Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 ....just for fun... Bad idea? I saw this as one of the things to do instead of the internet. Do psychics really know your past/future? Because two years ago, my parents took me to an English church 2 hours away. That church invited a pastor from India. He said people's names and their spouses' names and their kid's names without having met them. It freaked me out. I have no idea how he did it. He asked these people in front of everyone if he met them before and they said no. i am serious about that pastor by the way. I actually saw it happening. so, psychic or no psychic? Will they scare me? If it is not that bad for me, don't give out too many spoilers in your answer thank you people!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 1 minute ago, Burnedout said: It is no different than getting your fortune told at a fair or playing teenage games at a party. Do it just for fun and look at it as fun. They always try to keep it kind of cryptic because they have an out if it doesn't come true. In short, just look at it as fun. Nothing more. What about this: https://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/it-happened-to-me-a-palm-reading-ruined-my-life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Ok I have no idea why the hell I did what I did. I just sent a message to a nearby psychic. He reads tarot cards and speaks to medium- I am assuming that is a spirit of a dead person. This guy is serious. He charges £30 for 30 minutes. Didn't decide to go to him. I will only go to him if I find a part-time job soon I googled psychics and palm-readers just for fun...but I don't think any psychic does it for fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 59 minutes ago, Anushka said: ....just for fun... Bad idea? I saw this as one of the things to do instead of the internet. Do psychics really know your past/future? Because two years ago, my parents took me to an English church 2 hours away. That church invited a pastor from India. He said people's names and their spouses' names and their kid's names without having met them. It freaked me out. I have no idea how he did it. He asked these people in front of everyone if he met them before and they said no. i am serious about that pastor by the way. I actually saw it happening. so, psychic or no psychic? Will they scare me? If it is not that bad for me, don't give out too many spoilers in your answer thank you people!!!! If the "pastor from India" had access to a printed list of those "people, spouses and kids" before meeting you, memorized a portion of it, and repeated the memorized names and relationships in your presence, it could certainly seem fanciful. What is the likelihood that the "pastor from India" has such access? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 7, 2018 Super Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2018 A good reading is a great experience. Either cold or hot reading, it's an art form and some are masters. Of course, it is all fake, though impressive at times. I have been in the magic community since I was in high school. I live not too far from Cassadaga, the Las Vegas of mind readers. I'm even closer to Gibsonton, the home of the circus and carny crowd. I have attended many lectures and conventions on mental magic. I know several prominent psychics and teachers of the trade. I dabbled in it myself, but no matter what I told clients about it being an entertainment too many people actually believed I had "powers." Honestly, I couldn't take the pressure of deceiving them even though I tried to NOT deceive them. Some folks just want to believe. It's a magic trick, mentalism, and the techniques can be taught. That said, there are some people who actually believe in their own magic. They are naturals at reading body language and subtle clues to be found in a client's jewelry, dress, shoes, tattoos and so forth. They are frauds like all the rest, but they are sincere. Most provide an enjoyable or spooky experience whether sincere or not. Just remember it's entertainment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 32 minutes ago, sdelsolray said: If the "pastor from India" had access to a printed list of those "people, spouses and kids" before meeting you, memorized a portion of it, and repeated the memorized names and relationships in your presence, it could certainly seem fanciful. What is the likelihood that the "pastor from India" has such access? The only way he could get that list is if someone in that church helped him. But, it is highly unlikely someone would do it as one, I don't see a motive for that 'someone' as it is not a megachurch; two, the church is Pentecostal and because it(the church) is not on TV, it is likely they have the fear of the Lord and wouldn't cheat the church members that way. That pastor was a guest pastor. He just came for a month and went back. Maybe all these pastors are psychics. Another incident happened- 4 years ago, when we went to India, mum took me to a different pastor- I had never met or spoken to him before. Before that India trip, I was feeling suicidal as parents were bullying me. I didn't tell a single soul about my suicidal feelings except when I commented on a lady's blog post at the time saying I feel suicidal. She said it is because I have exhausted my coping mechanisms. This lady was in America (I think) and I am/was in UK. Anyway, this pastor in India after the prayer meeting said to me there is a lot of disappointment in me and asked me if I feel suicidal. Because my mum and aunt were around, I lied and said no. He said 'Deep down you feel suicidal.' At the time I thought it was Jesus who informed him of my suicidal feelings. Now I know it is not. But, I have no idea how he found out. I mean I can't even classify it as a lucky guess. It was too accurate to be just a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 1 minute ago, florduh said: A good reading is a great experience. Either cold or hot reading, it's an art form and some are masters. Of course, it is all fake, though impressive at times. I have been in the magic community since I was in high school. I live not too far from Cassadaga, the Las Vegas of mind readers. I'm even closer to Gibsonton, the home of the circus and carny crowd. I have attended many lectures and conventions on mental magic. I know several prominent psychics and teachers of the trade. I dabbled in it myself, but no matter what I told clients about it being an entertainment too many people actually believed I had "powers." Honestly, I couldn't take the pressure of deceiving them even though I tried to NOT deceive them. Some folks just want to believe. It's a magic trick, mentalism, and the techniques can be taught. That said, there are some people who actually believe in their own magic. They are naturals at reading body language and subtle clues to be found in a client's jewelry, dress, shoes, tattoos and so forth. They are frauds like all the rest, but they are sincere. Most provide an enjoyable or spooky experience whether sincere or not. Just remember it's entertainment. Did you read the article I wrote when I quoted Burnedout? If it is all fake and mind/body reading, how did the psychic in that article predict/sense the lady's future modelling and writing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 @florduh : after reading that lady's article, I am half-tempted to see this psychic guy I messaged to find out if there are any accidents or extremely bad/unpleasant experiences that are in my future that I can avoid. But, the problem is even in that article, that lady didn't tell her client when the disaster would happen. She just said it would happen in her 30s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 7, 2018 Super Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2018 4 minutes ago, Anushka said: Did you read the article I wrote when I quoted Burnedout? If it is all fake and mind/body reading, how did the psychic in that article predict/sense the lady's future modelling and writing? Yes, I read it. Are you familiar with the power of suggestion? If a reader gets a hit with a generalization such as "you are still searching for true love" or "you have many acquaintances but few close friends" or "you will have a minor health issue that will cause a visit to the hospital but it's nothing to worry about" and such, then when suggestions are made about following some career or hobby path that seems suitable the client will often consciously or subconsciously move toward those goals. Also, without being able to ascertain the validity or anecdotes we can hardly use them for proof of a magical realm. However, the desire to believe in magic is strong so psychics, ghost hunters, exorcists and churches continue to prosper even in the 21st Century. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToHellWithMe Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 If it's a choice between the fortune reader and that indian pastor, go for the fortune reader. I mean your description of the indian pastor gives me creeps. Imagine going to someone who seems sad an telling them "deep down you feel suicidial". Holy shit. At least with the fortune reader it's just a honest fraud where the money changes hands and everyone is happy and you walk away after the 30 minutes, no strings attached. Religious leaders work in more mysterious ways. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator TheRedneckProfessor Posted July 7, 2018 Super Moderator Share Posted July 7, 2018 There was a guy like your Indian friend who came to my parents' church while I was still attending. He was Mexican though. Anyway, he pointed to me personally, out of a crowd of about 1500 people ("You there, young man in the back with the green shirt, god has a message for you"). He asked me to come to the front of the church and "spoke" all manner of things over me. Many of the things he said were accurate; for example, he said that I had never been singled out like that before, which was true. Many of his "prophecies" also came to pass; he said that someday I would no longer be "just an electrician" (I changed careers after my deconversion). At the time, it really helped me, as that experience gave me hope and sustained my faith. It also encouraged the entire church, because it was commonly believed that god had a powerful plan for my life and many of the church members were grateful and excited because it looked like god was finally ready to drop his divine destiny onto me and launch me out into the ministry he had called me into. But a couple of weeks later, at the weekly men's prayer meeting, I heard a guy bragging to another guy that he had spoken to that Mexican dude about me and had basically set the whole thing up. That's my experience with that sort of thing. Keep in mind, though, that I am just one data point on the graph of human history. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealityCheck Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Short answer, you'll waste your money. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 45 minutes ago, RealityCheck said: Short answer, you'll waste your money. any personal experiences? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealityCheck Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 My mother got into this while I was in middle school. She has my fortune read as well as study how to do it herself. Every single prediction about me made has been hilariously off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 8, 2018 Author Share Posted July 8, 2018 1 hour ago, RealityCheck said: My mother got into this while I was in middle school. She has my fortune read as well as study how to do it herself. Every single prediction about me made has been hilariously off. Thank you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 On 7/6/2018 at 5:08 PM, Anushka said: ....just for fun... Bad idea? I saw this as one of the things to do instead of the internet. Do psychics really know your past/future? Because two years ago, my parents took me to an English church 2 hours away. That church invited a pastor from India. He said people's names and their spouses' names and their kid's names without having met them. It freaked me out. I have no idea how he did it. He asked these people in front of everyone if he met them before and they said no. i am serious about that pastor by the way. I actually saw it happening. so, psychic or no psychic? Will they scare me? If it is not that bad for me, don't give out too many spoilers in your answer thank you people!!!! If you are doing it for fun, enjoy the fun. But I wouldn't necessarily allow a psychic to influence my future decisions any more than anyone else. Nobody can decide your future more than you. Don't give up your mental/emotional sovereignty to a psychic. And if you do feel yourself employing some magical thinking, consider that divination is only part of the equation. Just because a psychic says X does not mean you are inexorably headed in that direction. That's a self-fulfilling prophecy in their favor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy " In other words, a positive or negative prophecy, strongly held belief, or delusion—declared as truth when it is actually false—may sufficiently influence people so that their reactions ultimately fulfill the once-false prophecy. " If someone has the 'psychic power' to divine some information about your future, you certainly have the 'power' (magical or mundane) to deny reality to that idea if you don't like it or strive toward it if you do like it. Btw, I had this vision that you were sending me $100 next week. Cash only please. Enjoy your psychic reading. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted July 8, 2018 Share Posted July 8, 2018 On 7/6/2018 at 5:41 PM, Anushka said: Ok I have no idea why the hell I did what I did. I just sent a message to a nearby psychic. He reads tarot cards and speaks to medium- I am assuming that is a spirit of a dead person. This guy is serious. He charges £30 for 30 minutes. Didn't decide to go to him. I will only go to him if I find a part-time job soon I googled psychics and palm-readers just for fun...but I don't think any psychic does it for fun. I think you could buy a wicked cool deck of tarot cards for 30 or 40 dollars and watch a youtube video on how to use em for free. Cut out the middle man (psychic) that way. lol. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealityCheck Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 If you're doing this for entertainment value, you can probably do something else with your £30 and not fund a charlatan. You can probably go to the movies three times with that money and get 5 - 6 hours of content instead. The possibilities are endless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Joshpantera Posted July 9, 2018 Moderator Share Posted July 9, 2018 On 7/6/2018 at 9:54 PM, florduh said: I have been in the magic community since I was in high school. I live not too far from Cassadaga, the Las Vegas of mind readers. I have an aunt practicing in Cassadaga. Strange bird, put it that way.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 On 7/6/2018 at 6:54 PM, Anushka said: The only way he could get that list is if someone in that church helped him. But, it is highly unlikely someone would do it as one, I don't see a motive for that 'someone' as it is not a megachurch; two, the church is Pentecostal and because it(the church) is not on TV, it is likely they have the fear of the Lord and wouldn't cheat the church members that way. That pastor was a guest pastor. He just came for a month and went back. ... Your apologetics are thin and demonstrate a desire/need to maintain magical thinking. He was there one month. Could he, or those that came with him (if anyone) have made a copy of the list themselves without assistance from a church member? Perhaps he simply overheard someone talking about that family and he memorized the names for future use. How many days after he arrived did you see him? Are there plausible, non-magical ways, he could have obtained the information? If he is a typical religious con artist, he would have found a way to con the gullible. And you fell for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anushka Posted July 9, 2018 Author Share Posted July 9, 2018 16 hours ago, sdelsolray said: Your apologetics are thin and demonstrate a desire/need to maintain magical thinking. He was there one month. Could he, or those that came with him (if anyone) have made a copy of the list themselves without assistance from a church member? Perhaps he simply overheard someone talking about that family and he memorized the names for future use. How many days after he arrived did you see him? Are there plausible, non-magical ways, he could have obtained the information? If he is a typical religious con artist, he would have found a way to con the gullible. And you fell for it. He did it for more than one family. He went to certain people and said their names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunea Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Maybe the guy saw the families on the church's Facebook page? There is very likely to be a very secular explanation, them putting up a show to get more money from that day's offerings even though they weren't getting on TV. I've had my share of encounters with "psychics". Before my deconversion, I met a bunch who were very dangerously wrong. We're talking about them claiming to know who is "the one" for me and who I must stay away from, what will be my career - all very very wrong, and they got upset with me when I couldn't not listen to my own gut and eventually did the opposite to their advice. A lot of this stuff I didn't even ask about, they just came up to me saying I must "know" these things! I don't even know why, they may have genuinely thought they were helping. Just now I remembered, I even got things like specific dates for when a relationship would end (it didn't), all this dare I say junk that had me worried until the dates had long gone by! All I got from it was confirmation that people claiming to be "psychic" may not "know" anything at all. I should have known that from having known schizophrenic people who "saw" things, but I needed yet another lesson, apparently. Tarot readings, group meditation etc can be great and empowering, but aside from the aesthetical value of it all (which matters a lot to me as well), when it comes to learning about my life, the most comes from watching myself, and finding out what my own reactions are to the pictures in the cards, or the mental images that other people might get about me in group meditation. As far as I can tell, most of "reading" is simply done by being observant and empathetic, and also paying attention to when exactly the client affirms that the reading is going in an interesting direction. This is a way to catch a charlatan, btw - affirm something that is not true at all, let them go on for a while, then tell them it's not true. I'm not saying there absolutely can't be anyone who talks to some kind of spirits, but personally I don't believe they're needed. Sometimes tarot or oracle cards can also work as a tool for voicing out what you (or the person doing the reading) wish/fear would happen in your life. Not really knowledge per se, but perhaps recognizing some potentials, and after all I've been through, I believe there is always more than one, and our choices will matter, sometimes in ways we don't expect. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwc Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 On 7/6/2018 at 5:30 PM, Anushka said: What about this: https://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/it-happened-to-me-a-palm-reading-ruined-my-life The "psychic" planted the ideas in her head. The modeling. The writing. The whole "fender bender" is her best guess at fulfillment of the tragedy. If fortune cookies could talk (and delivered the occasional bad news but they're nicer than that). Which leads me to the spotlighting. You're seeing the "hits." Do you think if this gal had made it to 40 without anything happening there would be an article? Any report for you to seize on to know this "psychic" failed miserably? Are there any stats at all for this "psychics" hit/miss ratio? Is this person the only success? Out of tens? Hundreds? Thousands? You should want to know things like that. I'm sure they'll self-report very high success rates. I'm sure they'll count cold/hot reading tricks (go to YouTube if you haven't already) as successes. But a few wild-guesses that happen to come true aren't really signs of any psychic ability. Lots of people have accidents. It's statistics. An (attractive) person going into modeling isn't a stretch. And lots of people want to write but never do. These aren't amazing things to tell a person and if they come to pass aren't out the realm of imagination. mwc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted July 10, 2018 Super Moderator Share Posted July 10, 2018 Believers want to believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 On 7/9/2018 at 11:04 AM, Anushka said: He did it for more than one family. He went to certain people and said their names. Again, your continued apologetics are shallow and demonstrate, at least to me, that you are addicted to magical thinking. Live with it, or deal with it. Asking for acceptance or approval is infantile and cowardly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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