Ambush Skepticism
Are your gloves off yet? Now how about moving on from Guerrilla Skepticism to more targeted Ambush Skepticism? We certainly have plenty of whack-jobs out there to choose from. These days, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Here’s some ideas and please don’t take them too seriously, I’m merely suggesting possibilities. If you do any of these performance pieces, please get them on camera:
. Pick a local Palmistry shop, make an appointment and find out the psychic’s name, then don’t show up. Later order them a large pizza. If it’s known gypsy establishment, ask for extra garlic.
. Go to the local New Age shop and ask for the free reading that was advertised in the local newspaper. When they ask you for the ad or where you heard about the offer, tell them you had a dream about it happening. Insist that it’s a prediction and must be real since you read of these things happening all the time in a book they have on their shelf.
. Call your local radio shock jock show and tell them you are a medium and will do a seance to bring back the spirit of Tupac Shakur, whom you have received spirit rapping messages from. When you get there, be sure to be wearing a turban or suitable get-up, play the role with a straight face up until you are on the air, then tell the audience and that your “spiritual advisor” is The Amazing Randi. He has advised you to tell the audience to wake up. Dead Rappers don’t rap on anything.
. Call Sylvia Browne collect and ask to make an appointment. When they ask for pre-payment tell them you are her dead ancestor from Latvia and she owes you twenty bucks. Stay with this as long as you can keep them wondering.
. Offer a tarot reading to the Watchtower person once you agree to have them come into your house to discuss Jesus. If they balk, quote Corinthians to them while you flip the cards. Speak “in tongues” as much as possible.
. Get in touch with Chris Moon and ask him for a complete program listing of the radio spooks he has available. Tell him or his operator that your “Frank’s Box” has received a message from Jack Benny who wants to talk to him about re-kindling his feud with Fred Allen. Insist on talking with Chris about this on his next podcast. Remain calm and dead-pan serious
Jack Benny & Fred Allen circa 1945
. Print up a big sign and spend an afternoon offering quick free palm readings next to the guy who sells oranges at your nearest freeway on-ramp. Be sure to wear a “I See Dumb People” tee-shirt. Skeptic tees are good too. Be “professional.” If approached by the police, tell them you are psychic and offer to solve a crime for them.
. Play “Wind Beneath My Wings” on a ghetto blaster while throwing tarot cards at people entering your local shop that sells unicorns, woo or crystals. Smile a lot.
. Go to the psychic fair with your pet cat and ask for a pet reading. Not for the cat – but for his fleas that are on his butt.
.Go to the psychic fair (or “faire” depending upon your neighborhood) and hand out free fortune cookies. Direct each person to open their cookie in front of you and after they have read it, ask them if their fortune doesn’t make total sense for their day and circumstances. In any event, tell them you will give them an additional personality reading for free. Read the fortune, practice your cold-reading skilss then adlib something ridiculous such as: “Tomorrow night, in your ermine robe, you will be whisked by bicycle to Orange, New Jersey, where you will be the judge in a chicken-cleaning contest.” Project authority.
. When you go to any sort of psychic event, confuse them. Offer them nothing: no feedback. If you can get them to talk to you before paying, (not likely, but possible if you can charm them or act really dumb) ask no questions and make them sweat for their money, …then refuse to pay them. When they act outraged, calmly remind them that nothing they said is true and without proof of what they have told you about the future they have taken money under false pretenses. Try and do this in open air situations where plenty of people can see the commotion. Only pay up as a last resort short of police intervention. If you paid out front beforehand, ask for you money back. I have personally seen this happen with bad psychics at psychic fairs. Asking for your money back is something that really pisses them off. Remember: The customer is always right.
I could go on and on.
Is this illegal?
No.
Not any more illegal than what’ s being foisted upon the public every day across the country in countless strip malls and churches. Can you think of dozens of equally visible ways to promote rational thought? If you doubt the fact that you will certainly get yourself noticed and involved in interesting conversations with many of the people passing through any one of these opportunities, think again. This is how the word gest out. Having some skeptical promo material on hand never hurts either. I remember years ago seeing all the attention a group of zealous Bible Belters got when they picketed a huge psychic fair I was working in Orange County. Signs and banners were plentiful and the crowd almost came to fisticuffs when some of the psychics began to see their readings dwindling in number and took to the streets themselves to plea for their own free speech rights. The police were summoned and a news van from the local television station soon arrived to tape the disorderly crowd. It was all most unbecoming of a largely pacifist group of supposedly spiritual gurus. Imagine if a group of skeptics showed up for a tailgate party at one of Chris Moon’s, John Edward’s or VanPraagh’s big sell-out arena shows?
I know we have some very creative minds out there. Let’s have some of your ideas. This is the kind of fast ten-second sidebar fun I would hope to see woven into The Skeptologists format if we ever get anywhere with this show. Setting up outrageous events and delivering surprise pies in the face tossed at any one of the star psychics we could list here are the kind of moments that I live for. Hey Chris Moon: What flavor of pie do you prefer, banana cream or lemon meringue? Imagine James Praagh wiping custard off his smug face? Priceless.
Take aim.
*Thank you Fred Allen for that line.
Set up a booth at a psychic fair and give readings with a Magic 8 ball….When they laugh at you or question your “tools,” proclaim that what they are utilizing is no more effective.
Mark I had no idea you were this funny!
Susan
Setting up outrageous events and delivering surprise pies in the face tossed at any one of the star psychics we could list here are the kind of moments that I live for.
That’s sure to promote rational thinking, elevate the image of skepticism, and make the psychics look like criminals rather than victims.
Jon Ronson’s documentary on David Icke followed some Canadian Green Party activists as they showed up at Icke’s book signing in a library. One of them dressed as a giant lizard, another tossed a pie at Icke, missed, and hit the children’s section. Icke began mocking them.
Jon Ronson tells this story to show how so-called skeptics end up doing crazy, irrational things.
My first sentence was quoting Mark Edward.
“Setting up outrageous events and delivering surprise pies in the face tossed at any one of the star psychics we could list here are the kind of moments that I live for.”
That’s sure to promote rational thinking, elevate the image of skepticism, and make the psychics look like criminals rather than victims.
well, do you have another suggestion?
as for “crazy, irrational things” — i don’t really see how ambushing psychics is either. it’s just a more comical and attention-getting means to an end.
throwing away money on psychics is what’s crazy and irrational.
“I’m getting someone who’s name starts with a K, does that mean something to you? …they say they never really loved you.”
Funny article, but I can’t believe any of these techniques would demonstrate anything except that the “ambush skeptic” is an asshole.
If you’re really advocating this kind of petty harassment, why not go whole hog? Find a psychic’s house and set fire to it. Make threatening phone calls. Key their car. Catch ‘em alone and beat ‘em up. Poison their dog.
Seriously, is this the best one can come up with? Sophomoric pranks?
you left off skin their cat. (like that teen-aged future serial killer in the news)
but seriously, i’m curious why you look so kindly on scam artists otherwise known as psychics.
if anyone deserves petty harassment, it’d be them.
what they really deserve is some jail time.
I think the best thing that could be done is for a skeptic to go underground, become a famous TV psychic/medium, and then proudly announce that the whole thing is a sham unannounced on live television in front of millions of people. It’s hugely involved, I realize, but what can I say, I’m a dreamer.
Randi has beat you to it.
See “The Carlos Affair”, in the 80s in Australia.
It was quite the most elaborate, targeted hoax ever performed upon a credulous audience, with the possible exception of religion. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0hgP3ioAeA
One. Big. No.
That’s all.
No.
Okay No.
So have you got something better than “pranks” to get the word out? Some of you are missing my point. Re-read the post: I clearly wrote
“Here’s some ideas and please don’t take them too seriously, I’m merely suggesting possibilities.”
Maybe we need to be assholes. Maybe we need to “asshole-up” to be able to be heard like the crooks and criminals out there saying they can help you talk to your dead child or keeping your own child from being properly vaccinated. Are these people any less agressive? Who’s the real asshole here? Think about it. If that’s what I have to do to be heard, call me an asshole. I don’t see anybody in ANY skeptic group (or person) getting the kind of media attention that Jenny Mccarthy or the latest flavor of the month psychic gets on Larry King, Oprah or any number of prime time platforms. Right now, we have NONE. Nothing, zip, nada. And what’s worse, we can’t even get season one of a skeptical television show picked up by ANYBODY. We are woefully outnumbered. Do you think anything short of being totally in the peoples face is going to make the sleightest dent in the wall of woo that confronts us? Jeez…. A brief first grab on Google for “psychic news” came up with HUNDREDS of listings, the first one that popped up reads:
“Psychic News from the Psychics and Mediums Network”
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And Podblack writes: “One. Big. No. That’s all. No.
No what?
And Cambias says: “….poison their dog?”
You know what; with so-called skeptics responding to my “suggestions” like that, I can see why there’s no great movement happening. We are doomed to be a bunch of wimps without backbone enough to stand up and do anything but theorize and complain. Meanwhile the shams, cons and fraud goes on and on and on.
How utterly depressing.
Hi Mark,
I’m just curious, do you believe you can exactly duplicate what mediums like Allison DuBois, George Anderson, and Laurie Campbell do using cold reading? If not you, who else can you point me to who can cold read as well as these guys can?
These people relay strongly on editing. What you see on TV is 2 hours live edited down to 40 minutes. Imagine what is thrown out. So when you say as “good as these people” almost anyone with any interest in human psych is going to do as well as or better than these so called psychics.
With a little practice, and a stage presence and the ability to take advantage of any opportunity that crosses your path it can be done. You need to gain the confidence of your audience and your in like Flinn.
An example I have seen Mark Edward do was at a Halloween seance he did for Shermer… Mark was asking for a message from Houdini, the room was totally quiet and then someone’s watch beeped. Mark thanked Houdini for the two beeps and just moved on with his seance. It was just gold.
So “yes” Mark Edward is just as good and better as any of the above mentioned psychics mainly as I have seen him live several times and he is very accurate, the “customer” always seems satisfied with the reading and Mark is not edited as a TV show is.
If you can do what these people can do, head over to Gary Schwartz’s lab. Give him a demonstration and maybe you can smack some god damn sense into him. That’s doing some good!
Gary is well beyond help, I’m afraid…
In my opinion, he is a lost cause, a waste of time & space, a true believer who’s very reason for being rests upon the veritable mountain of wizardly bullshit that he has erected as an ivory tower in which to insulate himself from any whiff of reality.
Yse I can. If you haven’t seen the Penn & Teller’s pilot episode of “Bullshit!”; “Talking to the Dead.” please dig up Season I and watch it. Unfortunately, since I appeared on “Exploring the Unknown” opposite Gary Schwartz, I doubt he would give me the time of day. I’m ready to go up against any psychic and blow them out of the water. Give me a time and a place and if Ican manage it, I’ll be there. Problem is; when I have done this before two things can happen: the true believers just shake their heads and proclaim, “…Poor Mark, he’s a medium of exceptional talent, but he just doen’t want to admit it.” Or the other reaction is just embarrasement on the part of the recipiant of a reading when I burst the bubble for them and tell them I did what I did through purely natural means. People don’t especially like having their belief systems stepped on. On the other hand, I’m perfectly willing to put my “talents,” (whatever they may be) up against John Edward, VanPraagh or Sylvia Browne at any time. Book me on Larry King and I will take them apart. I’m confident I can get a better range of “hits” then the whole lot of them put together. That goes for the latest turd in the bowl, Chris Moon too. And I’ll do it without a broken radio.
I saw you perform in a video a while back, and you were far more convincing than any of these egregious mountebanks!
You are quite the most convincing ‘mentalist’ that I have ever viewed, bar none.
But, were I these aforementioned rogues’ business manager or accountant, I would advise them to avoid you like the plague, as the comparisons would inevitably hurt their incomes, (at least for a while, until the naïve, gullible, and mentally torpid suckers/punters/marks/clients slipped back into their short-term methods to avoid all hard thinking when it comes to the reality that success is hard work, not simply wishing.)
I believe that when one human being confronts another, there is an enormous, unmeasureable amount of communication taking place between the two people. We are, first and foremost, animals.
We retain to greater or lesser degrees or proportions or character depending on the individual, a billion years of communication for survival type ‘hard ware’ evolution in our makeup. Deep within our brains, totally hidden and unquantifiable at present, are undoubtedly millions of functions which were present in order for our evolving being, whatever form it took over the millenia, to survive until this day. Today a person who is sensitive to the body language of the person standing before them may interpret unconsciously any number of things about the person. Do I trust this person. Is this person wanting to do me harm. Is this person above me or below me in the pecking order of strength or intelligence. Could I mate with this person, is this person one of mine, wil this person obey me. Other complex cultural and learned behaviour patterns overlay or qualify our instinctive reactions but the animal is still there. We are the most amazing, and the most dangerous creature now on earth.
Sometimes you think about a person after meeting them and think about first impressions. You may double think the first gut reactions or feelings you have. You may be right, you may be wrong.
Here is an experience I once had. With a small group of friends I walked into a cafe, sat down and examined the menu preparing to order morning tea.
The waitress came over to take our order. Without hesitation, without thinking I said to her that I knew why she was working this job. I said that it was because she was putting an extension on her existing home. She looked at me and asked me if I was a builder. I said no. But I was wearing a dust coat at the time. She then asked if I worked for the council. No again.
She queried how I knew that was why she was in fact working there as a waitress. I had no answer. There are lots of possibilities there. But the main thing was I didn’t consciously think about her, it was a snap thing. A hit. My brain may have calculated at a rapid rate her age, her family possibilities, the need for space, the fact that she may not really have fitted the usual full time permanent waitress ‘type’ and that she must therefore have some ulterior motive for being there. Who knows? But the thing is, my unconscious brain did the work and thru up a hit. I don’t practice psychic stuff, because I don’t believe in it. I just think we have powers of observation and calculation we developed to size up a situation and avoid death and achieve a whole range of behaviours for millions of years when huge animals and creepy crawlies could devour us in one bite. And the functions remain, although our present cultural situation modifies our reactions.And since evolution continues, who knows what things we are losing each generation by some unmeasureable degree. But for the moment there are still lots of folk who love to hunt. Others love to grow their own food. No doubt they all get some sense of accomplishment from taking an active role in their survival instead of being wholly reliant on others. But most of our survival has relied on being part of a tribe, or group. And the relationships within the group are complex and often conflicting while at the same time being necessary for survival. In short I would say that success in any activity is a combination of wishful thinking and hard work. The wishful thinking, or creative inspirational disatisfaction with the status quo is a driving force which lubricates the gears of ‘hard work’ to bring about change. Thinking about other people is therefore not such a bad thing. Psychologists do it all the time, and sometimes make leaps of intuitive thought. Only to have their theories exploded or confirmed in time through trial and measurement. But some things are difficult to measure. You cannot set up trials for stuff that happens spontaneously with people, thats the problem. Thats the magic. Some people have more ‘magic’ about them than do others. Its a cruel fact of life. With some stuff you either have it or you don’t.
That being said Mark; I think you should be a guest on the podcast Skeptiko (skeptiko.com). The host believes that some of the mediums he has done preliminary tests with will blow any cold reader out of the water. Email him Mark.
Good idea.
I would like, nay crave, to see the exceptionally poorly** self-dubbed ‘Skeptiko’ be held to account, for a change.
It seems to me that he has two sets of standards, that are polar opposites:
1) For any bizarre claim that defies all of science, physics, medicine, logic, common sense, evidence, etc.
2) That for which there is copious reproducible evidence.
But he seems to apply them the opposite way around than every reasonable thinking human adult whom I know does…
Bizarre beyond belief.
I find his show far too annoying to do more than listen to fragments of at any one time.
His profound active gullibility for woo, and dismissal of reality annoys me to the point where I fear that at any moment I might do physical harm to both my screen, and my fist.
__________
** Unless it is a ‘joke’ stage name that deliberately means the opposite of the commonly held notion
I’m with those arguing that many of the suggestions would be really counter productive for the skeptical movement as they would just come across as someone being obnoxious rather than someone striking a blow for critical thinking… throwing pies at someone giving a talk is likely to make YOU appear to be a jerk rather than the person on the receiving end.
That said, I think Mark’s call for guerilla action is not a bad idea. Well orchestrated stings or investigations often yield very tangible and compelling results- I’m thinking here of project Alpha or Sense About Science uncovering that 10/10 homeopaths in the UK were promoting homeopathic anti-malaria treatments. These do take time and effort and some people aren’t able to do that and that’s fine but maybe forming skeptic groups that actually take action rather than just meeting to discuss topics would be a good first step.
I think that guerilla skepticism when properly presented can be a very powerful thing. Though to be honest I think this kind of thing is already occurring at the minute. I mean look at shows like Derren Brown’s ‘messiah’ or the blogosphere response to the Singh vs. BCA case.
Skepticism as a movement is growing and as a result those within the movement capable of pulling off the kind of stunts Mark is talking about I personally think will emerge naturally. Rather than requiring a worldwide picketing of psychic fairs…
Just my 2 cents.
I really want to rent a table at a psychic fair. I’d love to simply give out a little booklet on cold reading, and have information about various skeptic groups. But I suppose I would be quickly kicked OUT, because they make money by selling spaces.
Still, I’d like to give readings (and be really good at giving readings) and then give each person a sealed envelope that they should ONLY open when they got home (or bad luck would happen). In it would be information about cold reading and how they were fooled and some good skeptic web sites. That might just work. Now to find a “faire”. Problem is I haven’t a clue how one contacts these people.
I’m actually working on a concealed mic-shirt (suitable for bootlegging shows — but I wouldn’t do anything like that) for some ambushes. I’m trying to see if I can get/put together an inexpensive concealed camera too.
My first targets will be the magnet hucksters I deal with and then some psychics.
They make a very small camcorder called a Flip, it is perfect to conceal in a purse or where ever. I have one and am dying to find a use for it.
Susan
Kitty,
Every town has its psyhic fair, in-crowd or enclave. You just have to go to your local newage shop, act wooish and ask around. Check their message boards, hang out, have some mu tea, etc. I think getting a table would be fairly cheap and a good experience for your (or anyone’s) time and effort. Imagine: you get to watch the colorful workings of a psychic fair, learn from that and then participate undercover. You might even get a following! I have seen people who couldn’t give a decent reading to save their life get lines of people willing to sit down with them just because they were nice people. I’ve met you Kitty, and heard you speak, and you definately fit that model and could pull it off. Do it. The Magic Eight Ball is a classic waiting to be “unveiled” by the right person. Once you pay for your table, it’s nobody’s business but your own what you do with it. You may or may not be invited to return to that particular venue if you don’t produce some cash for them, but as I said, it’s worth it to try and you might actually enjoy the experience. Think of it as paying for a day’s worth or real world “psychic toolboxing.” If we had a crew of “regulars” who would be willing to go out once a month and do this, it would go a long way to get solid skeptical coverage, (maybe we could even put up a website for “Ambush Psychic Faires” one day) put a question in the minds of the uneducated person who attends these fairs and get them to think and perhap lead to some sort of media coverage at some point. There’s plenty of venues out there, trust me. Once you start looking, they are more popular than Starbucks.
I make sure that all the details on my person – the ones they ‘read’ – are in error. I wear an “L” pendant althought the letter L holds no connection to me or any loved one, I take off my wedding ring to see if they ‘psychically’ determine I’m recently separated or divorced, I wear support bracelets like the ones we used to wear for Viet Nam MIAs, etc., etc.
I also eat three pizzas, lots of yogurt, a nice sea bass dinner, and drink a bottle of Ipecac in the parking lot just before going in.
Heh.
LOL!
if you’re a guy, i think you should wear lipstick, too.
To a phone psychic: “I called you the other day; my parasitic twin called you last week. We both got entirely different readings. Wtf?
A friend of mine is an editor for the local paper, albeit, just the want ads. But, she has agreed to see if one of the feature reporters is interested in accompanying me to a psychic fair or local palm reader, psychic, etc., to see how they run their scams.
oooh! very cool!
it’s interesting how very little media attention gets paid to showing up psychics. perhaps it’s BECAUSE their networks make so much money off of the psychic want ads and commercials. (not to mention paranormal crap TV shows)
ambush skepticism reminds me of that story about some guy going up to chip coffey during one of his “gallery style” readings. i believe this was prior to coffey’s appearances on the “paranormal state” farce of a TV show.
anyway, the guy handed chip a sealed envelop and politely asked for chip to tell him what was written on the paper — evidently chip screamed at the guy, “I WILL NOT BE CHALLENGED!”
The question of psychics is actually far more interesting where you accept that some apparently genuine person has experienced some out of body happening, or seen a ghost, or been abducted by aliens or spoken to from the beyond. I will convey a personal experience (as a skeptic) later.
It is after all, a function of the human brain.
So, why do people dream something and then believe later that it actually happened. Some psychiatrists believe it is symptomatic of alzheimers or dementia. Even so, sometimes very young people have experiences which we are as yet unable to adequately explain.
Sometimes it may have been what we have eaten before going to bed. Or the reaction to some legal or illegal drug.
But then, people may be hypnotised into feeling, or seeing, or hearing stuff which aint ‘real’, or is it. If under hypnosis someone hears something, or sees something, or feels something under hypnosis, then for them in their experience it has happened. It may be related to some prior experience in memory.
The difference being that when someone believes they have touched something very hot, they are not actually burned. But they ‘feel’ or experience pain. The hypnotised person is also capable of certain physical performances that would otherwise be beyond their capacity to believe they could achieve whilst in a ‘waking’ state.
People under hypnosis can be assisted in remembering certain events. Police have used hypnosis to assist witnesses to remember details of some event which eludes them whilst ‘awake’.
My point is that the reason that psychics have a business is that deep down most people have no real explanation for the experiences that they know for them are real. Whatever real means.
I know that as far as the testable scientific world is concerned, if some claim cannot be tested or replicated or established by some pretty good argument, it is not included as knowledge.
But the human brain is so complex, so amazing, so impossible to grasp in its entirety, like the universe in its unchartered boundaries.
When you consider the millions of years that the human brain spent, evolving from other life forms, and if you could trace our ancestry back to its earliest forms you would have to admit that the brain contains universal information, and capability, of such complexity, and that this brain or parts of the human brain have links to our distant past, is it little wonder that people who experience some strange flashes of ‘knowledge’ or inspiration gained unexpectedly at moments which cannot be replicated in practiced lead them to believe in the wonder of it all.
To know without knowing you know is given to all living stuff. For instance, a horse likes to eat a variety of vegetation in the wild. But senses through, we imagine, smell or touch or taste that something is not edible beause it might harm them. In the wild, horse communication is constant. Body language, and the establishment of pecking orders, leadership, dominance, all related to survival, are occurring without a spoken language as we understand it. Yet the communication is there, and is complex and difficult for humans to understand. It may be the licking of lips, the ears, the nod of a head, or whinny, all of which have their range of meanings to the horse world.
Humans retain this animal communication in a similar sense. It is established in trials how body language in humans send signals to others. Consciously or unconsciously understood, or misunderstood or rejected consciously or unconsciously.
Our brains are constantly making connections and preparing us for whatever we are required to perform. For instance as we practice riding a horse, eventually our unconscious competence on the horses back blends with the learned responses that the horse stores in its brain, and at times one ‘feels’ a strange uncanny link with the animal as it learns what we want, and learns the task itself, and begins to leap ahead in its anticipation of our command. Particularly when the horse is enjoying the task. Such as cutting.
With humans, much unconscious competence goes on without the practitioner fully understanding its sources or its workings. A person knows, that by allowing things to happen in a state of letting go, that which has been practiced combines with sudden intuition or spontaneous creative action and something new takes place. Actors who play long runs experience this in performance at times. Something new happens on the night. To remember that new moment and try to replicate it, is the challenge. Sometimes it is not repeatable. Maybe the audience has been special on that night.The communal suspension of disbelief occurs and something ‘magical’ happens between audience and actor.
But like these things, the experience of the unexplainable lives with the person. Some try to explain it by making leaps of imaginative and inventive ‘reason’. A true skeptic just lives with the experience without being able to explain it until arriving by acccident or intent upon the answer, or more often, living without an explanation to death.
Now, I relate an experience I had as a child of about four or five years of age (one of my earliest childhood memories). I was alone, down in the gully of our property. I was standing near the south boundary fence and suddenly felt a constriction in my throat and looked up to my right to the crest of the hill where I saw a figure on a horse, galloping at speed, coat flying, down the hill into the gully. There was no noise. The figure disappeared. I was so excited I ran home to tell my mother.
I have no explanation for this ‘vision’. It never occurred again. And has not occurred since in my life.
Many years later I learned that a local land owner had died in that gully from a fall from a bolting horse many years before.
To make any more of it than that would be to make leaps into speculation.
I remember how I felt, and what I ‘saw’. But I know I did not ‘see’ it with my eyes, though my eyes were open and apparently looking.
I belive I ‘experienced’ something. Thats all. What it was or why, I have absolutely no idea. And will never know to my death. I do know that the brain can project stuff under the influence of sickness or drugs. I was not on drugs, neither was I sick at the time. Why I felt a constriction in the throat at the same time, I have no idea. The constriction left me as soon as the ‘vision’ was over. I am a true skeptic so I will wait for a satisfactory explanation which may be tested and replicated.
The only kind of experience which I can replicate is the auto hypnotic trance. This requires a good deal of practice and concentration to achieve. It is common in some cultures in history and exists obviously today as I learned it from an Indian teacher of the Sidha Yoga discipline. I do not subscribe to the religious philosophy of course. But if you care to practice the mechanics of auto hypnosis you can obtain the results for yourself, usually. Some people, as with hypnosis, may find it difficult, others find it very easy, and the bulk of us are somewhere in the middle, having to practice till we achieve the results. Which, are very individual by the way. What part of the brain is accessed, or how it all functions I have no idea. All I know is that by doing certain things consciously, I am able to eventually allow something to occur which is not under my conscious influence and in fact drops out the moment I exercise any conscious recognition of what is happening. Needless to say this is not easy to achieve. Suspension of thought, is not easy for humans in the waking state. Asleep we dream and make connections. The state somewhere in between, induced by hypnosis is one thing, but auto hypnosis is another again. Quite strange in experience if your culture does no introduce it to you as a matter of course. I experienced a similar ‘feeling’ practicing Tai Chi.
Divining for water is another strange experience. As a skeptic I withheld judgement until I could test it for myself. I tried to trick the wires, and disprove what was happening. However, there again, what happened was repeatable in other areas. I do believe there could be a very weak field created (you learn about the creation of electric charges created by liquid moving thru pipes when doing a dangerous goods course) when water moves below the surface through rock. Thats about as far as I would go.
Anyway, enough.
funny article!
maybe skeptics need some infomercials.
i just saw one last night about “californiapsychics.com, only a dollar a minute! the BEST or it’s FREE!!”
I’d love to simply give out a little booklet on cold reading, and have information about various skeptic groups. But I suppose I would be quickly kicked OUT, because they make money by selling spaces.
couldn’t one just go with a few fellow skeptics just as guests, armed with skeptical handouts and flyers, spread out and hand out/leave flyers willy nilly?
To all skeptics: Simply pick some course of action that is reasonable, legal and that you’re comfortable with and do *something* on the order of direct confrontation. I’ve been posting (countering the assholes) at forums for paranormal TV shows now for a year and a half. It may not be much but it’s something. If everyone was active in some way, however small, somewhere that you’re at least visible, then maybe we’ll get some satisfaction. Go team Skeptic!!! :-)
i was googling “psychic fraud” in google’s news section (there is always something new popping up) and ran across the words “psychic fair” in one of the articles.
this place sure seems to cover everything but the beekeeping and zumba (in other happenings/events on that page). i’m not sure where mansfield is (connecticut? mass.? someplace in new england) but check out all of the “uplifting connections” happenings.
what a hoot.
(i’m leaving off their contact info, but go here if you want to see their website, address, phone number etc)
http://www.wickedlocal.com/mansfield/fun/entertainment/arts/x124630425/Out-and-About-June-17-28
and if anyone goes there to ambush, please report back! :)
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Three Powerful Strategies to Maximize Your Health and Longevity led by Bill Finn every second Wednesday of each month. 7 to 9 p.m. at Uplifting Connections, 1355 Pleasant St., Bridgewater.
Psychic Fair second Saturday of every month. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Uplifting Connections, 1355 Pleasant St., Bridgewater. Readings are $1 per minute. Appointments are first-come, first-served on day of fair.
Free monthly health seminars with Noelle Armstrong every third Wednesday of each month. 7 to 8 p.m., Uplifting Connections, 1355 Pleasant St., Bridgewater. Learn how to take charge of your and your family’s health. Topics will vary each month.
What in the Heck Is…? Night every fourth Wednesday of each month. 7 to 8:30 p.m., Uplifting Connections, 1355 Pleasant St., Bridgewater. Free seminar. Learn about whatever topics are on tap.
Animal Communication Development Circle led by Karen Rando. Fourth Saturday of every month, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Bring a picture. Cost is $7.
Spirit Communication Development Circle led by Karen Rando. Every Wednesday, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Uplifting Connections, Bridgewater. Meditation followed by exercises to help develop confidence in intuitive abilities. Cost is $7.
Spirituality Book Club led by Interfaith Minister Kerry Lyn first Sunday of every month. 7 to 8:30 p.m., Uplifting Connections, 1355 Pleasant St., Bridgewater. Donation of $5 to $10 appreciated.
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sadly, i don’t doubt that there are places like this in just about every town/city.
I found tarot card reading pretty fascinating. I even recently picked up a book and started learning it myself.
“Call Sylvia Browne collect and ask to make an appointment. When they ask for pre-payment tell them you are her dead ancestor from Latvia and she owes you twenty bucks. Stay with this as long as you can keep them wondering.”
priceless