As an atheist I reject all religions and supernatural claims. It’s fairly simple really, but many religious people seem to take this as a personal attack on the beliefs. It’s not. A Christian’s beliefs are as ridiculous and unfounded as a Muslim’s or a Hindu’s and should be treated with an equal amount of derision.
But let’s not forget that it’s just not the religious leaders that are happy to prey on the vulnerable and gullible. If hell existed, a special place in it would be reserved for psychics, mediums and other frauds who claim to be able to contact the spirits of people who have died.
The really, truly disturbing thing about those who claim to posses these supernatural powers is that they must take an incredibly calculating approach to their “profession”. To use techniques like cold reading, and to carry out the amount of preparation they do requires a certain dedication, a certain amount of planning, to carry it off. So when you consider that these people are taking advantage of the emotionally vulnerable in such a callous way, it really drums home the unpleasantness of their actions.
Boing Boing recently posted the video embedded below. In it, three psychics are invited to do a reading in an old chocolate factory. Specifically, the host is seeking information about the boss of the establishment.
If this video doesn’t hammer home the blind face cheek and unashamedly deceitful nature of these people, you should really watch it again. Out of the three psychics, one is attempting cold reading whilst the other two have simply researched the subject before hand. All three have ended up contacting the spirit of someone who simply never existed.
This brings to mind a famous story I once heard of a very famous ghost hunting show. This particular show visited a hotel that was known to be haunted by a certain ghoul. The psychic duly contacted the spirit of the ghoul and recited information regarding the circumstances of their death. All very convincing until we learn a few years later that the current owner of the hotel had made the story up in order to raise publicity of the establishment. Like the chocolate factory in the video above, the psychic contacted the spirit of a person, and recited details of their life, even though this person never existed.
Like religion and the complete absence of evidence for any of the claimed deities, there is no evidence whatsoever for the claims these psychics make. In fact, they consistently and regularly fail scientific “double blind” tests and are incapable of performing in front of people who are wise to their tricks.
All this is important to remember because these people try to invade people’s lives when they are feeling the most vulnerable. Much like religion, they try to plug a gap that is perceived by those who are incapable of coping with a given situation. It’s hard to criticise those people, and they should very much be treated as victims of these scams. What cannot easily be forgiven is that the authorities allow these people to operate, sanctioned by the law in many cases.
However, the real enemy in this are the perpetrators themselves. Whilst many atheists give religious people a free pass on the grounds of being indoctrinated and brain washed from a young age, the same cannot be said of psychics and mediums. They know absolutely that the claims they make are not true, otherwise, why would they resort to techniques such as cold reading and research? And yet they happily give false hope, false information and take money from the vulnerable and misguided. Sickening.
Hi there!
I chanced upon your blog while searching for atheist blogs.
I would say that I am a closet agnostic convert (from Christianity) from Singapore all the way from Southeast Asia.
The vid is very interesting! It just proves that a lot of what we label as paranormal or supernatural has always been “normal” and “natural” and can always be explained in natural terms. I agree – a lot of psychic readings are merely an exercise in cold reading, intelligent guessing, and in the case of the choc factory – some homework!
It is surprising that even after being caught red-handed, the female psychic “twisted” around and claimed she also did some testing as she knew from a friend she would be tested.
Sigh.
For me, what peeves me is not so much about psychics (as most people from the younger generation in Singapore do not believe in psychics in general) but similar cold reading and intelligent guessing tricks masquerading as prophetic words from God.
It is very rampant, esp. in Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity – and the problem with such bullshit is that for most Christians – if someone claims he hears from God, then that settles it!
There is this “fear” of questioning or even refuting that person as we don’t question God. Damn.
Derren Brown is another amazing British magician who specializes in mentalism. He does mentalist tricks simply to prove against the supernatural and the paranormal! You can check out some of his clips on youtube.
Cheers
Okay, so I found this article when I searched the phrase “psychics are liars”. I am one of those poor fools who actually wasted forty dollars getting a reading, and the crazy part of that is that I have always known the methods psychics and the like use. I mean, I always tell people they’re just really good psychoanalysts.
Anyway, I went on a ghost tour when I was in Savannah, Georgia…I don’t know, man, I think there is a possibility some of that paranormal stuff is legitimate. Either that or our minds can really screw with us!
Dear Sarah You may never see a ghost they see you stay away from paranormal it can be very dangerous.And affect you mind I am a Seer it affected my mind and my family but it also brought me to god put you faith in god.
Great article, first time on this blog and the information is astounding… Anyway, growing up in Northeast Pennsylvania, we do have our fair share of ghost stories, espically from the coal mines,( ie. x amount of men died at this or that mine and at night on a full moon you can still hear the man lift squeaking up and down, ect). Or of graveyards that date back to the early 1800’s, you can still see a lady in blue or white or black walking the graveyard searching for her beloved who died tragically, ironically on a full moon. ect…I have noticed that every good supernatural story in my area revolves around a full moon. As a amature ghost hunter in my area I can attest that whatever was claimed, my personal investigation has led me to believe that all the stories are false. I’ve spent three nights at the Gettysburg civil war cemetary to supposedly see the ghosts of the dead solders reenact the battle of Bull Run, but nothing. Amatyville, sorry no blood dripping from the walls. No ghosts wandering the railroad tracks either. No trolls under the tressels, nor faries in the woods…
I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that, In my personal research, as an amature remember, I’ve found no such boogie-boos, trolls, deamons, ect.
I do believe that the same can be applied to religion in the same way as these ghost hunters, psychics, tarro readers, ect…
These reverends, evangecal preachers, catholic priests, voodoo practitioners, holier than thou bible beaters, in my opinion , they are all the same. Promise great rewards, happieness, piece of mind, ect, so long as you don’t stray from the script that they dictate to you. Now if you dont mind “donating” to there cause, your wish shall be rewarded.. BULLSHIT!!!
There all sharletians, and should be delt with severly, and exposed as the phonies that they are.
IF people don’t believe in something why spend half there life studying it surely that’s insane my angel cant under stand either 19/9/49
Yes, atheist, I do take your claim that “a Christian’s beliefs are as ridiculous and unfounded as a Muslim’s or a Hindu’s and should be treated with an equal amount of derision” as a persoanl attack on my beliefs. I thought that was the whole point of argument: to bring to light those areas we disagree (though I hope you do it more charitably in future) and listen to each others arguments to be better informed about the subject.
Although you think that all religions are wrong, you also seem to think that they are equally wrong and immoral. I hope you are logical enough to see that there are big differences and that these have their consequences. To say that “religious leaders [with no qualification] are happy to prey on the vulnerable and gullible” is not acceptable. Even if you think my parish priest is mistaken, I hope you are not going to also assume that he is a deliberate liar and fraud… as are the exposed mediums. We theists can be equally angered by them, and this is no argument at all for the cause of atheism.
Jonathan, I can’t be sure but I don’t think the author of this article is suggesting your priest is intentionally lying to you.
Have you ever read the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson? If not, I highly propose you read it (it should be required reading; it’s that great). The story has nothing to do with atheism (I promise!), but it has very much to do with blindly following a tradition. It’s a story that’s basic message can be applied to several scenarios, the whole religion thing being one of them. Religion in general seems to be about hearing a theory and just accepting it. There’s no way to prove any religious theory, so you really can’t deny my previous statement.
Therefore, your priest is preaching to you something he doesn’t know for sure. It’s not lying, because he truly doesn’t know. But think about how inappropriate that is in other situations, teaching something you can’t prove.
Peter gore seer Dear Sarah Priest do know there is a god they are pick by god thay to have free will to choose thay choose to serve god and man.
I am a psychic reader. The only thing I question is how do all of you account for when a reader does not see a person…such as phone readers? Or better yet, like LivePerson.com…we don’t see the person ever. We don’t know where they live, what race or even what sex they are.
Last month I was questioned by a client about her dead brother-in-law. He warned her about her car…he was daid…so how did he know about her car? How did he know that her cars muffler was falling off her car? He told me to tell her about her car. I told the client and she types “OMG…that’s funny because I have been smelling odors from the car and didn’t know why.” Now she does.
Plain and simple.
Al, there have been numerous experiments and challenges to those who believe they have psychic abilities and it has yet to be proven. And it’s not as if there’s isn’t an incentive.
How do you explain the times when you get things wrong? And why you personally, or one of your peers, haven’t claimed the Randi prize?
How do you explain when I get information that is right on the money (as you wish for me to do)?
One of the questions that need to be raised in not about right or wrong answers, but about how mediums DO receive answers. This is a questions that no one seems to be even remotely interested in even begin to hazard an answer.
Atheists and agnotics believe that mediums are always incorrect. That’s is a nice pat answer, but the problem is what do YOU do with correct replies to questions.
If you believe that we are not always wrong, where do we receive the answers? Who (or what) controls those replies?
Al
I am a Seer If any man can prove to me that god or paranormal or evil does not exist then I will prove it does.FOR £5.000.000 my angel is nodding said I am a liar.
PSYCIC abilities have been and are been used by RUSSIAN and CHINA since the sixties it was leaked to AMARICA so BRITAIN got in on the idea.They have been trying to make a mind weapon that would work over large distances. But they could not used it to a significant weapon.However the PENTIGON have built layers of lead round the building to prevent mind control influences.And scientist have admitted its existence the name is remote viewing.And there are many books which uphold my claims mind control is one so the paranormal does exist.One day it could be used as a weapon only time will tell.And I do apologise for my righting but I am dyslexic.
I would like this website to take REMOT VEIWING and make it a topic on this sit it would be vary interesting coment.
The idea of pyschic ability is utterly ridicoulous. Nice website though
You are right John W psychic ability is ridiculous.I find it funny you have been funding it ror 20 years in your taxes.
Peter gore seer, you make me laugh. I just stumbled on this site after looking around for science news. 1) Remote viewing was studied by both the Soviet union and the United states during the cold war. The results of those studies are actually now in the public domain, I have seen the experimental data and it shows no results that are significantly above chance. Just google stargate project. Just like many other believers, you flat out lie about these ‘secret studies’ that show ESP to exist. This is flat out false. The opposite is true. All studies ever conducted dont show any significant evidence beyond what which would be expected with guess work. The Dr Rhine experiments are a favorite with believers because early on in the experiment the results DID start to exceed the expectation of chance. Further study showed that this was an anomolous blip however and the experiments soon fell to normal levels. If you want to see the modern-day ESP research, look no further than Harvard university. Researchers have since 2008 been using neuroimaging to study the brains responses to supposed Extra sensory stimulus. These studies are the strongest evidence yet, against the existance of ESP. There has been no evidence that the brain responds to anything other than physical stimulus. Google it and top harrassing people on this site with your uninformed bullshit.