Psychic Visit

The_Hurricane

Hi All,

I'm not a believer myself, but a friend of mine who is having a few personal issues with relationships is going to see a psychic this evening and has asked me to accompany her.

I feel such nonsense can be dangerous but I want to keep an open mind - has anyone had a positive experience with a psychic read?

Tropez

Quite a few people have positive experiences with psychics otherwise the "profession" wouldn't exist but that doesn't mean that psychics are legitimate.

JR4

I have had a couple of readings and they were very positive but you do need to be careful they did help me when I was going through a rough time and the lady I saw was recommended to me by a friend but I would say take anything they say with a pitch of salt.

I do think it is a good idea that you are going with her and I hope it goes ok but please do tell her at the end of the day look on it as a bit of fun and don't take it to seriously.

Lagoon

My mother had one many years ago. She was told about a girl that was new to her life, and given two names (one male, one female - one not particularly common).

She had no idea who the new girl was, and didn't recognise either of the names. Weeks later, she discovered she was pregnant with me and considered if I were the girl. When I was born, my grandmother told my mother that the name she'd chosen for me was terrible. My grandmother chose my name, and it was the one the psychic had mentioned. Not long later, her sister brought home a new boyfriend with the other name, and they went on to get married and are still together now.

Like you, I think it's all nonsense and coincidence. My mother didn't go for any particular reason, just to give it a go, but my thoughts are that your friend may receive some comfort from what's said. That, I think, is positive.

On the other hand, if the psychic is terrible and doesn't connect with anything real in your friend's life, I don't think it will cause damage. I'd imagine that nobody goes to their first reading believing in psychics, so I doubt she's going to be damaged by it.

The_Hurricane

I suppose when I say positive, I mean accurate in predicting future events.

Scrapaholic

I've been to a few over the years . Some have been rubbish but one or two have actually told me things that they couldn't have known . I didn't give them clues and they didn't go through a list of names until I recognised one ! Go along not expecting too much . You still have to pay even if you feel it's not been helpful . Some charge quite a lot too . A lot of times it's been a waste of money so I haven't been for a long time .

Lagoon

The_Hurricane wrote: »

I suppose when I say positive, I mean accurate in predicting future events.

I think they will seem to. In my mother's experience, the three things mentioned happened very quickly and to people close to her, so I imagine that was a lucky reading that to her did seem to predict the future, and she firmly believed in that psychic's powers.

However, the 'new girl' thing would be quite a common occurrence. People meet new people a lot.

Any two names could have been picked at random, and at some point in her life I'm sure she would have met significant people with those names.

Psychics are generally very vague, so that what they say WILL be true either in the past or in the future. Any good one, anyway.

Valli

If psychics were any good then they'd all be winning the lottery (etc) every week;)

NAR

If most of what you hear is generalisations then they are probably not really genuine psychics and are what I would call "chancers."
It is only if they mention specifics about your friend or their family, that your friend knows to be correct, are they more likely to be genuine. Even so, would anybody in their right mind make life changing decisions based on what a stranger told them?

Tropez

The_Hurricane wrote: »

I suppose when I say positive, I mean accurate in predicting future events.

Psychics/mentalists use a variety of techniques which involve a number of vague statements and routine, common scenarios in order to convince others of their ability to see into the future. The human mind has been proven to deal poorly with coincidence and is consequently susceptible to this form of illusion.

The key, however, is in the intial cold reading as this forms the basis of trust between the performer and the participant. In cases where a psychic is pre-booked the psychic has the opportunity to investigate the participant's digital paper-trail and find out as much as possible in order to give a better cold reading. In other cases, simple cold reading techniques that play on the inability of the human mind to properly deal with coincidence come into play. Once the performer has apparently correctly ascertained X, Y and Z then credence is given to these predictions of the future.

When the vague event occurs, or enough of an event matches the supposed prediction, the mind puts these events together with what was predicted and the person believes that this was what was predicted.

As a result, you get quite a number of people who do believe that a psychic has predicted their future. Mark Edward, a former performing psychic who has since wrote numerous books and maintains a blog on how fraudulent the industry is, and a huge critic of people like Sylvia Browne, has gone into great detail about how it is all done.

neverdespairgirl

Get your friend to read up about confirmation bias and cold reading before she goes. That way she can cancel the appt. and save herself the money.