How do psychic mediums know stuff about you

[AmyW]

I have recently spoken with Susan a psychic researcher and thankfully her research has led to no evidence of them being real, which is very reassuring

 

[AmyW]

Then why are you on here? I am desperately trying to turn away from spiritualism and religion and you are on here making it worse for me. You need to realise that for me spiritualism really harmed me

 

[AmyW]

Thanks to 'mediums ' one claimed they can channel god and how god created me academically unintelligent (one of my fears of not being good enough) and she damaged my self esteem to no end, I've explained this in my post but you come on here saying they are real which in turn makes my previous fears seem real again

 

[8enotto]

This is so true! I experience the same thing sometimes. It will probably never fully go away from the back of my mind, even if I live 100 years, because that religious lens was placed upon my perceptions when I learned about the world itself. Inextricable, on some level.

I just have to break out my logic katana whenever the old superstitions flare up.

I was raised under two competitive religions in one house. There may have been a god but he was one bipolar bastard if both my parents knew the same one.

Both always told me the other was wrong, it because my task to choose who was correct.

I decided as both could not make a case both were full of smeg. There was no shortage of religion in that house but it was all so uselessly mixed up . I was not the only sibling that came out option 3, both parents upset.

Years of catholic repetition and Sunday school crap wasn't convincing either. The damages were done. I simply cannot imagine having to suppress a fear of a all powerful but absent god because I was too busy planning to escape my parents.

 

[Scorpion]

Then why are you on here? I am desperately trying to turn away from spiritualism and religion and you are on here making it worse for me. You need to realise that for me spiritualism really harmed me

Well I have had the opposite experience of spiritualism.

Psychiatrists wrote me off in 1972 by giving me a poor prognosis of recovery from schizophrenia, because I had not improved over the previous two years.
So I abandoned psychiatry and turned to spiritualism. They helped me a lot and gave me healing which I could often feel as heat.

 

[JayUtah]

Well I have had the opposite experience of spiritualism.

And why is that useful to this thread and the purposes for which AmyW started it? She came to a skeptics forum to understand the skeptical approach to spiritualist claims. Why are you relevant?

So I abandoned psychiatry and turned to spiritualism. They helped me a lot and gave me healing which I could often feel as heat.

In other words, you're still suffering from schizophrenia and thus not really a good authority on what's real and what's imagined or poorly remembered.

 

[Scorpion]

Thanks to 'mediums ' one claimed they can channel god and how god created me academically unintelligent (one of my fears of not being good enough) and she damaged my self esteem to no end, I've explained this in my post but you come on here saying they are real which in turn makes my previous fears seem real again

Did you see this medium in a spiritualist church? Because it sounds like your views of spiritualism have been formed by falling foul of a fake medium.

 

[Butter!]

Isis you have spoken such wisdom and really understand OCD thank you

Aw, shucks! Glad you could connect with my words on the matter. I have studied OCD academically in the past (though not recently), but the bulk of my understanding comes from experiencing it myself for most of my life. So yeah, hang in there. It's all about calming down and rationalizing that pesky enemy in your head into silence. Talking often helps, as long as you have a decent listener to talk to.

 

[AmyW]

I am sorry Scorpion but 'psychics' do more damage than good. If magical thinking and religion did not exist the world would be a much better place. For people whom suffer with anxiety these things can often heighten their anxiety as it did to me and sometimes still does.

 

[AmyW]

Scorpion this is what I mean by magical thinking and how it can create strong delusions, it's not only unhealthy but also dangerous. Its paranoid thinking, it's being irrational and not realistic.

 

[Scorpion]

I am sorry Scorpion but 'psychics' do more damage than good. If magical thinking and religion did not exist the world would be a much better place. For people whom suffer with anxiety these things can often heighten their anxiety as it did to me and sometimes still does.

Much of religion is nonsense to me too. But my experiences of psychics has been largely positive. I am sorry yours has not.

 

[AmyW]

No sadly not, spiritualism also leads to other questions, some psychics even claim that evil entities can affect us, it's nonsense. Trust me I've done my research, spiritualism isn't simple and just leads to more confusion and paranoia

 

[AmyW]

If I thought the encouragement to disabuse yourself of belief in psychic mediums and other spiritual mumbo-jumbo would give you "bad days" I wouldn't share it with you, Scorpion. Freeing you from beneath the spell of such two-bit charlatans should be freeing for you – it's a good thing.

To take just one example, imagine no longer getting suckered into spending money on electric shock machines to realign your non-existent aura? It is at once humbling and empowering to experience the freedom that comes from accepting that you control your own destiny.

Such a good response, it certainly is freeing to feel like you are in control of your destiny

 

[arthwollipot]

I once had a conversation with a friend in which he expressed his feeling that it's more likely that there was some kind of entity which was controlling everything - yes, in those vague terms, he's never been actually religious - and I replied that if there is, they're doing a really terrible job. That seemed to have an impact.

 

[Pixel42]

The bottom line is always that for any anecdote, given a choice between

1. An explanation which contradicts everything a couple of centuries of painstaking scientific investigation has taught us about how the world works

and

2. An explanation which is consistent with what we've learned, especially about how easily we can be fooled by our fallible perceptions, malliable memories and cognitive biases

the only rational choice is (2). Only someone who is already heavily emotionally invested in their irrational beliefs will choose (1).

 

[DuvalHMFIC]

I once had a conversation with a friend in which he expressed his feeling that it's more likely that there was some kind of entity which was controlling everything - yes, in those vague terms, he's never been actually religious - and I replied that if there is, they're doing a really terrible job. That seemed to have an impact.

It's Laplace's Demon. It's not supposed to do a good job.

 

[Agatha]

Some 120 posts which are better placed in the Scorpion's Spiritualism thread have been sent there; please keep this thread focused on AmyW and her discussions with people claiming to be mediums.

Posted By: Agatha

 

[8enotto]

The thing about these charlatans is they take hot and cold reading, mix in that weird gypsy image and sample common ideas from the religious. Then display symbols from ancient cultures and whatnot.

And somehow play all this off as normal and coherent with magical powers, yeah, that's all in a regular playbook.

Sell some magical protective baubles and talk like an auctioneer and it's complete.

If I went into a Hindu temple I would not expect a gypsy with a backdrop of Egyptian symbols talking of Christian rituals as the big cheese there. I would expect a monk and only Hindu stuff.
How is the.truckload of mixed gibberish not a red flag to people?

Not you in particular Amy, but all the folks who find comfort in that trade.

 

[Armitage72]

No sadly not, spiritualism also leads to other questions, some psychics even claim that evil entities can affect us, it's nonsense. Trust me I've done my research, spiritualism isn't simple and just leads to more confusion and paranoia

Back in the day I was told that tabletop roleplaying games were dangerous because evil spiritual entities could watch you play, learn intimate details about you that you reveal during the game, and use them to manipulate you. I think I backed away slowly.

 

[xterra]

From the game, the evil spiritual entities, or the person who told you that?