As most of us know, when people are in hard times they are more open to superstition. So while it’s no surprise that psychics are getting more business, it’s still a little disappointing.
CNN has a profile on a psychic fraud (except they call her a “medium” instead of the more accurate term “fraud”):
“It’s more types of people I have never seen before,” says [psychic] Roxanne Usleman. “Men in the business world, high-powered jobs, stock market, Wall Street.”
Since last fall, she says she began to see a new type of client — a “logical, [A-type] of personality.” Many of them are “just completely lost,” says Usleman.
Wait, logical personalities are going to a psychic? They must really be lost, because there’s nothing logical about going to a psychic.
Relationship advice, typically the bread and butter of the psychic business, has been supplanted by something new.
“Should I merge with this company? Should I bring in a partner to my company,” are the kind of questions Usleman gets from her clients….
Not the kind of question I’d want a person who doesn’t know anything about my business or circumstances answering.
For a typical reading, she grips a client’s photograph or set of keys and consults “the angels.”
How depressing.
Business is good, she says. Usleman sees five or six clients a day and charges up to $135 a pop for sessions that usually last more than an hour.
She is profiting because of people’s confusion and desperation. This wouldn’t bother me if she was honest and said she was just a counselor who excels at cold reading.
But she’s a fraud. She pretends to have paranormal insight into issues. She pretends to talk to angels. And people, desperate in hard times, believe her and pay her money that could go to paying their mortgage. It’s just sad.
She might not be a fraud. She might be delusional.
Not that that makes her business advice any better, of course.
I was scammed by a palm reader once. I still feel like an idiot over it. I think all snake oil salesman religious or otherwise should be exposed. Mark
I worked with a couple of superstitious older ladies, one of them read palms and did the whole medium nonsense on the side. They both came from the same island country and one day Lady Z told the other that she was making her angry and Lady Z would put a curse on her. The other broke down in hysterics and started crying until Lady Z said she was just kidding.
One day Lady Z tried telling me the same thing, “I’m going to put a curse on you if you’re not nicer to me.” I replied, “And I will put a black eye on you. I wonder which of us will hurt more?”
She told me she was kidding, I smiled, “I’m kidding too.”
@ Sunny Day
One day Lady Z tried telling me the same thing, “I’m going to put a curse on you if you’re not nicer to me.” I replied, “And I will put a black eye on you. I wonder which of us will hurt more?”
LOL.
During her freshman year, one of my friends had a roommate that kept a pair of sharp sewing scissors under her pillow at all times. She said it was to keep away evil spirits. I think I would have been a little uncomfortable knowing my roommate had a pair of sharp scissors by her side the whole time I was sleeping.
@ cello
cello:I think I would have been a little uncomfortable knowing my roommate had a pair of sharp scissors by her side the whole time I was sleeping.
mark: Cello are you a female or did your college have coed rooms and dorms?
If so please send me some lit from your school.
Mark: Cello had a female friend who was roommates with the scissors girl.
@ wintermute
“Mark: Cello had a female friend who was roommates with the scissors girl.”
mark: My apologies to cello I must have understood the statement, still if that college has co-ed rooms send me the lit.
Most psychics don’t bother me too much. They generally give out decent, practical advice to people who need to hear it, and they make people feel better. Some are frauds, some are self-deluded. Their followers are universally self-deluded. But if self-delusion makes them feel better about themselves and getting out of bed in the morning, who am I to tell them how to spend their money.
I wouldn’t mind going to a psychic myself, just for the fun of it. I wonder how clearly they could pick up my skepticism. (Skeptical isn’t the word. I am not in the least “agnostic” about psychic powers. They are pure bullshit. But I couldn’t think of a better one.)
Just because someone is a lying fraud doesn’t mean that people still can’t benefit from them. I don’t know. Maybe I’ve just resigned myself to the fatalistic stupidity of certain people. I just shake my head sadly and wish them the best.
The buyer beware.
And then there are the ones like Sylvia Brown, who take $700 to tell the parents of a kidnapped child “the kid’s dead”, or some such.
Wait, consulting angels? Isn’t that a little like holding a seance to summon the ghost of Jesus?
I took a Psychology 101 class many years ago and read, “Belief in superstition increases in times of crisis.” It was this statement, once examined, which ultimately led to my utter disbelief in all things supernatural.
Along with this statement I came to realize how simple it is to trick the mind into believing false or fabricated information; information which seems very, very real.
Psych 101 should be mandatory in every high school in the nation, along with Evolution.
Snuggies and psychics! Maybe times of crisis lead to more watching of late night infomercials.
Superstition, apply directly to the forehead.
Believers often ask me “if you are so sure your right, and there is no God, what do you care what other people believe?”
To which my standard response is something along the lines of:
1. I don’t. If you aren’t hurting anyone believe whatever you want;
but
2. Very, very often “belief” is used to the detriment of society and I am obligated to speak out against that.
This story falls under category 2. These psychics are nothing more than scam artists preying on gullible, vulnerable people at a time they can least afford to be scammed.
Should the “victims” be less vulberable? Yup. On some lvel they deserve what they get, but the scammers are responsible for their fair share. If some idiot makes a business decision based on this crap, and people lose their jobs, the psychic shares blame.
Also, it should be noted that this is really no different that the collection plate that gets passed around every Sunday in every main stream church in the world. “Give god some money and he will guide you.”
This is not dissimilar to Peter Popoff popping up again. I’m sure you’ve seen the youtube clip of him doing the “flim flam” with the salt and the water. You probably saw the desperate couple who gave everything they had to Popoff.
It’s kind of like when a crack dealer justifies what he does by saying “if I don’t sell it, someone else will.” The astrologer and Popoff alike might justify what they do by thinking “If I don’t collect these ignorant losers’ money, someone else, such as a payday loan establishment, rent-to-own store, or a debt consolidation scammer will get to him first.”