Psychics -- phoney -- misleading???

Look at the internet and you will see lots of websites from people claiming to be psychic and being able to talk to dead spirits. One who makes these kinds of claims is Anthon St Maarten – what do other people think? Does anyone believe this guy can talk to dead people???

No but I can talk to rocks and stones…and when I bite an apple I can hear it scream…prove me wrong!

Yeah, and then look at the trivial inanities and inconsequential prattle that dead people generally spout, usually in what seem to be slurred mumblings that only a select few are able to decipher. Of course, “dead spirits” may also refer to an empty liquor bottle…

Sure he can talk to them. But if he says they talk back, there’s an excellent chance that he’s either delusional or dishonest, perhaps a little of both.

'Luthon64

'tis all bullpoo. Anyone with a little bit of people-knowledge and insight to human nature can become a “psychic”.

Trying to track down something substantial that these people have actually done, involving new knowledge unobtainable elsewhere, is like trying to nail jelly to a tree.

What people believe psychics have done, all those quaint entertaining anecdotes, all turn out to be nonsense when investigated.

Just look at the TV series “Medium”, which was based on one of the best known psychics, Alison Dubois, showing dramatic insights into crimes which help the police solve cases every time. Try looking up what the real life character actually achieved.

From Wikipedia:-

“DuBois claims she uses this ability to connect deceased loved ones to the living, and also to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes, such as the Texas Rangers and the Glendale, Arizona police department, and that she used these abilities as a jury consultant.[4] These law enforcement agencies have since either denied any such cooperation happened or stated the tips provided by Dubois were not helpful.”

Since I don’t believe in life after death: No, nobody can talk to dead people. As sad as that may seem, It’s the truth.

So much the more reason to actually talk to your loved ones while they’re alive.

Does that mean that Anthon St Maarten, who lives in South africa, and has a huge website – is a charlatan? He seems to be making a lot of money out of all of this…what do other people think? Is there a way to expose these lies?? |-O

The problem with these sort of claims is very frequently precisely that they cannot even in principle be tested or disproved. :slight_smile:

^^^ This.

Of course they do, they are fully aware that there are a fool born every minute. They take advantage of people who are often very vulnerable emotionally, I have zero respect for these charlatans who so blatantly take advantage of people’s grief and insecurities.

Yes, that’s highly likely.

Yes, that’s also highly probable.

These charlatans don’t transgress any laws and whenever they are challenged, they typically seek refuge in disclaimers that say something like “for entertainment purposes only”. True believers in psychics are impervious to reason and no demonstration is sufficient to get them to doubt their favourite psychic. The best you can do really is to promote scepticism about this stuff and point out the methods (chiefly, hot and cold reading) that these people use. Useful resources in this context are former “psychic” M. Lamar Keene’s book The Psychic Mafia and magician Ian Rowland’s The Full Facts book of Cold Reading. However, you can expect that the true believer will respond along the lines of, “Well, that may be the case with many, but my guy is the Real Deal™!”

'Luthon64

Common sense should really be enough for anyone…

There’s a famous quote out there somewhere about how sadly uncommon common-sense is.

:stuck_out_tongue:

Some of the stuff that the psychic typically wishes us to buy into regarding his conversations with Dead Fred:

  1. Fred’s consciousness has passed from a material state into an immaterial state - Fred’s soul.

  2. His soul has retained (at least some of) the memories contained in his material brain when Fred was still alive. (Many years ago, minor head trauma during an u/17 rugby match resulted in some memory loss, so Fred’s soul - immune to physical abuse - was presumably not the seat of his memories when Fred was still alive. It therefore follows that whichever memories Fred’s soul retains, were uploaded from his brain into his soul (or an intermediate storage device) during - or at some point after - his death).

  3. All souls can communicate with some people, but all people cannot communicate with all souls.

  4. The ability to exploit the mechanism by which the immaterial communicates with the material is innate, cannot be acquired, and cannot - and need not - be explained in detail.

Rigil