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How do psychic mediums know stuff about you

AmyW said:
Hello All,

I have been speaking with a medium who said she has a message to give me from my mum. I don't know how she knew my mum has passed away.
I am a skeptic but how can they know things about you when they haven't met you?
She also said that she is an evidential medium and can give me evidence by giving me a message that only me and my mum would know.... pretty freaked out.
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1. Why did you go to this medium?
2. At what point did she tell you she had a message from your dead mother-Near the beginning, after a casual conversation, or at the second or third meeting?
3. How much have you paid her(if anything)?
 
AmyW said:
Do you think some mediums might have a mental illness as some claim to hear the dead.... is this delusional thinking? Hearing voices like a schizophrenic?
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Yes, some mediums are mentally ill:

Bishop moved to Denmark from Swindon in southwest England in 2000. He is described as being “active in the spiritual environment in Denmark”, which helped land him spots on several television shows. Graham claimed to be able to communicate with spirits by going into a trance and being possessed by someone who Graham calls ‘Dr Karl’. According to Bishop, Dr Karl is a German physician who was born in 1848 and began performing operations on people at the tender age of 12. Bishop claims that Dr Karl is his “main spirit guide” who uses Bishop’s body to help “heal” people in need.
Father sentenced to eleven years in prison and deportation for assault on twin daughters (CPH Post, Nov. 20, 2013)
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AmyW said:
Thanks people. Do some psychics truly believe they have powers? It's utter BS
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They sometimes do - A thread I started last year:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=330756

I didn't get into this in that thread, but a friend of ours has a son with autism. He and his family believe that he has healing powers - he lays his hands on a suffering individual and prays and they will be cured.

How or why this belief came about is unknown to me. They aren't asking for money but from my first hand observation they believe in the "healing" abilities of their son.

Word is that he was devastated by Al's death.
 
I am a skeptic I can assure you. I am trying to 're learn things which I have been brought up with. I used to be a Christian, goodness knows that made me very irrational and I hate all religion. I then went to see a medium (it's a long story). I am trying to lead a rational life and grow apart from all things spiritual, religion and spirituality is delusional but when someone comes along and seems to know stuff it scares me. I am trying to 're educate myself realisiticly
 
Thanks Dave. It's a long story but I am an ex Christian. So I used to be spiritual, went to see a psychic who said she can communicate with God and that frightened me.... religion has been a really bad thing for me in my life (I have mild OCD) and so I decided to leave it all behind but a medium who claims she can speak to God scares me more ... I like science and rationality, religion has only caused me distress. I am trying to heal from past brain washing
 
No the psychic only knew my first name :-(
 
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AmyW said:
Thank you :-)
This is what the medium emailed to me .... Can this really be true -

Hi Amy ,*

Every reading I give to a client has evidential information . I know one thing for sure . When my mom passed I asked my friend who is a medium to connect with her on several occasions.. I asked my mom to give her specific info through my friend . My mom would not give her the info . Although there was a lot of evidential info that only me and my mom knew . What I am trying to say is you may not get the exact memory you are asking for , but there definitely will be evidential message so you will know it is her .l can guarantee that there will be evidence . If for some reason after 10 minutes I would give you a full refund . Sorry , but I will not give you a reading before payment . Your mom knows we need evidence when I start the reading and that’s what she will do . I am like a telephone.. I listen to what spirit says and I repeat it to you . Think about it and if you want a phone reading pay online on my website*judithannepsychiedium.com*
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Was your mother's obituary in the newspaper? Was there a funeral or memorial service? Folks who pass away end up on searchable lists.

This is scam.

Sorry about your mother but you don't need this right now.
 
AmyW said:
Thanks guys, I am a definite skeptic but these kinds of emails freak me out... like how did she know.
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The answer is always this: she didn't.

If you watch these guys operate in front of a TV audience, for instance, they throw very vague allusions to various problems and only mention a name's first letter, often M. Inevitably some dupe in the audience finds a match, and the con continues from there.

But if you watch them further, not only will you see those vague predictions and cold reading, but also the failures that they quickly gloss over and move on from. They want people to focus on the forced "hits".
 
JoeMorgue said:
It's times like this that I feel that Penn Jillett's words from the pilot episode of Penn & Teller's B.S. where they discussed the whole "Talking to dead" psychic thing are appropriate. (Language cleaned up.)
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I miss that show. Penn and Teller should be made honorary UNESCO Heritage persons.
 
Shrinker said:
She didn’t say your mom died. Read it again carefully. Imagine you mom was still alive. How would you interpret what she said? You’d probably just take it as an example scenario and barely notice it at all.
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This is the heart of the matter.

You heard what you wanted to hear, not what she actually said. That is how a cold reading works.
 
AmyW said:
Thanks Dave. It's a long story but I am an ex Christian. So I used to be spiritual, went to see a psychic who said she can communicate with God and that frightened me.... religion has been a really bad thing for me in my life (I have mild OCD) and so I decided to leave it all behind but a medium who claims she can speak to God scares me more ... I like science and rationality, religion has only caused me distress. I am trying to heal from past brain washing
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http://www.after-death.com/Pages/About/Default.aspx
 
No it wasn't in the newspaper, my mum died in 2013, I am from the UK and this medium is from the US, she did state if my mum is in spirit and didn't say she is in spirit so was she being general? I've just emailed to say my dad is in spirit too (he is very much alive) I am trying to trick her to see if I can catch her out.....
 
Richardo can you stop posting please and stop trying to convert me to your irrational beliefs
 
AmyW said:
No it wasn't in the newspaper, my mum died in 2013, I am from the UK and this medium is from the US, she did state if my mum is in spirit and didn't say she is in spirit so was she being general? I've just emailed to say my dad is in spirit too (he is very much alive) I am trying to trick her to see if I can catch her out.....
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In the U.S. you can search death records by name:

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/ssdi/

It may be the same in the U.K.

Bottom line, anyone that tells you they speak to the dead is lying - period.
 
AmyW said:
No it wasn't in the newspaper, my mum died in 2013, I am from the UK and this medium is from the US, she did state if my mum is in spirit and didn't say she is in spirit so was she being general? I've just emailed to say my dad is in spirit too (he is very much alive) I am trying to trick her to see if I can catch her out.....
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They no more about traps than you will ever be able to imagine. I don't expect her to fall for a simple gotcha like that. It's like a smart tourist trying to win a game of three card monty.
 
I tried to catch her out and she has come back and said this -

Hi Amy ,*

I think you should find a local medium who does readings in person . The majority of readings I do are in person . If I don’t connect in the first few minutes I give the whole refund so I do not waist my time or their money .Look for a medium in your area that way you can get your money back right away if you do not get evidential info . Good luck ,*

I am not interested in seeing a medium. What I am trying to do is debunk them but I just can't work out how she knew about my mum
 
Thanks Dr Keith, you are right! I have come on this site to re educate myself, the trickery behind it is incredible. A medium once told me she can communicate with god, the arrogance these people have, religion in itself is all about control and for her to claim she can communicate with god is insane and it did frighten me (religion has always been a negative for me) so I just decided to stop believing in religion altogether (best decision I made) but when this medium claimed she can commune with god it scared me and made me wonder if she really can and if mediums are real and heaven/hell do exists but if it's all trickery then I feel relief and all of your comments have explained the realities which is very re assuring
 
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