On the local radio station today they had one of those self-proclaimed psychics who would communicate with dead relatives and friends. He was taking a lot of call-ins and telling people things like “Grandma says you can stop looking for her lost item”,“Dad want’s you to follow through with that idea you had”,“Grandpa says he always loved you” etc. etc. The same kind of stuff you hear on that John Edwards show. The callers of course were all amazed by what he knew. Crying and awe followed.
While I believe this to be bunk, like most people, and is general observations made by the guy and suggestive questioning to lead the caller into an agreeable manner my question is this:
Has anyone ever taken the time to learn how to be a good ‘mock’ psychic using these methods, used the methods to convince someone they were pshychic and talking to the dead, only to reveal later that it was all a simple trick?
I would have loved for that pshychic guy to have taken those 10 calls this morning and convinced those people he was receiving messages from the dead, only to at the end of his segment reveal that it was all a trick and go through each call telling how he led each caller down a specific path.
Exactly - Derren Brown is an excellent example of someone who states flatout that he has no psychic ability, but is able to convince people that he is. The man is amazing, and highly entertaining to watch. He had a show called “Messiah” in which he approached four or five “professional” psychics, with the intention of convincing them - the psychics themselves - that he was the real deal. One was a remote reading case, another a healing-by-hands affair, as well as a John Edwards style reading, etc. In every case, he was able to convince the people that he was genuinely gifted with psychic abilities.
And in one case, he was able to “convert” die hard atheists into believers. (There was a disclaimer at the end of the segment that said everyone was “restored” to their original beliefs.)
John Edwards was the Democratic candidate for Vice President in last year’s election, among other things. AFAIK, he never did psychic readings or anything like that.
For some reason my brain keeps seeing the title of this thread as “Mock Physics” - and I keep reading it to see why people are making up their own laws of motion.
