Help... I want to convince my wife that mediums are con artists

My wife's father passed away a few months ago, and my mother-in-law has been going to a medium. She claims that this medium is talking to him and that she says things that no one else would know except for him, etc... the usual story that everyone says after talking to a medium. I must admit that I find it intriguing, but I am very cynical, as I am with most things. I know that ATS is full of people who know much more about this topic than I ever will, and I would appreciate help understanding both sides of the argument. Are mediums fake... or not?

This particular medium is supposedly one of the best around. She is so good that she has a 4 year waiting list. I'm not sure how exactly my mother-in-law was able to see her so fast... I think she knows someone that made that happen, but I digress. With a waiting list that long I would think that this medium would have more than enough time to have a private investigator look into people and gather personal data about them. I'm sure there are ways that a professional and successful medium does things to gather information in order to fool an emotionally distraught person. What do you guys think? Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of how the con is pulled off? To the contrary, does anyone have any evidence that it is real?

*note This is a one on one session with the medium... it is not a group of people. Thanks for your help and time.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


I don't know about con artists (some probably are) but I do know they get their info from familiar spirits (demons).

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


I wouldn't trust any "medium" that charged you money...

Unless its strictily for entertainment purposes, but shes already your wife...

so...

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


show her Derek quick!

If I were you I would get myself on that waiting list and just make something up to the medium. Sure it's a arduous task, but that's all I can think of right now.

Vs.

Originally posted by Akragon
reply to post by OptimusSubprime

 

I wouldn't trust any "medium" that charged you money...

Unless its strictily for entertainment purposes, but shes already your wife...

so...

My wife isn't seeing one, her Mom is. My wife believes that the medium is real and I was telling her that it is a con job.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


It's true most likely she is talking to someone. But it's not the deceased relative. It's a demon. Demons know tons of informaiton about most everyone. They'd know stuff about the relative. They talk in his voice, know all that stuff, maybe even appear as them like a ghost. But it's not them. It's simply a demon.

What I'd say to her is this. When someone dies there life is over. We're not suppose keep dialing them up on some kind of AT&T network. Life doesn't work that way. We had our time with them. Even if those messages are real there time is over and talking ot them will only get us more and more addicted to doing that and it's just not healthy. If she believes in the bible then just turn the verses where I think it's Sal that talked to a medium about the future and got in BIG trouble from God about it. Look up some verses about it.

reply to post by TheGreatDivider

I myself have had experiance with this topic and can provide you with a degree of proof if you'd like. The only thing I need is the first name and the year he was born, I usually ask for the full name but givin your sceptisism, I trust you know I cant google anything from what I ask. Please utu me with the info.

You could start with M. Lamar Keene's Psychic Mafia.

I do, I should state, believe some are in contact with other intelligences, but they are not spirits of the deceased and not to be trusted. All kinds of life crises happen when you mess around with mediums and spiritual hooligans.

Good luck.

reply to post by lifeform11


That's pretty funny... and that is about how I imagine it going down.

Not all of them are.

I have good friends, who I know for a fact, are very accurate with what they see.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime

Although there are real Sensitives out there as various Police and the like groups have used them with success...these people are few and far between and they are usually introverted and it is unlikely a True Psychic would be taking money or operating a business with their skill.

It is more likely your Wife would be dealing with a Con Artist and you should research this person and perhaps have the Police do so as well. Split Infinity

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


wrong site to look for truthful answers.

There are a lot of attention seeking whack jobs who frequent this site, claiming such powers.

More alarming are the amount of Slack Jaws that believe them.

At least once a week , someone claiming to be a Alien will join ATS. The same Posters will show up in the thread , lapping up every word. Its truly Pathetic.

OP, I will offer you one Iron Clad and absolute fail safe way of having your Mother In Law prove this medium is really what they say they are (or all you say they aren't).... I imagine these 'things' she is being told are personal things. Things about times past, memories or personal details of a lifetime shared. These things are not hard to deduce FROM your mother in law and feed right back to her. It's the con artists bread and butter that few people in casual conversation ever realize how much they say about themselves to ears which are educated to listen for precisely that.

Given the above, you will NEVER convince her by logic alone. If she can't realize how she may have fed the con for the very info she is cherishing here, she'll sure never believe you called it before she did. So... A test is in order. It's a test I have NEVER seen passed. Not once. EVER...among the parlor room, "commercial" or high profile psychics. ...and high profile can be as little as bragging about it to friends often or actually running a business. REAL gifted and talented people I know and have known who DO these things ..and they damn sure DO exist....rarely if EVER volunteer much about it to others and rarely if ever in a casual way. It's just not how I've known this to work.

So... About that test.... If she is in touch with the spirit of this man and getting enough clear information to leave your mother in law impressed, this shouldn't be too hard. Your mother in law needs to specifically ask for an answer on a question...maybe a series of them. I'm game for being fair...and 0% correct will be the outcome if you ask 1 or 50. It won't matter.

Ask this Medium to pass on a detail which even SHE doesn't know and can only guess at. Something as SMALL as an item misplaced that he absolutely would have known the location of, if he were here to ask. Perhaps a specific detail on a business or work related issue that would have been of paramount importance to him personally, but really no one else.....yet, with details that can be VERIFIED after the answer. Anything of this nature, your mother in law could NOT have fed the information to have it said back to her...and hence.... correct answers prove a person is very likely what they say they are or a total fraud as 90% turn out to be, IMO.

Again... I've never ONCE seen a Medium or Psychic who openly claims or brags to be, pass even one.

While there is such thing as mediums using devils to intuit this information, there is actually another way by which mediums perform these things.

Have you ever heard of Carl Jung? He is well known for his work in personality assessment. Go do some reading up on "MBTI". A couple of head-cases took his work and turned it into a system by which to discern people. The MBTI is basically a personality test and assessment.

I encourage everyone here to go to this link and take the test and post your results here.

Here is the link: www.humanmetrics.com...

It claims that I am an "INFJ". However, the test doesn't allow you much room for differentiation. There are a few tests that allow more room, but the wording is sort of a trap in some of them. As well, there is another test that is pretty famous that gives more room. But I answered all the questions honestly and it told me that my answers were not indicative of a real human being and that I should have been more realistic with my answers.

Yeah... exactly.

However, some people ARE truly so predictable and so these tests do a decent job of figuring out the general populace; a people who pride themselves in whatever their personality is (and most people know the act they are putting on).

So how does this all tie in?

Mediums use this information. They are well trained in paying attention to peoples' body language. They are well trained at understanding a lot about someone's parents based on their attitude. They are able to discern whether someone is taking prescriptions or not. They are able to figure out whether someone works hard or does not and if that work is physically demanding or if that person just goes to the gym to make those muscles. They pay attention to the fingernails, the brightness of the eyes, the symmetry of an individual - they use stereotypical judgments such as skin color, symmetry, make-up, speech, colloquialism, posture, fashion; they judge how someone leans forward, if they're respectful and WHY that person is respectful or somewhat vulgar; they judge based on the kind of cell phone someone has. They judge on their timeliness. They judge based on someones state of mind (which is easily read, so easily read). They pay attention to any and all things in regards to a person.

And then the medium, in order to further convince, puts their self in the shoes of a man figure or a female figure, depending on the person that customer is wishing to contact or learn about... and then discerns how ANY male would respond to that person based on the way they are now. Or any female for that matter.

It's actually quite easy.

Not to mention, there is a specific kind of person that seeks mediums anyway. The vulnerable and insecure individual. So part of what the medium does is REBUILD THE PERSONALITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN LIKING.

Carl Jung noted that some people underwent personality changes when dealing with a traumatic event. Now imagine having the power to make money off of being able to MOLD PEOPLE HOW YOU WISH.

I sent you to go find out your personality type according to the Jung Typology Test so that you would understand that this is the person that they claim you are based on this very finite system... and most of you will agree with the results.

Some of you will disagree with the results. That is good, too.

But learn what is considered your personality type and then you will understand how someone can manipulate you.

For example, for you INTJ's out there, of which I am sure there are some here at the forums; I know you. Yes, I do. You're NOT the mastermind that you think you are, though. Be careful. You are some of the easiest to fool when it comes to talking with a medium. They use your intuition against you because your thinking is external. You are fooled by your own perception of things.

And for you ESFJs out there, of which I am sure there are a few here as well; Why are you here? You are the most easily fooled by a medium. You take your energy from the people around you and you understand the reality around you pretty well, but everything that is out of this world is a complete mystery to you and you are absorbed by the people who you think are more "in-tune" or "energetic" than you. You're truly vulnerable to these attacks. Do not believe anyone who tells you that you are talking with the dead. It's a lie; and you should know it.

Bottom line is that you are all easy to read if you don't keep growing and learning and working and playing. Stop believing those people who ARE growing and learning, but are evil and manipulate you for your money.

Start being the person that is growing and learning. I don't care if you're 100 years old. You're still alive. DO SOMETHING WITH IT. That's what our dead ancestors would say if they were given a chance. NOTHING else would matter.

Seek the truth. Pray to the one who is so much smarter than the dead: Pray to God.

Originally posted by twohawks
reply to post by TheGreatDivider

 

I myself have had experiance with this topic and can provide you with a degree of proof if you'd like. The only thing I need is the first name and the year he was born, I usually ask for the full name but givin your sceptisism, I trust you know I cant google anything from what I ask. Please utu me with the info.

I never asked for proof. I simply stated that mediums get their info from demons.

reply to post by Akragon

I wouldn't trust any "medium" that charged you money...

Wouldn't limiting choices to independently wealthy mediums be severely restricting?

Originally posted by Clairacoustique
reply to post by Akragon

 

I wouldn't trust any "medium" that charged you money...

Wouldn't limiting choices to independently wealthy mediums be severely restricting?

I suppose that depends on if you want to see a show or not...

It would be far more "entertaining" if tables moved and books started fly about the place... Wouldn't you say?

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


It's not possible to tar every Medium/psychic with the same brush, as with all things there are good and bad amongst their numbers.

As a person who has done this work professionally for many years, and finally retired two years ago.. and rarely charged individuals for it, although I did charge companies for the services I provided them... I would have to wonder two things. Firstly, why this medium has a four year waiting list, and secondly, why it would be necessary for your mother-in-law to have return visits. That last being my major concern.

One session is enough time to assist the newly dead into clarity of their situation and take them into the light. That same session would have been enough time to assist the client with accepting or gaining whatever information it was that they sought.

In which case I have a big problem with people like John Edwards, who makes gazillions from what he does and charges extremely high fees for doing it.... one session here in Oz with him costs over $900, and you only get 15 minutes with him.... which tells me he is a rip-off artist despite his fame and fortune. Same appolies to the most well known one here in Oz... who has people lined up all day to see him for their 10 minutes.

This is of course my personal opinion after haivng something to do with these people and having worked for so long in the field.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime

Does your mom remember Harry Houdini? Part of his traveling show was the exposure of fraudulent psychics. Before he would come to town to perform his magic act, he would send his operatives ahead to visit the local seers and then invite them to the show and expose them in front of the whole town. He was quite good at it and there is a lot written about it. Houdini made a lot of enemies that way over the years and some even speculate that may have contributed to his untimely death.

His search for real mediums was genuine because he wanted to contact his dead mother. A professional magician by trade, he easily spotted the tricks employed by charlatans.

If your mom is a little older she may remember The Great Harry Houdini and maybe take his word for it. Not saying all psychics are false just to be careful with most who claim they are the real item. Harry was a master at spotting fakes. Some of the stories are a riot.