repeated replications by third parties around the world.

Joe Rogan recently had immersive journalist Steve Volk on to talk about his book Fringe-ology. His goal was to immerse himself into some of the paranormal / parasychology research in order to debunk most of it. After truly looking into it, he now believes there IS something there in much of the legitimate research, such as Dean Radin's. What's awesome is that Radin and Volk don't sit there and say it's your dead grandmother helping you from the afterlife, they just know how to demonstrate and observe the phenomena, and have the humbleness to state that the source of it is unknown.

It's actually something I wanted to talk about for a long time on the forum but I didn't know how superstitious people were and I didn't want to make any unnecessary enemies.

I've shied away from it because it gets into the touchy religious-spiritual-material realm of discussion that most people can't handle haha. I'd love to find a discussion forum online that's open to it without the Cargo Cult mentality, but attempts at that have been futile.

Does anybody here have a firm stance one way or another?

As a devout atheist, people always wonder why I am so against Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson. I think they're both incredibly dogmatic individuals, with very few questions, and they think they have the answer to everything. That to me, is not science. I have a similar approach to Dean Radin and Steve Volk, in that paranormal stuff really interests me! But I will not claim a firm stance as "knowledge" of the phenomena. I consider my beliefs hypothesis, while I consider my current knowledge base the start point of questions.

Cool chat.

 

[CommonCents]

My friend is a medium and told me specific things that are impossible to guess. I never told her I had 2 siblings who have passed and she brought them up one day, telling me they are around me all the time. She described them accurately and then communicated specific things I would only know w/ them. I'm sure the whole psychic world is full of charlatans but she definitely made me a believer.

 

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[liquidglass]

Alright Mr. Randi, please look into the work of Dean Radin. Making the claim that psychics don't exist because you were once a fake psychic, is like scooping up water from the ocean in your hands, seeing nothing, and claiming there's no whales.

Well even though Dennis said they were separate statements your analogy would be more correct if Dennis had gotten a JOB as a Whale and then said whales didn't exist as a result.


Beyond that I will firmly state I believe in higher states of consciousness and paranormal research so don't take me for a typical naysayer. However, psychics simply do not exist. The only proof you need is where the 'psychic' is in their own life. Take a look at how they live, where they live, and the fact that they still have to stir up business. A legitimate psychic could charge outrageous amounts because everything they say would happen happens in someones life. Instead they read you for what you are, give general statements, and feed off your responses.

Show me a psychic that can tell me details of occurrences in my life without me speaking a word and you'll have my interest.

 

[dknise]

Well even though Dennis said they were separate statements your analogy would be more correct if Dennis had gotten a JOB as a Whale and then said whales didn't exist as a result.

So just because I go and get a job impersonating a surgeon and delivering a botch job that is 90% correct, that means there are no real surgeons in the world?

Beyond that I will firmly state I believe in higher states of consciousness and paranormal research so don't take me for a typical naysayer. However, psychics simply do not exist. The only proof you need is where the 'psychic' is in their own life. Take a look at how they live, where they live, and the fact that they still have to stir up business. A legitimate psychic could charge outrageous amounts because everything they say would happen happens in someones life. Instead they read you for what you are, give general statements, and feed off your responses.

Psychics are like extraterrestrial UFO's, in the sense that 99% of the cases are complete BS. People FAKING a UFO sighting, or faking being a psychic like Dennis, aren't doing the real phenomena any justice by misleading people.

Show me a psychic that can tell me details of occurrences in my life without me speaking a word and you'll have my interest.

Beginning of the book "Extraordinary Knowing," the author talks about calling an oracle over the phone. As the story goes, you simply call her line, tell her your name, and she begins talking with incredible accuracy. As noted by the author, it's about 80% correct, but she's not picking up on any clues to be right. It's on my list to actually contact the author and ask her about that, and even see if I can call her myself. The problem is, when you're a skeptic you are going to come up with an excuse for everything. Everything is a coincidence to you. To me, when everything has to be explained by coincidence, you have a real, observable phen

It's that funny thing that Steve Volk ran into. There's no evidence when you refuse to look at it.

Also, if that last quote is correct, then the only proof that you will accept is through direct experience.

 

[TheBlackLion]

Cold reading =/= psychic abilities.

 

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[DennisD]

The Paranormal came up in another forum (https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/education/46828-whats-your-area-expertise.html#post285818), but I thought it would be more appropriate to continue the discussion here.

SeanyHang asked me this:

" As a video guy, have you gone out "ghost hunting" or whatever? Looking for orbs and all that fun stuff through a camera? I try to remain skeptical with most things (this coming front the guy who believes with all his might that he's going to be a multi-friggen-millionaire) but my parents recently took a small trip with family to Gettysburg and filmed themselves at dinner in what is apparently one of the most haunted restaurant/hotels down there (good marketing whether or not it's actually true if you ask me).. The footage they showed me was ridiculous - Orbs EVERYWHERE... that or the restaurant was one of the dustiest places on earth. "

I went on a ghost hunt 2ce and it was horrible. I never lead an investigation myself but the people I was with were like 'experts' that lead a group. But they were conning us. There was a well known magic trick they used. Here's a video of the trick (this is the sales video for the trick. It's called Ghost Vision by Andrew Mayne) Ghost Vision by Andrew Mayne - YouTube I linked to the part where the trick's being performed.

These guys were cons trying to make a quick buck. Both times. hated it.

I don't really have the patience to do that sort of thing myself. Some people say ghosts can only be caught on camera, some say they can only be seen with the naked eye and won't show up on camera, some say they only appear in mirrors, some say they don't show up in mirrors. The myth changes to suit the needs of the people trying to convince you. If they're the only ones with the camera they'll say they only appear on camera. If they saw a ghost but couldn't capture evidence with a camera, they say the ghosts don't appear on camera.

-----------------------------

David, I think it really comes down to this: Is the person who approached the OP a legit psychic? No. Nobody, out of the 100000s of people I've met, is a legit psychic. I doubt anyone THEY met is a legit psychic.

When you run into a psychic, what are the benefits of ASSUMING they're fake? Time, energy, peace of mind, you're probably not missing out on much. If it turns out they were the real deal, what did you miss out on? A chance to spend your money?

 

[dknise]

David, I think it really comes down to this: Is the person who approached the OP a legit psychic? No. Nobody, out of the 100000s of people I've met, is a legit psychic. I doubt anyone THEY met is a legit psychic.

I definitely agree with that.

When you run into a psychic, what are the benefits of ASSUMING they're fake? Time, energy, peace of mind, you're probably not missing out on much. If it turns out they were the real deal, what did you miss out on? A chance to spend your money?

The greatest psychics in history didn't charge money, ie. Edgar Cayce, and what you gain is a completely changed world view and a new perspective on life.

To anyone who looked into Dean Radin's work and enjoyed it, check out the sleeping prophet Edgar Cayce. He documented over 14,000 of his readings. Although he never remembered any details from his trances, he described in a reading that he was accessing the Akashic records and how it was done. The problem I have with science and "skeptics," is they call bullshit before they even look at the evidence. How is that science? haha

 

[hellokitty]

A lot of these people are just very good with people, and pick up subtle cues and subconsciously make deductions based on your appearance, age, weight, skin color, clothing, whatever.

Ohhh...I see what you mean. Still I wonder what about those people that don't look like they normally do and go to one and still get accurate description of their life, problems, etc as when looking like they would usually do. Just playing the devil's advocate here

Then there are the other kinds of people who KNOW they're lying. This was me

LOL thank you for sharing. You should share some anecdotes of readings and people's reaction to them.

 

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[hellokitty]

Making the claim that psychics don't exist because you were once a fake psychic

I guess in order to find out if you are a believer or not is to experience it for yourself. He was a "fake" psychic and that's why he KNOWS they don't exist. I have not gone to one ever... I heard some impressive ate things about them though. How about your Dknise? How did you start to believe they do exist?

 

[hellokitty]

I always left the caller feeling GREAT about themselves.

I think that is how people start to believe in them because psychics ultimately make their clients feel aweome about themselves OR affirmate a thought, decision, etc about something that is going on on their life, such as "you should quit your job" "your relationship is going to end soon" and so and so.

Cargo Cult

Very interesting....