General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy do people go see psychics? Someone told me yesterday she went to see a psychic
in a neighboring state, and paid her $125 cash for a reading.
(The psychic told her she would have another grandchild. At that time both her adult children said they werent having any more kids. Lo and behold, one of them did had another kid after that. But I digress.)
I confess, some decades ago I went to a local psychic. Paid $50 cash for a reading. (I guess psychics, like everything else, including cell phone companies, have raised their rates.) In my case, I was asking her about my lost cat.
I too used to be fascinated by the woo-woo factor in this, but not any more.
I know sometimes people go see them to ask about people who have gone missingor pets, as I did and so did my aunt. I can understand the hope, no matter how slight, that this person might be able to shed some light on what has happened to a loved one.
But other than that, why do it? I dont think psychics usually tell people bad things, such as, you or your close relative is going to develop a wasting illness, be involved in a fatal car accident, etc.
Of course, how people spend their money is their own beeswax, and at least theyre helping the economy, because the psychic now has $125 to spend.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)It's pure bunk, tho. A fool and his money are soon parted.
Sid
hlthe2b
(102,236 posts)the very reason so many give their last dime to tv televangelists--even though in their hearts, they know they are charlatans. I'm not trying to deride all who are truly religious--I think that is very different from those who allow themselves to be taken in by the money grubbing "preachers" on tv.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)pre-scientific age, magic (astrology, sooth-saying, and other folk practices) functioned as a primitive form of psycho-therapy, whereby the diviner 'divined' what the seeker 'really wanted,' and helped the seeker to understand that 'real want.'
Thomas' book is a great read, an example of the history of science at its finest.
Given the enormous extent of scientfic illiteracy prevalent in our culture, it's no wonder that people have recourse to this sort of folk psychotherapy. And who's to say but that it performs as well as, or no worse than, its scientific counterparts? Psychiatry as a scientific discipline is barely 100 years old, still in its infancy among the sciences.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Because they are gullible.
jp11
(2,104 posts)It can be a 'performance' that is vanishing and if done 'right' give you a glimpse to an earlier time when a reading was one of far fewer options for entertainment/curiosity like the sideshow 'freaks'.
easttexaslefty
(1,554 posts)someone beyond measure.
Someday you may understand it better.
raccoon
(31,110 posts)I can understand the hope, no matter how slight, that this person might be able to shed some light on what has happened to a loved one."
I already understand it, thank you.
easttexaslefty
(1,554 posts)You answered your own question. That's why most people go.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)But no matter how much they do believe, magic still isn't real. No amount of evidence to the contrary will convince them. Hence the successful shearing of the flock.
liberal N proud
(60,334 posts)even when they know the republican is going to screw them.
sadge-virgo
(15 posts)and democratic congresspeople who had two years to do their hopey-changey thingamajigs and just crickets.
You know. Like that.
liberal N proud
(60,334 posts)But it wasn't the Democrats that were obstructionist when they should have been allowing a fascist regime take the nation to war on false premise.
NeedleCast
(8,827 posts)It's easier if you can blame some other force in the universe. Easier to just coast along and believe that things are happening because a deity wants them that way, or because Jupiter is aligned with Venus, than to deal with the fact that you've actually gotta get your shit together and make generally good decisions in life.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)said for religion. Life can be very hard. To me, people seek out things that can give them some relief.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)to reality that is often harsh.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)on vacation
MadHound
(34,179 posts)To find a bit of security and comfort. Which has the more "woo" factor, a church or a psychic?
bowens43
(16,064 posts)smiting some and blessing others?
who knows why people believe things that are clearly silly?
easttexaslefty
(1,554 posts)Do they have to do it make themselves feel better? Like they are oh too smart for the room?
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Denigrating the benign beliefs of others is, for some odd reason, part and parcel of the human condition. And, as we may never "grow" out of religion (as the highly evolved put it), we will also never grow out of making fun of other people for its own sake...
RobinA
(9,888 posts)Because we have watched good friends be sucked into this morass and blow up their lives and the lives of loved ones in pursuit of this nonsense purveyed by other people who have blown up their lives and don't want to be alone in their emptiness. That, and the fact that lots of money is spent chasing spirits while certain people get rich.
easttexaslefty
(1,554 posts)Because, those those without a belief in an afterlife are never violent. Give me a break.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Though playing with the gift for real in fiction... well pushed it to the limit... already tore one character to pieces.
ileus
(15,396 posts)Bonhomme Richard
(9,000 posts)You pay the toll (money, prayer, whatever), leave feeling as little better, and life goes on as it was.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)esp the one on one catholic confessionals
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)libodem
(19,288 posts)That it was like 10 years of therapy in an hour. She had father issues and the psychic hit it on the head with the description of her situation. Very healing for her.
I've gone to several types throughout my lifetime.
bongbong
(5,436 posts)Shrinks have procedures, analysis, etc. Their medical training precludes them from jumping to conclusions about a person's situation.
Psychics, OTOH, or advice columnists like Dear Abby can just spew out the most common "prescription", and if it fits and/or cures a situation, it seems like magic ... and they've hooked another fish to come back X times (at $YYY per visit).
libodem
(19,288 posts)Was like someone reached in with a finger and touched her pain. Very accurate for her.
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)Had a hell of a time getting that red paint off of me.
Don
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)raccoon
(31,110 posts)The psychic said the cat was dead.
(If not, then she certainly would be now, the cat was born in 1984.)
adigal
(7,581 posts)Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet
Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it does not exist. Being skeptical is not synonomous with intelligence. I am smart enough to know that I may not know everything. And there is starting to be a lot of overlap between math/science and "mystical" stuff, such as energy and multiverses, and such.
And how do you explain the many police departments that use psychics? My husband said the NYC police dept used to use a few of them. There is a lot of evidence that some people are more sensitive to energy than the rest of us.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)I was going to take a job on a psychic line call in..I took the training ..It's not that I could not do it - I didn't want to for moral reasons
Plus, I didn't want to have all these people's stories in my head at night
Yes you give some help, but it is not true nor is it professional help for your anxieties, fears or relationship/abuse issues.
It is someone who has learned to "read" what you want to hear another person say to you along with some time tested generalities
It is a victim scam archetype to me all the way from Rasputin to Nancy Reagan's friend for the most part with some exception
Plus they prey on old and innocent. Most psychics are about $$ although IMO there may be some who do have a true ability.
Just they are not that common as the psychic trade is
Told me to tell old people I needed to hear more of their voice to get a reading over the phone- could they read from something bland like the phone book?
Of course this was a big time waster to get a phone book, and the charge was by the minute!
Little crap like that along with me having taken one or two psychology classes in college = ill sought advice or forecasting but I would have been paid well as was your friend's psychic..hope the psychic was one of the real deals that may exist!
jorno67
(1,986 posts)I never go see them. I am sure that if I ever needed one they would come see me as they know I'm not coming to them.
turtlerescue1
(1,013 posts)Archae
(46,326 posts)Sylvia Browne told a couple their son was dead and in a drainage ditch.
He was alive, and later escaped from the pervert holding him prisoner.
Browne's reaction? She ignores questions about it.
cbdo2007
(9,213 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)He should have foretold what a bomb the show was.
First time I saw someone almost booed off stage.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)but the tickets were $35. His show was along the line of John Edward. I only went because my sister's finance was looking to get closure on her death. She died of kidney cancer. He never did get to talk to the psychic. My other sister and her husband were along. He called on my brother-in-law, Alex, and said he sensed two dead men who were close to him. Alex said that was his brother and father. His brother was killed in a holdup. But I think the psychic made a lucky guess, but Alex was overwhelmed.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)...easily parted from their money.
All these for-profit "psychics" should be jailed for fraud.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)all tv evangelists. It's all the same.
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)I have a friend who makes a living as a psychic and what he does is based in generalities (from what I've seen) but often makes the person he is giving a reading to feel better about their situation. It's, IMO, no different than people paying money to life coaches to figure out what they should do for a living or how to improve their lives financially.
I DO believe there are genuine psychic's out there that can tap into something non-psychic's can't. Whether it's body language or emotions, they are in tune with things the rest of us aren't.
Heck, I had an experience as a child where I dreamed of this painting, it was a young boy, on black velvet dressed as a jester. A few months later my parents and I went to our landlord's house and in their sitting room was this exact painting. I'd never been to their house before, don't believe I ever overheard conversation about this painting but somehow I'd dreamt it. Do I think it was a psychic moment? I don't know what it was but it freaked me out at the time. When we sat in that room I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. I had another dream as a young adult about my sister laying on a slab that was in the back of a fire truck, a few weeks later she and her husband drove underneath a semi, nearly killing them both. Was it a psychic moment? Who the hell knows but it freaked me out at the time.
My two personal instances aside, do I believe in most psychic's? Nope, I think they're hucksters out to take money but if people feel better after talking to them, where's the harm?