Comments on: Popular Delusions II: Talking to the Dead

By: MissCherryPi

MissCherryPi — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:49:23 +0000

Sylvia Browne is the worst ever. Montell Williams gives her a whole hour of his show every damn Wednesday, and I don't know why. Someone in my family watches it and it's like a train wreck for me. Today there was a woman on saying she had bruises on her body and didn't know why and she saw demons in her house every night and they talked to her. She said the demons also haunted her father. I know everyone wasn't a psychology major like me, but HELLO?? This woman has schizophrenia and needs to go to a hospital, and no one helped her today. She had a little boy to take care of, for goodness sakes. It was sickening. Call your tv station and complain or something. Psychics for "entertainment" are one thing, but this is morally wrong.

By: Ebonmuse

Ebonmuse — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:34:20 +0000

Excellent point, tobe. That hadn't occurred to me, but now that I think about it, that almost certainly is the answer to my question. I think you nailed it.

By: tobe38

tobe38 — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:43:17 +0000

I think many people go to these mediums not to say something, but to hear something. You Americans have a word for it - closure. I've been through a bereavement and anyone else who has will tell you, you always feel guilty about something. I could have done this, or I shouldn't have said that. I wish I could have a quid for every time I've heard John Edwards say "the thing you're feeling guilty about? He/she forgives you". To which the subject smiles with a tear in their eye. It's a winner everytime.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 03:20:24 +0000

The South Park episode on Edwards is good too!

By: Ebonmuse

Ebonmuse — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:29:00 +0000

An excellent idea. I've always wondered why people who attend these shows seem content to sit down again after being provided with a few meaningless generalities and standard trite platitudes about their departed loved one. Don't they come because they have something important to them to say?

By: tobe38

tobe38 — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 19:00:50 +0000

Just another thought occured to me. When you see a medium like John Edwards giving a reading, the communication is entirely one way. I'd love, and I mean really LOVE to see a subject say something along the lines of,

"and now, since my loved one is standing right next to you and talking in your ear, perhaps I could ask them some specific questions I've always wanted to ask and they could tell you the answers?"

It would never be broadcast, but the look on his face would be priceless.

By the way, has anyone seen that episode of Family Guy where they take the mickey out of John Edwards? It's brilliant!

By: Mikidu

Mikidu — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 04:56:20 +0000

I've often wondered why the dear departed can only remember the first letter of their names. Could it be due to the operation of some law of supernatural physics that the remaining letters become erased from memory on passing over?

By: Rowan

Rowan — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 03:00:02 +0000

(on tobe38's comment, and similar to talking to the deas:)
As James Randi said: "If Uri Geller really is bending spoons with his mind, then he's doing it the hard way."
Thanks, Adam. I also like Penn and Teller's Bullshit episode, and Skeptico:
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2006/05/john_edward_rer.html

By: Ian B Gibson

Ian B Gibson — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 22:45:58 +0000

For example, why do mediums, if they are for real, not speak to the spirits of people of great significance, such as famous scientists, authors, philosophers or statesmen? Imagine how much progress we could make in physics, biology, medicine or virtually any other scientific field if the greatest minds throughout history were brought together to collaborate through a psychic-mediated conference call!

Surely you jest? Do you not realise how vague the information coming from the 'other side' is? It's hard enough for these poor mediums to discern the first letter of someone's name, so how could they possibly facilitate scientific discourse or transpose unwritten literary masterpieces?

'Okay, Mr Einstein. Mr Schrodinger is saying something about an animal, possibly his pet. I'm getting a feline, but I think it's locked in some kind of container, and it might have some health problems. Possibly related to the chest area, I'm not sure. Does this mean anything to you...?'

That would be one hell of a laborious way to progress human knowledge!

By: lpetrich

lpetrich — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:31:48 +0000

This reminds me of how a century ago, physicist R.W. Wood took on a medium who had been channeling the ghost of physicist Lord Rayleigh, asking some questions about mathematical physics. The ghost was silent.

Someone also tried that with someone who had channeled the ghost of physicist Albert Einstein, but the channeler explained that the death experience had wiped AE's soul clean of any memories of mathematical physics.

I think a clear giveaway would be what language(s) the ghosts would speak. It's doubtful that they'd speak the exact same language as their channelers, accent, vocabulary, grammar, idioms, slang, and all. So if someone channels William Shakespeare or Thomas Jefferson or Mark Twain and they use the term "bullshit" a lot, one has to be suspicious, because the term "bullshit" is first recorded around 1915 and came into common use during World War II (source: this Wikipedia article).

And it gets even worse for people who originally spoke foreign languages, especially long-ago ones. If someone channels Julius Caesar and he sounds like he's speaking high-school Latin with a Church Latin pronunciation... Or someone channels Socrates and he sounds like he's speaking Modern Greek...