An scarily bad reading

[Blight]

I have a female friend who went to a reading with a supposedly well known psychic here in Israel.

My friend is in a point in her life where she wants to get married and start a family. She goes to the psychic and she tells her she's going to get married in february (2006) and she gave her a name very similar sounding to my own. So my friend gives the psychic my full name and the psychic tells her it's a good possibility that I might be "the one".

Then this friend sorta changed on me, she became obsessive about other girls I was talking to, basically acting very irrationally.

This carried on to the point where I had to distance myself from her, it was getting that bad. Amazingly enough, she met another guy with nearly the exact same name as my own. They dated for 8 months and eventually it didn't work and they broke up.

Still... another reason to be afraid of psychic (or rather, those who believe them). You just never know where these things can go (the friend threatened me a few times when I didn't fit into what her "reading" pointed to).

 

[Miss Anthrope]

I have a female friend who went to a reading with a supposedly well known psychic here in Israel.

My friend is in a point in her life where she wants to get married and start a family. She goes to the psychic and she tells her she's going to get married in february (2006) and she gave her a name very similar sounding to my own. So my friend gives the psychic my full name and the psychic tells her it's a good possibility that I might be "the one".

Then this friend sorta changed on me, she became obsessive about other girls I was talking to, basically acting very irrationally.

This carried on to the point where I had to distance myself from her, it was getting that bad. Amazingly enough, she met another guy with nearly the exact same name as my own. They dated for 8 months and eventually it didn't work and they broke up.

Still... another reason to be afraid of psychic (or rather, those who believe them). You just never know where these things can go (the friend threatened me a few times when I didn't fit into what her "reading" pointed to).

In this case you have someone who is clearly unstable, and the psychic gave them something that allowed it to be turned on you. This person is a stalker. Almost anything can be a trigger.

One thing I have to ask, though. Do you know for certain the psychic thing really happened and that she actually dated someone with your name? The reason I ask is that this type can be quite given to fabrication and have a flair for the dramatic. I've seen people say "they had dreams" that justified all sorts of madness as a justification for this type of behavior. I knew a dramatic woman who used a dream to justify invading her partner's privacy until she found something that was, to her, incriminating.

 

[Soapy Sam]

This sort of thing can be pretty worrying.

I met a very attractive young lady once (far too young for me, but...) who suddenly became very attentive on learning my date of birth. Turned out she was a big astrology fan. I had the same birthday as her boyfriend and she wondered if maybe I was the one...

It was an odd experience. I was backing off like crazy, while kicking myself for not grabbing while the chance was there.

We had a long talk about the actual worth of Astrology which convinced her I was a boring, self-opinionated old fart. This is not at all what I would like to have had.
My conscience is clear, but sometimes I feel I take scepticism too far.

 

[Lonewulf]

This sort of thing can be pretty worrying.

I met a very attractive young lady once (far too young for me, but...) who suddenly became very attentive on learning my date of birth. Turned out she was a big astrology fan. I had the same birthday as her boyfriend and she wondered if maybe I was the one...

It was an odd experience. I was backing off like crazy, while kicking myself for not grabbing while the chance was there.

We had a long talk about the actual worth of Astrology which convinced her I was a boring, self-opinionated old fart. This is not at all what I would like to have had.
My conscience is clear, but sometimes I feel I take scepticism too far.

Dude... because of the highlighted above, I have to say that you made the right decision. She had a boyfriend that could probably tolerate her, she was far too young for you (okay, that's a bit more of a subjective assessment honestly), and if you did pursue anything with her, it probably would have been for the wrong reasons (once more, a subjective assessment, but probably not a bad one).

I applaud you.

 

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

Oh man, that's a funny story . So sorry that happened.

Thank God that the one time in my life I went to a palm reader, I didn't make any effort to make her predictions come true.

 

[Apathia]

Years ago when I lived in Japan, a friend of mine was dating a Chinese girl who was heavily into visiting the 9-Star Astrologers, Palmists, and other types of fortunetellers in town. One day she declared she'd found the best and most accurate one, and I asked who he was and if I might see him. So she ttok me to this palmist.

Some of you are already guessing the outcome.

She had already asked the palmist questions in regard to her American boyfriend. So, he assumed I was the boyfriend, and in the process of the reading said I "was deeply in love."

I told her that he's mistaken me for her boyfriend, but she couldn't believe that and told her boyfriend I was secretly in love with her.

I got off lightly because the boyfriend wasn't much in love with her either, so he didn't do a jelous fit.

 

[hipparchia]

My husband would go see psychics to seek advice on when he would find a girlfriend. I learned that most of the advice he was given was to "wait out" for the perfect one to appear. A safe bet, but one that ended up in his marrying me at age a bit above 35.

Also, a psychic told him he would meet a girl from outside town. Given that he lived in a university town, a lot of the nubile ladies really came from outside to study, so that was also a safe bet.

 

[Blight]

Miss Anthrope:
She isn't a stalker, she just have this unrealistic expectation for attention. And yes, I met the guy, he was nice and when she was with him, she was far more relaxed and friendly.

Soapy Sam:
This girl and I have the EXACT same birthday, 5 years apart. She might have might have took it as some sort of sign, although I don't think she's really into astrology.

Some more info:
She's actually a very educated good looking girl. But I guess education and intelligence (she is) doesn't rule out some crazy bits.

In the end, she got in touch with me about 8 months later, told me she was seeing a psychiatrist and she's on some meds. She still does stupid/dangerous things every once in a while, but not as often.

And yes, even after I told her that all psychics are fakes and even explained some of their workings to her, she still believes.

 

[VulcanWay]

So my friend gives the psychic my full name and the psychic tells her it's a good possibility that I might be "the one".

Then this friend sorta changed on me, she became obsessive about other girls I was talking to, basically acting very irrationally.

This carried on to the point where I had to distance myself from her, it was getting that bad.

She really made a case for herself as being a rational life-partner, huh?

This is the one you're going to look back on and think...PHEW! Dodged that bullet!

 

[Juustin]

I think this is a good example of something I was just discussing with my wife not too long ago while we were watching (ie mocking) Sylvia Browne on Montel.

Whenever someone is the type of person who would go to a psychic in the first place, and the psychic says "the man of your dreams will be named Mark", they're going to get tunnel vision. They're going to start throwing themselves at any man named Mark that they meet, regardless of whether or not they'd normally be attracted to them.

 

[Blight]

justin:
You don't even know the half of it, this girl made a list of all the people with similar sounding names and dated at least 5 of them (just 1 date each) to see if they are "the one". Hey, if one of them was a good guy for her, the psychic would have been right (generalization tends to work quite a bit).

vulcan:
I didn't really dodge anything (i was never dating her, or wanted to), I'm still in contact with her, I just had to put my foot down and tell her that if she wants to keep me in her life, she's not allowed to take that sort of behavior with me. And for the most part she's been behaving herself. She's a good person at heart, just misguided.

 

[Strife]

Scary. I feel so sorry for people who are tricked by these psychics..

My mother was into that for a while after her divorce too, and obsessed over that the psychic said about finding new love. Luckily, something happened (she never told me what), and one day she realized that it was crap. She still believes in psychic powers, but not in someone who claims to have them to make money. If they really had the power, they would just go for the 1M prize, right? Better than nothing. I'm glad she is a bit more skeptic..