Psychic Kids on A&E

I honestly tried to watch the whole show, but as soon as they brought in aura expert, I immediately changed the channel. I can't believe I could stand Chip Coffee as long as I did. I was sort of surprised that the psychologist said that one of the kids didn't seem credible, but that diagnosis probably changed later on in the show. To me it was a classic case of kids having over active imaginations and desperately wanting attention.
 
I just had to watch this show. What I found shocking is these parents CLAIM to be concerned their children were mentally ill...but where do they take their precious children? To wackadoos!

If my kid started claiming such nonsense you can bet your bottom dollar their little butt would be dragged to a shrink quicker than you can say "Indigo"

Someone should call child protective services for medical neglect! I also don't care how much the parents deny it, they had a HUGE hand in the nutjobs their children are today. Even if they simply encouraged their kids delusions.
 
SPELLING BY FAITH
8-year-old Faith claims to see the spirits of Freddie Stuart, Catharine (Freddie’s mom), and Sarah (who it was decided, was a care-giver for Freddie).

Faith makes it a point to correctly spell out Freddie’s last name Stuart as S-T-U-A-R-T. It’s as if we should believe that she’s getting information from a spirit, rather than from someone (very much alive) who gave her the names and storyline before the show.

But if Faith received spirit-assisted spelling of Freddie’s last name, how come she misspelled Freddie’s first name as “Freddy” on her drawing of Freddie’s spirit? On the drawing she wrote "Freddy when he is mad.”
 
I remember watching this one the first time around. I like watching some the paranormal shows they have on. They usually up my deductive skills and add a little creativity to my life.

I think I DVR'd it and showed it to my mother. If it's the one I think it is, there was a girl who claimed that she could talk to trees. She then complained that all the kids she knew made fun of her. My mother yelled at the screen "Then don't tell them you talk to trees." Then we both laughed as we felt our karma drain away :).
 
I haven't been on this board in almost five years, but after seeing an episode of this show I certainly had to get a feel of the general feeling from the skeptic community.

Many "paranormal" shows are very easy to ignore, but for me this wasn't one of them for the mere fact that the "psychics" featured on the show are children, people who don't really have a full capacity to intentionally decieve others or themselves in terms of claims of paranormal activity. I gave the show a chance and was far more generous than most of the people here by taking the subjects (not the experts) as sincere. Nevertheless I was equally repulsed.

When seeing the first team of experts, I saw we had Chip Coffee (Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's were the first things that popped up when i searched his name on wikipedia) and I thought, "oh great, they brought an enabler...." I was relieved that there was also a doctor of psychology from prestigious Columbia University thinking to myself "good, a foil for the enabler, a true academic." To maintain the caffeinated theme here, she was weaker than a morning brew of Wendy's coffee. She was a passive enabler in my opinion. Later on, the show brings another enabler, the aura lady whose name I cannot remember as she engages in a farcical aura crayon coloring session with the young girl. A simple trip to skepdic.com on auras could have saved that family not only drama, but also could have saved them from the deceitful practices of this show.

All in all, I must say the strong words toward the parents on this thread are unwarranted. They seemed sincere, but yet ignorant. My venom goes toward the producers of the show and the enablers Chip and aura lady for further complicating these families lives for no other reason than self-advancement.
 
Ernie M said:
SPELLING BY FAITH
8-year-old Faith claims to see the spirits of Freddie Stuart, Catharine (Freddie’s mom), and Sarah (who it was decided, was a care-giver for Freddie).

Faith makes it a point to correctly spell out Freddie’s last name Stuart as S-T-U-A-R-T. It’s as if we should believe that she’s getting information from a spirit, rather than from someone (very much alive) who gave her the names and storyline before the show.

But if Faith received spirit-assisted spelling of Freddie’s last name, how come she misspelled Freddie’s first name as “Freddy” on her drawing of Freddie’s spirit? On the drawing she wrote "Freddy when he is mad.”
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But c'mon, how many different spellings of the last name "stewart" anyway? She might as well have said Freddy Smith, S-M-I-T-H.

There's:
Patrick Stewart
Rod Stewart

And maybe someone in her class has that last name. I don't think it was even necessary to explain it as someone feeding her information. There's going to be a Freddie Stewart somewhere nearby if you're willing to go back 150 years to find one. And of the hundreds of Freddy Stewart's they find, statistically there's a decent chance they were going to find one with a mother how has a name at least similar to "Catherine" and someone else in his life who happens to be named "Sarah." And notice they were very vague about what this Sarah's role was in his life. That's probably because it was a distant cousin or something. And had the Freddy that fit all 3 names happened to spell his last name Stuart, they will would have called it a hit and just disregarded the spelling error. And if they really couldn't find any Freddy Stewart that fit the story, that'd be fine too. They simply wouldn't have brought it up again and focused on something else that would supply a "hit."
 
Also I believe the kid kept emphasizing the year 1886. I think this is a good example of a 'babble' word. Kids generally know 1776 is an important date in the U.S. I wouldn't be surprised that if a child was to pick a date in the 1800s, especially if the year 1776 was on their mind or mentioned recently, that 1886 would be a common pick.
 
"Psychic Kids" host Dr.Lisa Miller Possible Proof on Lying about Credentials

Hi,

This is my first post here, but I did not know what else to do with this letter.

A&E has a new and terrible show called "Psychic Kids" where they abuse children as young as 8 by telling them that they are psychic and talking with dead people.

One of the hosts of the show is Dr. Lisa Miller, Ph.D. Here are her credentials according the the A&E website:

"Dr. Miller graduated from Yale College and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her work has been funded both by private foundations and the National Institute for Mental Health. Dr. Miller is a tenured associated professor at Columbia University, Teachers College and current President of the Division of Psychology of Religion of the American Psychological Association."

I sent exactly that information to Columbia, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and NIHM (National Institue for Mental Health).

This is what NIHM wrote back:
Thank you for your e-mail to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"We appreciate you sharing your concerns with us. NIMH did not provide grant funding to Dr. Miller for the subject you describe in your e-mail. NIMH did provide an education/training grant to Dr. Miller to conduct research on treatment for depression in teenage parents several years ago.

The NIMH conducts and supports medical research to improve people’s mental health. We provide a wide range of information based on that research. Thank you again for contacting us."

So, how briefly working with depressed teen parents makes you qualified to work with ANY 8 year old children much less "psychic" ones is beyond me.

I am asking others to please email these institutions as well as A&E tv. I really hate to cry "Won't someone PLEASE think of the children", but in this case I think it might be worth it.

Thank you kindly,
Megh
 
There's already a thread on these "psychic" kids here. Maybe a Mod can move this to there.

And as a suggestion: At the top of the "reply" box is a speech balloon icon. Clicking on this will give you a box in which to place your quote and make it easier to follow which parts of your posts belong to you, and which are from another source.

Alternately, you can wrap the word "quote" in brackets [] at the beginning of your quote, followed by "/quote" in brackets at the end.

Welcome to the forum.
 
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I caught parts of back to back episodes of this bizarre TV show yesterday and believe me this is the worst of all the psychic exploitation TV shows because it involves children who most likey need real psychological help but are given money motivated woo help intervention instead. These are young children who are encouraged to state they see spirits (at one point they are all put into a barn at night and told "give up your scientific self and give into your feelings.) One child after another added to the previous child's story about a woman sitting in the corner of the barn.

On one hand I don't believe in government interference in people's lives -- on the other hand I believe adults are financially gaining from the exploitation of their children on this show. These children will have to come to terms with the fact there are no ghosts at some point in their lives and they were mislead to believe they were "special" children in need of direction from some girly-boy acting jerk who fed them lies. These children are the most in need of adults who minimizes ghosts, not adults who assure them they are really seeing ghosts and speaking assertively to them is the way to make them go away.

Who do I write to?
 
How do we get a news network to run an investigative story on this exploitation of children with mental illnesses. I think that would be a fast way to get this show off the air.
 
KateHW said:
Oh, good. More Chip Coffey. :(
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I take it he's come up in the discussions before.

Why am I not surprised? :rolleyes:
Chip Coffey is available for private readings
and consultations.

Effective January 1, 2007, Chip will offer
readings by telephone only.
(except during personal appearances or special events)

General Readings:
$200 for approximately 30 minutes

Spirit Contacts/Crossing Over Readings:
$500 for approximately 40-50 minutes
(This rate is for one individual. Additional family members or friends may participate at a cost of $250 per person.)
Click to expand...
 
tiger said:
Oh wow she was so concerned about what her little girl was saying so she put her on this show with a nutcase like Chip Coffee. Of course what parent would name their child Chip Coffee it's like Mr. and Mrs. Head naming their son Richard.
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I believe "Chip" is more often a nickname than a given name though I know nothing about this guy in particular.
 
Sweet Zombie Jesus. Is there anywhere where we are safe from this crap?

Is there anyone these tv producers won't exploit?
 
JoeEllison said:
When kids lie or get too involved in their fantasy lives, good parents try to reel them back in. Bad parents encourage that behavior and exploit it for attention, while doing possibly grave harm to the development of their children.
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There are more than a few 'normal' kids who merely adopt these kinds of fantasies precisely because of the cues and attention for the behaviors they have gotten from their parents. I don't think very many kids with these behaviors are truly disturbed kids though obviously a few might be.
 
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