or are they just some con artists or whatever you want to call them... my friend said that he met someone at the place he works at and he told him that he went with hia friend to see a medium at a church for free...and they both sat down and the medium said something about his friend and he was shocked as hell...

Has anyone here been to see a medium? And are they just con-artists, or can they really communicate with the dead?

Mediums are very average.

I personally don't believe in all that... I mean if someone's dead, how the chuff do they talk back to a medium who is talking to them when they're buried 6 feet underground in a coffin or their ashes are scattered somewhere God rest 'em?

I think there's a prize on offer somewhere on the net of a million quid to anyone who can prove that it works. Or any other kind of paranormal stuff. Most of the time, like astrology, people are told/ hear just what they want to hear. Or its so vague, people respond with specifics, adn the medium just works this in.
eg
'have you had someone pass over recently?'
'yes, my Uncle Ron'
'ah, i'm feeling a male presence'

What a load of cobblers.

I call them insects breeding on peoples gulability

Originally posted by oxbeast
I think there's a prize on offer somewhere on the net of a million quid to anyone who can prove that it works. Or any other kind of paranormal stuff. Most of the time, like astrology, people are told/ hear just what they want to hear. Or its so vague, people respond with specifics, adn the medium just works this in.
eg
'have you had someone pass over recently?'
'yes, my Uncle Ron'
'ah, i'm feeling a male presence'

What a load of cobblers.


That'd be James Randi, at www.randi.org who is offering $1M.

And no, mediums are fakes, frauds and liars.


Susie, I see a man, tall dark and handsome

Only on million dollars?
A paltry £544,667.27

Hardly enough to keep you in tea leaves and crystal balls.
No wonder he's not had any takers.

My opinion is that they are not genuine.

Originally posted by Warreng
or are they just some con artists or whatever you want to call them... my friend said that he met someone at the place he works at and he told him that he went with hia friend to see a medium at a church for free...and they both sat down and the medium said something about his friend and he was shocked as hell...

Has anyone here been to see a medium? And are they just con-artists, or can they really communicate with the dead?

It is the same as everything else in life, some are, some are not, nothing is black and white, there are always grey areas.
I beleive some are genuine, but also, I know that some are confidence tricksters, if we all ignored them, they would go away, it is all the gullable people among us who encourage them.

The thing to remember is that everyone is trying to take your money off you in some way, thieves, muggers, con - artists, business people, solicitors, credit card companies, banks, estate agents, women, petrol companies, so, if someone wants your money BEWARE. Sorry, got carried away.!!!:banana: :banana: :banana:

I have not met one yet who I could say...yes that is very freaky I think you really are communicating with the dead.
Thinking about the ones I have met...all bar one were a few bob short and two in particular were an insult to the term con-artist.

Moon

In 1971 I went to a spiritualist church in Sheffield, at this time I was very much a non believer. After the service a guest speaker stood up and began to give messages from the other side,he suddenly singled me out and began to tell me things which he could not possibly have known. He told me that two men would come into my life and gave me the initials R and C. The first would cuase me a lot of heartache but the second would be my soul mate. I had a very unhappy marriage to a Robert but in 1975 I met my husband Christopher and yes I believe he is my soul mate.

Having said this I truly believe there are genuine mediums out there, but I also believe that there are a lot of frauds.

any decent medium doesnt charge for the gift they have been given,and you dont give them any information,if their genuine they should know,i went to one ,and only me and her new what she said was true,the cost nil,but i did buy tea and biccys for 30p :D

Originally posted by dollypeg
In 1971 I went to a spiritualist church in Sheffield, at this time I was very much a non believer. After the service a guest speaker stood up and began to give messages from the other side,he suddenly singled me out and began to tell me things which he could not possibly have known. He told me that two men would come into my life and gave me the initials R and C. The first would cuase me a lot of heartache but the second would be my soul mate. I had a very unhappy marriage to a Robert but in 1975 I met my husband Christopher and yes I believe he is my soul mate.

Having said this I truly believe there are genuine mediums out there, but I also believe that there are a lot of frauds.

Did the medium ONLY say "He told me that two men would come into my life and gave me the initials R and C. The first would cuase me a lot of heartache but the second would be my soul mate.", or was there more? Did they make claims for anyone else, and did they come true (obviously, you cannot verify this.) Were those the medium's exact words? Can you remember his exact words?

People are very good at remembering the "hits", but forgetting the "misses". Particularly if they WANT to believe, and then they may attempt to make the facts fit the predictions, or as they actually are - guesses.

Susie, you know an S, who has been unhappy recently.

The medium actually gave me my late mothers name and also the name Anna Marie, which was the name of my daughter who died when she was two days old. He could not have possibly known either of these things.

As for the two initials R and C, although I cannot quote his actual words after all this time, he basically told me that the R would put at risk something of value. Six months later I married a very violent man who almost killed my two year old son.

When I went to this church I went with someone I had only met a short while before who was grieving for a lost friend.

I can't explain how this medium was able to give me this information, I only know that he did. My experience did not give me any inclanation to start going to seances or anything, in fact I've never been back to the church.

Are fat ones called 'maximums'?

Originally posted by Sam Miguel
Are fat ones called 'maximums'?

:lol:

I went to a medium last year with some girls from work. I was sceptical to say the least and paid little attention to her ramblings about proplems with plumbing and how I had met my soul mate in my then fiance.

I started listening when she started talking about a female relative who had died in tragic circumstances that year. Six months previously my aunt had died suddenly.

I spent the rest of the day trying to explain away how she could have known about that - but couldn't. Then the pipes burst!:o

She wasn't all right though - my fiance turned out to be a rat!

I thought the plural of medium was media...

Top TV "mentalist" :wink: Derren Brown is doing a "live" seance Monday on CH4 in order to prove that mediums are frauds. He'll be using his "mind magic" to really freak out some students... not a difficult task I have to admit :D tempted to watch... or at least tape cos I'll be seeing Harry Potter on Monday night - my ticket is booked anyone else care to join? :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Mosherchik
Top TV "mentalist" :wink: Derren Brown is doing a "live" seance Monday on CH4 in order to prove that mediums are frauds. He'll be using his "mind magic" to really freak out some students... not a difficult task I have to admit :D tempted to watch... or at least tape cos I'll be seeing Harry Potter on Monday night - my ticket is booked anyone else care to join? :thumbsup:

Hope you booked mine and Rtapper's as well ;)

Originally posted by Rich
Hope you booked mine and Rtapper's as well ;)
ARGH! thought you'd already booked yours!!! :shocked: :huh:

Originally posted by dollypeg
The medium actually gave me my late mothers name and also the name Anna Marie, which was the name of my daughter who died when she was two days old. He could not have possibly known either of these things.



I do not intend to be disrespecful here, but are you sure he gave you your mother's name? Did he in fact say something like, "I'm getting a Sue, a Susie or a Susan?", to which you replied "my mother's name was Susan"?

This is the way that every "medium" operates, guessing and relying on the audience to fill in the blanks and misremember.

Susie, not you mother ;)

The medium actually picked me out of the audience by pointing at me and drawing attention to the coat I was wearing (bright yellow). He said he had with him a little girl Anna Marie who was bringing with her an older woman Dolly. He said that the little girl had problems with her head and back, my daughter had hydrochephalus and spina bifida. He also said that they had not met on this side. At no time did he ask me any questions or give any vieled information.

Picking you out specifically, and giving VERY accurate information would probably indicated hot reading (http://www.fact-index.com/h/ho/hot_reading.html).


Susie

Dollypeg,

If it was really real, why has no medium ever been able to prove it scientifically? It should be fairly easy to set up a proper blind trial. Its just like scientific studies of astrology that have found there to be no correlation. If they are not willing to submit to being tested, how can I conclude anything other than that they are faking it?

Humans seem to have some kind of inherent want or need to believe in forces outside their own lives and influence which act on them for the better or worse. Every culture has developed some kind of religious belief. Under Socialism in the USSR religion was suppressed but the state tried to make itself the focus of that belief. Many individuals who reject organised religion merely substitute it with a belief in fairies, aliens, UFOs, crop circles, ghosts, horoscopes.
A couple of writers here have described what they believe to be evidence to support the suggestion that mediums can either tell you things you already know or predict future events. So what? What use is that?

dollypeg says "He said that the little girl had problems with her head and back, my daughter had hydrochephalus and spina bifida." so what benefit accrued to anyone by him telling you, in very substantially less detail, what you already knew.

She also says "He told me that two men would come into my life and gave me the initials R and C. The first would cause me a lot of heartache but the second would be my soul mate. I had a very unhappy marriage to a Robert ..."
So what use was that information? Did dollypeg studiously avoid all contact with any man who had an initial R? No, she married one. And in any case they would be impossible to avoid. Bear in mind that your local tax inspector, Mr Robinson, could cause a lot of heartache by reassessing the last 6 years and demanding back taxes or a previously unknown Richard could crash his car into yours resulting in serious injury. Indeed Richard could cause you heartache by crashing into the car of one of your close friends or relatives so you'd better put them on alert too.

So my answer to the original question is: Mediums are fake but even were they real they can provide no USEFUL information. If anyone has evidence to the contrary, forget James Randi's million dollars but request next week's lottery numbers (I am prepared to provide the stake money. If you give me the numbers, I'll split the winnings 50/50).

Next time one of them gives you some bad news and does it with a smile on his/her face, punch them in the nose.

It's what's called 'striking a happy medium.'
:rolleyes:

Doris Stokes was a very respected Medium. She unfortunatly had a brain tumor which eventually killed her. A symptom of a brain tumor can be that the person "hears voices".

I myself am very sceptical about such things and feel that there anything along these lines works on another persons wanting it to be real.

Mediums tend to throw quite a lot of random things at the recipient, quite quicky. The only things that will be remembered are the things that could vaguely be near the mark.

see this link for a description of how easy being a medium is to fake, and really convince people. And I fully take robh's point about none of the information actually being useful. The only thing people seem to have got out of it is a catharsis, adn maybe a bit of opening up and sharing grief. No-one seems to have been angry when it was revealed that they were tricked.

http://www.randi.org/swift/current/psychic.html

Originally posted by SusieP
Picking you out specifically, and giving VERY accurate information would probably indicated hot reading (http://www.fact-index.com/h/ho/hot_reading.html).


Susie

I don't see how this could have been a hot reading as you suggest for two reasons:

1. I had not discussed anything regarding my mother or my daughter either in the church or wit the person I had gone with.

2. I had only been in Sheffield a month and knew no-one in the church.

How certain can you (objectively) be, with regard to a conversation that took place over 30 years ago? I honestly think you are misremembering.


Susie

Believe what you lke. I know what hapened and what was said. of course I can't give you proof, you don't know me.

I was only attempting to explain things rationally. My apologies for offending you.


Susie, who will give someone a reading, if they PM me.

Not offended, sorry if it sounds as though I was.

It must sound really daft to anyone.

Are mediums fake ... this one's easy peasy ... fake mediums are fake ... and real mediums are real !!!

Well said, I couldn,t agree more.

Other than anecdotal evidence, can anyone provide any proof?


Susie, sceptical

I don't think anyone can really give you concrete proof. It's really a question of believe. Despite my own experience I'm still sceptical about a lot of so called mediums, especally as most of them want money up front for readings. I do agree with you that most of them seem to just generalise and wait for some-one to pick up on a link. They prey on people who have lost a loved one and are vunerable.

Every single one of them is a fraudster.

No exceptions.

The power of suggestion, and probing questions.