From: matus [matus@snet.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 9:53 PM
To: matus@snet.net
Subject: MFD List - A Summary of Psychic Parasites

A Summary of Psychic Parasites

posted by David Bloomberg on Sunday December 02, @08:42PM
from the bloodsuckers dept.

Teemings, the e-zine of the Straight Dope Message
Board community, had an "All Moderator Edition" for its
December/January issue. I contributed a summary
article covering a great deal of what I've found on the
psychic parasites who are taking advantage of September 11. Even if
you've followed the previous SkepticNews items, there is new material
here.

from - http://www.teemings.com/issue08/psychic.html

Psychic Parasites

by David B

As I write this, it is almost exactly two months after the terrorist attacks
on New York and Washington. The anger at these actions is still
palpable, but it is slowly being overwhelmed in me by the anger at some
fellow Americans.

These Americans prey on death, prey on those who fear death, prey on those
who are grieving. I am talking about the James Van
Praaghs, the John Edwards, the Sylvia Brownes of the world. They make their
money by selling their false visions to a public that is
all-too-willing to believe. They put out best-selling books full of
nonsense, have highly-rated television shows, and are supported by fawning
talk-show hosts.

Of these types of people, five deserve special mention here: Sylvia Browne,
John Edward, Terry and Linda Jamison (the "psychic twins"),
and James Van Praagh. Other than those who perpetrated this attack, I can
think of nothing more heinous than the actions of these
individuals and others like them. I consider them to be parasites, feeding
off of the blood of the victims. I realize these are strong words.
But they are well deserved, as I will explain below.

Sylvia Browne

Sylvia Browne was the first to earn my utter disgust. Like Edward and Van
Praagh, Browne claims to talk to the dead. But she also is in
the business of making predictions. Needless to say, she didn't predict this
horrible tragedy - not that this minor detail would stop her from
trying to make money off of it.

After the attack, Browne set up a pop-up screen on her website. This screen
came up whenever anybody went to her homepage. The text
noted that Browne had not predicted these attacks because she is not
"omniscient." Well, that's as good an excuse as any. But then it
went on to state that she had, indeed, predicted terrorist attacks for 1999.
So she said her timing was just off. She failed to mention, by the
way, that her 1999 prediction was for terrorism in London and Florida. So
she was two years off and wasn't even close to the actual
locations. Yet she's trying to claim some sort of "hit" for this? Forget,
for a moment, the fact that she's trying to take advantage of a horrible
situation for her own personal gain. She's still trying to claim an accurate
prediction where there is absolutely no way it could be
interpreted that way! Add to this the fact that she's using the deaths of
thousands of people to do this and, well, you begin to see my cause
for disgust.

But wait, there's more. On that pop-up, she informed readers that she had
gotten some important information (implying, but not stating
outright, that it came from the spirit realm). Osama bin Laden "and another
group" is behind it. Really?! Wow. What a revelation. I'm sure
glad we had her around to tell us that. Better call the FBI and CIA to alert
them. She also provided a couple of Arabic-sounding names
which she claimed we should "watch for." And claimed we should be aware of
"Triad of Jordan" and "Palestinian Republic of Burundi." She
also claimed, "A weapon or bomb known as the 'Z' was involved with the
aircraft." The Z? Last I checked, boxcutters and knives were not
referred to as anything other than, well, boxcutters and knives. All of
these were part of the standard ploy of throwing some things out and
hoping that one of them sticks. The others, of course, will be forgotten.
(For more on this technique, see my Staff Reports on why the police
continue to use psychics, at
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mpsychiccop.html.)

Now we get to the really bad part. At the bottom of this pop-up was an
advertisement for readers to pay her up to $4867 to "take a sacred
journey with Sylvia to Greece and Turkey." (Emphasis in original.) Mind you,
this was not just some ad that happened to be on a page
that her prediction was on. I wouldn't expect people to pull ads that
normally appeared on their websites just because they were discussing
this tragedy. This was an ad in a pop-up screen that was specifically
designed to capitalize on the deaths of thousands of people.

But who am I to judge her? After all, her webpage says she "is truly on a
mission for God. Simply put, she is determined to show the world
that the soul survives death." Apparently, she does this by advertising
cruises and taking advantage of those very deaths. She also says
she "feels that all people can reach God by knowledge and reason, rather
than relying upon faith alone." Baloney. Whenever reason has
been tried with her, it has failed, just as she has.

Her incorrect prediction about terrorism was only the tip of the iceberg. In
her list of 1999 predictions, we see the usual meaningless pap
(such as "Tornadoes do great damage in Illinois in April and May"), but we
also see that the U.S. was supposed to have called for an air
attack on Iran in July. There should have been Embassies attacked in Egypt
and South Africa in July. Breast cancer should have become
"absolutely preventable and cured by year's end."

For 2000, she predicted another Democratic president, a thwarted airline
hijacking out of Florida in August, Courtney Cox (of Friends)
getting pregnant and having a baby boy, and David Letterman quitting his
show.

But if you want to have a personal reading, which I'm sure is just as good
as these predictions, you can have one over the phone for just
$700. Wow, what a bargain!

Of course, Browne was not the only parasite. Others followed in close
pursuit. But other than Edward (see below), she is certainly one of
the most well-known. Even with all of this going on, I psychically predict
that Browne will come out of it smelling like a rose. People like her
manage to every time. Part of it is that interviewers like Larry King are
too busy fawning over her to point out her glaring errors. Part of it is
that her True Believers won't bother to pay attention to the incorrect
predictions of past years, and will probably read no further than the
pop-up screen, unless they decide to pay for the cruise, of course. And she
will continue to prey on them.

The Psychic Twins

The Jamison sisters came to my attention because they made predictions for a
TV Guide article on the new season. This issue hit the
stands only a few days before the attacks, yet none of the four "psychics"
included any predictions that involved the biggest TV news - not
to mention that it postponed the start of the very Fall series they were
supposed to be predicting. Among the predictions they made in that
article were that Jason Alexander's new show would be brilliantly funny; in
fact, it was just canceled after only a few episodes for being
quite the opposite.

When I went to their website to look further, I found that they were
claiming they had specifically predicted the World Trade Center attack
on Art Bell's radio show a couple years ago. Intrigued, I e-mailed to ask
for details. They sent some information plus a CD with portions of
their discussion with Bell. They claimed these portions showed they had
correctly predicted various things, including the WTC attack, the
election of Bush, and Y2K being a non-event.

But what struck me about their mailing was not the CD, but a full color
glossy page showing their photo superimposed over the World
Trade Center with one tower already aflame and the second plane just feet
away from the other tower. The large bold text shouted that they
had predicted it! I do not believe I have seen anything so incredibly
low-class in my entire life.

Trying to put that aside, I listened to the CD. Keep in mind that they only
copied five minutes of their entire time on the show, so we have no
idea what else they might have said that wasn't even close to coming true -
not to mention the thousands of other predictions they might
have tossed out on other shows. Even so, we see that their claims to having
predicted this attack simply are not true.

They were asked about coming disasters, both natural and not. They responded
with the following (it was never clear which twin was
speaking because they both sound alike and one would pick up a sentence
where the other left off):

Particularly South Carolina or Georgia, by July 2002. And also the New York
Trade "We are seeing terrorist attacks on federal
government - excuse me, federal buildings. Center - the World Trade Center
in 2002, with something, with a terrorist attack."

So, did they mention terrorist attacks? Yes. Did they mention the World
Trade Center? Yes. But they still got it wrong. There were no
attacks in South Carolina or Georgia - the only federal building hit was the
Pentagon, and they didn't get that one. They predicted the
federal attacks by 2002, but predicted the World Trade Center attack in
2002. So they got the place wrong in one portion and the date
wrong in the other. Plus, since the World Trade Center was already the
target of a mostly-failed attack once, throwing it out as a potential
target for another one is not exactly a great leap. All told, we can see
that their claim to have predicted this attack is simply not correct.

Let's look at a couple of the other claims as a side note. They predicted
that Y2K would be a non-event. Maybe this was an amazing thing
to say on Art Bell's show, but by November 1999 (which is when this
interview took place), most sane people already realized this. It was
not exactly a tough prediction to make.

They also predicted Bush's election. Let's look at the actual discussion:

Q: "Do y'all know who the next president might be?"

Art: "The presidential elections are looming ahead. They may be a crashing
bore. Actually, that's what I think they're going to be, is a
crashing bore."

Twins: Laugh.

Art: Do you know the outcome?

Twins: "I think Bush is going to win. We both do."

So they "think" Bush would win. OK, they had a 50/50 shot. But the real
thing to look at here is that Bell characterized the race as probably
being "a crashing bore." I think that the end of that race could be
characterized by a lot of terms, but "crashing bore" is definitely not one
of
them. Yet the twins made no comment whatsoever. Why not? Because, of course,
nobody predicted this incredible occurrence, just as
nobody predicted the terrorist attacks.

Yet that doesn't stop them from promoting themselves by using the deaths of
thousands.

John Edward

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, I predicted that John Edward, host
of the television show Crossing Over , would have a special
World Trade Center edition of his show. I echoed that in various discussions
- both personal and in e-mail - and also in a newsletter
article for the local skeptics group I chair in the October edition, saying:
"I would not at all be surprised to see a 'special' World Trade
Center victim edition of his show, which has moved from the Science Fiction
Channel to syndication across the country. In fact, I will be
surprised if he does not have such a special."

I should open my own psychic hotline, because I was far more accurate than
any other psychic in the country was in predicting the original
attack.

Various media outlets announced on October 25 that Crossing Over would
indeed feature John Edward claiming to talk to those who
perished in the September 11 attacks - in several episodes during November
sweeps. The president of Studios USA domestic
syndication, Steve Rosenberg, claimed they would "be done tastefully ... and
won't be exploitive." I'm sorry, but how the hell do you use
pretend powers to prey off the families of murdered people and not have it
be exploitive? We're supposed to believe that maybe it just
accidentally happens to fall during sweeps?

Rosenberg added, "It seemed wrong not to do it." Sure it did! It seemed
wrong to miss out on a golden opportunity to pull in some extra
dough!

But it was not meant to be.

Advertisers and the stations that air the syndicated show were less than
happy with this idea. It seems that they actually have consciences.
This appears to differentiate them from Crossing Over team, who failed to
think that perhaps this wasn't such a great idea after all. E!
Online described the affiliates' view that the idea "was a crass attempt to
cash in on a national tragedy." Ya think?

I mean, normally the show is just a crass attempt to cash in on the
individual tragedies of everyday life and death. Apparently, that is okay
with the affiliates and advertisers. But cashing in on a big tragedy is not.
It's no wonder John Edward didn't see it coming. He probably
figured he'd gotten them all used to cashing in on tragedy.

Still, Studios USA defends the idea and goes so far as to say that they have
"been inundated with calls and pleas for readings from
grieving families of the World Trade Center victims looking for comfort and
closure." They want comfort and closure? Fine. Send them to a
grief counselor, not a parasite. Alas, that's not their plan. They add,
"Many of these readings have been done privately and will continue to
be done privately."

Looking at it, this was really a great opportunity for Edward. Usually, he
has to guess how a person died. With the World Trade Center, it's
pretty obvious. And even if he's wrong - for example, saying that a person
died in the fire rather than in the building's collapse - who's
going to know? An automatic hit. Plus, since these people have been
contacting him and the show, he or his production crew know their
names, which can easily be looked up in the various articles, obituaries,
whatever. He doesn't need to worry about cold reading - all of the
information is already in the public eye. Add in a few nice tokens of love
and kindness like, "He loves you, but wanted to try to save the
handicapped woman before saving himself," and voila, he's got the reading
done.

No word on if he was going to try to talk to the terrorists themselves to
find out how hot Hell was or if, perhaps, they have since decided
they made a mistake. Just think how much help he could have been to the FBI.
Maybe dead terrorists aren't as talkative, though.

Edward made a mistake. He overestimated just how far he could push the
limits of good taste. I would like to think that perhaps those who
objected to this "special" might take this opportunity to realize that he
really wouldn't have been doing anything different from what he
always does - making money by preying on traumatized family members.
Unfortunately, I know better than to even hope they would figure
that out.

James Van Praagh

For a while I was wondering where James Van Praagh was in all of this;
indeed, the original version of this article for Teemings didn't
include him. But shortly after I submitted it, he popped back onto my radar
screen.

Van Praagh preceded both Edward and Browne in the "medium" game, getting
famous with several books, including Reaching to
Heaven (you can read my review of this book here:
http://www.nonfictionreviews.com/article1004.html), where he claims to talk
to the
dead as Edward does.

He has a new book out, Heaven and Earth: Making the Psychic Connection, and
of course needs to promote it. So it wasn't surprising to
find that he was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. The online interview
from November 9 talks about his new book, his new show
coming up (as if Edward's wasn't bad enough), his claim that many actors are
psychic, etc. One thing he discusses is a reading he did on
Bonnie Bakely - Robert Blake's wife who was murdered. He gives the standard
crap about reading things only certain people would
know, but when asked specifically if she said who killed her, Van Praagh
says, "She gave me several different situations..." Excuse me?
You'd think the woman could say who killed her if, of course, he is actually
speaking to her. What's this "different situations" baloney?

Anyway, he has not done as much with September 11 as others, but he's still
trying to use it to promote himself. In the interview, he claims
he had a premonition last November that there was going to be a war on our
soil. He says he had a vision of glass flying and smoke, and
knew it would be on the East Coast and near water (I had to laugh at the
"near water" reference, since that is perhaps the most frequently
used statements in "psychic" predictions). Of course, we have no actual
evidence for this premonition, since he didn't talk about it until
after September 11. That doesn't stop him from mentioning it and knowing
that the True Believers won't question it, and those who don't
believe weren't going to buy his book anyway. And Heaven forbid the
interviewer should ask a real question to look into it more deeply.

All of these are no better than parasites. And all of them simply disgust
me.



Thanks to the people both on the Straight Dope Message Board and Skeptic
News who helped point me toward some of these
websites.

For comments about articles or other topics please visit the MFDList forum
at www.delphi.com\MFDList

www.matus1976.com