Spiritualists, Ghost Whisperers and the like…

I give christians a hard time on this blog and most deserve it - especially those two idiots that disturbed last Saturday’s peaceful morning working in the garden.  They were Mormons of course (or believers in the ‘prophet Moroni’ - didn’t the twit that invented this cult  think before creating that name?). I was so proud of my wife when she wrenched open the door and firmly told them that we were atheists and there wasn’t much point them continuing with the conversation that they wanted to strike up. They actually thanked her for her honesty which was pleasant enough I guess, but didn’t mean we weren’t annoyed that they should presume to come to our door and tell us their brand of fairy story…

Spiritualists, astrologers and those who pretend to be able to chat to your dead relatives piss me off just as much as mormons. Not to mention the ‘clairvoyants’ who appear on reality TV shows and pretend to solve ‘unsolvable’ crimes - they’re all fruit-loops and charlatans. There was a show on telly over here (Sensing Murder) recently that had an assortment of these nutters that appeared to get remarkably accurate results - but as is mentioned in fine print at the end ‘parts of the show are ‘edited’ to improve the program’. The ‘improvements’ are to deliberately mislead in my opinion.

This page at the Victorian Skeptics website has some interesting info about the show including this little gem. Quote: “A contact from the crew of “Sensing Murder” has revealed another part of the reason why the psychics did so well at sensing details from the murders. Apparently the psychics were filmed while they were picking up ‘vibes’ about the case and then their comments were matched up against the known facts. The show was subsequently ‘improved’ by editing out the mistakes. The correct statements were left in, as well as those mentioned by both psychics. The crew member was very unimpressed by the psychics’ abilities and claimed to feel “morally bankrupt” for having worked on the show.”
There always has been shows on telly with this theme like Touched by an Angel and other such drivel but now we have the Ghost Whisperer, Ghost Hunters, The Mentalist, Sensing Murder, The One etc which all seem to be portraying this nonsense as having some kind of a factual basis - but it doesn’t - none whatsoever.

Look, if you are so desperate to get some reassuring words from your dead relatives that you need to go to a clairvoyant or call 1900talktothedead or whatever (usually at outrageous per minute charges) - well fine, I don’t care, it’s your money. But honestly, we are actually in the 21st Century now and charlatans, voodoo and witch doctors belong in another era - so why not just face reality as it is?

Tags: churches & cults, ghosts, spirituality, TV