Joanne Hull, pet psychic

[Sunstar]

Hi,

Has anyone seen this woman on TV? She appears on a UK programme called The Wright Stuff sometimes. I am genuinely baffled at how she does some of the things she does. I suspect there is mentalism involved but i am not sure. I am surprised she hasn't been mentioned on this forum before.

 

[Reno]

I had a look at her website, but tbh, after RSL's latest article, I'm just too depressed to even comment on this pile of dogpoo.

 

[drapier]

Hi,

Has anyone seen this woman on TV? She appears on a UK programme called The Wright Stuff sometimes. I am genuinely baffled at how she does some of the things she does. I suspect there is mentalism involved but i am not sure. I am surprised she hasn't been mentioned on this forum before.

So what are some of the things that she does?

 

[RSLancastr]

We used to have a pet psychic, but sadly, we had to have it put to sleep. It was very old, and could hardly even cold read anymore.

 

[Alan Heap]

i'm from the uk and have no idea what she does but i'll take a stab.

-the animal is responding (to her, food, toy etc.) rather than having its responses "read".

-if we're talking psychic, esp or some mind reading crap, then dogs can smell out objects and other animals can learn routines set of by a subtle command.

-dressed up for more than it is, exaggerated.

i'm not even sure what she does even after reading her site, but i guess it's to do with animal behaviour mostly. i'm no animal expert but giving them food, toy, playing with them and not hitting them is a pretty sure way of winning over an animal, so i'll go with exaggeration and possibly response.

i'd like to see her try and communicate with a cat!

 

[supercorgi]

I've haven't seen this one but we have many pet psychics circulating in my area (although they call themselves "pet communicators"). Many of my dog show friends by into this b-*****. Dogs will respond to a lot of words and also inflection in the voice. She's probably keying in on this as well as body language. I'm continually amazed at the number of words my dog picks up. Plus, if she's doing these readings in front of the owner, the owner is probably giving clues to the dogs. Animals are very receptive and will pick up a huge number of verbal, physical, and even scent ques. Just look at Clever Hans.

 

[walthrup48]

As well as the Wright Stuff, Ms Hull has also appeared on other in-depth investigative programmes such as The Sharon Osbourne Show and This Morning. The pets themselves are simply props for the performance, much as people's homes, antiques or babies are for other pantomime artists in the same profession. Of the times I've bothered to watch, the diagnosis of the pet's problem will be linked to a vague notion of unhappiness about it's environment/diet/owner's well-being/fellow animals. Mentalism simply isn't required, merely the ability of the owner to connect Hull's vague utterings with the specific ins and outs of Fluffy or Fido's life.

The only remotely memorable thing about Hull's appearances on The Wright Stuff is presenter Matthew Wright's overly-energetic exclamations of how incredible her powers apparently are. Alas, to many on this board, they will barely register as adequate.

Edit: Welcome to the board Sunstar.

 

[Amapola]

Hi Sunstar, welcome.

I've never seen this particular pet "psychic" but I have seen others, and they don't seem to vary all that much. They do cold reading, then sometimes they can progress to "hot" reading. Here is an article and the part about hot reading is about half way down the page. Actually, the entire article will help you better understand what is going on.

They rely on the owner to just basically believe whatever they say. I have seen owners believe some astonishingly wrong stuff, just because the "psychic" said it was so. I have seen owners just buy this hook, line and sinker.

One lady I saw claimed she could do "readings" from a photo. But the truth is, she could *not* do readings from a photo...... the owner had to tell her the animal's name, habits, how long they had the animal, if they thought something was wrong etc. etc. If you just handed her a photo and said nothing, she could tell nothing whatsoever about the animal, even something basic like is the animal alive or dead. It reminded me of the fairy tale of the guy who claimed he could make soup from a plain old iron nail. Right.

 

[CACTUSJACKmankin]

I think the ultimate debunking of this whole thing is that these psychics convey the animals having thoughts and feelings and emotions that their brains are physiologically incapable of entertaining.
As someone who has pets I can tell you from personal experience, you don't need a pet psychic... animals can communicate pretty effectively. When they want to eat, go outside, or go to the bathroom, they tell you. They don't use english but they tell you.

 

[drapier]

I do a bit of dog training and competing with dogs. Operant conditioning and a more scientific way of understanding dog behavior is increasingly popular among trainers, yet every now and then I run into a trainer who might refer in an off hand manner that she's taking her dog to a "communicator" to find out what's troubling him. I'm always surprised about how seriously some people take this.

 

[Slimething]

I think the ultimate debunking of this whole thing is that these psychics convey the animals having thoughts and feelings and emotions that their brains are physiologically incapable of entertaining.

While checking out Animal Planet, I once tuned into one of these animal psychics telling a man that his pet really, really loved him but that he had done something to peeve her. The owner immediately filled in that he had changed to an iferior grade of meat to feed his pet. The psychic confirmed this with the pet and suggested he go back to the higher quality meat.

The pet? an alligator. We all know that lizard brains are so full of warm and fuzzies, right?