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Are All Psychics & Fortune Tellers Fakes?

If psychic powers exist, it's likely they are not something that is switched-on 100% of the time and, perhaps, something over which the person has little control. I think this is why the Amazing Randi has never had to pay-out on his million dollar challenge. You can't force your brain to be creative or brilliant. Perhaps you can't be psychic on demand either.
 
For me, psychic and fortune teller are different things.

For example, I used to do tarot readings. I had a few store-bought decks, and I even made my own deck, which I still use. I don't believe I'm psychic. I don't believe I have any supernatural powers, no spiritual connection. My deck is just ink and paper.

I have a pet theory about tarot. Ready? Tarot is what we had before "therapy". A person comes to the tarot reader with a problem: love problems, money problems, life decisions, people problems, etc.

The tarot is very open-ended and ambiguous. You read what you WANT to read. A good tarot reader doesn't just put down cards. They explore with the individual what the problem is, and through the cards explore the sources of the problem, possible solutions, and what effects different actions could have. It helps people make a choice, but a good reader gets the individual talking. A good reader avoids suggestion, manipulation. They let the cards lead the person towards a choice they feel comfortable with, and that fits their moral balance.

So while tarot is generally considered fortune-telling, I'd consider it a kind of therapy for the pre-psychologist world. I'd image crystal balls and tea leaves are similar.
 
For me, psychic and fortune teller are different things.

For example, I used to do tarot readings. I had a few store-bought decks, and I even made my own deck, which I still use. I don't believe I'm psychic. I don't believe I have any supernatural powers, no spiritual connection. My deck is just ink and paper.

I have a pet theory about tarot. Ready? Tarot is what we had before "therapy". A person comes to the tarot reader with a problem: love problems, money problems, life decisions, people problems, etc.

The tarot is very open-ended and ambiguous. You read what you WANT to read. A good tarot reader doesn't just put down cards. They explore with the individual what the problem is, and through the cards explore the sources of the problem, possible solutions, and what effects different actions could have. It helps people make a choice, but a good reader gets the individual talking. A good reader avoids suggestion, manipulation. They let the cards lead the person towards a choice they feel comfortable with, and that fits their moral balance.

So while tarot is generally considered fortune-telling, I'd consider it a kind of therapy for the pre-psychologist world. I'd image crystal balls and tea leaves are similar.
How do you pick cards in Tarot? You chose depending on what you think the life situation of the "client" is? In other words: cold reading and guessing?
 
I've weirded out several people by somehow knowing things about them that I shouldn't have known, and by telling them things I couldn't have known about. I cannot say if this is 'psychic' ability or not. It's not something that is planned, it just pops into my head.

I think that maybe I can 'read' people fairly well, I can unconciously pick up small clues and gauge their feelings and intentions? It could be described as a kind of emotional intelligence, perhaps.

I have put my people-reading skills to the test a few times as a minor party trick, reading very small facial expressions and pre-verbal clues (ie the words that are about to be spoken). Cold reading is rather fun to pick apart, too.

I have had several premonitive dreams that were highly distressing, but again this is not proof of any kind of super-normal ability.

My opinion of the OP's question is that anyone who publically claims to be 'A Psychic' probably is a fake. The thought of charging money for what insights pop into my head is anathema to me; in fact it makes me feel quite ill. Generally it's nice to know how someone is feeling but there are occasions where it's distressing or draining and I'd rather not know.
 
... I have a pet theory about tarot. Ready? Tarot is what we had before "therapy". A person comes to the tarot reader with a problem: love problems, money problems, life decisions, people problems, etc.

The tarot is very open-ended and ambiguous. You read what you WANT to read. A good tarot reader doesn't just put down cards. They explore with the individual what the problem is, and through the cards explore the sources of the problem, possible solutions, and what effects different actions could have. It helps people make a choice, but a good reader gets the individual talking. A good reader avoids suggestion, manipulation. They let the cards lead the person towards a choice they feel comfortable with, and that fits their moral balance.

So while tarot is generally considered fortune-telling, I'd consider it a kind of therapy for the pre-psychologist world. ...

That's the explicit approach I took in using / reading Tarot cards back in the 1970's through the 1990's. I made a point to tell the querent the reading had nothing to do with predicting the future, but rather focused on portraying the situation he / she was in.
 
How do you pick cards in Tarot? You chose depending on what you think the life situation of the "client" is? In other words: cold reading and guessing?
Cards are laid out face-down and chosen randomly. But each card's meaning is so vague, that you could take almost any 11 cards and do a kind of reading on a problem.

For example, the "Death" card is (unlike the movies) hardly ever about a death. It's about change. "The Lovers" doesn't mean you're going to fall in love. It's about choice. So you could take those cards and it can become anything, so yes, very much cold reading, but I wouldn't call it guessing, since I'd feed the ambiguous meaning to the individual, and then THEY supply the actual relevance.

For comparison, watch Derren Brown "read minds".
 
If psychic powers exist, it's likely they are not something that is switched-on 100% of the time and, perhaps, something over which the person has little control. I think this is why the Amazing Randi has never had to pay-out on his million dollar challenge. You can't force your brain to be creative or brilliant. Perhaps you can't be psychic on demand either.

Unfortunately you sometimes have to train your brain to be creative or brilliant on demand, if you are in that field of work. I'm an author. If I'm on a deadline then my brain HAS to be creative whether it wants to be or not. Usually it doesn't and I have to wrestle it, kicking and screaming to the laptop. So maybe there is a way of training yourself to be more receptive?
 
Unfortunately you sometimes have to train your brain to be creative or brilliant on demand, if you are in that field of work. I'm an author. If I'm on a deadline then my brain HAS to be creative whether it wants to be or not. Usually it doesn't and I have to wrestle it, kicking and screaming to the laptop. So maybe there is a way of training yourself to be more receptive?

I'm an author (only one book so far), an occasional poet, song writer, and a regular writer in a number of forums and other outlets. I can't always force myself to be creative, but I can always write something. It requires the basic skills of composition, an understanding of grammar, and a subject to write about. I'm a folk singer and musician and I perform for fun at folk clubs and music sessions. I don't always sing or play at my best, but I can always knock out a simple song or tune if asked.

Power is the ability to deploy a skill or a resource in order to further your objectives. If someone has a "psychic power" over which they have no control, so they cannot deploy it to further their objectives, it is not really a "power" so much as a symptom.

Semantics aside, though, it is remarkable how someone like Uri Geller could demonstrate his abilities in a range of circumstances that involved carefully selected circumstances, receptive audiences, and remuneration, but he could not display them on demand on the Johnny Carson show.

Here's a scale of credibility:
  1. If I told you I could juggle 9 clubs but that I was unable to even juggle 3 bean bags if anyone was watching me or filming me, you would probably laugh derisively.
  2. If I said that I could juggle 9 clubs, but not if someone was watching or filming me, and I offered no further evidence, you would have no reason to believe I could juggle 9 clubs.
  3. If you saw me juggling 3 bean bags, and I told you I could juggle 9 clubs in private, you might be heartily sceptical.
  4. If I demonstrated that I could reliably juggle 8 clubs, and then told you that I occasionally managed 9 when there was no one there to put me off, you might be inclined to believe me.
So, far, all of the people who have claimed psychic powers have been in categories 1 and 2 in this list when they have been put to the test.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of psychic powers at level 3 in this list. Anecdotal evidence is notoriously unreliable, especially when it is evidence of something that the witness wants to believe is true.

Show me someone who can consistently "mind read' images on cards with results significantly better than random, under experimental conditions, and I will provisionally put them in category 4.
 
That is it! Psychic 'power' that doesn't manifest on command is more of a 'glitch' than a power.

The film Mystery Men, where Invisible Boy can only turn invisible when nobody is watching springs to mind.
 
I'm an author (only one book so far), an occasional poet, song writer, and a regular writer in a number of forums and other outlets. I can't always force myself to be creative, but I can always write something. It requires the basic skills of composition, an understanding of grammar, and a subject to write about. I'm a folk singer and musician and I perform for fun at folk clubs and music sessions. I don't always sing or play at my best, but I can always knock out a simple song or tune if asked.

Power is the ability to deploy a skill or a resource in order to further your objectives. If someone has a "psychic power" over which they have no control, so they cannot deploy it to further their objectives, it is not really a "power" so much as a symptom.

Semantics aside, though, it is remarkable how someone like Uri Geller could demonstrate his abilities in a range of circumstances that involved carefully selected circumstances, receptive audiences, and remuneration, but he could not display them on demand on the Johnny Carson show.

Here's a scale of credibility:
  1. If I told you I could juggle 9 clubs but that I was unable to even juggle 3 bean bags if anyone was watching me or filming me, you would probably laugh derisively.
  2. If I said that I could juggle 9 clubs, but not if someone was watching or filming me, and I offered no further evidence, you would have no reason to believe I could juggle 9 clubs.
  3. If you saw me juggling 3 bean bags, and I told you I could juggle 9 clubs in private, you might be heartily sceptical.
  4. If I demonstrated that I could reliably juggle 8 clubs, and then told you that I occasionally managed 9 when there was no one there to put me off, you might be inclined to believe me.
So, far, all of the people who have claimed psychic powers have been in categories 1 and 2 in this list when they have been put to the test.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence of psychic powers at level 3 in this list. Anecdotal evidence is notoriously unreliable, especially when it is evidence of something that the witness wants to believe is true.

Show me someone who can consistently "mind read' images on cards with results significantly better than random, under experimental conditions, and I will provisionally put them in category 4.

I'm wholly unconvinced that the ability/inability to read images on cards ( or indeed any other scientific test ) is proof of the absence or existence of psychic or mediumship skills. But being a believer myself (and believe me I believe in very little) you would expect me to say that wouldn't you?;)
 
I'm wholly unconvinced that the ability/inability to read images on cards ( or indeed any other scientific test ) is proof of the absence or existence of psychic or mediumship skills. But being a believer myself (and believe me I believe in very little) you would expect me to say that wouldn't you?;)

The ability to read the cards (by which I mean, to correctly predict, without trickery, what is shown on a card that is not visible to the psychic) would be evidence of an ability so far not known to science. If it were to be done with suitable safeguards to prevent charlatanism, and the psychic was consistently right, significantly more often than random guesses, then it would have proved something. Whether you choose to call that "psychic" or use some other label, it would be of that ilk.

Inability to read cards is evidence of nothing except that you cannot read cards.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The fact that no one has yet demonstrated the ability under experimental conditions does not mean that the ability does not, or cannot, exist.

However, absence of evidence that would normally be expected to be available is evidence (but not proof) that the phenomenon does not exist. After all these years, decades, maybe centuries of people searching fr the evidence and offering prizes to anyone who can demonstrate the ability, the fact that no one has done so is at least strongly suggestive that the ability does not exist.

Comparison: reasonable evidence:
I spent 11 years in an insurance fraud investigation team. Evidence merely points towards (or away from) something, but proof definitely establishes that it is (or is not) the case.

If a customer said that they had a 6 year old hammer drill stolen from their garage, the fact that they did not have a receipt or manual would not automatically invalidate their claim. The absence of evidence would not prove that they did not have the drill. It is not an unreasonable claim and the absence of evidence is not unusual in the circumstances, and the claim would normally be paid.

Now imagine a customer who says that he had a month old Rolex watch worth £5,000 stolen. He cannot provide a receipt, manual, guarantee, certificate of authenticity, or bank or credit card statement showing the purchase. He has no photos of himself wearing the watch. He cannot identify the jeweller who sold it, or describe the watch in detail. he has no crime reference number. There was no damage to their door or window locks, and no sign of the alarm being activated.

The theft of a fairly new £5,000 prestige watch is extraordinary, and some, probably most, of the evidence listed would normally be available.

The insurance company would be entitled to refer to the absence of evidence that would normally be expected to be available, and reject the claim. However, they would not have proved that the claim was fraudulent; the customer would have failed to prove that it was valid.

Carl Sagan was not quite right when he said "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" but it is certainly the case that extraordinary claims require more evidence to back them up than routine and unsurprising claims.
 
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Show me someone who can consistently "mind read' images on cards with results significantly better than random, under experimental conditions, and I will provisionally put them in category 4.
This. I've yet to see such though.
That is it! Psychic 'power' that doesn't manifest on command is more of a 'glitch' than a power.
Or even more like "occasional lucky guesses".
 
The ability to read the cards (by which I mean, to correctly predict, without trickery, what is shown on a card that is not visible to the psychic) would be evidence of an ability so far not known to science. If it were to be done with suitable safeguards to prevent charlatanism, and the psychic was consistently right, significantly more often than random guesses, then it would have proved something. Whether you choose to call that "psychic" or use some other label, it would be of that ilk.

Inability to read cards is evidence of nothing except that you cannot read cards.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The fact that no one has yet demonstrated the ability under experimental conditions does not mean that the ability does not, or cannot, exist.

However, absence of evidence that would normally be expected to be available is evidence (but not proof) that the phenomenon does not exist. After all these years, decades, maybe centuries of people searching fr the evidence and offering prizes to anyone who can demonstrate the ability, the fact that no one has done so is at least strongly suggestive that the ability does not exist.

Comparison: reasonable evidence:
I spent 11 years in an insurance fraud investigation team. Evidence merely points towards (or away from) something, but proof definitely establishes that it is (or is not) the case.

If a customer said that they had a 6 year old hammer drill stolen from their garage, the fact that they did not have a receipt or manual would not automatically invalidate their claim. The absence of evidence would not prove that they did not have the drill. It is not an unreasonable claim and the absence of evidence is not unusual in the circumstances, and the claim would normally be paid.

Now imagine a customer who says that he had a month old Rolex watch worth £5,000 stolen. He cannot provide a receipt, manual, guarantee, certificate of authenticity, or bank or credit card statement showing the purchase. He has no photos of himself wearing the watch. He cannot identify the jeweller who sold it, or describe the watch in detail. he has no crime reference number. There was no damage to their door or window locks, and no sign of the alarm being activated.

The theft of a fairly new £5,000 prestige watch is extraordinary, and some, probably most, of the evidence listed would normally be available.

The insurance company would be entitled to refer to the absence of evidence that would normally be expected to be available, and reject the claim. However, they would not have proved that the claim was fraudulent; the customer would have failed to prove that it was valid.

Carl Sagan was not quite right when he said "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" but it is certainly the case that extraordinary claims require more evidence to back them up than routine and unsurprising claims.
Yep I spent 25 years investigating insurance fraud so I get you. Psychic ability or evidence thereof is a different matter. True psychics have absolutely nothing to prove- why should they have? I have had proof and that is all I need. As I've said before it is an ultimately fruitless discourse - those who believe will continue to believe, those who don't, won't. Similarly with the existence of aliens, ghosts, ufos , timeslips, and a lot of other aspects of the esoteric which are discussed on this forum.
 
Psychic ability or evidence thereof is a different matter.

It really isn't.

True psychics have absolutely nothing to prove- why should they have? I have had proof and that is all I need.

Well OK, but once you try to present such thing or beliefs as fact, then you can expect to get some figurative stick. If you believe you've had proof, you've no need to share it and if you share it, expect others to insists on more evidence than just your word. That's not a fault in their thinking at all.

As I've said before it is an ultimately fruitless discourse - those who believe will continue to believe, those who don't, won't. Similarly with the existence of aliens, ghosts, ufos , timeslips, and a lot of other aspects of the esoteric which are discussed on this forum.

Half correct, I'd opine. It's certainly the case that many who believe in (for example) UFOs as some kind of paranormal or alien event are less 'Ufologist' and far more 'Ufologian', i.e. 'believers'. cf. 'Christians'.

'Ufology' then is a belief system, 'Ufologism', and the 'evidence' tends to be articles of faith which one may not question or you are a skeptic cf. heretic. So I agree, little point in debating. One might as well debate a committed monotheist on the existence of God.

Does it matter? I'd argue the 'ians' with their dogma and unwillingness to collect and collate data scientifically, are obscuring and retarding any serious study of such phenomena. Much like homeopathy has hindered serious research into the nature of the placebo effect.
 
Yep I spent 25 years investigating insurance fraud so I get you. Psychic ability or evidence thereof is a different matter. True psychics have absolutely nothing to prove- why should they have? I have had proof and that is all I need. As I've said before it is an ultimately fruitless discourse - those who believe will continue to believe, those who don't, won't. Similarly with the existence of aliens, ghosts, ufos , timeslips, and a lot of other aspects of the esoteric which are discussed on this forum.

If a "true psychic" (assuming such exists) publicises the fact that they have psychic abilities, then it is reasonable to assume that they have a motive for doing so. Very often, although not always, the motive for publicising alleged psychic abilities is financial. Whatever the reason, if they make the claim, they lay themselves open to being asked to substantiate it.

However, I agree that the 'true psychic" who chooses to keep quiet about it has nothing to prove to anyone else.

"Those who believe will continue to believe." I know what you mean here, but belief has a range of meanings and there are at least two cases to consider:
  1. Those who believe because they wish to believe. This can reasonably be compared to a religious faith: belief as a matter of principle, regardless of the absence or presence of evidence. I agree that such people are unlikely to be persuaded because they have no desire to be. There may be rare exceptions associated with some traumatic life event, just as some committed atheists "find God" and some devout religionists lose their faith.
  2. Those who believe because they have used what analytical powers they possess to consider what evidence has been presented to them. These people have approached the problem in a fairly scientific way and may change their beliefs if they are shown (a) a clear fault in their analysis (2) flaws in the evidence they have considered, or (3) new evidence.
 
If a "true psychic" (assuming such exists) publicises the fact that they have psychic abilities, then it is reasonable to assume that they have a motive for doing so. Very often, although not always, the motive for publicising alleged psychic abilities is financial. Whatever the reason, if they make the claim, they lay themselves open to being asked to substantiate it.

However, I agree that the 'true psychic" who chooses to keep quiet about it has nothing to prove to anyone else.

"Those who believe will continue to believe." I know what you mean here, but belief has a range of meanings and there are at least two cases to consider:
  1. Those who believe because they wish to believe. This can reasonably be compared to a religious faith: belief as a matter of principle, regardless of the absence or presence of evidence. I agree that such people are unlikely to be persuaded because they have no desire to be. There may be rare exceptions associated with some traumatic life event, just as some committed atheists "find God" and some devout religionists lose their faith.
  2. Those who believe because they have used what analytical powers they possess to consider what evidence has been presented to them. These people have approached the problem in a fairly scientific way and may change their beliefs if they are shown (a) a clear fault in their analysis (2) flaws in the evidence they have considered, or (3) new evidence.
One final point here. I am not setting myself up as some kind of defender of the faith and I don't defend my stance on the matter. It concerns me not whether people believe or not. I know what happened to me and my first post on the forum was solely to share my experience. All such experiences (ghosts etc) are inevitably anecdotal and whether we believe or not is down to the individual. As I have stated before it's a never ending debate with strong views on every side, and uncovering the esoteric is always fascinating, no matter what your beliefs are.
 
It really isn't.

Sorry disagree.

Well OK, but once you try to present such thing or beliefs as fact, then you can expect to get some figurative stick. If you believe you've had proof, you've no need to share it and if you share it, expect others to insists on more evidence than just your word. That's not a fault in their thinking at all.

I can take all the stick anyone wishes to give out.:)



Does it matter? I'd argue the 'ians' with their dogma and unwillingness to collect and collate data scientifically, are obscuring and retarding any serious study of such phenomena. Much like homeopathy has hindered serious research into the nature of the placebo effect.

Again I disagree - my view is that there is no need for scientific study of the esoteric. Only my view obviously.
 
Again I disagree - my view is that there is no need for scientific study of the esoteric. Only my view obviously.
Isn't that still presenting an opinion as a form of proof or as a fact?
Those who believe because they have used what analytical powers they possess to consider what evidence has been presented to them. These people have approached the problem in a fairly scientific way and may change their beliefs if they are shown (a) a clear fault in their analysis (2) flaws in the evidence they have considered, or (3) new evidence.
That's true as standalone statement; but, and this is a critical point, our own observations on things which happen to us are nearly fatally flawed by cognitive biases so insidious, you can believe you're analysing your own experiences objectively and you're really:
Just not recalling any contrary evidence, misinterpreting existing evidence, interpreting situations according to one's own beliefs, interpreting data according to the current zeitgeist, are overconfident in one's own answers to questions about said data...

The list is very long. It's utterly inevitable that one bends the facts to one's theory and there are loads of procedural valid studies that show just this. Hundreds and hundreds.

So even this self-rational approach is utterly unreliable. That's why scientific method exists, because good scientists know they cannot rely on their own observations and memory, as both are flawed and worse, you just can't tell when they are wrong.

When I see controlled double-blind replicated experiments showing evidence of psychic powers (of any sort), I'll consider them with care and great interest. Until such time, there are for me two categories of psychic/fortune teller:

(1) charlatans
(2) the self-deceiving
 
The list is very long. It's utterly inevitable that one bends the facts to one's theory and there are loads of procedural valid studies that show just this. Hundreds and hundreds.

Until such time, there are for me two categories of psychic/fortune teller:

(1) charlatans
(2) the self-deceiving

Once I started to believe in confirmation bias, the amount of evidence for it seemed to mount rapidly.

Charlatans need to be exposed as they exploit the gullible and cause financial and emotional harm.

The self deceiving may also cause similar harm, or they may quietly keep their private beliefs to themselves. In the latter case, unless they are a friend and I see that it is making them unhappy, it is no business of mine.
 
Start with a biggie. Does God exist ?
The only empirical way to test for the existence of God is to take a Universe with God in it and compare it to a Universe without God in it and apply the measured differences to our Universe.
This is not possible. But that does not mean the question is not important, or valid or even that it cannot be answered one day. It is simply not a scientific question - you have to apply another branch of Natural Philosophy.
I have a background in Science and every Scientist and Researcher I knew believed in God. But their belief had no more or less validity than anyone else simply because they're Scientists.

Smaller. Do ghosts, ESP and UFO's exist ?
The answer is 42, what is the question ? Before any meaningful discussion/argument we have to have a clear definition of what we all mean by these terms. Phrase the question well and you're usually half way to the answer.

Odds and Sods. What about Hypnosis and water Dowsing ?
Would some-one please tell me if hypnosis is a hoax or not. I can get it on the NHS but there doesn't seem to be many scientific papers on if it works or how it works (I personally find the subject fascinating).
Fact: Farmers do not spend money on things that do not work or have no benefit. I watched a Dowser find an underground spring in a field and tell the Farmer its direction, depth and approximate flow-rate. He came recommended by other Farmers and was a couple of Grand cheaper than the local Water Board. When I attended an open day with a local Dowsing group, something was going on with my rods but no explanation given. The wild-eyed crone with the pendulum seemed to have blended every single New Age belief possible into her ethos. Good for her. Where are the scientific papers ?
 
Isn't that still presenting an opinion as a form of proof or as a fact?

That's true as standalone statement; but, and this is a critical point, our own observations on things which happen to us are nearly fatally flawed by cognitive biases so insidious, you can believe you're analysing your own experiences objectively and you're really:
Just not recalling any contrary evidence, misinterpreting existing evidence, interpreting situations according to one's own beliefs, interpreting data according to the current zeitgeist, are overconfident in one's own answers to questions about said data...

The list is very long. It's utterly inevitable that one bends the facts to one's theory and there are loads of procedural valid studies that show just this. Hundreds and hundreds.

So even this self-rational approach is utterly unreliable. That's why scientific method exists, because good scientists know they cannot rely on their own observations and memory, as both are flawed and worse, you just can't tell when they are wrong.

When I see controlled double-blind replicated experiments showing evidence of psychic powers (of any sort), I'll consider them with care and great interest. Until such time, there are for me two categories of psychic/fortune teller:

(1) charlatans
(2) the self-deceiving

You put your beliefs very strongly, and that is interesting. I now, having dismissed the subject previously as rubbish, have my own strong beliefs.
 
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I predict without question, but soothingly say, All fortune tellers and sooth sayers are fakes.
 
I wanted to post my experience on here with psychic readings and my story in-case someone else is in a similar situation to where I was who reads this forum.

It's rather embarrassing and I'm really ashamed to admit this but I got addicted to psychic readings so much that I got myself into debt and wasted a long time on an ex because readers told me how much the ex loved me and would be back. I even went to top psychics who are five starred about on psychic forums or websites and are supposedly 'genuine and honest'.

I've always gone to psychics because in my family we go to them for entertainment. The healthy way is you'd go to a medium every few years and see what they had to say but you wouldn't rely on it or waste your life on it, you'd carry on your life and it's just nice to hear about uncle John paying a visit or whomever and maybe some 'predictions'. But not take the predictions as gospel and hang on to them.

Because I've been to psychics before who have actually gotten things right and I do believe that there are genuine psychic mediums out there (from personal experience) I thought it'd be a good idea to go to one about my ex and that's how it all started. I also was knocking about with a friend who would get readings on her partner at the time and that was another factor.

I could spend a long time writing out all of the many different excuses I got about my ex not coming back. Like; they're scared/busy with work/with someone now but unhappy and will be back with you soon/scared of coming back and being rejected/hasn't got the balls to reach out to you. And me being so vulnerable at the time I fell for it. I spent thousands on these readers and got myself into huge debt as well as calling from my mobile bill. So sometimes I'd be paying £500/600 a month because I had to resort to phone bill premium lines when I had no actual money left to be able to pay for their services. It was an actual addiction which is horrific looking back.

The reason why I fell for it all was because I guess I was vulnerable and it felt nice to be told they cared but was hiding their head in the sand and the readers appeared to validate things so well. But looking back the validations were very barnum and when you contacted friends who used the same reader the readings sometimes would be identical. One reader in particular I ended up speaking to more than once a week for several months, she never told me I needed to calm down on readings and never refused to read for me.

I am really ashamed looking back about calling these readers over an ex who couldn't give a monkeys about me and it's mad what humans do when they're in bad times. It's embarrassing to think I was calling about the ex when they were more than likely out having a great time and I didn't have a clue and was so naive wasting thousands of pounds on them when they didn't waste one penny on me.

I don't want to tarnish all mediums with the same brush because one private phone reader was the most realistic out of all of them and told me the ex and I would never be together again and we were not meant for each other and it was time to move on. But I would avoid these psychic cheap phone line websites like the plague. The best mediums and psychics are ones in spiritualist churches platforms that would turn you away if you were going to them too often and take their work seriously. So many people who used to be addicted to readings have said also that platform readers are the best.

In being on psychic forums I got to meet some very vulnerable customers. Customers whose partners left them for other men/women and the reader was telling them how much they regret it and will be back and missed them, the list goes on. One woman I got talking to has been waiting for her ex for over 4 years now and refuses to move on because they've planted in her head that he misses her and she believes it. I've heard stories of people being told that the ex would be back and missed them but actually had died months or years before or has gotten married since. I've spoken to people who were told by readers to send them hundreds of thousands of pounds to cast a spell on the ex to bring the ex back and they sent the money and times were being shifted and no spell was ever done. Talking of time scales the readers would tell you an ex would be back in March for example. When March came and no sign of the ex, the time scale just extended and extended with excuses that they weren't god/there's free will/there is no time in spirit.

I just found the phone readers to be very arrogant people who only cared about money and if you said that their predictions did not happen they would turn on you and change from their soft sympathetic voice or push more excuses or time scales on to your situation.

I would strongly advise anybody who ever visits this site and is in a vulnerable place like I was to please do not call up about an ex. If she or he loves you they will make that clear in their actions and wouldn't disappear on you for months (or even years) in some vulnerable customers experience. If you want readings, go to your local spiritualist church but take what they say with a pinch of salt and get on with your life. Don't become like me and many others who got themselves into severe debt over some ex who really does not care for you and hasn't bothered to contact you or has left you for someone else.

Was any reader even close to what ever actually happened? No. I never heard from the ex again and I went to over a hundred readers. How worrying is it that not one got it right? Just to clarify I am okay now and moved on with my life a long time ago and have sorted my money problems out. This happened to me about 2/3 years ago and I thought that sharing my story on here would open up the dark side of psychics. It's very commonly joked about that they're con artists and how pedantic it is that they claim to 'see your future' but it is a serious thing about them conning people and happens daily.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
 
I wanted to post my experience on here with psychic readings and my story in-case someone else is in a similar situation to where I was who reads this forum.

It's rather embarrassing and I'm really ashamed to admit this but I got addicted to psychic readings so much that I got myself into debt and wasted a long time on an ex because readers told me how much the ex loved me and would be back. I even went to top psychics who are five starred about on psychic forums or websites and are supposedly 'genuine and honest'.

I've always gone to psychics because in my family we go to them for entertainment. The healthy way is you'd go to a medium every few years and see what they had to say but you wouldn't rely on it or waste your life on it, you'd carry on your life and it's just nice to hear about uncle John paying a visit or whomever and maybe some 'predictions'. But not take the predictions as gospel and hang on to them.

Because I've been to psychics before who have actually gotten things right and I do believe that there are genuine psychic mediums out there (from personal experience) I thought it'd be a good idea to go to one about my ex and that's how it all started. I also was knocking about with a friend who would get readings on her partner at the time and that was another factor.

I could spend a long time writing out all of the many different excuses I got about my ex not coming back. Like; they're scared/busy with work/with someone now but unhappy and will be back with you soon/scared of coming back and being rejected/hasn't got the balls to reach out to you. And me being so vulnerable at the time I fell for it. I spent thousands on these readers and got myself into huge debt as well as calling from my mobile bill. So sometimes I'd be paying £500/600 a month because I had to resort to phone bill premium lines when I had no actual money left to be able to pay for their services. It was an actual addiction which is horrific looking back.

The reason why I fell for it all was because I guess I was vulnerable and it felt nice to be told they cared but was hiding their head in the sand and the readers appeared to validate things so well. But looking back the validations were very barnum and when you contacted friends who used the same reader the readings sometimes would be identical. One reader in particular I ended up speaking to more than once a week for several months, she never told me I needed to calm down on readings and never refused to read for me.

I am really ashamed looking back about calling these readers over an ex who couldn't give a monkeys about me and it's mad what humans do when they're in bad times. It's embarrassing to think I was calling about the ex when they were more than likely out having a great time and I didn't have a clue and was so naive wasting thousands of pounds on them when they didn't waste one penny on me.

I don't want to tarnish all mediums with the same brush because one private phone reader was the most realistic out of all of them and told me the ex and I would never be together again and we were not meant for each other and it was time to move on. But I would avoid these psychic cheap phone line websites like the plague. The best mediums and psychics are ones in spiritualist churches platforms that would turn you away if you were going to them too often and take their work seriously. So many people who used to be addicted to readings have said also that platform readers are the best.

In being on psychic forums I got to meet some very vulnerable customers. Customers whose partners left them for other men/women and the reader was telling them how much they regret it and will be back and missed them, the list goes on. One woman I got talking to has been waiting for her ex for over 4 years now and refuses to move on because they've planted in her head that he misses her and she believes it. I've heard stories of people being told that the ex would be back and missed them but actually had died months or years before or has gotten married since. I've spoken to people who were told by readers to send them hundreds of thousands of pounds to cast a spell on the ex to bring the ex back and they sent the money and times were being shifted and no spell was ever done. Talking of time scales the readers would tell you an ex would be back in March for example. When March came and no sign of the ex, the time scale just extended and extended with excuses that they weren't god/there's free will/there is no time in spirit.

I just found the phone readers to be very arrogant people who only cared about money and if you said that their predictions did not happen they would turn on you and change from their soft sympathetic voice or push more excuses or time scales on to your situation.

I would strongly advise anybody who ever visits this site and is in a vulnerable place like I was to please do not call up about an ex. If she or he loves you they will make that clear in their actions and wouldn't disappear on you for months (or even years) in some vulnerable customers experience. If you want readings, go to your local spiritualist church but take what they say with a pinch of salt and get on with your life. Don't become like me and many others who got themselves into severe debt over some ex who really does not care for you and hasn't bothered to contact you or has left you for someone else.

Was any reader even close to what ever actually happened? No. I never heard from the ex again and I went to over a hundred readers. How worrying is it that not one got it right? Just to clarify I am okay now and moved on with my life a long time ago and have sorted my money problems out. This happened to me about 2/3 years ago and I thought that sharing my story on here would open up the dark side of psychics. It's very commonly joked about that they're con artists and how pedantic it is that they claim to 'see your future' but it is a serious thing about them conning people and happens daily.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Very sorry to read about your troubles and I'm glad you managed to move on. I too think there a genuine people who believe they have a gift, (if that's true or not is debatable), then there are the out and out con-artists.

A good cautionary tale and welcome to the forum.
 
Thanks so much.

The way I got over it was you have to begin to be realistic about things. It was getting to several months and I hadn't heard from the ex and I thought to myself that if they really cared for me then surely they would have contacted me any way possible by now? And the readers were telling me they still cared for me/loved me dearly and made up all sorts of excuses for their disappearances and I began to grow bored of hearing it and I was dissatisfied with my readings in the end. I thought to myself 'why on earth are you paying for readings when you don't have faith in what they say?' and I started to get less and less readings. In the end I just managed to stop all readings and began chatting to and seeing new people which helped me to move on from my ex.

Of course I also have to take some responsibility for my actions being an adult which I do. But when you're being told amazing things in a horrible grieving process of a breakup you'll believe anything and are desperate, I'm ashamed to admit.

I've met so many vulnerable people (unsurprisingly predominantly women who were addicted) who were in abusive relationships with their on and off partner who were quite clearly abusive, cheating on them and narcissistic yet the readers made excuses for the other half and their behaviour which made the vulnerable customer cling on even more. It really is quite dangerous. Thanks for your support all.
 
But when you're being told amazing things in a horrible grieving process of a breakup you'll believe anything and are desperate, I'm ashamed to admit.

A bit like when someone's grieving after a death and they try everything to contact the deceased. Eventually they have to face facts, let go, give up and move on. Well done for getting through it.
 
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