Medium Not So Rare?

[gattino]

I've posted a lot on here lately because a lot of unusual things happen around me. It sometimes make me wonder if others might assume I either am or fancy myself as being a "psychic"...which, in my own eyes, I'm assuredly not. Simply because I neither have feelings, nor visions, nor control over any kind of "power". I couldn't be introduced as someone's psychic friend and be able to tell them a damn thing.

But a thought occurred to me that I decided to share online with a friend. I thought to wonder "how do I know?" Perhaps the difference between the rest of us and so called psychics is our self perception...perhaps they just have the same experiences as the rest of us but interpret it as evidence of their own specialness, give "readings" to people and self-confirm their status through positive feedback. In other words, I wrote,"how do I know if I stared at a stranger on a train and actually told them the names or images I let pop into my head that they wouldn't be taken aback that I'm clearly referring to their Aunt Doris? I'd never know cos I can't imagine in what circumstance I'd ever try. " As the friend to whom I was writing has a mother who passed away years ago but whose name I was never told I said I may as well test it right now. The following is all the relevant passages of conversation. You'll see I supply my own sceptical soundtrack.......

ME : "They're rather old fashioned. Two female names both beginning with B passed through my mind when I imagined writing this paragraph. Betty (or its longer version Elizabeth) and Barbara. Do those names mean anything to you?"

HIM : "no, but I've got an aunty Doris!"

ME : "have you really got an aunty doris? that would be the perverse annoying way these things work if you have. 'I'm here but you:ll never catch me!'"

Him : "my godmother, she's not my real aunt but when we were kids we called her aunty Doris & her husband uncle Bill as it was considered impolite in those days for a kid to call a grown up by their first name!"

ME : "So do we ascribe my choice of that name in writing to you as an example of psi, or random chance? If its the former we have to contend with the fact I chose several other names when attempting to suggest clairvoyance, none of which mean anything. But if it's the latter - chance - then why does it flirt so suggestively around something paranormal. 'Tis a bugger."

The conversation moved on and was forgotten, but tonight he wrote:

HIM : "have you thought of my mum's name yet, seeing as I've been thinking about it?"

ME : "Well no...as I've not been thinking about you thinking about it. I could spend months giving women's names...at what point would a hit lose all meaning?

First name that just popped into my head as I typed then was Irene, followed by Debbie.

I wouldn't put money on it."

HIM : "worked with an Irene & have got a cousin Debbie."

ME : "Well you see, that's the point where if it was someone else I'd be saying that's reaching...everyone ought to know someone with certain common names...and if you're going to rope in work mates and cousins you have an endless pool. (Although *I* don;t know any Doris, Betty, Barbara, Irene or Debbie, now I think about it... )

Margaret."

HIM: "got an aunty Margaret - honest."

ME : "See now if I had any more hits a sceptic could then suggest I was honing in by getting a flavour of hte type of names in your family/social circle from the answers you've already given... ie what class, age bracket, ethnicity, perhaps religion they are. White anglo saxon protestant names popular pre-60s.

Maureen."

HIM : "close. Her name sounds like Maureen which is my dad's gf's name btw."

ME : "Ha ha.. I was going to say Doreen but thought it a little too close to Doris, so changed it."

HIM: "bingo!"

ME : "So it did pop into my head...and I'd have got it one name earlier if I'd trusted myself. But then I'm not actually doing anything...just saying random names the float through. without thought or effort.

But imagine James Randi comes along and reads the transcript. Asked to name your mother I said (not as a suggestion in the first case) Doris, Betty, Barbara, Irene, Debbie, Margaret, Maureen and ...thanks to a broad hint from you..Doreen. Would hte studio audience be impressed?

Psychic sally on ht other hand would "oo!" that you have an Aunt Doris, "Ah!" that you have an Aunt Margaret, "gasp!" that you have a future stepmum Maureen, completely ignore betty and barbara, and perhaps note the pairing of Debbie and Irene might be a grasping for "Doreen". Her audience would lap it up."

So who would you side with, dear reader? Randi or Sally? Did getting so many relevant names without trying suggest I was picking them up from somewhere...or just pure dumb luck and unintentional cold reading? I honestly don't know myself.

 

[Iris]

I think it would be hard to pick up things from strangers, it's easier with relatives and people you know.
Couple of weeks ago my cousin in WA had emailed and asked if I would have coffee with a friend of his who was over here.
Turned out he'd told this chap I was psychic and he thought I'd be able to tell him if he should stay here or go back. I had to tell him I don't operate that way, but we had a nice conver sation about the books he's written and is writing.

 

[Ulalume]

Well, I'd think you weren't such a great psychic if you were reading your friend. However, if you had been accidentally reading me somehow, then you'd be quite brilliant because I do have an Aunt Doris, an Aunt Elizabeth, an Aunt Barbara, a cousin Debbie and my mother's name is Irene. And my Aunt Doris had a beloved pet dog by the name of Maureen.

A great reading, just for the wrong person! :lol:

 

[gattino]

A good chance to re-use of this 10 year old thread. If only for the title.

My friend J and his other half have headed up to Scotland to visit family. On the train this morning J was messaging me and says how they got emotional passing the station his now deceased mother in law would come to meet them at. Its their first time up since her death. He remarks that purple was her favourite colour and as they travelled into scotland the growing fields of purple flowers made it feel like she was there and lead to tears.

The relevance of this story is that two weeks ago a work friend of J's died suddenly at the young age of 27. In a daydreaming/fantasizing reverie i had imagined telling him she'll make herself known...look for a purple flower.... I never actually told him that but was merely concocting silently in my imagination a sign I might suggest he would see to confirm she lived on. And then i noticed my own thoughts and questioned why i had chosen to imagine it would be a purple flower specifically..and wondered, genuinely at the time not just now in hindsight, whether the thought might conceivably have been put in my head by the deceased and whether I should really say it to him? I decided not to .