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gasmonso's Challenge!

gasmonso,

We (well, I) don't think you're a freak. The fact that you're trying to test these paranormal phenomena is a good sign - you're open to the fact that there might be a "normal" explanation. Good luck with your tests.

There have been some good suggestions given so far. Regarding the psychic reading, I would go further than Azrael or Freethinker, and say; don't offer any info. Let the psychic know ahead of time you will be only listening to her comments. We can give away a lot of info with few (or even no) words. And don't be surprised if she comments on not being able to "get anything" (i.e. pick up any psychic info). If you're not cueing her, then...

Also, ask her ahead of time if you can take notes or bring a tape recording to the session. (We'll bug you later about transcribing it).

Good luck!!!
 
JPK,

I did an amazon search for Ian Rowland's book and came up blank. Can you point me in the right direction? I've been looking for a good one, and thought one of the CSICOP guys had written one, but lost the thread.
 
Freethinker said:
With the psychic, don't answer yes to any questions unless they are right, and don't provide more than they ask for. For example, if they say "I'm sensing someone with the letter D, do you know of someone?" Just say yes or no.
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No. Why would a true psychic need to know if you "know of someone"?

A true psychic needs no help. Have her/him/it phone you, record it and say nothing. You will still find her/him/it amazing because you will make the connections yourself. Unless you count the number of misses and notice how many there are.
 
Good evening ObscureReferenceMan.
ObscureReferenceMan said:
JPK,

I did an amazon search for Ian Rowland's book and came up blank. Can you point me in the right direction? I've been looking for a good one, and thought one of the CSICOP guys had written one, but lost the thread.
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Sherman Bay has jsut done so. Thanks! This is a great book. Not only does this book show you how low life psychics use cold reading to fondle and disstort the memories of the grieving, but it also shows how the same techinque is used in other professions, such as job interviews, and police interagations.
JPK
 
Good evening Sherman Bay.
Sherman Bay said:
No. Why would a true psychic need to know if you "know of someone"?

A true psychic needs no help. Have her/him/it phone you, record it and say nothing. You will still find her/him/it amazing because you will make the connections yourself. Unless you count the number of misses and notice how many there are.
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Who is this "True psychic " of which you speak? :) I'd love to meet them.
JPK
 
gasmonso said:
Finally, we are going to get a Ouija board and attempt to contact whomever... hopefully Z. We still have to find a place to use it since my sister, mom, and my wife won't allow it in their homes. Again I would like thoughts, ideas, etc to do a good test.
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Gasmonso, welcome back.

What people around here like is not (contrary to popular belief) blind cynicism, but testing. Which it is heartening to see you also appear intersted in.

Others above have given you advice on other areas, I'd like to concentrate on the ouija board.

First off it would be great if you could video the test, that way you don't have to rely on imperfect memory.

Why not try a mixture of verbal questions, and silent questions to see if the spirits could detect thoughts, after all it appears they are guiding your hands mentally, otherwise the planchette would move without anyone touching it.
If you do, write down the questions beforehand.

Ask what language the spirit speaks - maybe they can demonstrate a fluency in another language.

Ask what job they did - see if they can provide details of some specific tasks they had to perform.

Can they describe their home town/village or a particular monument or street there.

Do they know where they are buried - is there a tombstone for them?

And what were they wearing when they died.

Anyone else got any ideas for questions?
 
Misleading the psychic?

A thought occurred to me: what if you went into the reading armed with one or two things designed to deliberately mislead the psychic?

For example, clothing. Wear something that's totally out of character for you, and see if the psychic makes comments based on that, like a t-shirt with the name of a band in a genre opposite to what you listen to, or a product that you would never think of using or have no use for.

If you normally wear a wedding ring, take it off and cover the tan line with some makeup.

Walk in with a slight limp (might be hard to pull off if you're not an actor.)

The point is, the psychic is supposed to have extranormal powers that should see through the misleading pointers. If the psychic is cold reading, she (he) will use the obvious clues.

Has anyone on this forum actually tried something like this? If so, how did it turn out?
 
That very thing was done by Penn & Teller. They had a guy visit 3 different psychics wearing different types of clothes. One for example he dressed quite shabbily and had liquor on his breath. The psychic predictable gave him a reading to the effect that he would find a job very soon even though the man already had one. :)
 
With the psychic

Say nothing at all. Do not nod your head or look excited, just let her rant on for a while. Eventually she'll probably ask you 'does this make sense', tell her that as a part of the test you can't tell her whether or not it's making sense as that could help her cheat.

I would also recommend getting a volunteer that neither the psychic or your sister know about, as the chance of her having gathered information about you is extremely high.

With the ouija board

Just do it on your own, do not get your sister or anyone else involved because they could potentially taint the test. If you're still getting the spirit to talk to you, keep asking it questions that you do not know, or could not possibly guess (i.e. what is the capital of Jamaica - they have to say a word and you couldn't guess it).
 
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Good stuff guys! Lots of ideas to sort through. I should be talking to my sister tomorrow to find out more about the psychic and her friend. I will of course pass on any info.

This should be interesting to say the least.

gasmonso
 
RSLancastr said:
The propblem with this is, what are the "spirits" supposed to be able to know?
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Yes, I agree there are various assumptions inherent in the ghostly-stalking task - not least a willingness by the ghost to 'prove' itself (an assumption largely inevitable in any test like this). Also, the assumption that the ghost can produce this sort of knowledge (things going on elsewhere in the world). I would think at first sight that seems to me to be reasonable, but of course, if that's not part of the claim then it's an unreasonable request.

The trouble with just finding out stuff like where Z died, how, when, details of his life, etc. is that it falls into the trap of past-life regression: vague details can appear to be confirmed (cf Wiseman's imaginary friend study), and of course a trickster could do a very little research and be very convincing.

Gasmonso, what sorts of questions do you think Z might be able to answer?
 
TheChadd said:
With the psychic

Say nothing at all. Do not nod your head or look excited, just let her rant on for a while. Eventually she'll probably ask you 'does this make sense', tell her that as a part of the test you can't tell her whether or not it's making sense as that could help her cheat.
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I would predict that (unless this has been agreed as a test beforehand, which does not seem to be the case) at this point the psychic will stop the reading, and tell you that your negativity is making it impossible to proceed.

If/when asked 'does this make sense', just say "Some of it" with no elaboration. She may then pick something to proceed with and rattle on some more, and you can analyse that part later.
Repeat as required.
 
Yea actually, saying 'some of it' is much better, but I imagine she could press for more such as 'what' and eventually you'll have to own up.

Still, I agree, try saying 'some of it' to see if you can get her to continue.
 
Nucular said:
Gasmonso, what sorts of questions do you think Z might be able to answer?
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That's a good question. I'll be in a better place to answer that once I get on the board with my sister. It's been quite some time so I'll play it by ear.

gasmonso
 
RSLancastr said:
The propblem with this is, what are the "spirits" supposed to be able to know?

For example, how would the spirit of a young boy from (wherever) be expected to know the things you mention?

As Randi is fond of saying, you can't ask a someone who claims to be a pianist to prove it by handing them a violin and demanding they play it.
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I may be wrong but I think he meant that if a psychic is talking to your dead grandmother then she should be able to tell you what her middle name is.

As for the test, I "tested" psychics for a research paper when I was in college back in the early 90's and found that not a single psychic would allow any kind of recording with the exception of an astrologist I visited. Back then all I had was a tape recorder and I was afraid that if it shut off at the end of the tape it would give me away so I tried to rely on writing stuff down as soon as I hit my car to get the freshest possible memory. It may be different for you as it was set up between friends but I was a paying customer. Looking back I really regret not asking the one question I should have asked (isn't hindsight wonderful?) and that is, "Why do you object to being recorded?" Knowing what I know now I can't believe I didn't ask that. I will add that two psychics refused to take any information when making the appointment, not even my name, because, they said, they didn't want me to think they would gather information on me before hand.

In any case, be relaxed and at least act like it's entertaining. Like it was stated above, if you come across as too skeptical or obnoxious or anything she may stop the session. And don't lie. That will give her the ammo to explain why "your" reading didn't work.
 
My experience of psychics/mediums is they usually include a taping of session which you take away same day,in the price.
 
ObscureReferenceMan said:
JPK,

I did an amazon search for Ian Rowland's book and came up blank. Can you point me in the right direction? I've been looking for a good one, and thought one of the CSICOP guys had written one, but lost the thread.
Click to expand...

Just be sure to do the money conversion if you are not paying in pounds. Yikes.
 
TheChadd said:
With the psychic

Say nothing at all. Do not nod your head or look excited, just let her rant on for a while. Eventually she'll probably ask you 'does this make sense', tell her that as a part of the test you can't tell her whether or not it's making sense as that could help her cheat.

I would also recommend getting a volunteer that neither the psychic or your sister know about, as the chance of her having gathered information about you is extremely high
Click to expand...

Another suggestion is to make the appointment with the "psychic" letting your sister and others know that the appointment was made, but substitute someone else to keep the appointment in your place, unknown to all. See if this "psychic" picks up on the fact that the person isn't you. Or see if the person you send in your stead receives an incredible amount of information about you.

That's my $0.02 worth.
 
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