Kelly
Philosopher
<table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=6 bgcolor=#666699 border=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color=#666699 size=2>Introduction by moderator Luke T.: There are thousands upon thousands of people in our society for whom normal life has been extinguished. A son, a daughter, a mother, a father, a wife, or a husband, has disappeared without a trace. Every day is one of anguish, every night sleepless. For anyone not in it, we cannot even begin to imagine this never-ending nightmare. But for those who are living it, the despondence is such that one finds one would do anything to have their missing loved one back. A resolution.
Who would dare take advantage of these people? What low character would rush into this nightmare and stir up confusion, mislead the police in their search, extort money, and feast upon the families of missing people?
Part of what the James Randi Education Foundation is about is re-examining our pre-conceived notions. When you travel through the topic below, any pre-conceived notions you might have about psychics providing hope and good feelings, or being just harmless fun, are going to be re-examined by the mother of a missing child who somehow found the strength to rise from her despair and throw off this second wave of predators, and carry her warning to other victims and to bring attention of this continuing victimization to the rest of us.
Link to original topic: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52101
Link to blog series which resulted from this topic: http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/03/30606-pmp-introduction-to-psychics-and.html
edited to add: You may notice in this topic that some comments are addressed to a poster "WanderinWTF", but that there are no posts by that user in this topic. That is because some posts were edited out of the original topic and placed in a separate topic. You can see those posts here: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52689
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Hello all,
I am the mother of a missing person and the founder of a nonprofit which assists families of the missing in the US. In my position(s), it seems like I am a magnet for all sorts of loonies claiming they want to help either solve my son's case, or solve cases of the families we serve. Frankly, I tire of it all.
The last few that came to me with their offers were told by me (in as nice of a way as I could) that when they could pass Randi's test to come back. Of course, I didn't hear anything back from them in response.
Some of the "believers" try to play on guilt in that they say people in my position should try any (legal) means possible to find their missing loved one. It is subtlely implied that if I am not willing to subject myself to this, then I must not really care about finding my son. It is a chance I should always take, I am told.
A relative paid one of these charlatans to do a "reading" with me, despite my objections. I agreed, but said I would never do it again. She paid the woman the "discounted" fee of $50, which was to include a tape of the entire ordeal. (We never did get the tape.) At that time, I had already been reading about their methods, and I refused to give her any info and play into her game. She had the audacity to then convince my mother that I "ruined" the reading because of my attitude. (I was polite to the woman. I just did not react to her probes.) As typical, when she claimed to be speaking to my son's spirit, she could not get the "spirit" to answer a simple question about one of his likes, which I then posed. After that, she started to get annoyed with me.
I have plenty of stories about these people and my own experiences with them, plus experiences of other family members of the missing. I also know behind the scenes stories about Sylvia Browne and her scamming. And, as you might expect, none of these person's case have been solved by these people.
What I want to be able to accomplish by posting here, is to have a very complete collection of links debunking the advantage takers when it comes to missing person's cases. I do have a few, such as the Carla Baron exposee and several others which are linked to this site.
Another thing which would be helpful and would probably require someone with a pyschiatry background, is to find a way to help these families who feel pressured to use psychics, to not feel guilty about refusing these offers.
And finally, I would love to find someone who is fairly well known in the debunking area, especially when it comes to missing person's cases, to do an interview for the blog I write.
Thank you.
Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
Who would dare take advantage of these people? What low character would rush into this nightmare and stir up confusion, mislead the police in their search, extort money, and feast upon the families of missing people?
Part of what the James Randi Education Foundation is about is re-examining our pre-conceived notions. When you travel through the topic below, any pre-conceived notions you might have about psychics providing hope and good feelings, or being just harmless fun, are going to be re-examined by the mother of a missing child who somehow found the strength to rise from her despair and throw off this second wave of predators, and carry her warning to other victims and to bring attention of this continuing victimization to the rest of us.
Link to original topic: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52101
Link to blog series which resulted from this topic: http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/03/30606-pmp-introduction-to-psychics-and.html
edited to add: You may notice in this topic that some comments are addressed to a poster "WanderinWTF", but that there are no posts by that user in this topic. That is because some posts were edited out of the original topic and placed in a separate topic. You can see those posts here: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52689
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Hello all,
I am the mother of a missing person and the founder of a nonprofit which assists families of the missing in the US. In my position(s), it seems like I am a magnet for all sorts of loonies claiming they want to help either solve my son's case, or solve cases of the families we serve. Frankly, I tire of it all.
The last few that came to me with their offers were told by me (in as nice of a way as I could) that when they could pass Randi's test to come back. Of course, I didn't hear anything back from them in response.
Some of the "believers" try to play on guilt in that they say people in my position should try any (legal) means possible to find their missing loved one. It is subtlely implied that if I am not willing to subject myself to this, then I must not really care about finding my son. It is a chance I should always take, I am told.
A relative paid one of these charlatans to do a "reading" with me, despite my objections. I agreed, but said I would never do it again. She paid the woman the "discounted" fee of $50, which was to include a tape of the entire ordeal. (We never did get the tape.) At that time, I had already been reading about their methods, and I refused to give her any info and play into her game. She had the audacity to then convince my mother that I "ruined" the reading because of my attitude. (I was polite to the woman. I just did not react to her probes.) As typical, when she claimed to be speaking to my son's spirit, she could not get the "spirit" to answer a simple question about one of his likes, which I then posed. After that, she started to get annoyed with me.
I have plenty of stories about these people and my own experiences with them, plus experiences of other family members of the missing. I also know behind the scenes stories about Sylvia Browne and her scamming. And, as you might expect, none of these person's case have been solved by these people.
What I want to be able to accomplish by posting here, is to have a very complete collection of links debunking the advantage takers when it comes to missing person's cases. I do have a few, such as the Carla Baron exposee and several others which are linked to this site.
Another thing which would be helpful and would probably require someone with a pyschiatry background, is to find a way to help these families who feel pressured to use psychics, to not feel guilty about refusing these offers.
And finally, I would love to find someone who is fairly well known in the debunking area, especially when it comes to missing person's cases, to do an interview for the blog I write.
Thank you.
Kelly Jolkowski, Mother of Missing Jason Jolkowski
President and Founder,
Project Jason
Last edited by a moderator:
