What do you think about psychics?

[Chickerdoodle13]

I don't want to start a heated debate or anything here, but I'm curious to hear what you think about psychics. Have you ever been to one? And if so, did they tell you anything that later came true?

There was a psychic on campus the past few days giving free readings for the club fair. I was supposed to be working the club fair, but the table was already covered so for fun I decided to wait on line to see the psychic. The experience really got me thinking.

I believe that people can certainly be more sensitive to things around them. The guy that read my fortune seemed to be very good at reading people and I think that a lot of people who do this for a long time become experts at body language. He mentioned a few things about human nature that sort of hinted at what he was actually doing. He spent quite a while talking to me before he read any tarot cards and was pretty accurate about my personality and interests. Again, I think that has a lot with being able to read a person's body language. I do think people give off energy though, and I know I've been able to read people without actually speaking to them. Sort of like a feeling in your gut about what that person is really like. If I really tried, I could probably piece together a pretty accurate synopsis of who they are, but I don't think this makes me psychic or anything.

When he read my cards he brought up some pretty accurate things about a few people around me, and even had some eerily accurate dates. Then of course he told me some things that would happen in my future, and while I would love for them to happen (They were all quite nice things!) I am pretty skeptic about it.

So I'm interested to hear what you think and what your experiences have been. Also, if you have special abilities, I'd love to hear about those too!

 

[KenK]

I fairly well agree with your assessment. I figure the better ones are also able to judge your subtle reactions to what they say and adjust accordingly without seeming to do so.

Also, I think most of us aren't as unique as we would like to believe which makes the psychic's job much easier.

 

[sj3364]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said they were good at reading people. There is a whole technique called cold reading. When he was chatting you up he was checking out your clothes, your hands, etc. as well as getting clues about you from your conversation. Some psychics actually believe they have this ability some are just intentionally scamming you.

There is something called the Million Dollar Challenge put on by the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) where people who claim to have supernatural abilities apply to be tested. The applicant and the JREF agree on the protocol, how the test will be administer and what constitutes a win. This has been going on for years and no one has won the money.

Here's an article about psychics and the JREF. And if you're really interested, here the Nightline episode where they show psychics being tested. Once the testers take away their cold reading tools, the psychics fail miserably.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Phsycics is stuff you'd be best to stay away from.

 

[ReikiStar]

A good psychic is a gift. We use a woman who is an animal communicator to read our own animals, while I can read other people's animals, it's harder to read your own because of your emotional attachment. She's been SUCH a help in figuring out physical or emotional issues with our animals (almost all are rescues). She does all of her work over the phone so there is no body reading involved. She's amazing and we've used her for at least 10 years.

I've known some talented human psychics (mainly read humans) and they all have a gift of some sort. Are there charlatans out there? Absolutely!

This is a vote for am one, I use them and believe in the ability of extra sensory perception. In fact, every person can and does do it. If they don't like it, are scared or just don't believe, that's fine, but everyone has some psychic ability.

But know this, the future is never written in stone. Any good, honest psychic will tell you that they can only see what is willing to be seen. But energies change, people make different choices and future paths can differ from what they say they saw. That's not a CYA caveat, it's just the truth...things change and no one can truly say they know for absolutely sure on every aspect of a person's future.

 

[chickendude]

I don't think much about them. Nuf said.

 

[Runt Of The Litter]

sorry if this spirals into a long waffle,but am a believer of pyschic ability,though not of the majority of those who ply their trade,ie-make money from it,they are nothing but entertainers and masters of human manipulation-like many hypnotists to.

prior to maternity leave,the sister works/ed with a pyschic,its not his job and he has never made any money out of it-they are both councilors/therapists.
he says he is able to see things from the past,as if peoples presences have left visual prints behind.
like watching a video,an example with this is with their work building-none of the staff and organisation they work for knew the deep history of the building they are in-but upon walking into certain rooms of the building,he was able to mentaly watch different scenes-in one room was something quite shocking, he saw a very old style victorian like fashioned room,but also witnessed twin little children attempting to hide under a big bed with a man attacking them.

in another room,he saw an old lady being nursed in bed.
the sis and other staff began to check out the history behind the building and they viewed what he said with an open mind-neither biased either way.
they had gotten a lot of expert as well as local help with both the building they are in now,and what was there before.

it actualy turned out that in the previous building,back in the victorian times,unfortunately a father had murdered his twin children,and the woman he had seen ill in bed,was the owner of the house at the time,she apparently had had cancer.
both of the rooms that they affected also had a very different air pressure/temperature to the rest of them,the staff and service users had always said they always felt like they were being watched in there but never knew why.

-the pyschic staff had carried out some sort of exorcism [not sure if thats the right term,but cant think of another word]-to make the buildings past residents feel at peace.
have personaly been in the building with sister when no other staff/service users were in and in the rooms in question- had never found any imbalance in the air nor felt threatened so it had clearly worked,had not been told about the history at that point as we were only there to pick up a bag of hers [well she was,had come along with her for a nosey].


he has also gave sister some readings-she hadnt asked for them he had been asked by our passed over relatives.
he has passed on messages from our young mid aged auntie who unexpectedly passed away from something we never knew the cause of,as their part of ireland doesnt require the thingy examination [sorry,forgotten the name of it,where they examine a body in detail for causes],he had no idea who our auntie was and she had gone through the step by step process of what happened that morning which our cousins and uncle had already told us years before.

to prove it wasnt all learned information,our auntie had gone into some detail saying things that only mum ever spoke to our mum about,our grandmother had passed a message on through auntie as well about a neckless she had gave her and where it was lying-mum was amazed at everything he passed on,and so were we as it was all exact and clearly not something anyone can learn.

he can only pass on messages from those that come through to him,he cannot connect to someone-
had asked sis if she coud find out how all our pets were doing but they had not been brought up by our relatives.


its very interesting in own view,as had been slightly cynical against pyschics until he started working there,we have another auntie in ireland who goes to see one there every so often [think she is quite famous in the country?] as she especialy likes to know how her passed over children are doing as they were born profoundly disabled and went away as babies.
this pyschic seems to be very good from what have heard,will have to get her name.

 

[darkmatter]

Psychics--------harmless entertainers at best, malicious scam artists at worse. Pathetic self deluded fools that believe in unprovable events/oracles.

P.S. If I could have predictions guaranteed to be 51% accurate, I could be a billionaire on just that 1%.

 

[Q9]

Quote:
Kinda like Nostradamus - extremely vague stuff that could apply to anything. Show me a psychic that can predict something EXTREMELY specific, and I'll pay more attention. As of now, I'm convinced that most of them are a bunch of hooey.

 

[fuzziebutt]

Quote:
X7