I watched Long Island Medium last night ...

[Home'scool]

and sobbed the whole time!

 

It was the episode with the older woman who had lost her daughter at age two. It just had me reaching for the tissues.

 

The next episode had her doing a reading for a 30 year old woman who had lost her husband. The medium asked her the significance of the color blue (it was the husband's favorite color and the wife had buried him in a blue casket) and about the note he had written her right before he died (he sent her a text saying how beautiful she was and how lucky he was to be married to her - he died that night)

 

I wish I would run into this woman some day. She seems amazing.

[dsmith]

The commercial that has been showing always tears me up! I meant to watch it but I forgot.

[WishboneDawn]

She's an amazing cold reader.

 

I don't think the fact that she's presented as a medium with psychic powers is so amazing though.:glare:

 

A good look at what she really does and how she does it.

Edited September 17, 2012 by WishboneDawn

[Home'scool]

I know the argument for cold reading, and I also know that shows can be edited to cut out sections to put her in the best light, but I still believe she is not a hoax.

 

 

I used a medium once, and he was definitely not doing a cold reading. He knew specific names and specific details. There was no fishing around.

 

Examples:

He started the conversation by asking me who Jane was (my stepmother), who Terri was (my mother-in-law) and who Tommy was. When I was confused on which Tommy he was refering to (my cousin or a friend from college who passed away - not that I told him that. I just said I knew a few Tommy's and wasn't sure which one he was referring to), he said "Tommy, who has a daughter named Gabby." Well, that is my cousin. This all came within the first minute of the reading, with no fishing or asking of initials or anything like that. He would simply say "Who is named Terri?" Or "I see a father figure around you named Pat. He is not your real father because your real father is alive, but he is a strong father figure." And he was right every.single.time.

 

Another example: while talking to me about my step father, who passed away years ago, he asked me "why does he keep showing me his palm?" I had no idea, but he kept pressing me. Finally I said "well, my step father had a lot of money. Is he showing you his palm to say he had money?"

 

Now, if this guy was a hoax, I think at this point he would have said "Yes, that is it! He is showing me his hands to say he had a lot of money!" I mean, if you are doing a cold reading and you throw something out there and it sticks, why not go with it?

 

Instead, he kept saying that wasn't it. And he didn't let it go. Again, if he was "guessing", he wasn't having any luck with it you would think he would move on.

 

After a few minutes he said "Who is Marty? I see a person named Marty that was very close with your stepfather." Marty is not really a common name. And he didn't say "Who has a name that starts with M?" or anything along those lines. He simply said, "Who is named Marty? Marty is with him and is saying that they worked together with their hands."

 

Marty was my stepfather's brother. They worked together in my stepfather's plumbing company. They worked with their hands every day.

 

He also specifically knew the last name of the boy my daughter was going to prom with, as well as the name of that boy's sister. Again, no fishing, just stated right out "Why am I seeing the name Habel?" Again, not a common name, and we hadn't even discussed me having a daughter. When I said "Well, my daughter is going to prom with a boy with that last name, is that who you mean?", he said "I see the name Jesse associated with him. Does that make sense?" Jesse is his sister, who my daughter had never even met.

 

I know some people say that these mediums can do research ahead of time, but he only had my first name. And even if he had my full name, how would he get info on my stepfather who passed away 20 years ago. Or my distant cousin, who I haven't seen in years and his daughter. Or even more vague, my daughter's prom date?!? I mean, that is a lot or research! It would take him a long time, and a lot of work, to get those details. It would not be worth the money for him to do that.

 

That's just my two cents. I think that there are a lot of charlatans out there. And a lot of them do cold readings. But that does not mean every one of them do.

 

I like to think that I am smart enough to know when I am being taken for a ride, and after my experience with a medium, no one can convince me I gave away the information this guy knew.

[Jpoy85]

On a Fertility forum there are tons of Psychics who do conception readings. Ive had a few of those done and they were wrong every time. " You'll get BFP/Conceive/Find Out In/Or give birth in Oct 12 with a boy".

 

I did pay for an in depth reading from one at one point and she did the whole initial thing " Someone with an T and A and has blonde hair".... but when i asked specific names she couldnt tell me if i was right.

[Home'scool]

I think there are probably more fakes than legits, kwim?

 

You can usually tell the fakes because they are so general, or just guess at initials.

 

The real ones know names. And obscure details.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Home'scool

[WishboneDawn]

I know the argument for cold reading' date=' and I also know that shows can be edited to cut out sections to put her in the best light, but I still believe she is not a hoax.

 

 

I used a medium once, and he was definitely not doing a cold reading. He knew specific names and specific details. There was no fishing around.

 

Examples:

He started the conversation by asking me who Jane was (my stepmother), who Terri was (my mother-in-law) and who Tommy was. When I was confused on which Tommy he was refering to (my cousin or a friend from college who passed away - not that I told him that. I just said I knew a few Tommy's and wasn't sure which one he was referring to), he said "Tommy, who has a daughter named Gabby." Well, that is my cousin. This all came within the first minute of the reading, with no fishing or asking of initials or anything like that. He would simply say "Who is named Terri?" Or "I see a father figure around you named Pat. He is not your real father because your real father is alive, but he is a strong father figure." And he was right every.single.time.

 

Another example: while talking to me about my step father, who passed away years ago, he asked me "why does he keep showing me his palm?" I had no idea, but he kept pressing me. Finally I said "well, my step father had a lot of money. Is he showing you his palm to say he had money?"

 

Now, if this guy was a hoax, I think at this point he would have said "Yes, that is it! He is showing me his hands to say he had a lot of money!" I mean, if you are doing a cold reading and you throw something out there and it sticks, why not go with it?

 

Instead, he kept saying that wasn't it. And he didn't let it go. Again, if he was "guessing", he wasn't having any luck with it you would think he would move on.

 

After a few minutes he said "Who is Marty? I see a person named Marty that was very close with your stepfather." Marty is not really a common name. And he didn't say "Who has a name that starts with M?" or anything along those lines. He simply said, "Who is named Marty? Marty is with him and is saying that they worked together with their hands."

 

Marty was my stepfather's brother. They worked together in my stepfather's plumbing company. They worked with their hands every day.

 

He also specifically knew the last name of the boy my daughter was going to prom with, as well as the name of that boy's sister. Again, no fishing, just stated right out "Why am I seeing the name Habel?" Again, not a common name, and we hadn't even discussed me having a daughter. When I said "Well, my daughter is going to prom with a boy with that last name, is that who you mean?", he said "I see the name Jesse associated with him. Does that make sense?" Jesse is his sister, who my daughter had never even met.

 

I know some people say that these mediums can do research ahead of time, but he only had my first name. And even if he had my full name, how would he get info on my stepfather who passed away 20 years ago. Or my distant cousin, who I haven't seen in years and his daughter. Or even more vague, my daughter's prom date?!? I mean, that is a lot or research! It would take him a long time, and a lot of work, to get those details. It would not be worth the money for him to do that.

 

That's just my two cents. I think that there are a lot of charlatans out there. And a lot of them do cold readings. But that does not mean every one of them do.

 

I like to think that I am smart enough to know when I am being taken for a ride, and after my experience with a medium, no one can convince me I gave away the information this guy knew.[/quote']

 

I think there are a lot of very talented readers out there who can do it without leaving obvious clues. I also think nothing you've experienced proves he wasn't a reader, just that he was a very good one.

 

Spotting them is not a matter of intelligence at all but of how informed you are about their methods and how objective we can be in the middle of an emotionally charged situation.

 

I once had an experience with a faith healer. I had burned a couple of my fingers very badly on a curling iron just before going to work. It was very painful. She offered her services and said some words as she swept her hand over the burns for a small period of time.

 

It worked! The pain was gone and it didn't return. Do I think she's a faith healer? No. I think she believed she was but I think she was actually extremely talented at distraction and inducing a placebo effect - so talented that even skeptical me benefited by it.

 

I've watched magicians perform tricks knowing how they did those tricks and still been unable to see how they did it but I don't assume they use magic. Good cold/hot readers can do what you've described without letting on to you (or sometimes even themselves) how they did it so again, I'll assume the more reasonable explanation, that they're good readers rather then psychics.

 

ETA: One other thing to mention is that your account is from memory. No transcripts or recordings exist and memories have a habit of filling in details. Again, not a function of intelligence. I've noticed it in myself.

Edited September 17, 2012 by WishboneDawn