Psychics and Frauds

[NinjaPuppy]

To me, you're all youngin's.

[_Ice_Ages_14_Aces_]

[ProfWag]

[_Ice_Ages_14_Aces_]

You're welcome, ProfWag....

I strongly agree with your belief that honest psychics don't do such things... Why? Well, why would a honest psychic use cold reading, hot reading, etc. when they can do what they claim to do?????

Personally, I don't believe in any famous psychic, e.g. John Edward, since I have seen enough evidence that they're using clever, rhetorical methods. However, I am open minded to conclude that such psychics exist if I see substantial evidence of it.

The only thing I believe deserves further research are parapsychological studies, especially The Ganzfeld.......

[Arouet]

[craig weiler]

[Craig Browning]

[Arouet]

I'm not sure what's controversial about my statement. Do you disagree that some people may believe they are psychic without actually being psychic? Do you also disagree that if that person told people they were psychic that they would still be considered honest? Do you disagree that some people may be naturally good cold readers and employ that technique without realising it?

The only way my statement could be incorrect would be if it were impossible to be wrong about one's psychic ability.

[craig weiler]

The whole line of questioning is prejudicial. The true skeptical position in this case is that you don't know. The rest is biased skeptical assumptions. (But they are tempered by reasonable conditional statements. There is obvious bias, it's just not of the fanatical variety.)

[Arouet]

The question was what constitutes an "honest" psychic, not what contstitues a "genuine" psychic.

[craig weiler]

I think, Arouet, that before you address such questions you should settle the main one. You really can't go off on these tangents unless you've established for yourself whether psychic ability is real.



If you think it's not real, then all psychics are deluded or frauds. Question resolved.

If you decide that it's real, then you have a different set of questions: How psychic does a person have to be before it is "enough"? How much of a reading is psychic ability and how much is cold reading?

The question you're raising makes no sense from a skeptical point of view, it just looks like a sleazy and biased insult of psychic people. (I don't think you intended that.)

[Arouet]

[ProfWag]

Okay, I'm definitely going to show my skeptical bias with this question so I'll apologize in advance as I really do usually like to be open to things. I'm watching the news right now and they are discussing the missing baby Lisa Irwin and I'm wondering why a psychic hasn't found her yet. To our psychic friends, do you have any ideas or is that not something that psychics do? And this brings me to my next question, if hundreds of psychics offer their help and they all fail (which historically, they will fail to pinpoint a location but I'm sure water will come into the equation), does that make them a fraud or just a bad psychic?

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]