Helloooooooooooo…Sylvia, John, and the rest of the psychic community…can’t anybody help in this target rich enviroment?
I mean, with all these abductions, and with all the ‘wanted’ Al Qaeda members, with Bin Laden at the top of the list, can’t any of you generate anything in terms of a lead?
Hey, John Edwards, all those who have crossed over…none of them can tell you anything deeper than a story about a red baseball cap or a bruised knee?
And, when it comes to tracking down abducted children, can’t your psychic powers come through even once?!
How about SDMBers who believe in psychics? Can you shed some light on the whole situation? What is your opinion? None of this recent stuff is psychic-worthy…
…or maybe you can’t play 20 questions with lost children and missing Al Qaeda members, so you can’t make a connection with a family member or friend they lost who had a chest pain and whose name sounds like Dawn…or a D word…like Debbie…or Diane…a D…like Delores…or Dot…or …the drove a car with a D word…or had a pet like a dog…or…
I noticed in one recent abduction case—the one where the girl’s parents were shot and she was taken—police noted that they had received calls from 20 or 30 “psychics.” Thankfully, the police didn’t say they had called the psychics, and gave no indication that they intended to listen to them.
Ah, but y’see you can’t just call up dead folks on the phone. The medium just talks to whoever happens to be floating above the card table at the time. And all of Bin Laden’s dead guys are over in Afghanistan. Duh.
All those rods in the sky make psychic powers very limited right now. Yeah, between the rods, the tinfoil hats and the people stealing ‘energy’ - not to mention the contrails - psychic powers have limited abilities right now.
Quite right, Philster. It’s too bad there isn’t a way to nationally, publicaly shame psychics, who are after all taking money under false pretenses.
Even if there are psychic events (which there may be), it really points out the overall worth and reliability of the paranormal that when the chips are down, it contributes nothing tangible.
There are plenty of good debunking sites on the IN (hmm, can one abbreviate Internet that way?); this book covers its topic quite thoroughly: “The Semiotics of Fortune-Telling”. Among the interesting points is that fortune tellers do not necessarily see themselves as frauds, but as informal therapists.
The psychics had the good sense not to confuse the 9/11 situation, tho. Give 'em some credit.
Excuse me, please. I don’t hate psychics. I don’t hear other people hating psychics. I hear Dopers making fun of what are, in many cases, frauds.
What do you mean by “sports”? Is this the “It’s okay I look at fortune cookies, because I really don’t believe what they say” argument? The old fallback for people who can’t defend their irrational position, and so present it as “fun”?
As for 9/11, I bet there are some “psychics” out there who did take advantage of the situation, but the nationally prominent ones are smart enough to know it would backfire. I think I read that John Edward’s producers were considering having him “contact” victims, but wiser heads prevailed.
Thank God that these frauds did stay away from the 9/11 event or we may have heard John Edward say
“they are saying the one responsible was someone whose name began with an O, can you think of who that is? They say it sounds like your mama. Might even have a dress like hers”.
Not to make light of it but had they had these “psychic nuts” out there, it would have turned into a circus.
It seems it’s rather common apparently, when a crime makes the headlines. Over here, some years ago, a psychic had the misfortune to guess right about the location of a body. Instead of receiving the praises he possibly expected, he was of course subsequently detained by the police (it turned out he wasn’t involved in the crime).
The latest issue of US News and World Report has a sensational special section on hoxes and deception throughout the ages, including blurbs on Sylvia Brown, John Edward, and James Randi.
It also includes info on skeptical magazines, websites and books.
