Introduction

In our world today, we have countless people who claim they can do all kinds of things from speaking to the dead to telling you the future and I’m pretty certain they have convinced themselves over a period of time that they can actually do these things. You also have the people who go along to meet with them who also claim, that they are living proof that these mediums etc, can really do these things.

We have those who look into crystal balls, throwing cane, and dice, some use the Ouija board, those who practice palmistry, interpreting patterns of birds flying, or interpreting dreams, automatic writing and handwriting analysis and the list could go on. And make no mistake about it, this is a multi-million-pound industry, which has even crept into Christianity over the years and people are being conned out of thousands of pounds, whilst being misled and given false hopes and dreams.

Before we get into the study, please allow me to try this experiment with you. The chances are, unless I know you personally, in all probability, or I don’t know you or have never even met you in person.

Please read the following, it’s a little lengthy, but I think it’ll get my point across.

Experiment

You are a person prone to bouts of self-examination. This is in sharp contrast to a striking ability you have developed to appear very socially engaged, even the life and soul of the party, but in a way that only convinces others. You are all too aware of it being a façade.

This means that you will often be at a gathering and find yourself playing a part. While on the one hand, you’ll be talkative and funny, you’ll be detaching yourself to the point where you will find yourself watching everything going on around you and feeling utterly unable to engage. You’ll play conversations back to yourself in your head and wonder what that person really meant when he said such-and-such, conversations that other people wouldn’t give a second thought to.

How have you learned to deal with this conflict? Through exercising control. You like to show a calm, self-assured fluid kind of stability (but because this is self-consciously created, it will create bouts of frustrated silliness and a delight in extremes, or at least a delight in being seen to be extreme). You most easily recognise this control in how you are with people around you.

You have learned to protect yourself by keeping people at bay. Because in the past you have learned to be disappointed by people (and because there were issues with you adjusting to your sexuality), you instinctively keep people at arms’ length, until you decide they are allowed over that magic line into your group of close friends. However, once across that line, the problem is that an emotional dependency kicks in which leaves you feeling very hurt or rejected if it appears that they have betrayed that status.

Because you are prone to self-examination, you will be aware of these traits. However, you are unusually able to examine even that self-examination, which means that you have become concerned about what the real you is. You have become all too aware of façades, of sides of yourself that you present to the world, and you wonder if you have lost touch with the real and spontaneous you.

You are very creative and have tried different avenues to utilize that ability. It may not be that you specifically, say, paint; it may be that your creativity shows itself in more subtle ways, but you will certainly find yourself having vivid and well-formed ideas which others will find hard to grasp. You set high standards for yourself, though, and in many ways are a bit of a perfectionist.

The problem is, though, that it means you often don’t get stuff done, because you are frustrated by the idea of mediocrity and are wearied by the idea of starting something afresh. However, once your brain is engaged you’ll find yourself sailing. This will likely lead to you having considered writing a novel or some such, but a fear that you won’t be able to achieve quite what you want stops you from getting on with it.

But you have a real vision for things, which others fall short of. Particularly in your academic/college situation, you are currently fighting against restraints upon your desire to express yourself freely.

Your relationship with your parents (there is a suggestion that one is no longer around, or at least emotionally absent) is under some strain. You wish to remain fond of them, but recent issues are causing frustration, from your side far more than theirs. In fact, they seem unaware of your thoughts on the matter.

Partly this is because there are ways in which you have been made to feel isolated from certain groups in the past, something of an outsider. Now what is happening is that you are taking that outsider role and defending it to the point of consciously avoiding being part of a group. This will serve you well in your creative and career pursuits.

You have an enormous cynicism towards those who prefer to be part of a group or who exhibit any cliquey behaviour, and you always feel a pang of disappointment when you see your ‘close’ friends seeming to follow that route. Deep down it feels like rejection.

However, for all that introspection, you have developed a sensational, dry sense of humour that makes connections quickly and wittily and will leave you making jokes that go right over the heads of others. You delight in it so much that you’ll often rehearse jokes or amusing voices to yourself in order to ’spontaneously’ impress others with them. But this is a healthy desire to impress, and although you hate catching yourself at it, it’s nothing to be so worried about.

There’s also an odd feeling that you should have been born in a different century. You might be able to make more sense of that than I can. There are some strong monetary shifts taking place at the moment. Both the recent past and what’s in store over the next few months represent quite a change.

You have links at the moment with people abroad, which are quite interesting and will look to yield worthwhile results. You’re naturally a little disorganized. A look around your living space would show a box of photos, unorganised albums, out-of-date medicines, broken items not thrown out, and notes to yourself which are significantly out of date. Something related to this is that you lack motivation. Because you’re resourceful and talented enough to be pretty successful when you put your mind to things, this encourages you to procrastinate and put them off.

Equally, you’ve given up dreams a little easier when your mind flitted elsewhere. There are in your home signs of an excursion into playing a musical instrument, which you have since abandoned, or are finding yourself less interested in. (This may alternatively relate to poetry and creative writing you’ve briefly tried your hand at and left behind you.)

You have a real capacity for deciding that such-and-such a thing (or so-and-so a person) will be the all and end all of everything and be with you forever. But you’d rather try and fail, and swing from one extreme to the other, than settle for the little that you see others content with.

It’s very interesting doing your reading, as you do present something of a conundrum, which won’t surprise you. You are certainly bright, but unusually open to life’s possibilities, something not normally found among achieving people. I’d say you’d do well to be less self-absorbed, as it tends to distance you a little and to relinquish some of the control you exercise when you present that stylized version of yourself to others.

You could let people in a little more, but I am aware that there is a darkness you feel you should hide (much of this is in the personal/relationship/sexual area and is related to a neediness which you don’t like).

You really have an appealing personality, genuinely. Many thanks for doing this, and for offering something far more substantial than most.

Your Experiment Results

Ask yourself honestly, how much of that experiment was accurate concerning you? Some of it! Most of it! All of it!

Cold Reading

You see, this is called, ‘cold reading’ and this is the technique that some people use when they claim they know things about you, but if you take a moment to read through it all carefully again, you’ll see that it’s so general it could apply to almost anyone in the world because it covers all bases, it says your one thing but then it says your also the other, etc.

Most people will see something of themselves in there. It’s called ‘The Forer Effect’ and it’s one of the simple tools that so-called psychics and mediums use to convince you that they can talk to the dead, look into your soul, and accept all major credit cards.

If you look back at those statements in the experiment, not only are they actually pretty vague, but they can apply to almost anyone. They’re also, for the most part, positive, a few negative traits are sprinkled in to make it believable, but none of them are so terrible that you would immediately reject them.

By making these kinds of statements, they can make you believe they’ve got access to incredible insights when they’re really just telling you what you want to hear and doing it in a way that prevents you from noticing the trick.

A psychic wouldn’t make a strong, declarative statement, such as, ‘you suffer from clinical social anxiety,’ but they might say, ‘at times, social anxiety has been a problem for you in your life.’

Of course, that’s true, but it’s true for almost every single human being on the planet.

Let’s go fishing

No not that kind of fishing, this kind of ‘phishing’, it’s a term used for anything used to trick, mislead, or persuade an individual into providing sensitive information that can be used for fraudulent purposes.

In other words, they get you to do the work for them. Most people who see a psychic aren’t there reluctantly, after all, it’s not like the dentist, or the in-laws you don’t visit because you know the consequences of not going will be worse. Because of this, it’s pretty easy to get a client to play along.

All a psychic needs to do is start by explaining that the messages they get can be vague, and they might need help to understand why they’re important. If the client agrees, boom, they’ve got cooperation.

‘I’m seeing a name with the letter C. Oh, it was the letter K? Thank you. When I get these impressions from the spirit world, sometimes mistakes like that can happen. Now I’m sensing that this person was either your father, or knew your father, or was maybe on his side of the family. I may need your help here. Oh, it was your mother’s father? Yes, right, it’s getting clearer now. It was your grandfather. I knew it involved a father somehow. It’s starting to come together.’

By the end of the session, the client has actually done most of the work, because they’re ready to believe, which is like taking your doctor seriously after he asks you to help him with the surgery.

Something true for everyone

If you listen closely to what most mediums, psychics and fortune-tellers say, you might learn some things. If you listen carefully you will notice how they always say something like ‘I’m getting a male figure, someone with the name John or Jim, something along those lines.’

In an audience, it won’t be hard to find someone who knew a guy named John who died. Or, perhaps, the psychic will say, ‘I’m seeing someone, an older relative, they had a heart problem.’

They focus on common relationships, physical traits, or causes of death, think about it, heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. No wonder they can say something that fits other people’s criteria and as soon as they appear to be right once, people will be more likely to buy into the whole process.

Oops, they made a mistake!

It’s amazing how many people who go to see mediums, and those alike always remember the right things which have been said but overlook every time these people get it wrong. Sometimes, a statement a psychic makes, no matter how vague, will miss the mark. When that happens, they’ve got ways of backtracking to cover up their error.

Maybe they’re claiming they’re speaking to your mother in the spirit world when suddenly they realise your mother is still alive. If you listen closely they go on to say, ‘oh, it must be someone who knew your mother well, or had some sort of relationship with her’.

They tell you that you are about to make a big decision in your life, but you tell them this isn’t true? They will go on to say, ‘it’s now looking like you did make a big decision earlier in the year or are at a stage in your life where some changes are happening’.

They always keep things vague and explain that the spirit world doesn’t always communicate clearly, a psychic can seem legitimate even when caught in a clear lie. If they’ve made a claim that doesn’t fit, they will step back and reframe it in a more general way and they will act as though the person isn’t contradicting them, just clarifying things for them. If they convince people that they’re not wrong, that they’re just helping them arrive at the right answers, people will look past the fact that they got it wrong.

They spy your twitching little eye

There’s a reason why psychics, mediums etc, often talk slowly, whenever they make statements, they’re waiting to see how a client will respond. Even when someone isn’t speaking, although a lot of their acts depend on a person revealing information like, ‘No, he wasn’t my uncle, I think you’re talking about my cousin’,

the simple shifts in body language, facial expression, and plenty of other subtle cues, will help them know if they’re on the right track.

A little nod of the head, a smile, eye movement, all these things we do without realising it, let’s them know they are saying something which relates to you. Your waiting for them to say something specific, and when you do, you’re going to react, without knowing it. That’s the whole point, they just need to watch out for those reactions.

I wonder how much they could tell you if you went to see them with a balaclava on your head whilst wearing sunglass!

They spy with their little eye

Whether we realise it or not, we’re constantly sharing information about ourselves, even when we aren’t saying a word. For example, a wedding ring shows that you’re in a committed relationship, have the life experiences of someone who has been married, and there’s a strong possibility that you have children. Sitting in the front row during an audience reading, or leaning in close, can mean that you’re eager to believe the psychic.

You can learn a lot about a person simply by paying closer attention to clothing, behaviour, speech patterns, etc. These guys just know how to do it better than most. Why not try out yourself, pay attention to the clothing of the people around you, and the way they carry themselves and you’ll start to notice what this says about them because it’s often really obvious.

Home Work

Psychics, mediums and fortune-tellers often work with an audience or even a large group of people, and they have it pretty easy. A simple trick they often use is to pick the subject of their reading ahead of time, more often than not, those who go to see these people have often gone before and they can spot someone they know they want to focus on.

Then, they have plenty of time to look for clues that will help them get a sense of who they’re dealing with. If possible, they also can try to get someone else in the audience to have a conversation with this person beforehand, gathering as much info as possible.

We need to understand if someone has gone to see them before, they keep records of what was said so they can impress you the next time you go along and if you take a friend, then that only heightens the sense that what they are telling you is right on.

They will gather as much information about you as possible before they meet you and let’s be honest here, with the rise of the internet, anyone can go on Google and find your name, address, date of birth, where you live etc, very easily and those who use Facebook and Twitter and other mediums, pardon the pun, more or less reveal their whole life stories on them for everyone to read.

Christianity

There is a famous evangelist by the name of Peter Popoff, who claimed that ‘God’ communicates with him and gives him special powers to heal the sick. Popoff appeared on radio and television shows around the world making millions from his thousands of admirers who all personally witnessed his miraculous ‘cures’.

They swore that he was the real thing, as he seemed able to know their names and what was ailing them, as well as other personal information. He would seemingly cure people of cancer and other diseases in front of cheering crowds of thousands who fell for his godly powers.

It was first James Randi who exposed him on the ‘Tonight Show’ as a master scam artist. He proved that Popoff had a tiny hearing aid in his left ear, connected to a high-frequency receiver, used by his informers to give him the needed information and that all his healing powers were a fraud.

People would fill out special healing cards before they entered the show and his wife would secretly broadcast the information to him. The audience was amazed at how they had been so cleverly fooled. Yet despite this amazing revelation, people still continue to believe in his supposed miraculous powers, sadly, this practice is still being used in some churches today.

What a cruel hoax on his sick believing victims, just like all these secular mediums, psychics and fortune-tellers, they take advantage of the vulnerable of society, especially those who are uncertain about their future or have recently lost a loved one and want to know how they are doing in the ‘spirit world’ for financial gain and self-glorification.

Interesting

I find it interesting that in the ‘real world’ when people claim they hear voices the doctors call it ‘schizophrenia’, but in the religious world or in the world of mediums, fortune-tellers and psychics, they call it a ‘gift’.

Those who are in the medical profession tell us that, the families of those involved in fortune-telling or occultism develop illnesses such as nervous disturbances, psychopathic and hysteric symptoms, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, epilepsy, symptoms of paralysis, confusion, shattered mind, hesitancy, cases of mediumistic psychoses, a general tendency toward emotional and mental illnesses.

Witch of Endor

In 1 Samuel 28, we find that Saul goes to see the witch of Endor in a state of desperateness. Notice how she uses the same techniques as we looked at earlier.

‘The king said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. What do you see?’ The woman said, ‘I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.’ 1 Samuel 28:13

Straight away we can see that she is very vague in what she describes and notice what she says next.

‘What does he look like?’ he asked. ‘An old man wearing a robe is coming up,’ she said.’ 1 Samuel 28:14

Now earlier Saul asked her to bring up Samuel, 1 Samuel 28:11, but here she described this person as old and wearing a robe, well that could be anybody, as most men wore robes in Old Testament times and so she relies on Saul to fill in the gaps.

‘Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.’ 1 Samuel 28:14

Notice she didn’t say who it was, it was Saul who said it was Samuel, but how did he know? He couldn’t see a thing. Remember at this stage in Saul’s life he was already mentally losing it, 1 Samuel 16:14 / 1 Samuel 16:23 and so because Saul came believing that she could speak to the dead, his mind was already made up about who this ghostly figure was. The truth was, she was as much a fake as those who practice these things today.

Daniel

You remember in Daniel 2 when Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which troubled him, Daniel 2:2 / Daniel 2:10-11.

And when we read on, we discover that Daniel was the only one who could interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which had to do with future kingdoms because God has blessed Daniel with this ability. All these so-called magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and astrologers were fake and if you read the text carefully you’ll see that even Nebuchadnezzar knew it.

Can the dead communicate with the Living?

According to the Bible, No! If there is any supernatural activity in a séance, for example, it’s certainly not the spirit of the departed one speaking through the medium. It’s not possible according to the Scriptures to contact the spirits of the dead. Jesus made this very clear with the account of the rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16:19-31.

Two things need to be noted about this passage, there is a great gulf fixed between the abode of the righteous dead and the unrighteous dead which no one can cross. The dead, in other words, are limited in their movement. The rich man was refused permission to warn his five brothers of their impending fate if they didn’t repent. The passage indicates, along with the rest of the Scripture, that the dead aren’t allowed to speak to the living on any matter.

Are demons working through these people?

‘Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.’ Acts 16:16-18

It’s stated that his slave girl had a spirit of divination, the Greek word here is that she had ‘a spirit of Python’, which tells us she was a false prophetess associated with the temple of Delphi. She was owned by certain wicked men who greedily used her supposed ability to speak falsely for their own profit. When the evangelists, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke, were on their way to prayer, they were met by this slave girl.

For some reason, the girl continued to follow the evangelists and was persistent in her proclamations about their work. She proclaimed to all that these men were the servants of the Most High God who proclaimed the way of salvation, well hello, she wasn’t telling people something new but it does seem she was confirming that the evangelists were the servants of God.

I’ve heard it over and over again, Christians saying that it’s the devil and his demons are working through these mediums, fortune-tellers and psychics, but these Christians need to stop giving Satan more credit than the Bible gives him.

I know it’s an easy answer but at the end of the day, it’s all show, a trick, a scam, this has all to do with greed and fame and the wanting to be important and more special than those around them. Demons still exist, but they don’t possess people as they did during New Testament times. Didn’t Jesus bring all that activity to an end when He died on the cross? Colossians 2:15 / 1 John 3:8.

Today, we need to be concerned about Satan, the Devil, who tempts us to sin. We know that the devil is still working today but he doesn’t have the power he once had and so he can only work through lying and deceit. John 8:44 / 2 Corinthians 11:3 / 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 / Ephesians 6:11 / 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 / Revelation 12:9 / Revelation 13:12-14 / Revelation 19:20.

The Power Of Suggestion

You might wonder if it’s even possible to convince ourselves of something which isn’t actually real, well science has proven this over and over again, some people call it a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you think about it, no one ever goes along to see a medium, fortune-teller or psychic if they didn’t already believe they could do what they claim they can do.

Ever had someone tell you that a dental or medical procedure ‘will really hurt,’ that a test ‘was really hard,’ or that a new boss ‘is impossible to deal with’, and then had those scenarios play out just as predicted! Turns out, those early suggestions probably shaped your reality. A deliberate suggestion can influence how well people remember things, how they respond to medical treatments, and even how well they will perform and behave.

When these mediums, fortune-tellers and psychics tell a woman they will marry a tall, handsome, bald person, chances are that’s exactly who they will end up marrying, not because of ‘love’ but because it was ‘written in the stars’! Every other guy that comes into their lives is simply dismissed, but the truth was she only liked bald men anyway.

Maybe they tell you that ‘someone close to you is going to become unwell’ and you start stressing out over the next few days, weeks, months and even years about what exactly that means.

Conclusion

I do believe that people who go to these mediums, fortune-tellers and psychics are genuinely sincere and they go looking for comfort in some way, and usually because they are vulnerable, they are open to anyone who can bring them comfort, whether it’s real or not. Ask any phycologist or psychiatrist and they will tell you that the mind is a very delicate part of our being and can easily be manipulated.

As Christians we can remain confident and peaceful, knowing that God is in full control of our unseen future. Jesus Christ is the only answer for anyone anxious about their future, Matthew 6:25-34.

But those who claim to predict the future or advise our lives through such means as Ouija boards, mirror mantic such as crystal balls, mirrors, rock crystals, extrasensory perception (ESP), horoscopes, astrology or biorhythm, telepathy, palm-reading, clairvoyance, kabala (Jewish mysticism), pendulums, tarot and other card readings, coffee grounds, tea leaves, beans, candles, and use of certain devices such as throwing special sticks or dice, etc but they have NO power, either to predict future events or to cause what they predict to come to pass, Proverbs 19:21 / Ecclesiastes 8:7/

And even more importantly, especially for those who practice these things and claim to be Christians, the Bible isn’t vague but very clear about what will happen in the future to them if they don’t repent of these practices, Galatians 5:19-21 / Revelation 22:15.

Seeing is believing

Rather than taking my word for what I’ve written about in this study, below are some links to some documentaries which describe everything I’ve written about here and even more. I’m not promoting Derren Brown in any shape or form, but if anything, at least he’s honest enough to show the world, how these people work.

To Watch Derren Brown’s Documentary About:

‘Psychics’ Click Here

‘Séances’ Click Here

‘Faith Healing’ Click Here