Not only no, but F*&^ no. I have a hard enough time claiming my mother after she turned from a Volvo driving, NPR listening, reasonable person into a Bush supporting-Obama bashing-Republicans-are-the-answer-to-everything-from-the-economy-to-civil-rights.
Marry a quack? shudder
If I were sincerely convinced—despite the readings of my natural, built-in Jettboy Automatic Bullshit Detector®—that they had some spiritual gift…maybe. I would need a lot of convincing, though.
Maybe if she gave me the winning Lotto numbers…
He was always skeptical of her so-called powers, to the point that he basically convinced her to be tested. They went through a battery of tests to see if she really had “the sight” and while they were waiting for the results, Daphne revealed that she believed she was psychic because all the “Moon women” were. She went on to explain that growing up with 7 brothers, it was difficult to get any notice at all, but one day her grandmother sat her down and explained that all the Moon women were psychic, and thus, special. Niles realized that even when the tests revealed he was right, that didn’t actually make him, well, right. He decided it was best to let Daphne hang on to her psychic beliefs (and her fond memories of her grandmother) rather than prove she didn’t have any sort of powers at all. IOW, he learned to accept it/tolerate it because he loved her and in the grand scheme of things, it just didn’t seem that important.
Niles was a saint among men. I could never put up with somebody who prattled on about visions or predictions or horoscopes or anything else like that.
Well, considering that I did tarot/i ching readings for side money in my wayward youth I could hardly complain, could I?
I haven’t seen nor heard of the show so possibly I am missing some level of meaning. But really, people believe so many insane things on a regular basis that I can’t see why I would single that one out for the total veto. Everybody’s got to have a hobby.
That’s why I added the 'makes money from it" rider. That and because I was worried about Nite Owl hacking my system.
Oh, that was predictable.
The difference in our world views would be a dealbreaker. But assuming you’re mostly asking about the fact that they profit from their psychic-ness, the relevant question for me is:
From whom are they earning the money?
I think I’ve only watched an episode or so of Medium, but there isn’t she on the police payroll? That wouldn’t bother me. Someone who had set up a tent in the park and was doing palm readings or something would bother me - there, I’d feel they’re taking advantage of people (even if they truly believed it themselves). But the FBI or City Police or University Think Tank/Parapsychology Lab or Fortune 500 Company Future Trends Department can look out for itself. And if the institution is willing to pay for a salaried psychic - good for the psychic.
I hadn’t thought of the university or Fortune 500 possibility; I was mostly thinking of the palm reader/ police option. To me, the latter is the more troublesome, as it involves sucking at the taxpayer teat and quite likely giving false hope to the families of missing persons and in the process impeding legitimate investigations.
As long as it wasn’t something that came up that often, I’d have no problem with it. I’m capable of spending time with and even falling in love with people who have different beliefs than me.
I spent several years dating a guy who was about as intelligent as they get. Really, I don’t think I’ve ever met somebody else so smart. But his dad was a natural medicine doctor- a total quack- and he believed a lot of that stuff. Never caused a problem. We’d have a lively debate about it now and then, but other than that we just chalked it up to different people having different beliefs.
I’d say it depends on how often it impacts our life together.
Me: Let’s go to Nepal on vacation.
Her: No! Terrible things will happen!
That’s a dealbreaker, ladies. Also, if she’s always bringing it up and trying to convince me her powers are real. Otherwise, if it doesn’t negatively impact our daily life, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
If she’s giving me useful tips about the future, then I’d be extra-happy to live with it. For example, the following exchange:
Me: Let’s go to Denny’s tonight.
Her: No! We’ll get terrible diarrhea!
That woman’s a keeper!
Can you prove that? I mean I do believe that the gross majority of psychics are just cold readers…but I do think that humans do have some psychic abilities…I have had dreams of people I’ve later met, and places that would be important to me. There’s also the incident where someone affliated with the Boston Globe had a dream about the eruption of Karatoa. He wrote it down and the Globe published it, before ANYONE else in the world had heard of what had happened.
Yes, there’s a lot of quacks and cranks out there…but even with all that, there’s still some legit stuff that we can’t explain.
Not to derail the main thrust of the OP, but her “job” is not storefront psychic, but rather as an assistant to the District Attorney.
I don’t have the burden of proof, but there isn’t the slightest evidence for psychic ability, or even a good definition of it. Not one single case of a genuine “paranormal” phenomenon has ever been demonstrated to exist under controlled conditions. There is also no possible, theoretical physical mechanism by which the typical kinds of “psychic” claims could occur.
This is not exactly scintillating data. For one thing, it’s purely anecdotal. No one can review your dreams and see exactly what the content was. For another thing, memories of dreams are extremely unreliable, and people tend to unconsciously self-edit those memories as time goes by. When you meet somebody or go to a new place, you subconsciously change your memory f the dream to fit the circumstance. There is also a thing called “self-fulfilling prophecy.” You dream about going to the Grand Canyon. You get the notion that going to the Grand Canyon must be important, so you, sometime in your life, end up going to the Grand Canyon. OMG, the dream totally came true. There’s also plain coincidence. There’s also people just lying about what they dreamed. All of these possibilities are FAR more likely than magic, and you can’t posit magic until you can rule them out.
Cite? I can’t really comment on it without knowing the details.
Like what?
No, I couldn’t be in a relationship with someone who was actively selling themselves as psychic. I’d be fine with someone who thought they occasionally had psychic insights, as long as they weren’t superstitious or emphatic about it. After all, I consider myself a firm skeptic, but have had enough weird coincidences happen to me, that I’m willing to entertain these ideas.
As an example, two years ago I had a very vivid dream in which I saw my stepfather backing up his car directly into mine, crushing the front of my new car. In the dream I was helpless as I watched it all unfold. While I don’t have a lot of memorable dreams or share them with family, this one affected me enough that I called and told my mom about it. A month or so later, I went to visit my parents at their house. As I spoke with my mom in the kitchen, my stepfather left to go to the grocery store. I heard a loud crash, and my mom just happened to be standing near the window and she saw the whole thing happen. The front of my car was completely dented up. I had forgotten the strange dream, but was shocked when it actually came true. Sure, it was probably coincidence, but it is very strange that I dreamt about it. It’s not like this kind of thing happens a lot to me.
I could list a number of other dreams and insights I’ve gotten that seemed to come out of nowhere. So, I empathize with others who might have had similar experiences.
Date, yes. Marry, no. Long-term, compatible personalities and beliefs are very important. I know I couldn’t get along with someone who truly believed in psychic phenomena and made it such a big part of her life that she used it to “help” people.
Religion is a big enough problem, and I side-stepped that issue by marrying a Japanese woman. Religion here is not a central hub of life. Most Japanese believe in general spirituality, but they regard people who are too devout with a little suspicion. My wife is less religious than that even. Works out well since I grew up in a fundamentalist-type household and want to stay away from anything overly religious, particularly Christianity.
With the right prenuptual agreement, I would marry anyone. ANYONE, I tells 'ya!
That’s what casual sex is for. (Presuming the man in question would be equally hot.)
No.
First, I wouldn’t respect her or her beliefs. I don’t want to marry someone I consider a fool. And I’m a bad liar; unless she’s unperceptive as well as a fool she’ll figure out how I feel pretty fast, no matter how polite I am about her beliefs.
Second, I’d consider what she is doing as preying upon the gullible, even if she’s doing so unknowingly.
And third, I have no interest in endangering my interests or safety. She clearly has bad judgement, and bases decisions upon an imaginary ability; I have no desire to end up homeless because she invests all our money in a Nigerian email scam because the Ethereal Ascended Masters or whatever told her it was legit. Put in the position of a wife, someone like this could easily ruin my life without a smidgen of malice in her.
I don’t stick my dick in the crazy, and I’m certainly not putting a ring on the crazy.
I didn’t say she was a storefront psychic. I’ve never actually watched the show, but I assumed she was involved with the Man in some way so she could fight crime with her mutant ghost-seeing abilities.
In other news, I read in USA Today that the show’s moving to CBS and will be on before or after Ghost Whisperer, which I mention mostly because I thought they might be the same show. 