B Williams, can I respond with some respectful questions and a possible explanation? The info revealed to you sounds convincing, but it’s very, very important to look at how you have presented each revelation and how you remember it. Your characterization of the information might not be exactly what happened, and that’s no slam against you personally. You can be sincere about it without necessarily being accurate.
Consider the following questions about your first revelation, for instance.
Did the psychic immediately say “Your only brother has a pin in his leg from an accident years ago” or did she arrive at that nugget in a more roundabout way? If she just sat down and stated that information flat out, that’s pretty damn amazing unless she did some research before you showed up.
Or did she first just mention your brother? Did you affirm that yes, you have a brother? Did she then mention an accident from years ago? Did you nod your head yes? (Nearly everyone has been in some sort of accident.) Did she say it was an injury to his left leg from being struck by a tractor on Uncle Walt’s farm (or whatever the truth is) or did she just take a guess that maybe it involved his legs? (A pretty easy assumption, as many injuries involve the legs.) Did you acknowledge that yes, he had suffered a leg injury by nodding yes, saying anything in response, or even adding to what she offered? Did she then suggest that he has a pin in his leg? (Again, a good guess if she already knows he suffered a serious leg injury.)
You say that you were careful not to reveal anything to her, but does that mean you remained entirely mute and expressionless during the reading? Even if you don’t think you’re providing information, you actually are every time you nod yes or no, seem impressed at what she says, or look unimpressed because she’s wrong. If you actually responded to her queries by saying “Yes, I have a brother” or even offered more information in response to her lead (the way most people do), then she gleaned even more useful material from you. That information helped guide her reading, like a flow chart. She offers one tiny bit of info and if you respond yes, she goes this way. If you respond no, she goes off in the other direction. Before you know it she’s arrived at the amazing information that your only brother has a pin in his leg from an accident years ago.
Also, are those the only three statements she made about your life? Those are the three you remember because they seem like such direct hits. But what else did she say? Did she think for a minute that your brother injured his arm, but then she said it was his leg? Did she say things that weren’t right on, things that didn’t come true? We humans naturally highlight the things that seem remarkable to us and easily forget or explain away the mundane errors. Psychics rely on that, knowing they can toss out a lot of things that generally apply to people and inevitably a few will be true for you. Those are the ones we remember.
If she had told you there was going to be a death “in the family in the extreme near future” and nothing happened, would you remember that as strongly and see it as so convincing that she was a fraud? And look at how that prediction was made. It really isn’t very specific if you think about it. Your family could include distant cousins and in laws and far flung relations, especially if you want to beleive that she was right. Then it’s very likely that someone in that large number of people will die “in the extreme near future.” And what does that mean exactly? A few days, a few weeks, or this year? Even the “extreme near future” is ambiguous. If no one died in the first week, but your cousin died 8 months later, could you say she was right? It depends on how much you want to beleive that she was right and that you had a remarkable, spooky experience.
I’m not suggesting that you intentionally misrepresented anything, rather I’m trying to point out how a lot of a psychic’s skills play right into our natural tendencies when interacting with someone and the way people interpret information. Then when you add a few years distance, our imperfect memories fuzz it all up a bit more and we remember something much more concrete and amazing than what actually happened.
Looking back on it with those questions in mind, do you see it any differently?