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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:04:06 PM | | In 1924 Scientfic American magazine offered a 10 thousand dollar cash prize to any medium who could come forth and show that they were genuine. The had to meet a set of rules established by Harry Houdini. One by one the most famous psychics and mediums came forth and Houdini exposed them one by one. To my knowledge the prize was never awarded. Is this whole practice fraudulent? What do you think? | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:12:30 PM | Personal opinion, I think some are and some are like any other belief, to include the faith healers on TV evangelists programs. It's about belief. If you believe it to be true then it is.
When receiving a reading, does what is being told to you make sense I think is the question you need to ask when undergoing such a practice.
The bottom line, there are many frauds in all belief systems and the fraud is commited when it is done for money. If the reading/faith healing is free, it is not a fruad. When it is done for money or to raise fund for a person or church, it crosses the line. But as I said, for the most part, all of it about belief and faith.
Just my 2 cents. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:18:41 PM | | Most of us know enough about human nature that we could look at a person and tell them some things that would be true. The thing is, when a person goes to a fortune teller or a faith healer or whatever, they usually have faith in that person to tell them the future, to heal them, etc. So even if some wrong things are said, they would be overlooked. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:23:56 PM | | When/if I have used them in the past, I take it all with a grain of salt. I guess I have a built in bs filter. Quite honestly, I don't use them, I use me to tell my future and how to make decision, for the most part, I have made decent decisions in life. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:27:18 PM |
The bottom line, there are many frauds in all belief systems and the fraud is commited when it is done for money.
I completely agree with drnhb! ( Whoa, who would have thunk it)
Like cheesy televangelist parasites( example Benny Hinn) playing on the hopes of the guillible and desperation of the needy, the Psychic Hotline types and Psychic for money services are contemptable and shameful.
Both groups are claiming to deliver what they simply can not.
I tend to disbelieve non commercial psychics on intellectual principle, rather than out of a deep seated conviction that they are all in league with Satan or something. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:31:39 PM | Steve Martin did an overlooked movie about faith healers called "Leap of Faith". He used alot of the tricks of fortune tellers in it. Incredibly, so-called faith healers and fortune tellers use similar methods.
I would put Benny Hinn in the same boat with Dionne Warwick. Maybe lower than that. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 10:39:52 PM | Well, I have a greater problem with Benny Hinn than someone like "Madam Cleo".
While Madam Cleo and her ilk are certainly contemptable, Benny Hinn actually brings Christianity into disrepute to millions of people and therefore gets my vote for most repulsive. I also hate his white suit and absurd haircut.
It's a toss up though. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/5/2005 11:17:58 PM | Agreed Robert. Sadly, people like Hinn represent Christianity to the world whether we like it or not. I think alot of people do not realize people inside the Church despise these types as well.
Hinn has been exposed many many times by both Christian and secular sources, yet people still flock to him. I don't get it. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 12:44:33 AM | I know people that absolutely love Benny Hinn as well as people who find him disturbing-- all Christians. Personally, I never liked his style.
One thing that confounds me though-- a member of a church I used to belong to was healed of leukemia after one of his assemblies! His doctor confirmed the complete recovery. I think it goes back to the faith issue previously mentioned. But to support my dislike of Hinn's style, when this man wanted to testify to his healing, Hinn's lackies (for lack of a better term) turned him down because it wasn't a highly visible type of healing.
Plus, I've heard Hank Hanegraph mention Hinn negatively in his book "Christianity in Crisis." | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 3:10:54 AM | | Yes, they're all fake...anyone that charges you for "helping" you is only trying to exploit you...yes, i mean EVERYONE. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:50:37 AM | I have to believe that they are not all frauds.
Look at the number of them that are not being used in police work. I am sure they get paid by the police department, yet they seem to be able to help track things down, when the cops are at a loss. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 6:16:30 AM | | I agree with you SeriouslyFunnyLady. There are frauds of course, but then there are the legit mediums who are truly amazing, and if they don't charge too much I would say it only emphasizes the fact that they must charge something as they too have to eat. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 7:23:03 AM | I have to believe that they are not all frauds.
Look at the number of them that are now being used in police work. I am sure they get paid by the police department, yet they seem to be able to help track things down, when the cops are at a loss.
Editing my earlier post ( I really need to proof read better) | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 2:55:55 PM | As I said to RDtoo before there is far more fraud in Christian Evangelical circles motivated by greed than there will ever be in psychic circles...
Yep there are some phoney psychics but there are even phonier Christian Ministers so your point is what RDtoo?
And as I said before if Christianity has any meaning to these folks you would think this would not be the case.... But just look at Pat Robertson LOL the poster child for the Conservative, Fundamentalist Christian? Like he is not netting in the big buck and milking little old ladies for all they are worth?
LOL I can dig up that list of should be defrocked ministers again if need be to make an even stronger point if you like Rdtoo? And then the question could be asked are all Christians hypocritical phonies??
What do you suppose the answer for either question would be?
Cat | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 3:13:02 PM | Are all Mediums frauds? Hmm. I have to say that not all would be frauds. There are those who seek out the powers of the dark side to perform their magic. Some do it knowly and some do it ignorantly. In either case it doesn't matter if you are a Christian. Seeking out Mediums goes against God's law.
Lev9:31
'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God
Isa 8:19 -
When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? {Should they} {consult} the dead on behalf of the living?
I am comfortable waiting on my Lord and creator. I don't need to know anymore than that. Besides why would I want to seek out answers from the Father of Lies?
Peace | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 3:28:56 PM | Seeking out Mediums goes against God's law.
God's law?? No Christianity's Laws... big big difference... God forbid the Christian church does not have full control of the people's minds and money .... 
Cat | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 3:30:44 PM | With all due respect there Cat. Leviticus is in the old testiment...so its not just Christians...Jews and Muslims believe the same thing....all From God.
Peace | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 3:36:39 PM | With all due respect admitone there are other religions besides Christianity, Judaism and Islam... The world is a big place and God is infinite, why do folks like you presume to speak for God and try to fit such a force to your narrow view? Seems a bit presumptuous to me.
Cat | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:00:46 PM | Cecil Adams, world's smartest human looked into the psychics helping police thing and this is the article from The Straight Dope...
If psychics are frauds, why do police keep asking them for help?
09-Feb-2000
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Dear Straight Dope:
I read your column on psychics hired by the military (http://www.straightdope.com/ma ilbag/mpsychicfed.html), and I've also heard of psychics who solve cases for police departments. If they're all such "tall tales" as you call them, why do psychics keep getting called back to help out people like cops when they have no other way of solving crimes? -- Ray in KY
SDSTAFF David replies:
Whoa, what a question! One answer, though somewhat snide, is that police officers who do this should go back and review their classes on basic evidence collection. If they applied the rules of evidence to psychics' claims, they'd stop using the psychics.
But it's not only the fault of the police, though they should probably know better--these psychics often do quite a good job of marketing themselves. Now, they may come back and say, "But we don't take any money to help the police." No, they don't (usually). But they get one thing that is more precious--free advertising. Then, if they so choose, they can use that advertising to their advantage in the business they get paid for. After all, if the local paper runs a story saying that you helped find a missing body, surely you can help a spinster find a husband.
OK, David, but that doesn't explain how they manage to get that article written. I mean, they wouldn't write it if it weren't true, right? Wrong. At least, wrong to a point. The writers of such articles often take things at face value that perhaps they should be a bit more skeptical about. Indeed, cases have been found in which the reporters just basically wrote what they were told, without bothering to do any checking at all.
There are, however, some journalists who remember that skepticism is a virtue (a motto recently adopted by Brill's Content, a media review magazine). Ward Lucas, a reporter who also wrote a chapter in the book Psychic Sleuths ("A Product of the Media: Greta Alexander"), has discussed some of the ways psychics make their predictions.
He noted that such predictions generally fall into five different categories:
Extremely general statements with a wide application
Self-fulfilling prophecies
An occasional wild guess with very specific characteristics
Those that are false but contain enough flexibility that they can be modified or "corrected" when confronted with an objection
Unverifiable statements
Let's look at each of these.
General statements are those like, "The initial 'B' is around the victim's body." In this context, "B" could be brown soil, blue water, branches, blood, brush, the first initial of a county, or any other "B" word you can find in a dictionary.
Many psychics use such statements throughout readings and predictions. For example, you''ll often hear, "I see somebody whose name begins with 'J.'" Hmmm. John, Jack, Jason, Jeff, Julie, Jennifer, Jean, etc. Well, that''s certainly helpful. But many people will go through this at a reading and report, "The psychic knew my ex-husband's name!" No, she didn't. She guessed "J" and you filled in the details. But that's often not the way it's remembered.
Wild guesses, when used in the right proportion, can build credibility. If they're wrong, then they're considered "an occasional failure," and explained away. (I have actually seen a letter to the editor complaining about some coverage of a psychic's prediction that was wrong; the letter writer claimed that the reason she missed some predictions was that it was a problem with the interaction between the physical and non-physical worlds. Uh huh.) If the wild prediction is right, it can make the psychic famous. Or if it's almost close enough, it can work as well, with a helpful media push (see earlier answer on Jeane Dixon's non-prediction of JFK's assassination).
Self-fulfilling prophecies involve the suspension of disbelief of the average person. The person searches for ways to make the prediction come true, rather than noticing that it was false. In one case Lucas examined (dealing with the late Greta Alexander), the psychic had predicted the importance of a "bridge" and a "church." Neither had anything to do with the case or the finding of the body but both were examples of this type of situation. It turned out that there was a bridge off in the distance. There wasn't a church nearby, but there was a church camp about a half-mile to a mile down the road. So these were matched up to the predictions after the body was found. It should be noted especially here that none of these predictions have any significance prior to the discovery of the body.
Rapidly altered prophecies are often used as well. In 1986, this type of prophecy was recorded by the Chicago Tribune when the late Greta Alexander appeared at the Illinois State Fair. She asked a woman in the audience if she had back problems (many people over 30 do suffer some sort of back pain, so it''s a good cold-read guess). The woman replied that she did not, so Alexander shifted gears and said, "Well, my back hurts with you, so watch for kidney and bladder infections."
It works in police cases as well. Alexander did something similar with the case of a boy kidnapped while fishing. She originally said the body would be found "near water." Now, that prediction is vague enough in and of itself (the kidnapping occurred in Kankakee River State Park), but the body wasn't really found all that close to water, so things shifted in her later statements to the press. Alexander said that she heard a "whooshing" noise, which turned out to be a highway. When pressed, she said that the "water" part referred to the start of the crime. This is true, but one hardly needed to be psychic to figure it out, since the boy was abducted while fishing! Yet many press reports gave her credit for a correct prediction here.
Unverifiable statements are another staple of such predictions. To use Alexander again, she has made statements in various cases like: "A man with funny-looking boots walked right past the body during a previous search" and "The man with the boots had a dog." How can that "prediction" be verified? It can't. It might later be retrofit as a rapidly-altered or self-fulfilling prophecy, but standing alone it is meaningless.
In some cases, combinations of these categories are used. For example, in one case, Alexander mentioned "Grabner''s farm." While there was no such person, if circumstances were right, "Grabner" could have been seen to actually mean "Wagner" or "Abner" or some other similar name. In the same vein, if she predicted the man who would find the body has a "crippled hand" and the finder actually had a gimpy leg instead, she would have likely taken credit as only being slightly off. So a wild guess becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
You add up all these techniques and what do you have? A whole lot of nothing that seems to actually work. And, of course, when the psychic can't come up with anything at all, it likely won't make the newspaper. I once saw a small article noting that two psychics had taken police to an abandoned farmhouse, saying a body was there. It wasn't. The psychics weren't even named. You can bet that if there had been anything at all there, they''d have gotten their names in the paper.
The fact here is that no psychic has ever been shown to have helped the police. They do a lot of claiming after the fact, but it's never been backed up with evidence. In fact, when an independent experiment was done some years back to determine if psychics could help, the psychics actually did worse than the control group of students!
So why do the police continue to use psychics? Some don't know better--even police officers can be fooled. Some are hesitant to refuse any aid, no matter how little they think it will actually help. (Imagine if they didn't accept a psychic's help on a high-profile case and the psychic went to the press complaining that she has knowledge that could help but the police won't listen.) Sometimes they are pressured by families who believe the psychics.
Unfortunately, none of these reasons has anything to do with evidence because if they relied solely on evidence, the police would never use a psychic again. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:02:34 PM | How come TV psychics seem so convincing?
18-Nov-2003
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Dear Straight Dope:
How do the self-proclaimed psychics that you see on TV these days seem so convincing when they talk to people's deceased relatives? I understand the art of "cold reading," but some so-called "hits" seem too specific to be lucky guesses. Also, why hasn't a disgruntled ex-employee of these shows ever exposed these frauds? Surely they could make a buck. --Dean Rutherford, Hailey, Idaho
SDSTAFF Dex replies:
A good question, and one that has been discussed with great insight on the Straight Dope Message Board.
What's impressive about psychics is the number of times people go to a reading, or watch one of those "hotline to heaven" shows, and say, "He told us things he couldn't possibly have known." Psychics and their fans say it's evidence of genuine psychic ability. But keep a couple things in mind:
(1) To date there's no scientific proof of the existence of "real" psychics. A stage or TV performance or a personal reading doesn't prove anything. Yes, a psychic can come up with amazingly accurate "hits." But people who are NOT psychics and make no pretense of having psychic powers can do readings and get equally good results.
As an example, Ian Rowland (whom we consulted for this report) is an entertainer who claims no psychic ability. He has given TV demonstrations posing as a tarot reader, an astrologer, a clairvoyant, and a spirit medium (someone who talks to the dead.) He scored just as many hits as the "genuine" psychics even though he openly admits he isn't psychic. He got his impressive results using a technique called cold reading. More on this later.
(2) Demonstrations of psychic ability aren't considered evidence unless they're done under scientifically-controlled conditions – which is a fancy way of saying no fudging, trickery, or cheating is permitted. Psychic readings done in someone's living room, a carnival booth, or a TV studio aren't scientifically controlled. The search for evidence of psychic powers has been going on around the world for over a century – the American Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1885. All that research and effort has failed to produce a single psychic who can demonstrate genuine psychic ability.
So how do entertainers, carnival fortune tellers, tarot readers, and others get those amazing results? Let's correct a few overly facile explanations.
It has nothing to do with the gullibility or stupidity of the subject (the person being read). Even intelligent, perceptive people can be taken in if they don't know how cold readings work, just as they can be fooled by a stage magician's sleight of hand. Psychics do rely on the subject's co-operation, often unwitting.
Some people dismiss readings as nothing but vague generalizations. Sure, psychics can be vague at times. But often they give very specific information – or at least they seem to.
You may have heard that stage psychics read body language and make shrewd, Sherlock Holmes-style deductions about the person being read. Again, that's only a small part of the story. Most deductions are fairly obvious, like noticing a wedding ring or lack thereof.
So how do stage psychics do it? They rely on three main techniques:
(a) Hot readings, where the psychic has secretly obtained advance information about the person being read.
(b) Cold readings, where the psychic has no advance information, but instead shrewdly elicits facts during the reading and plays them back to the subject, to the latter's amazement. This is the most common technique used by entertainers, and we'll spend the most time on it.
(c) TV editing.
OK, let's dig in.
Hot readings
In a hot reading, the psychic has surreptitiously gained information about the subject in advance. There are many ways of doing this, ranging from simple eavesdropping to sophisticated espionage techniques.
The spokespeople for the TV psychics strongly deny using such techniques. Skeptical Inquirer magazine sent people to one well-known TV psychic's show and had them talk about phony deceased relatives while waiting in line. If the psychic had mentioned any of those names or people, it would have been clear evidence of secret intelligence gathering – but he didn't. So we have no evidence that TV psychics use hot reading techniques, and I suspect for most it's a minor part of their a***nal.
Cold readings
Sophisticated intelligence gathering is seldom necessary. Cold reading, the technique used by entertainers who claim no psychic powers, can explain most performances.
Cold reading is kind of interactive psychological game, where you fish for information and give the impression of knowing more than you do. The term "cold" means that the psychic has no advance knowledge.
In this Report, we can only cover the basics of cold reading. With the author's permission, we've taken most of our information from Ian Rowland's book, listed below in the resources section.
The Set-Up. The psychic usually sets up his readings so that everyone has to play by his rules. For example, the psychic announces that he can't always be precise, and he invites the client (the person to whom he is giving the reading) to help him "interpret" what comes up. That sounds plausible, but it's just a way of saying, "I'm going to leave plenty of room for interpretation, to increase my chances of getting a hit."
Often the psychic encourages the subject to have a positive, cooperative attitude, and suggests this will help the success of the reading. The goal is to stop people from asking awkward questions or being too analytical about what's going on. The psychic is also subtly encouraging the client to offer information during the course of the reading, and many people do so, often without realizing it.
Rapid patter and an expressive verbal style, a la Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, are also helpful.
Elements of the Reading. Okay, so with the subject warmed up and conditioned to play by the psychic's rules, what next? The psychic pretends to give one or two bits of potentially significant information. In reality, he doesn't have any information; he's just taking a few stabs and hoping to get lucky.
For example, he might say, "I'm seeing the end of August, maybe the twenty-sixth of August or a date close to that, which I think is significant for you, and a man – let me think – a man related to you, who wears glasses." That sounds very specific, but think how much scope such a statement leaves for interpretation! Almost any date from August 20 to August 31 will do. It could be a birthday, death date, anniversary, vacation, social function, or important decision. It could be significant personally, socially, or professionally, every year or just one particular year. The man could be a husband, partner, brother, relative, friend, colleague, doctor or plumber (the word "related to" is pretty ambiguous, isn't it?). He could be alive or dead, well-known or a distant acquaintance. In short, there are countless ways that the subject might interpret this comment as a hit.
The psychic knows some psychology: People will remember the bits that seem to connect, and forget those that don't. For example, the subject may respond tentatively: "Well, my father's birthday was early August, and he wore glasses . . ." The psychic will focus there and the subject will remember it as a hit, even though "late August" was wrong.
That's just one example. Rowland describes 38 different ways to offer initial statements that seem meaningful, but in fact are just guesses. The initial statements can be related to character or personality, or can pertain to facts and events. Here are a few more examples, using Rowland's terminology.
"Barnum statements" sound specific but really apply to most people, most of the time. For example: "Though you might not always admit it, you have a deep-rooted need for other people's approval, especially when you know you have done something well. You tend to be a bit more honest than many people you meet." Does this sound like you? You probably think it's pretty close. Most people would say the same.
"Rainbow" statements describe personality traits so as to cover all the bases, like this: "You have a very generous and giving nature, and can be very unselfish, although if you're honest about it, there have been times when you've acted in perhaps quite a selfish way."
"Trivia statistics" are statements that are actually more likely to hit than they at first appear. The psychic might say, "I've got the spirit of an elderly lady here, and she's mentioning a box full of old photographs or souvenirs." That sounds specific, but in fact most people have something like this in their homes.
"Fuzzy statements" like the "late August" example already given may sound specific but in fact are wild-ass guesses with plenty of room for interpretation.
These techniques work well during a one-on-one readings but are even more effective before an audience in a theater or TV studio. The psychic might say, "I'm seeing an elderly man, some sort of uniform, possibly military." Even with a small audience, it would be rare if no one could find a connection to "some sort of uniform."
Cold reading isn't just clever guesswork. Psychics can look like they're giving information when in fact they're subtly fishing for it. For example, the psychic says, "I see a car, a blue car," and then prompts for feedback by saying, "now why would that be?" or "is this making sense to you?" It sounds as if the psychic is giving information, but in reality he's trying to extract it. Again, most people could find some connection with a "blue car" at some point in their lives.
Another clever tactic is what Rowland calls the "vanishing negative." For example, the psychic says, "You don't work with children, do you?" The question has been expressed as a negative, so if the subject replies, "Yes, I do," the psychic says, "Yes, I thought so." If the subject replies, ""No, I don't," the psychic says, "Yes, I thought not." It's a hit either way!
In normal conversation, a flat statement can be seen as right or wrong. But in cold readings, the psychic can twist things so that he's always right. Or, at worst, he can find an escape hatch.
Suppose the psychic says, "You have a connection with the name Charles or Charlie?" The subject himself may be called Charles, or know someone by that name. If not, the psychic encourages the subject to think harder. Any connection will do – social or professional, friend or relative, near or far, past or present so it's very likely that the subject will think of a Charles eventually. Or perhaps a sound-alike name like Charlene or Chad. But if not, the psychic can just say, "Well, watch out for that name. Because I think it's going to be significant in the near future." And the psychic has gotten neatly off the hook.
Another example of an escape hatch: The psychic can claim he's right, but the subject doesn't know it! This ruse is often used by so-called "pet psychics." How can the client possibly know what the dog is really thinking?
Using such techniques, the skilled cold-reader can get impressive results. Rowland, for instance, did a cold reading on TV that was deemed "99.5% accurate" – full details are in his book.
TV editing
Cold readings work just fine in live settings. But when the psychic is performing on TV, a whole new realm of manipulation is available. The show you see on your TV is the result of a long process of taping and editing. The production team's task isn't to present a sober scientific account but to produce an entertaining show. Wrong guesses and blind alleys are boring and can be skillfully edited out. Readings that don't go well can disappear in the editing room. Uncooperative people don't appear on the aired program.
In the Skeptical Inquirer article, James Underdown cites some examples. He smuggled a tape recorder into live sessions by a couple of stage psychics and compared the edited versions with the reality. Reality lost.
Underdown says, "Virtually everything you see on TV has been precisely edited for both time and content. . . . The aired tape does not represent how the readings went in the studio. The aired versions show a much more successful account of the reading."
The power of editing is enormous. If the psychic makes twenty guesses and gets three hits, we wouldn't be very impressed. But edit out the 17 wrong guesses and show only the three correct ones, and the viewing audience's estimation of the psychic's ability is likely to rise substantially.
Comments can be edited out of sequence, so that a response to an innocuous statement can appear to be a positive response to a wild guess.
Most people are fairly savvy about "movie magic" but fail to realize that similar editing techniques can be (and are) applied to TV shows. It's made to feel live, but it's not.
In sum, the readings of TV psychics don't look so impressive once you understand the techniques involved. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy the performance, just as you can enjoy a good magician's sleight-of-hand. But you'd do well to maintain your skepticism – and keep one hand on your wallet.
RESOURCES:
We want to give full credit to Ian Rowland's book, The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading (3rd edition, 2002, published in the UK). The book provides, in about 240 pages, "a comprehensive guide to the most persuasive psychological manipulation technique in the world and its application to psychic readings."
The book can be purchased at Ian Rowland's website at www.ianrowland.com.
See Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 27, no. 5 (September-October 2003), pp. 41-44, for a brilliant article by James Underdown, looking specifically at TV psychics John Edward and John Van Praagh | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:10:43 PM | perform their magic
Magic is what Houdini did.
Magick is what spiritualists preform. Just thought you might want to know.
OT: As for frauds, they are everywhere, including in the dating market, for gosh sakes, read some of the profiles on this site and then compare them to their posts. You don't even have to meet them to see it. Unfortuantely this behaviour exists in the human mind, it's part of life, if you get taken by one and take everything said to you as gospel, you will eventually be a victim of it.
My only suggestion to aviod it, install a bs filter in your brain (or just send me the money and I will have one installed for you lol). | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:37:09 PM | Holy long-winded posts! Why is it those who have little to say have to find verbose articles written by others to do it?
I am sure I could find equally long articles about Christian frauds and fakes, but tell me does anyone really read long posts?
Cat | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 4:55:19 PM | | I've never been associated with a medium; I think the nearest thing I got to one was a faith healer. But my mind goes back to the movie ‘Ghost’; this is when it made me think that there was indeed something very interesting in it. In my younger college days I worked on a documentary for media studies, I had to interview a ghost hunter and take a video camera to a haunt; it wasn't at all as scary as I though it would be. I'd love to do something like that again. I guess some mediums will play on it for the money, some have been revealed as fakes and it's a shame because I think there's much that genuine mediums could tell us, I think. | |
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| Are all mediums frauds?
Posted: 9/6/2005 5:22:51 PM | Skypoetone, I have to tend to agree with what you say. There is indeed something very interesting in Medium work. It has been my experience that Mediums are the real thing...genuine and full of good energy....always willing to help. I know of several folks that fall under the category of a medium and they do what they do for the good of humanity while remaining humble in what they ask for in terms of monitary reward.
Most mediums I know do not live in riches and lavish luxury...in fact they sometimes wonder where their next bit of money is coming from. Those that work in truth with Spirit and can say they are a true medium remain strong in their work when excessive money stays out of the way.
The unfortunate factor...is that those who are gifted and popular end up on TV or in the media and the true test of character comes....often times they start out with some sort of gift and the inflated heads that Hollywood gives them...causes their gift to shy away.
RDtoo....in order to understand mediums and understand who is fraudulant in practice and who is genuine, one must study what mediumship is. We all have the inate ability to communicate with Spirit...it is more alive in some then in others....those that choose to recognize it can build it and strengthen it, those that choose to pass it off as the devil's work simply close the door to any relationship with spirit communication.
Each of us share a commonality in that we all listen to intuition...there in lies the communication point with Spirit. Mediums respect other people's religions and the beliefs of others...when you study mediumship and Spiritualism, you see that it is based on the foundation of what all religions are based on...GOD!
I have a muslim friend who truly believes in the abilities of mediums....in his very own culture, he has people in the religious ranks that follow the basics of what a medium is.
Could it be that there are religions out there that are mentioned in this post that have mediumistic type people...just called by a different name????? | |
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