Magick to You.
Are these pictures just a bizarre coincidence? I think not. Magic ruled the shadowy midway at the Annual Hollywood Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park, CA. last weekend. (and continuing Thursday, Oct.28 -31.) Lot's of spooky fun for everybody and the chance for me to do my side-show act with plenty of ballyhoo. The crowds have been large and rowdy, just the way I like it. Lots of palms and tarot cards being read (skeptically, of course – read on) and an opportunity to see with my own eyes close-up and personal just how desperate the psychic market has evolved due to the downturn in the economy. Some of the people I have been working with have grown quite aggressive in their methods. I may have to write in another revised chapter in “PSYCHIC BLUES” to capture just how vehement these so-called “spiritual advisers” have become. It's frightful.
One “gypsy” and her co-horts I witnessed do a pretty good job of telling each sitter a whole slew of generalities (as usual) then, as I overheard over and over for several nights, as if in an psychic after thought, they suddenly stop short and their shtick goes like this:
MADAME X: ” ……Ahh. Hmmmmmmm. I'm seeing something that looks like it may be trouble for you, …but I can't be sure.
SITTER: “Really? Is it bad? What do you see?”
MADAME X: “I don't have the time right now to go into it in detail. But I think I need to pray for you. I will pray for you tonight for assistance.” Give me your name and phone number and I will call you tomorrow morning to tell you more of what I'm seeing and whether or not my prayer for you has worked. You will be home tomorrow morning?”
To which most of the sitters answered with a nervous “….Well, yeah I guess so.” To which the serious looking Madame X then takes the swift opportunity to shove a pad and pen under their noses and admonish them to quickly write down their contact information.
Just Honest Advice...
I told one of the Gypsies that when I'm finished giving my readings (remember this is on a freakin' carnival midway) I don't need to ever see that person again (or want to in most cases). I'm done with them and have given them my best advice, period. She looked at me aghast, as if I had offended her. These people were real Hungarians with their language intact and her shocked look of disdain reminded me of an old “Car 54 Where Are You?” skit where the phony medium flies into a rage when her smarmy husband reluctantly admits to her that he once had a real job. Oh, the shame of it! What would the family think if they knew! As expected, when many of the sitters would leave our tent, these larcenous cronies would snicker and boast about how the “got a live one that time” and generally show their duplicitous greedy sides quite openly to me. After all, …I was one of them. It was enough to make me sick. Such is the world I'm privy to.
So how do I handle these situations?
First, I give damn good readings that simply use sound down-to-earth common sense advice. I frequently remind the sitter that what I'm reading from are just pieces of paper with old medieval archetypes that are common to all people printed on them. Second, I make it my job to poke fun at any bunch of phony crooks that may be listening whenever and however I can. This I do with glee in my own offhand sarcastic manner. I also show each sitter in my own way that what I'm doing is pure entertainment and an all-in-fun-Halloween Trick and Treat with no godliness or spiritual strings attached. Many times, this truthfullness visibly upset the gypsy family who were trying so hard to build a solid client base. Too bad for them.
Their systematic approach to making money off the backs of the forlorn will never change. As long as fear, guilt and denial is allowed to be invoked by total strangers for a quick buck, we are all at these cultural vulture's mercies. And don't think it stops at the carnival midway. This tawdry little world of hay bales and cotton candy is just a microcosm of the real macrocosm we are living through day to day. It's The Golden Age of the Con folks! This gross commercialization of our innermost fears remains the ugly reflection of our deepest lonliness and should show us just how detached and broken we as human beings have become.
I'm afraid it has always been this way. I'm out there doing my best to change the way people think. But this Halloween, amidst the windswept garbage on the streets that hasn't been picked up for weeks because of city budget cuts, the homeless hunkering down for the winter in their cardboard boxes along Hollywood Boulevard and the perennial Christmas carols we can soon expect to hear blaring out at us from every discount store, I'm finding myself increasingly looking into faces of a far bleaker real horror than I have ever seen before.
- “Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.”
Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
- Thanks again to Susan Gerbic for the great photo work. She's incredible. More photos at her Picassa site.
Good post. So what should the skeptic who isn’t in the “trade” supposed to do?
Here’s what you can do: You should make it a point to stop by any of these “events” and heckle the psychic any way you can if you hear them attempting to use these kinds of religious ruses. Listen and judge. I would suggest leaving the shut-eye granny types alone. They usually aren’t looking to get a hook in – but beware of even those innocent looking posers. If they are invoking God or some spiritual diety, ask them how they handle an Atheist. Ask them what are their credentials? And then there is always the classic line I have been asked thousands of times: “If you are really psychic, how come you have to work here to make a living?” You could write a book on the many excuses I have heard for that one.
Usually in these types of social events that are open to the public, there are no rules to keep anyone from looking on or standing in the tent and observing. Take advnatage of that option. If more skeptics took a minute or two to challenge the hard-core crooks, they might think twice about leaving their seedy storefront hideouts. Trust me, they are feeling the pinch, both economically and skeptically. People are by the very fact of having less cash to spend becoming more skeptical and cons like the one I mentioned are probably not as effective as they might have been in the past. BOTTOM LINE: Don’t spoil the fun if it looks like folks are having a lark and joining in the entertianment fun of a carnival fortune teller, but keep your eyes and ears open for those hungry con artists who cross the line. It’s easy to tell by simply paying attention.
Thanks for the comment. I’ve watched some videos on youtube of J. Randi doing the spoon bending trick and still getting fooled by the game even though he told us how it was being done. That gives me a healthy respect for my ability to be fooled. But then again we’re talking about cold reading here instead of object manipulation tricks.
There’s not much difference. Cold reading (or in the case here) God-baiting is merely verbal rather than physical manipulation.
The same sort of thing happens if you enter contests at a store for a “free” trip or some other commercial enticement. What they really want is your contact information so that they can send you an endless stream of advertising, as well as sell your name to other con artists. Whether it is a psychic or a car salesman, I never give out my personal information.
I’ve gripped to store emplyees about how I want the savings from their bonus card but hate giving out my contact info. One employee kept his voice lowered while stating that they have no problem accepting incomplete information or with fields completed in illogical ways that will pass in the system. I do feel bad for those who live at 1313 mockingbird ln or 867-5309. To the earlier comments I often walk at a mall where cart vendors are selling bogus/harmful products (smokeless tobacco) and even a palmist/psychic reader. I’ve wanted to warn people away but know that i’d be kicked out for that. But that is a different situation than an open fair.
You can’t get “kicked out” of a public mall or place (unless you assault somebody oy physically get into a scuffle) You can speak your mind.
Last night, after giving a reading to a reasonable couple, because of my willingness to tell the truth and be real with them, our discussion went on for quite some time about skepticism, mediums and what their take on the whole mess was. I think they were genuinely surprised by my attitude and eveybody came away so much the wiser for it. Wouldn’t it be interesting to recruit a new breed of “psychics” who took things to that common sense level? Wow, what a concept: You mean you just use intuition and cold reading? Hey, I can do that myself! Thank You!
What about the Dept. of Recreation & Parks? Didn’t the City of LA have any objection to the so-called psychics getting the personal information from their customers? That sounds a little creepy to me, and I would have expected a municipal event to have rules preventing that kind of interaction — but maybe I misunderstood the nature of the Halloween festival.
I am working up the courage to go into a Psychic shop in Toluca Lake. I have wondered how they’ve stayed open for so long. The rent must be very expensive, and I just can’t believe that they make enough money on readings to keep the doors open, but they have been there well over 20 years.
Great pictures, you guys!
There is nothing official Wendy. Just some gypsy sitting in a tent telling her stooge that she is going to pray for her and needs her number so she can find out if it worked. Nothing wrong with that (as far as business goes). These people are slimy, trust me I watched them work their sitters.
The way Mark gives readings it is for fun, just a part of the Halloween spirit. That isn’t what these other psychics are doing, they are frauds but playing the “real” angle.
One psychic was freaked out cause there were “scary people there” and she was worried about her 7-year old son seeing them when he got there. The boy was afraid and the father took him home, she asked Mark if she could pull a card to see if he would be traumatized forever or not. She grabbed a card and I don’t know which one it was but she said, “good, he will be alright”. And this was one of the psychics. LOL
The pictures were fun to take.