Here is a classic investigation into James Van Praagh, showing exactly what he is, what he does, and how he does it
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4 comments:
What a typical display of 'psychic mediumship! Van Praagh would seem so fumbling if it wasn't for the erratic hit and miss (mostly miss) that comprises cold-reading. Our conclusions about its reality must apparently be tempered by the ethereal - general feeling - vague picture sort of messages that mediums say they receive. Apparently, psychics ability to receive messages from the dead MUST be fuzzy enough to mirror cold-reading and the other disgusting tactics described in that vid. Yet occasionally they forward quick messages of a very distinct few words until pressed for more meaningful and accurate detail, then without missing a beat they go straight back to the old:
"I'm only getting general feelings and pictures."
"It doesn't work like that! They have to reveal things to me before I can tell you."
It's really strange how our dead loved-ones give us rather clear messages about incredibly irrelevant things like a name that may be known to someone in the family or more likely just what letter that name begins with.
I don't understand how anyone, and I do mean anyone can see this kind of stuff and not immediately suspect that the 'psychic medium' is just a fraud using an embarrassing, unconvincing method to try to fool people.
So insulting to the person they are reading and so insulting to the person's late relative.
Thanks Jon!
Woody
I don't think that every medium out there is cold reading someone. How can someone cold read specific stuff like what another person's wedding dress looked like, what song someone used to sing as they got ready for the day or what was said in private between two people? I was witness to a situation wherein someone I know who had no intention of leaving the house to have a session with a medium and gave the medium zero information on who she wanted to connect with actually sat down with one at a street fair and the medium told this woman where her Mom left an important item for her (it turned out to be right and it was very specific--it was something like under the yellow box in the corner of the closet where all of her work files were kept or something), what song her Mom liked to sing to her as a child when she was feeling sad (it was an extremely obscure song from the 1950's--the medium knew the words and how the tune went) and several other very specific pieces of information that the medium didn't have time to study or look into and wouldn't have been able to glean from the Internet if they had). The medium literally told this woman that her Mom sang her the salerno butter cookie song when she was sad. Not too many people know that song, let along could pull it from thin air. There are about 1,000 songs to choose from for each year of the 1950's, so even if this person somehow cold read the fact that the woman in front of them had a Mom that was alive in the 1950's, they'd have a hell of a lot of songs to pick from and a hell of a lot of specific reasons to pick from for the Mom to be singing that song. The Salerno butter cookie song doesn't exactly lend itself to being sung to a sad child. That connection doesn't make any sense expect to this woman's very specific situation. These are just a couple of examples of crazy accurate stuff that I witnessed being said during this reading and I know the woman who sat down with the medium. She absolutely did not give the medium in question any forewarning whatsoever that she was coming in as even she didn't know she would be. That's either the real deal or cold reading so good that it's actually psychic. Like I said, I witnessed all of this first hand. The medium had zero forewarning that this person was going to come see her and no idea who she wanted to connect with when she came in. I'm pretty sure that the medium didn't google every fact about every person the woman had ever known in the intervening 30 seconds between the woman sitting down and the reading starting, the whole time of which was spent face to face. There was maybe thirty seconds of face to face talking ("thanks for waiting," "my last client and I were just wrapping up," etc) before the medium told the woman in question exactly who was there to speak to her and tons of specific details that just wouldn't be available on Google. I'm not offering this up as concrete proof of anything except that your theory about every single medium out there cold reading being a tad hard to swallow and in my experience, totally bogus.
And yes, I do think James Van Praagh was very likely cold reading throughout this session. Yikes.
Ok that is a long long post for me to reply to on here, and there is a good chance you wont see my reply, so please join the BadPsychics forum at http://moh2005.proboards.com and I will answer any and all questions is much more detail.
"I don't think that every medium out there is cold reading someone."
No they dont, many will hot read, prior research.
"How can someone cold read specific stuff like what another person's wedding dress looked like, what song someone used to sing as they got ready for the day or what was said in private between two people?"
But this is exactly what cold reading does, dont think of cold reading as one specific technique, it is actually more of a blanket term to describe the art of reading someone you have not seen before nor researched. And yes they can tell you those exact things!
Everything else you described sounds exactly like cold reading, and I have seen first hand exactly such things like that being told, and by mentalists, admitted fakes, hell I have even given pretty damn accurate readings myself.
"I'm not offering this up as concrete proof of anything except that your theory about every single medium out there cold reading being a tad hard to swallow and in my experience, totally bogus."
Again never said all mediums cold read, I state that it is statistically improbable for mediums to be communicating with the dead, and in over 200 face to face readings and over 2500 readings of others analysed, I have been able to see through and expose the techniques every time, from world famous mediums, to end of the peer acts.
You think I am being a tad hard, and that my theory is hard to swallow. Just reread that and consider this.
You are saying that me a man who doesn't believe is wrong, and that someone who claims magical powers, that break the laws of physics, is right even though they offer no solid credible proof.
Do you honestly think a psychic is more credible in any way than someone who calls them a fraud, when the fact is no psychic in history has ever pass a single CREDIBLE scientific test, and history has shown that psychics/mediums fail 100% of the time when the chance to cheat is removed in such credible tests.
Still think my opinion is hard to swallow? My opinion has the entire credible scientific community on its side, It has ever respected magician IN THE WORLD, saying I am right and mediums/psychics are liars.
I look forward to seeing you on the forum, I guarantee you 100%, if you show me a reading you believe is real, I can show you step by step how they did it, and if I cant, I will close this site down and give it to you.
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