'Told you so': psychic predicted Babs surgery

[Rodney]

From May 12, 2010 New York Post:

Never doubt the word of "The Ghost Whisperer" -- even if you're Barbara Walters.

Back in July, the co-executive producer of the popular show, psychic James Van Praagh, was a guest on "The View."

Backstage, Van Praagh told Walters that he believed there was an issue with her blood.

Clearly steamed, a week or so later, Walters, re-opened the issue -- after she had her doctor take blood tests.

"I'm skeptical and Mr. Van Praagh knows it," she told viewers. Her tests showed that "I am absolutely normal."

She went on to say, "I think [Van Praagh's declaration] was a dangerous thing to do!"

Now that Walters says she is undergoing surgery for a valve replacement, Van Praagh can't help but reflect on the information he gave her 10 months ago.

"I never push my insights to anyone, but told her that I saw a lot of white blood cells which could mean an infection in the future. I also said she had bad blood around her heart, which she emphatically denied, and then she later said I was 'dangerous.'

"I was never given a chance to defend myself, and this hurt."

Did he feel a sense of vindication -- albeit unhappy vindication -- when Walters announced on Monday that she was having heart surgery today?

"I wish her the best of health," he said.

See http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/told_you_so_psychic_predicted_babs_8IlKPCQ8c04AlhWVQEIGFJ

 

[ExMinister]

I don't see how he can claim that as a hit.

If someone told me I had an issue with my blood, I'd be thinking leukemia, blood clotting disorder, infection.

I wouldn't put that together with valvular heart surgery. That indicates an abnormality of the function of the heart. If Van Praagh saw an abnormality in the function of her heart valves, why didn't he say so? Why call it a blood problem, which is what he claims to have said, or the possibility of an infection, which the article doesn't mention her having?

 

[Augustus]

So he made a very vague prediction about an elderly woman requiring surgery and made it to where anything could fit that prediction?

Yeah, right.

 

[monoman]

I can't find the bit where he said she had a faulty heart valve.

 

[Crossbow]

So what?

Barbara Walters was 79 when he made that predicition; and predicting that 79 year-old-person will get sick is a statement of fact, not a prediction.

 

[Brown]

By what possible standard is this news?

I saw this headline and expected to find that a self-proclaimed seer had gotten lucky and had hit the nail on the head.

But Van Praagh had not gotten lucky. Even with a generalized guess, he scored a definitive MISS. His guess was checked and was found to be a MISS. The most recent developments do not change the earlier test results; it's still a MISS. Despite the headline (which he probbly didn't write), Van Praaagh did not tell Walters so. VAN PRAAGH MISSED THE MEDICAL CONDITION. (If a medical doctor had made this sort of mis-diagnosis, that doctor had better have paid-up insurance.)

Deluded souls like Van Praagh score misses much (if not most) of the time. Like dog biting man, the story of a miss is not news. Even the occasional "sorta hit" is not news, because everyone gets lucky some of the time, and some astounding hits don't seem so astounding after they are examined. As I've repeatedly pointed out, I scored an ENORMOUS hit in 2002, predicting that the DC sniper would be caught while sleeping--which is EXACTLY what happened. This was, however, a "sorta hit" because I referred to "perpetrator," "concealed" and "thunder" rather than "sniper," and I didn't mention Washington DC at all. This hit, which sounds astounding when first reported, is less so when examined closely ... yet my prediction was more accurate than Van Praagh's!!

In order for this to be a man-bites-dog story, there would have to be a square hit, one that could not be guessed at by pot-shot diagnosing.

 

[Hellbound]

I predict your car will have some sort of problem, likely with the fuel...

[One year later]

Hmm, yeah, looks like you've thrown a rod! I was right!

 

[KingMerv00]

Backstage, Van Praagh told Walters that he believed there was an issue with her blood.

Clearly steamed, a week or so later, Walters, re-opened the issue -- after she had her doctor take blood tests.

"I'm skeptical and Mr. Van Praagh knows it," she told viewers. Her tests showed that "I am absolutely normal."

Let's see if I have this straight.

He guessed there was something currently wrong with her blood and is proven wrong.

10 months later, there is something wrong with a muscle.

Is that about the size of it?

 

[Uncayimmy]

How does one have bad blood around the heart? Doesn't blood circulate?

Can anyone find the quote right after she got her blood tests where he said he knew in advance that his prediction was wrong, which meant that he was right?

 

[shandyjan]

Maybe he was hoping she got varicose veins when he predicted the blood problems. And if she had it still wouldnt have been phsychic prediction so much as lucky guess. Bllod would cover a lot of things...but I'd hardly call heart problems blood problems. Shennanigans as usual!

 

[ynot]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Someone should predict that Van Praag is going to have an "issue with his blood" then punch him hard on the nose.[/FONT]

 

[Tumblehome]

If you look hard enough, couldn't you find that everyone has some sort of issue with their blood? Slightly below normal blood sugar level, slightly higher than normal blood pressure, etc. "Issue" is so vague and all-inclusive as to be meaningless. Somebody should tell him that.

 

[ynot]

If you look hard enough, couldn't you find that everyone has some sort of issue with their blood? Slightly below normal blood sugar level, slightly higher than normal blood pressure, etc. "Issue" is so vague and all-inclusive as to be meaningless. Somebody should tell him that.

Then punch him on the nose?

 

[jiggeryqua]

Then punch him on the nose?

Violence is not the answer. But you could hit him in the face with a custard pie while crowing "You didn't see that coming!"

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Law of large numbers. With countless psychics making countless predictions, eventually someone gets something right. Or, as in this case, almost right.

 

[Brown]

Let's see if I have this straight.

He guessed there was something currently wrong with her blood and is proven wrong.

10 months later, there is something wrong with a muscle.

Is that about the size of it?

Not quite. The valves are not contractile tissue. They are "cusps" or "leaflets" that open in response to blood pressure. The atrioventricular (AV) valves are prevented from eversion by the chordae tendineae (what some call the "heartstrings"). The chordae tendineae are attached the papillary muscles, which hold the AV valves closed when the ventricles contract, thereby forcing the blood to be ejected from the heart through the pulmonary and aortic valves.

The pulmonary and aortic valves do not close in response to muscle contraction. Rather, they respond to blood pressure, and their structure prevents them from everting.

The valves prevent the backflow of blood, but a problem with a valve (which could be a number of things, not necessarily a concern with muscular tissue) is not a problem with the blood. In my Physiology textbook ("Human Physiology: From Cells to Systems," 3rd ed. by Lauralee Sherwood), the circulatory system, and its associated problems, are discussed in a chapter that is separate from the chapter dealing with the blood. The organs are different, the problems with them are strikingly different.

By the way, Van Praagh was milking this thing last night with one of the celebrity "news" shows. The headline on this show was, once again, "I told you so." Once again, it is not clear that Van Praagh actually said it (it was supper time when the show came on and I did not have the stomach to watch that "story"), but he apparently does not disclaim the notion of having "told her so" and in any event ...

HE MISSED AND DID NOT TELL HER SO!

 

[Ashles]

Backstage, Van Praagh told Walters that he believed there was an issue with her blood.

So just to recap...

Van Praagh told Walters there was an issue with her blood.

There wasn't an issue with her blood and there has not been an issue with her blood.

Errm... how interesting Rodney. Thanks.

 

[Rodney]

The valves prevent the backflow of blood, but a problem with a valve (which could be a number of things, not necessarily a concern with muscular tissue) is not a problem with the blood.

Technically correct, I'm sure, but because the valves control the direction of blood flow through the heart, Van Praagh's claim that there was an "issue" with Walters' blood might seem to her more like a hit than a miss at this point. Perhaps she'll provide her perspective after she recovers.

 

[paximperium]

Technically correct, I'm sure, but because the valves control the direction of blood flow through the heart, Van Praagh's claim that there was an "issue" with Walters' blood might seem to her more like a hit than a miss at this point. Perhaps she'll provide her perspective after she recovers.

What is the relevance of her "perspective"?

 

[Mojo]

So he made a very vague prediction about an elderly woman requiring surgery...

Nope, he made a vague statement about her having "an issue with her blood"; she had blood tests which showed that she didn't, and 10 months later had surgery for something else.

That this is being touted as a "hit" just shows how pathetic the evidence for psychic abilities is.