Interview with Connie Sonne

Noble prize. That would be chicken feed. Imagine she could be paid millions $US every year for answering basic questions. Imagine the money saved by her answering these questions before the Gulf War - Are there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? If so where? Or current issue, where are the bombs in North Korea? Then the USA could destroy them in a surgical strike.
 
The part I find particularly sad is this:
Alison: Do you plan to attend other TAM events?
Connie: I have not planned to attend other TAM events, but we`ll see, what happend.
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Regardless of any claimed abilities and tests, she's getting a free trip to an international conference full of world famous magicians, scientists and various other types, and she doesn't plan to see any of it. I just don't understand people who get so obsessed with their fantasies that they take no interest at all in the real world. I could become a born-again, evangelical psychic tomorrow, but I'd still love a chance to see Penn and Teller perform.
 
I find it interesting that she attributes no religious beliefs to this. That's quite unusual.
 
chillzero said:
I find it interesting that she attributes no religious beliefs to this. That's quite unusual.
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I suppose that would depend on your definition for 'religious'. None theistic, that seems sure.

Hans
 
Cuddles said:
Regardless of any claimed abilities and tests, she's getting a free trip to an international conference full of world famous magicians, scientists and various other types, and she doesn't plan to see any of it.
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Why do you think that her ticket was sponsored by somebody else?
 
Cuddles said:
The part I find particularly sad is this:


Regardless of any claimed abilities and tests, she's getting a free trip to an international conference full of world famous magicians, scientists and various other types, and she doesn't plan to see any of it. I just don't understand people who get so obsessed with their fantasies that they take no interest at all in the real world. I could become a born-again, evangelical psychic tomorrow, but I'd still love a chance to see Penn and Teller perform.
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She has not said she is not interested or will not attend. She may not know what goes on in TAM.

Who, is paying for her to attend? I thought she had to pay her own expenses? Or does the fact that she is putting on a show for us mean she gets her expenses paid.
 
chillzero said:
I find it interesting that she attributes no religious beliefs to this. That's quite unusual.
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She claims not to attribute it to religious beliefs. As MRC_Hans notes, her words rather contradict that claim:
I know who is behind my abilities. I know whom they are, what they are, and who I am and why it`s me, they "woke" up. I know who they look like, where they are and much more, but I will wait telling about this until after the challenge
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It may not be a traditional Christian type religion, but the belief that you're the only person in the world that some secret being chooses to communicate and imbue with magic powers sounds pretty religious to me.

rjh01 said:
Who, is paying for her to attend? I thought she had to pay her own expenses? Or does the fact that she is putting on a show for us mean she gets her expenses paid.
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I don't know. I assumed that since she is a performer rather than a regular guest she would not have to pay for everything herself. If she has had to pay the full price for attending it would seem even more strange that she does not plan to do see any of the rest of it while there.
 
Cuddles said:
She claims not to attribute it to religious beliefs. As MRC_Hans notes, her words rather contradict that claim:

It may not be a traditional Christian type religion, but the belief that you're the only person in the world that some secret being chooses to communicate and imbue with magic powers sounds pretty religious to me.
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Well, yes. I guess what I meant was it's unusual for such an ability not to be publicly aligned with God, 'Spirit', or either an angel guardian or spirit guide from some belief set or other.
 
I know who is behind my abilities. I know whom they are, what they are, and who I am and why it`s me, they "woke" up. I know who they look like, where they are and much more, but I will wait telling about this until after the challenge
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I'm putting my money on aliens.
 
To clarify: Sonne, of course, does not have to pay to attend her own preliminary test. However, the test is an event at the very end of TAM on Sunday. TAM would not be free to her, and she is still paying the cost of materials.

Also, the Penn & Teller performance is an optional item and costs extra.

Sonne is paying her own expenses to get to Las Vegas, and is paying her own hotel fees. She wanted to come to the US to take her test, so this is not the equivalent of inviting a speaker from Denmark and not waiving registration.

As for mingling with the skeptics, though....

Immediately following the test is a press conference with Sonne, Banachek, Randi, and possibly me (I'm not really sure where I'll be needed just then). The press conference is invitation only, and the guest list has 64 heads of skeptical organizations, podcasters, media representatives, magicians, and more. Penn & Teller are included on that list.

Sonne will take questions from all those folks.
 
chillzero said:
Well, yes. I guess what I meant was it's unusual for such an ability not to be publicly aligned with God, 'Spirit', or either an angel guardian or spirit guide from some belief set or other.
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I think it's a matter of semantics. If she's talking about invisible entities that live in other dimensions or space aliens with powers traditionally ascribed to gods, what's the difference?
 
siddhigyrl said:
I'm putting my money on aliens.
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Maybe, as long as they're mystical aliens that can grant someone powers to do divination. Sounds like typical New Age stuff to me--crystals, psychic powers. If she were American, I'd bet she'd insist that she's spiritual but not religious.
 
hi, all.
I'm new here and I've followed the Connie Sonne affair with great interest.
Here's something the lady herself posted on the Connie Sonne, dowser thread yesterday:
Hi out there...now I know why Banacheck was "the card handler". I have been cheated. I did find the right cards. And there is one more thing. At the stage, Banacheck said to me BEFORE he even looked in the envelope I had cut...and here is spade ace, the one you looked for!!!! I first hit me now about that ....but maybe you can see it yourself if someone get the video. I don`t care about the money, that wasn`t the reason why I came. So no matter what you think out there......I was CHEATED!!!!!

Connie
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I followed the livestreaming (congratulations to all who organised this) but I'm way too ignorant to be able to determine if Connie Sonne has any grounds for protesting the day after the test.
Any opinions?
 
pakeha said:
I followed the livestreaming (congratulations to all who organised this) but I'm way too ignorant to be able to determine if Connie Sonne has any grounds for protesting the day after the test.
Any opinions?
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I also followed the live streaming so I was not there in person given what I saw and how the natural world works (as science portray it) I saw nothing that gives Sonne any grounds for a protest.

I can think of two different forms of a protest from Sonne. One is that Banachek changed the cards, envelopes or something like that. The video make it possible to some degree to check that and I did not detect any sleight of hand.
The other form of protest is that through some supernatural means Sonne was influenced to find the wrong card. Now this is not hard to believe for people that believe in Sonne's supernatural power.
The bottom line is that you can always find some excuse why your powers didn't work even if it is a supernatural excuse. But it is an excuse since she agreed to the fact that the conditions were satisfactory.
 
Thanks for the reply, deBergerac.
From what I can understand, the lady at first claimed the world wasn't ready for the 'proof' of her dowsing skills, then yesterday changed her mind, putting her apparent failure down to 'cheating'. I didn't hear the lady's remarks after the test, though.
 
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