(Forgive me if this has come up before; I can't think of a suitable search string to be sure I've not missed it.)
I've often wondered about the proportions of self-deluders, informally-trained scammers, and outright mentalists that are in the business of taking money for "psychic" services. I believe Ian Rowland alludes to this "sector" of mentalism in his cold reading book, and Derren Brown has mentioned it IIRC, but I've heard little about it otherwise.
By accident, I came across this thread on a magic forum, wherein at least some posters seem quite comfortable with the idea of the latter group plying a trade. They seem to take it as read that there are "performers" out there who play psychics, take money, and actively deceive their clients into believing they have special powers. Yet more of them seem to advocate a laissez-faire "if people weren't gullible, they wouldn't get bilked" attitude.
The idea of this disturbs me greatly; does anyone have any firm info on how common this is? Have any of them been "outed"? I realise there's a fine line between performance and fraud, but to me, taking money for psychic readings without giving any idea that you're "performing" is reprehensible.
One poster rants about Rowland's concept of "psychic baiting" which personally I wish I had the balls to try for myself. I have a hard time actively and knowingly ruining someone's day, even a con-artist like a "psychic". Clearly there is some "bleeving" going on which complicates matters and strays into the "self-delusion" variety of psychic. For example, this thread. And this quote from the first thread is very telling:
This guy seems to mutated from mentalist to self-deluded "psychic", which I find quite fascinating. He's a sort of hybrid I suppose; I'm more interested in those magicians/mentalists who are "working strong" as I think Rowland calls it.
I've often wondered about the proportions of self-deluders, informally-trained scammers, and outright mentalists that are in the business of taking money for "psychic" services. I believe Ian Rowland alludes to this "sector" of mentalism in his cold reading book, and Derren Brown has mentioned it IIRC, but I've heard little about it otherwise.
By accident, I came across this thread on a magic forum, wherein at least some posters seem quite comfortable with the idea of the latter group plying a trade. They seem to take it as read that there are "performers" out there who play psychics, take money, and actively deceive their clients into believing they have special powers. Yet more of them seem to advocate a laissez-faire "if people weren't gullible, they wouldn't get bilked" attitude.
The idea of this disturbs me greatly; does anyone have any firm info on how common this is? Have any of them been "outed"? I realise there's a fine line between performance and fraud, but to me, taking money for psychic readings without giving any idea that you're "performing" is reprehensible.
One poster rants about Rowland's concept of "psychic baiting" which personally I wish I had the balls to try for myself. I have a hard time actively and knowingly ruining someone's day, even a con-artist like a "psychic". Clearly there is some "bleeving" going on which complicates matters and strays into the "self-delusion" variety of psychic. For example, this thread. And this quote from the first thread is very telling:
This guy seems to mutated from mentalist to self-deluded "psychic", which I find quite fascinating. He's a sort of hybrid I suppose; I'm more interested in those magicians/mentalists who are "working strong" as I think Rowland calls it.
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