BabyHelpful wrote:

LOL! That's great, Starwatcher.

I'm not sure how that case panned out. But I can imagine the proceedings going like this:

Astrologer: Your Deep Impact Probe altered the comet's orbit, messing up my horoscopes. I hereby demand one gazillion dollars as restitution for lost income.

NASA Lawyer: We will consider your request, ma'am. But first, I have been authorized to inform you that my client is preparing another Deep Impact probe. However, you should be relieved to know that this one will not be hitting any comets. Instead, this one is going to smash into Uranus.

Astrologer: Oh...Er...Uhm...Never mind then. I am dropping my claim.

I feel you, rosencrantz. I don't think it does anyone any good to attack them as being stupid or irrational or anything like that. If you approach people with respect and an open mind, they are more likely to respond to you the same way--no matter what you are talking about.

My family is seriously New-Agey, and I have a lot of frustration trying to explain to them that they need to separate out things that have genuine potential to work from things that are basically proven to be parlor tricks. I also feel a lot of conflict myself trying to figure out my faith, as I am both a pagan and a skeptic.

LOL again, Starwatcher! Did you see the comments below the article? Someone had posted, "I predict a great disappointment in her future."

I'm not saying that there aren't a million frauds, but there are some real ones out there. The more proper term for one who comverses with the dead is a medium. A telepth can read minds, and an empath can read emotion. Then there's telekinesis, or psychometry, which means one can pick up memories by touching an object.

There is the occasinal person who does have an incredibly rare gift. How to identify them? They are the ones who use their gifts to help out the police department, and not accepting any payment. Real psychics don't charge $9.95 a minute They know they were given these gifts to help others, not themselves.

And there are enough ways for unwitting people to open portals between the worlds. Luckily its not very easy Ley lines exist, at least I think so

BabyHelpful wrote:

I feel you, rosencrantz. I don't think it does anyone any good to attack them as being stupid or irrational or anything like that. If you approach people with respect and an open mind, they are more likely to respond to you the same way--no matter what you are talking about.

True, that. My dad likes to get them into debates to make them justify it. ...the only time I feel it's appropriate to challenge someone on their beliefs as aggresively as he does is racists and misogynists, among other things. Someone says ghosts are real and living in their closet and hogging the ceremonial tobacco? Okay, pass the potatoes.

I'm still working on not humming children's songs when someone tells me they're a dragon, but for the most part I avoid outright deserving a smacking. Probably helps almost all my friends are into *something*.

And, you know, the tarot card reader with the knife. Oy.

Alchemy wrote:

I'm not saying that there aren't a million frauds, but there are some real ones out there.

Where? I would think the draw of a million bucks would be enough to dredge them from the woodwork. Think of how many people they could help with all that money.

The FBI and the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children are both on record saying that to their knowledge no psychic detective has ever aided in solving a missing person case. Police departments who employ them are misled, plain and simple, and are also rare. It is easy to guess whether an abducted person is dead or alive: you have at least a 50% chance of being correct. If dead, they are most likely buried, if buried, most likely in a remote location such as the woods. By using vague statements and educated guesswork, pychic detectives tell police things the police can guess on their own. Selective thinking and confirmation bias--the phenomena by which folks are more likely to remember and acknowledge right answers and predictions that come true and forget those that don't--play a major role in police perceiving PDs as helpful. However, even the most famous psychic detective, Sylivia Browne, when subjected to scrutiny is found to have helped solved exactly zero cases.

To be perfectly clear, I don't believe all supposed psychics are frauds. Frauds are people who are aware that they are perpetrating a con. I think the majority of those selfless psychics who aren't charging honestly believe they have psychic powers, but have never tested them under controlled conditions to see how often they are "right."

i have some zodiac books that are right on, but i get a horoscope in my email daily and its always SO far off.

Babyhelpful on TLC they showed that guy and people that were getting tested trying to get the million bucks ....it was rather interesting:). There was a lady that amazed police with her special trained dog ...she swore either she or the dog was "special" turns out she was a fake and she planted evidence>.<. I don't think anyone has a gift like that if that were the case the million bucks would have been taken. By the way I must be an empath (laughs) ....anyone can do that reading emtion and telling lots about a person is rather simple to do.
Spits

I think we live in a strange place and time where anything is possible. Im not saying I believe either way Im just saying that nobody on the planet knows everything that either has happened or is happening, so maybe a little openmindedness isnt a bad thing.

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By the way I must be an empath (laughs) ....anyone can do that reading emotion and telling lots about a person is rather simple to do.

Right...although I do think that there are people who are definately more gifted than others in that arena.

Cin77, I certainly think openmindedness is a laudable trait, however, so is critical thinking. Leaving the door of your mind unlocked doesn't have to the same as leaving it hanging off the hinges. If there is no evidence or scientific theory supporting an idea, and substantial evidence and theory against it, then I think it's reasonable to make some decisions regarding its verity. There are no documented cases of pyschic abilities. There are lots of trials of people who think they have them being proven wrong. There is no legitimate proposed mechanism for how such abilities might work. There are lots of tested mechanisms for ways that people can be psychologically manipulated into supplying information without realising it and noticing/remembering/believing only those things that support the illusion. At the very least we can say that if psychic abilities actually exist, they are far, far rarer than they are made out to be. They would need to be sufficiently rare to explain why there hasn't been a single proven case. I'm talking one every hundred years. Maybe at that point, prophet is a better word than psychic? Such rarities aren't unknown--there are some genetic disorders that rare, for instance. But I guess that's a bit outside what people mean when they use psychic in the same breath as Ouija board.

i was a wiccan for 14 years. i believe in magic and tarot and all that stuff. When i became a hindu i gave all that stuff up with the exception of my tarot that i read once or twice a year. It is always very accurate for me. i never read for others though.
i will not touch oujia with a ten foot pole. you never know what can manifest from using it. too risky imo.
Ans starwatcher this quote will now be my sig on the cf
I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house, and four people died.