Psychics

In My Humble Opinion
21

You need answers to this why? There is no monolithic ‘pyschic’ group which will shout how inaccurate or inauthentic your story is. You’re writing fiction, get fictional. For example

[Fiction] Diogenes has conclusive proof of psychic abilities. But, for our own safety, he labors to convinces us that they are not real. It was years ago, in college. He’d been reading the philosophy of the original Diogenes. It was late. He was tired. But the words drew him on and on. He could feel them sliding around in his half-conscious thoughts like puzzle pieces dancing in a lava lamp. Then, he thought he saw the picture. The pieces clicked. Diogenes had become psychic. That’s how he knows about the invasion. The Sk’loryx have come. Great legions of their warriors have invaded the astral realm. They mean to kill our minds, inhabit our bodies, and take this world for their own. But, they can only attack a mind connected to the astral realm, as the mind of a psychic is. If just a few million of the teeming populace were to find their psychic gifts, it would be the end of the human race. Only an experienced psychic can fight the Sk’lorix. With enough bodies the Sk’loryx could mount a physical attack. To save us, Diogenes must make us believe his lies. For own sake, he must keep us ignorant. Billions of lives depend on it.[/Fiction]

Make it all up! It’s just that easy!

22

Doc, that was too funny! :smiley:

And point well taken. Thanks.

I am now abandoning this thread. Anyone can take it and do what they wish with it. Enjoy!

23

Well heck, I am going to tell you my psychic story anyway. :slight_smile:

When I was about 15, my best friend got a bee in her bonnet about going to visit a psychic. I was then, as I am now, skeptical about psychics. But, you know, when you’re 15, you’re looking for unusual stuff to do.

So she somehow found a psychic and made appointments for us. We weren’t old enough to drive, so we called a taxi service. The taxi driver was a middle-aged guy, who was decidedly scary and spent the ride to the psychic making creepy suggestions to us.

Once at the psychic, she was a kindly lady who looked like someone’s mom. She did our readings together, and from what I remember, most of it was pretty vague, yet accurate enough. I would say she’s like Askia’s grandma, I bet she’s genuinely more empathetic than the average bear. She tape recorded the session and I still have the cassette around here somewhere, although I haven’t listened to it again. One of these days I’ll get around to it, I think it would be a hoot if nothing else.

At the end of the session, she refused to take our money, I don’t think she realized how young we were when we made the appointment. We had to ask to use her phone to call the taxi to come get us. We were worried the same scary taxi driver would be dispatched. She overheard us talking about the creepy driver, then got the whole story from us, and insisted on driving us home herself.

On the way home, we talked with her a little bit about being a psychic (the rest of this paragraph will be from the point of view of what she believed, not what I believe). She believed her psychicness was rooted in her religion, and only gradually realized that her religious experience was different from those around her. She believed her information comes from a heavenly source, and as she become more receptive to it, it became more and more specific. She said she was unsure how much of it was innate, and how much was developed because she was open to the possibility. Yeah, whatever. That’s what I was thinking. But hey, that addresses the question in the OP.

Anyway, I always get a kick out of the end of the story. I have heard people say things along of the line of “If psychics are so psychic, why don’t they win the lottery?” About 10 years after the psychic visit, I was looking at a poster advertising the state lottery that showed Actual Photos of happy and smiling previous winners, and there was my psychic! She won the lottery!

Despite the fact that I am still a non-believer in psychics, I feel strangely protective and fond of My Own Personal Psychic (as I like to think of her), because she was so kind-hearted.

24

Even though the OP has taken his toys and gone home, I still have more to say on this subject.

I believe that most, if not all, “psychics” are just very sensitive people like myself. It’s not hard to pick up on non-verbal cues, or to follow someone’s decisions to their logical conclusions. I completely believe that I could set up shop as a psychic, and be very successful at it. What most “psychics” do is draw information from their client, without the client being aware of it, and feed it back to them. I know things about some people that they’ve never told anyone. I usually just keep it to myself, though, because I don’t want to intrude.

No, I do not believe that there are people that are really psychic, but I do believe that there are people that are extraordinarily empathic, because I be one.

25

Well, not so much abandone as relenquish any control over. I’ll read all your stories and the discussions of any merits, pro or con. So, have at it. My Q in the OP is about as answered as I could hope for I guess, considering the subject matter.

So, apologies for my hissy fit earlier. I was annoyed. But I’ve since picked up a payment on a done job and got contracts signed for two more and a couple of mixed drinks with a collegue, so I’m feeling much more easy going about the rest of this day. Not bad for a rained out day! :slight_smile:

Share and enjoy…

26

She wasn’t too kind hearted to take your money. :wink:

I have no problem believing in something like what trublmakr is describing- that some people may be more sensitive to subtle cues of body language, emotional responses, vocal inflections, etc and that they are able to infer or intuit some things from these cues, possibly on a subconscious level, and that this kind of hyper-perceptiveness in personal interactions might seem to be extraordinary, unexplainable or “psychic” to observers. In fact, even some deliberate frauds are able to train themselves to read certain cues.

I’ve often heard about how experienced law enforcement professionals frequently acquire a “6th sense,” or a sort of cop’s intuition about whether somebody’s lying or hiding something, or conversely, they can tell after five minutes that a suspect had nothing to do with a given crime, etc. I imagine that they are also reading cues and tells that ether consciously or subconciously they simply come to recognize over time.

27

Actually, she was. Did you read the whole post? I agree with you about intuition often being mistaken for psychic ability though. Also, the ability to predict patterns based on someone’s previous behavior or patterns in general events is something that’s often mistaken for psychic ability.

28

About 10 years after the psychic visit, I was looking at a poster advertising the state lottery that showed Actual Photos of happy and smiling previous winners, and there was my psychic! She won the lottery!
[/QUOTE]

Was her name written under her photo, or do you have a perfect photographic memory?

Just wondering.

29

Was her name written under her photo, or do you have a perfect photographic memory?

Just wondering.
[/QUOTE]

It was one of those posters that had photos of several people with their first names and towns written under them, like “Fred, from Riverville.”

I should stress that I don’t think My Personal Psychic won the lottery because she is psychic (which I don’t think she is), but rather that it’s a funny coincidence that she won.

30

Eek, sorry, I hit “reply to post” and the coding for the quote didn’t seem to catch. I didn’t mean to mis-attribute something to Go You Big Red Fire Engine in the post above. The gist of the conversation should read like this:

Me: I saw her picture on a poster.
GYBRFE: Did you recognize the picture, or was her name included?
Me: Her first name was included.

31

A palm and Tarot reader a few doors down from where I used to live went out of business.

Should’ve seen that coming…