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Psychics and Missing People

CFLarsen said:
Kelly,

If you feel this amounts to harrassment, report the member to the moderators.
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I'll let post #38 stand as a warning. This person just probably read "mother of missing" and didn't go on from there. I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

If they persisted in PMing me, I would report them.
 
KellyJ,
You should consider doing something like www.stopkaz.com, which is run by our very own RSLancastr. I'm sure he would be willing to give some tips on how to set it up.

-David
 
KellyJ said:
"hi kellyj i was reading your posts so i checked out your sight and i wanted to let you know your a great person and would like to ask you if maybe i can try and help out i figure things out..."
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Apparently, this psychic person has evaluated your vision, and is offering to provide assistance with it. Perhaps they are a psychic optometrist. Were you aware that you has vision issues?

-David
 
AK-Dave said:
KellyJ,
You should consider doing something like (site name), which is run by our very own RSLancastr. I'm sure he would be willing to give some tips on how to set it up.

-David
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I believe my future blog series on this subject matter will serve the same purpose. While it won't be a separate site, it will suffice. I'm afraid I don't have time to build or maintain any more sites than what I already have.

I hope the Kaz site helps to stop this woman.

Kelly
 
AK-Dave said:
Apparently, this psychic person has evaluated your vision, and is offering to provide assistance with it. Perhaps they are a psychic optometrist. Were you aware that you has vision issues?

-David
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Haven't you heard of "corneal bending"? At at given moment hundreds of "helpers" are willing my corneas to bend in a precise manner. This allows me to enjoy perfect vision. You should try it too.

Rid yourself of glasses and contacts forever! ;)
 
Hi Kelly, I'm a bit late to the game with this thread, but let me offer my deepest condolences for your son, and welcome you warmly.

As for TAM, I was just at the last TAM and please believe me it was worth every second of it. I not only recieved help from forum members and the scholarship fund to make it there, but I was also able to do interviews for the podcast skepticality. Your story and your writings would be a very welcome presentation there and I urge you not just to apply for the scholarship when the dates and registrations are announced, but to make sure any paper/presentation you can put together is submitted to be presented at TAM. You have a very important story and experience, and a very important message to give, and I am sure the TAM coordinators would jump at the chance to help you get that message out.

Secondly let me offer any help I can. I write well (though usually not on the forum, haha. You can read my very unpleasantly toned rant about alternative medicine in the thread titled "Doing the least to save your life") and have written articles for others (currently working on a story for the skepchicks ezine) but also you can check my blog at fowlsound.com for a small sampling dealing with my experiences as a cancer patient. I would happily research and write for you if it would help, and if there's another way I can help please PM me and let me know. Even if it is just sending some home made bananna bread for comfort food.

Best wishes, and again welcome.
 
Hello and thanks.

When the next TAM is announced and open for registration, I will definetely check into it and see if I can go.

I thank you for sharing your experiences and hope you will beat the cancer. I didn't even stop to think that people in precarious health situations would also be subject to quackery just as I am.

I suppose there is a "fruitcake" for every occasion, just as there is a Hallmark card for various times of our lives. (They still have not come up with a "I'm sorry your loved one is missing." card.)

As I get closer to working up the blog series, I will check back and tap into various person/sources to provide info and quotes to enlighten my readership.

I'll take a raincheck on the banana bread, as my husband would surely eat it all, but if you have an extra chocolate, I would take some of that.

Kelly
 
KellyJ said:
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.
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This blog has a whole series of posts debunking Allison Dubois. Don't know if that is the sort of thing you were looking for.
 
Thanks, Richard.

That was very interesting and enlightening. I did bookmark it and will very likely refer to it in my series, since it is a good example of a debunking on several fronts.

Kelly
 
Kind of off topic, kind of on topic...

I wondered if anyone saw the final of the UK TV program that has been discussed here recently in another thread - 'Britain's Psychic Challenge'? It began with 8 'psychics' who were wittled down to 3 in the final, and one was announced the winner.

The reason I raise it here is that the winner - Dianne Lazarus - performed most surprisingly in 2 tests when they were asked to locate a hidden person. One was in a forest, the other along a beach. In both cases Dianne stood for a minute, then set off walking in one direction, and kept that direction (more or less) until she stopped directly beside the person she was seeking. Now, when she won she was asked what her favourite moment was, and she replied that due to these two tests she has been approached by a search and rescue unit to work with them in the future.

I don't know if there was a genuine demonstration of some paranormal ability here (I seriously doubt it), but it dismayed me no end to hear that she (if she is being honest) has been asked for help with no further questions asked, and no further proof of her ability required. I believe this falls into the realm of things such as are being discussed in this thread.

I am waiting to find out where she goes from here, and will let you all know any updates.
 
cabby said:
The reason I raise it here is that the winner - Dianne Lazarus - performed most surprisingly in 2 tests when they were asked to locate a hidden person. One was in a forest, the other along a beach. In both cases Dianne stood for a minute, then set off walking in one direction, and kept that direction (more or less) until she stopped directly beside the person she was seeking. Now, when she won she was asked what her favourite moment was, and she replied that due to these two tests she has been approached by a search and rescue unit to work with them in the future.
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I didn't see the show, but it sounds to me like she was simply following a trail. That would be easy in a wooded area - people don't walk through bramble thickets, for instance - and even easier on a beach. Was she set down at the spots where the 'missing person' set off from?
Secendly, most search & rescue outfits are run by civilain volunteers. It was likely that she met up with some members in a pub (or was introduced to them?) and they joked about inviting her to join them. I cannot imagine any search & rescue outfit actually taking along a completely untrained and untried 'civvy' with them. They may be unpaid, but they are all totally professional at their job, highly safety-concious, and rely on each other.
 
Thanks Mariah and Luke T. I continue to work on background studies in the meantime and will be sending a notify to our families we work for very soon to solicit their stories. Hopefully, they will be moved to share.
 
sophia8 said:
I didn't see the show, but it sounds to me like she was simply following a trail. That would be easy in a wooded area - people don't walk through bramble thickets, for instance - and even easier on a beach. Was she set down at the spots where the 'missing person' set off from?
Secendly, most search & rescue outfits are run by civilain volunteers. It was likely that she met up with some members in a pub (or was introduced to them?) and they joked about inviting her to join them. I cannot imagine any search & rescue outfit actually taking along a completely untrained and untried 'civvy' with them. They may be unpaid, but they are all totally professional at their job, highly safety-concious, and rely on each other.
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(I don't want to derail the thread, so I will just answer this - we can start a new thread on this topic if required.)

At the beach she was brought to the blanket were the boy they hid had been 'playing' before they moved him to the dunes to hide him. There was a clear short line from it to the dunes. This did bother me. However, the boy was not in a straight line from that point, and the bay was quite long, giving a 180 degree view from one end to the other. I also wondered if the men accompanying her at both tests had subconciously glanced in the target direction before telling her to proceed - I think it would be hard not to.

Search and Rescue were present at the test - they failed to find the missing boy - they said they would search for 30 mins, then use a heat seeking device from a helicopter. It can be assumed that it was this team, but she wasn't specific.

In the forest there was no obvious trail, but in both cases she appears to have been the last person to set off, so perhaps the land was a little more scuffed up - you would really need to watch it, because it was surprisingly accurate how she did it. There was substantial forest space to investigate, but they did not move the target between 'psychics' on either test.

However, she failed miserably in some other tests, and appeared to become more precise as the weeks drew on, which makes me suspect assistance from the crew (particularly the "sceptical" police officer).
 
This is the piece I will be sending out to the families we serve late this evening to ask for their stories. If anyone has any ideas for something I'm lacking, feel free to speak up. Thanks.

"Most of you are familiar with my online blog. (Please see the link in my signature line if you are not.) My blog series on the unidentified deceased and throwaway missing sparked the nationwide Campaign for the Missing, which is already showing results, thanks to a great group of people working together. I am now doing research for another series with potential impact and I want your participation. In fact, not only do I want it, but justice cries out for it. We, the families of the missing, are victims in several ways. If our loved one has been taken from us in a brutal way, we are victims. We may also be victims of a poorly constructed and trained LE structure. We may be victims of society's apathy to our plight because of prejudices against missing persons, particularly adults. We again may be the victims of a nonresponsive media. There is one method of victimization that can be avoided, however, and that is by people who claim to be able to find your missing loved one via paranormal means.

There are several things I want to accomplish in this series. Before going into that, it may be helpful to clarify our position on this: There is not one proven case in which a psychic, using special powers or abilities not given to the typical person, has located a missing person, whether dead or alive. It may be possible that some persons have some ability that defies science and logic, but there is no known scientific evidence of this. These persons re-victimize families by taking away hope where it should stand, and giving hope where there is none. No person has the right to do this to another.

Advantage takers, such as psychics and other users of proported paranormal phenomena, cause unneccesary and damaging pain and anguish to families of the missing. They can also add to financial stress if they charge fees. We're already on a roller coaster ride of events and emotions, and we should have no desire to add to it.

What we wish to accomplish in this series is to demonstrate to families of the missing the real methodology used by these persons. Understanding what goes on behind the scenes should lessen any guilt feelings for not accepting offers of "help" from these persons, whether it is fee-based or not. We want to lessen the pain already present in our every breath, and arm families with the information to defend themselves against these persons.

Marc Klaas, Founder of KlaasKids and father of abducted, then murdered child Polly Klass, said it best: "I have very strong feelings about psychics. They're part of a second wave of predators. The first wave is the person who takes the child. The second is the ambulance-chasing lawyers, the exploitation journalists and psychics. They're off the mark, every last one of them."

Please also note that the FBI and NCMEC maintain that psychics have never solved a single missing person's case.

In order for this series to be completely effective, I need you to share your stories about your dealings with psychics. If you are interested in doing this to help other families of the missing, please send me your story no later than March 3rd. If you feel it would be helpful to you, I will be happy to send you a basic outline of how to present your story."
 
This is very well written, Kelly. This is a small thing, but I'd suggest spelling out LE and NCMEC in addition to the letters. It ought to have been obvious to me, but I had to stop and think of what they meant.

I think I might try to contact Susan Blackmore.
 
Very good idea, I wonder why it hasn't been done sooner? The way that psychic predators come out of the woodwork when a child goes missing or is murdered, educating parents on their scams. Something that law enforcement should be aware of as well.
 
A rule of thumb with an organization such as yours: Pay for results. You pay contractors in every field dependent upon their results, and you should treat 'psychics' the same way.

Tell them that they will receive no pay until results are produced. Set a pre-determined amount, and suggest for pay scale determined by usefulness of the information, so that the more accurate they are, the more they will get paid. If they do not prove to be accurate beyond what could be conceived by merely guessing, do not pay them.

This way, you are giving them a chance to apply their "trade" while protecting your organization from scam artists.
 
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