Japanese fall for psychic's too

thaiboxerken

Penultimate Amazing
thaiboxerken
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Sep 17, 2001
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I was watching TV in Japan and came across a very disturbing program. It was an "Unsolved Mystery" type of show that only dealt with missing persons. Well.. It seems that the show may as well have been called "Desperate enough to believe kooks".

They had a psychic on there that led these people all over japan in search of missing people. Even though she led them to find nothing, they still believe in her superpowers and still allowed this lady to lead them around. How many misses can a psychic have before people disbelieve? These "psychics" just piss me off with this, it should be illegal to take advantage of people like this.

Any other Japan based people catch this show?
 
I didn't catch the show, because as soon as I see that that's the type of show it is, I have to change the channel. This type of crap is on tv everyday, and it drives me nuts.

There are a lot of creduloids here, and the media constantly reinforces these beliefs with the most beloved celebrities proudly displaying their ignorance and gullibility as some kind of virtue.

It's ridiculous. I don't use that word lightly---it is truly deserving of ridicule and contempt.

Until she died recently, there was a Japanese version of John Edward, too.
Sitting with a young woman who is crying uncontrollably saying "Your fiance, who was killed in a car accident with you a few months ago, is sitting next to you right now, saying 'I understand if you fall in love again, but don't get married for at least three years'. "

There used to be a show with a panel of 3 guys who actually got to explain the skeptic's viewpoint, but the topics and believers who debated them were so out to lunch that even Japanese believers in other paranormal phenomena couldn't take them seriously. Channeling aliens, with artist's renderings that look just like anime characters, etc.
I wish they'd had one of the famous, well-respected "psychics" as a guest, but you know that'd never happen.
 
Hey voob, from Dec 29 to Jan 4, the plant will be shutdown so I can actually go out in your direction. Dec 29th, I will be glued to the TV though.. I gotta watch Pride and K-1. Akebono vs Bob Sapp is gonna be hilarious!
 
I thought Akebono and Bob Sapp was New Year's Eve...?

I'll definitely be checking that out---if it's on regular t.v.
It's gonna be kind of sad, really, watching a yokozuna getting the crap beat out of him till he's unconscious.---Surely he knows this.
 
Oh, I dunno if Bob can put Akebono away. Heck, Bob didn't even beat a smaller Kimo. Kimo simply was more tired than Bob. I predict this event will be similar. One of them will simply poop out.
 
A bit like "Iron Chef", but not quite, I'd like see American Psychics vs. the Japanese Psychics...

What a showdown that'll be...

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thaiboxerken said:
Oh, I dunno if Bob can put Akebono away. Heck, Bob didn't even beat a smaller Kimo. Kimo simply was more tired than Bob. I predict this event will be similar. One of them will simply poop out.
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But, you'll miss Beat Takeshin on another channel doing a UFO special - I read an interview with him, and he seems sceptical of all this nonsense, although it doesn't stop him presenting the shows. Anyway, he suggestedthe only way to get ratings was to get the believer and the sceptic to go three rounds in the ring...
 
Hey, is Japan still running that show "Uso"? I loved that; it was so funny. Last ep I saw was a Buddhist priest(ess) who claimed the host of the show was being followed by malignant spirits. Man that freaked him out!
 
If you think the teaching of critical thinking is poor in Western schools, the problem is infinitely worse here in Japan. The main purpose of schools here is to turn out a compliant workforce for the world's largest manufacturing industry, so the teaching of critical thinking would be subversive. Consequently, kids are taught to believe everything their sempai--elders and betters (sic)--tell them. This is why no one questions a "psychic" on TV, and explains why more than 80% of Japanese believe that UFOs and extraterrestrials visit Earth all the time. The trunk is rotten; lopping the branches won't do much good. We need to replant the tree.
 
That is so very sad. This compliancy attitude could be another factor that contributes to the teen suicide rate here in Japan.

seeeto BELIEVE!! <-- a lesson all too often taught.
 
I find all of this very amusing, considering that Scientific American rated Japan as being one of the most secular societies in the world.

I guess I am not suprised by the woowooism that is present in Japan.

Most modern creduloid New Age stuff is derived from old Asian Tradition in the first place (i.e. Acupuncture).
 
Theodore Kurita said:
I find all of this very amusing, considering that Scientific American rated Japan as being one of the most secular societies in the world.
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This is because SA is using Western criteria to evaluate Japanese attitudes. They need to learn more Japanese anthropology, first.
 
The trunk is rotten; lopping the branches won't do much good. We need to replant the tree.
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Yep, and not only about critical thinking. The root causes of most of society's problems run so deep that it's got to be all or nothing. Drastic change or nothing at all.
And we know there aren't any drastic changes on the way.

The government is well-known for treating the symptoms instead of the cause. More and more trouble with young people? Try to impose a curfew!
The cost of living increases, the economy is comparatively poor, hence an increase in crime...The solution? More police!

(On a smaller scale) Two Russian guys get drunk and unruly in a public bathhouse? Put up a "No Foreigners" sign. Easy!

(going a bit off-topic here)
Many candidates in the recent federal election successfully played the xenophobia card, vowing to crack down on the mass of crimes by foreigners which are ruining this country.
When in fact statistics for 2002 show that foreigners here, 1.45% of the population, accounted for only 1.39% of the crime.---Below the statistical norm, showing that Japanese commit more crimes per capita.
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Judging from the Japanese media, one would think that number was easily 10 times higher.
In a recent survey, one-third of Japanese said they do not want to see an increase in foreign tourists in Japan, citing fears about crime.

and on and on....
 
thaiboxerken said:
Dec 29th, I will be glued to the TV though.. I gotta watch Pride and K-1. Akebono vs Bob Sapp is gonna be hilarious!
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One could opine that it is a rasslin' spectacle, but wait maybe not, Butterbean will be there too. :rolleyes:
 
They're also way behind on women's rights in comparison to Europe, and the North American continent.

A Japanese woman has two options:
1.) marry and have children, be a homemaker and manage the house and finances.
2.) be a lifelong career woman who gives up any hope of relationships or option 1. She must be utterly dedicated to her job.

Some few are trying both, but they are facing discrimination for their choices.

Some women who are career women do as the men do; they go out to clubs and pay for a man working there to pay attention to them. If a man does it, it's normal. If a woman does, it's a shame. And the men who are paid to pay attention? As long as they get paid, they don't care.


The Japanese are the same people who have the saying "her c*nt was so loose it was like swishing my d*ck in the ocean." They're as human as the rest of us.
 
psychics of Shinjuku

Last summer I met a woman--Megumi or Mayumi or something like that--at a Starbucks in the burbs of Tokyo to conduct a little business. She told she had to cut the meeting short because she promised to meet her friend who had just broken up with her boyfriend in Shinjuku. I assumed they planned to drown their sorrows in cheap sake. She said that in fact they were going to consult with a fortune teller.

--A fortune teller? I suppose she already knows you're coming, I said.

--No, she said, she lives in a card box around Shinjuku Station. You just have to go and hope to find her.

I asked how much it cost and she said she charged 3000 yen for a 30 minute consultation.

WoW! I thought, that's great. I want in on some of this action!

I tried to find out from her how to become a fortune teller, but she didn't have any advice to give so.

But it was getting late and Megumi/Mayumi/Whatever apologized and said she had to catch the train.

Looking out the window, she said, I don' know if we'll be able to find her. She doesn't work on rainy days.

It was raining very hard at that point. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
 
Cardboard box fortune teller.. Something tells me that there are no requirements to becoming a fortuneteller besides having a delusion OR a lack of ethics.

You can send your 3000 yen to my paypal account.
 
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