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Shyguy1215
New Member
USA
1 Post |
 Posted - 09/29/2006 : 18:03:15
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Hello,
My name is Travis. I had a falling out with my sister eight years ago. She has been horrible to her family since then, calling us names, etc. I do not give her much thought, but now I see she is claiming to be a "spirit medium", contacting ghosts!!! She was never into this stuff until eight years ago when she knew she could make money off it. If anyone is interested in helping me bring her down a peg, feel free to write me back!!
I transcribed one of her readings..
A woman named Mavis, hoping to connect with her husband.
I transcribed the best I could!
Barb: “Hi Mavis how are you can you hear me alright?”
Mavis: “I can hear you”
Barb: “Okay cause you're really, really light for me so just be as loud as you can okay?
Mavis: “Í sure will”
Barb: “Okay, what is your husband's first name, please?”
Mavis: “Gordon”
Barb: “Alrighty, let's see about Gordon, you also have had a Father Figure passed as well would you understand that?”
Mavis: “A Father Figure?”
Barb: “Yes a father, father-in-law or step-father”
Mavis: “Father”
Barb: “When I was focusing on you, um, I was seeing a father figure, so, he might coming instead okay?”
Mavis: “Okay”
Barb: “He is telling me he lost a lot of weight before he passed, remember that?”
Mavis: “Yes he did”
Barb: “Okay cause I get a-a leaner looking man but he is telling me he is thinner because he lost a lot of weight”
Mavis: “Yes right he did”
Barb: “He is telling me the month coming up here in December was important to him or to you, would you recall that there is a birthday or anniversary?”
Mavis: “No that is when he passed away”
Barb: “Okay, he wants to talk first and I'll ask him to talk to your husband and see if he comes in too”
Mavis: “Okay”
Barb: “Are you aware of the wedding ring that he-that your husband had that getting a wedding ring on a chain”
Mavis: “Yes”
Barb: “Okay, you put it on a chain for awhile”
Mavis: “Yes”
Barb: “Okay, he will bring up that, um, I might be getting two here, so, I am trying to get him to bring it in-bring through your husband here, um, but I think your Dad wants to talk first, hold on, let's see, he is with your mother, your mother passed as well?
Mavis: “Yes she has”
Barb: “Okay cause he is with your Mother, okay, okay, they have, she is a beautiful woman, she had a sweet smile with her and I want to say that smile probably told people that-that maybe they just got the wrong idea about her as if-you know someone stereotype you because your pretty (laugh, Mavis laughs with her), I am getting that type of stereotype with her she is a beautiful lady she showed me red lipstick or lipstick all the time remember her always wearing her lipstick?
Mavis: “Yes she did”
Barb: “I don't think she would have been able to walk out of the house without the lipstick remember that about her?
Mavis: “No, never she always wore her lipstick”
Barb: “She excited (laughs) she comes in as um very excited-both of your parents do, your husband I am sure is perfectly fine ah but let me see if I can talk to him a little bit-your parents want to talk, they are saying new birth in the family, who is the new birth?
Mavis: “My niece?”
Barb: “your niece just had a baby?”
Mavis: “Yes”
Barb: “Okay, I am getting new birth, excited, excited, they want to talk about that.
Mavis: “Huh”
Barb: “Hold on a minute, he's a fly feeling with him, he's got a fun feeling with him remember that about him?”
Mavis: “Yes”
Barb: “I get a very funny kinda, I let you know later just you wait feeling (laughs)
Mavis: “Okay that sounds great!”
Hope you guys can help!
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Travis |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2006 : 18:32:34 [Permalink]
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Welcome to SFN, Shyguy1215!
I'm no expert in this kind of thing, but: Your sister seems pretty good at "cold reading."
First, anyone going to a psychic is likely self-selected for credulity. And they really want the psychic's abilities to be genuine. They usually have strong emotional needs that the psychic can play upon.
If your sister's a psychic, why does she initially have to ask the name of the woman's dead husband?
She sends out careful probes to "prove" she's in contact with the deceased, such as asking about the importance of December: quote:
“He is telling me the month coming up here in December was important to him or to you, would you recall that there is a birthday or anniversary?”
December's the perfect month to ask about; being the holiday season, it's "important" to most people. Note that she got the "birthday or anniversary" guess dead wrong, since it was actually the month the husband died, but your sister was able to recover and make the error into an advantage, due to the credulity of her client. She's also collecting trivial details all the while with every answer her client gives.
That's all I got for now. Looks like the usual tricksy hokum of psychics.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2006 : 19:13:44 [Permalink]
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Hmm. Not too shabby for a small-timer. Not in van Praagh's class, of course, but never the less.....
It;s straight-out cold-reading, and here's a couple more links:
One of my own... and the Skeptic's Dictionary.
It is important to know exactly what she does and how she does it. And remember, many of these so-called 'psychics' actually believe that they have the 'gift.'
And welcome to SFN!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2006 : 20:03:16 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by filthy
Hmm. Not too shabby for a small-timer. Not in van Praagh's class, of course, but never the less.....
It;s straight-out cold-reading, and here's a couple more links:
One of my own... and the Skeptic's Dictionary.
It is important to know exactly what she does and how she does it. And remember, many of these so-called 'psychics' actually believe that they have the 'gift.'
And welcome to SFN!
Yours was a fine article, filthy! I hadn't read it earlier. I liked it so much, I just now added it as an external link from the Wikipedia article on "Cold Reading."
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2006 : 03:55:41 [Permalink]
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Thanks, 'mooner. It was fun to write and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The way to beat these mediums at their own game is to simply pay attention and when an opportunity persents itselt, strike back. F'instance when the reader trys to skip around one of his more blatent misses, and there will be a lot of them at any, given reading, interrupt his rythem by asking to go back to the question/miss and elaborate on it. This is the last thing he wants to do because to be effective, he has to move the reading along quickly. The longer he is kept stuck there, the more obvious his grift becomes and thus, you have taken away his control of the 'reading.' And each time he squirms out of it, give him a minute or two, then go right back to the miss. Or pounce upon another.
I picked that up from a friend whose girlfriend was seeing one of our local psyhics. He worked it at one of her readings, and got told to leave. Happy ending: the girlfriend was smart enough to catch on and never went back. I was a little suprised that he'd gotten in with her in the first place, but then, our locals too, are not in van Praagh's class. |
"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2006 : 18:24:37 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
Yours was a fine article, filthy! I hadn't read it earlier. I liked it so much, I just now added it as an external link from the Wikipedia article on "Cold Reading."
There's a good reason why Skeptic Friends Network decided to put up Filthy's writing as a featured article about cold reading:
It's good enough. No, it's actually an excellent article.
It should be required reading.
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