Response to Jenny on psychics

                I think psychics work by predicting likely outcomes based on the physical appearance of a person and what the person says about themselves to say vague things that are likely to happen to them. A psychic may tell a person in their 30’s with no ring on their finger that they’re going to be married in the next couple years. It is vague, more than possible and the person leaves happy. Psychics may use some things they overhear. It has been rumored that television psychics do so by listening in to people in the waiting room through cameras and such, but I’m going to assume that this generally is not what occurs. Most psychics warn people in advance that their knowledge is going to be vague and encourage people to fill in the blanks. This leaves them a lot of room for their guesses to be correct. Also seemingly specific statements can be vague when you start to think about them. For instance, a new person is going to enter your life in the next month and they are going to say something that really gets you thinking. In reality a month is a long time and what you determine as getting you thinking are likely to increase if you expect it to happen. A psychic could also say that they see that an elderly family member in your past that you never quite got over the loss of. This sounds specific but it is true of a very large number of people. This would work well in a personal setting but even better with a T.V. psychic. They are working with a large crowd. If someone says I’m seeing a young man who says he died in a car accident in a crowd of people coming to a performance of a psychic, some audience member is more than likely to relate this because there are so many and many are looking for closure. It sounds specific but it really is not.   Basically I think psychics are scams that are good at manipulating people, but I also think they can be fun to go see especially with a group of friends. If you do not take it seriously it can make a good joke and an interesting experience.

                How much of television psychic’s material do you think is accurately portrayed in the show and how much do you think is the result of careful editing?