Mediums: A Skeptical View
A Skeptical view
Mediums have been around for so long, it’s not surprising why many are fascinated by them.
The James Randi (RIP The Amazing Randi) Foundation for almost half a century had a 1 Million dollar prize for anyone that was able to prove they had psychic or supernatural abilities. There were countless of people claiming to have those abilities, tried their best to prove their case to no avail. James Randi being a world renowned magician also demonstrates to the audience how “psychics” and “Mediums” do their trickery.
Occam's Razor
When a Medium makes a claim that seems accurate, how can we tell if they were lucky or they knew it? How can we discern if it’s a coincidence or not? How can we do all this without violating Occam's Razor? Occam's Razor suggest we should logically always go with the simplest/naturalistic conclusion over any esoteric conclusions.
Confirmation Bias
Say a situation happens where you’re talking to the medium about your mother and suddenly your mother calls you on your phone. How eerie is that? May seem significant. But how many times have you talked about your mother and the phone never rang? Probably a thousand times? So we’ll dismiss the 1000 times it didn’t happen and only find significance in the one time that it did. Which shows that we as humans care more about the hits and dismiss the misses. This is our confirmation bias at play.
A medium will often have “hits” where we internally prioritize whilst the “misses” we dismiss them outright. But they claim to be psychics…How can they have any misses?
If you look at their strategy during cold readings (usually large groups) versus hot readings (1on1/more personal). They have different tactics for both. A larger group it’s easier to move from one person to the next comparatively to when you’re 1on1. Many Mediums have many traits that psychologists do, which is why they’re able to engage rather easily with people.
Ambiguity of claims
Their goal is to make ambiguous claims that seem precise but open to a plethora of interpretations. The Medium doesn’t know more than you, they will say a statement in hopes that you can fill the gap, or associate it with a particular event yourself. The person who’s being “read” does 70% of the work.
If their claim can reach multiple conclusions, this is a red flag.
Medium can say “James (i.e who passed away) is telling me something about the sun, or sunny days, or the summer, I can see a giant sun”. That’s precise in the sense that we’re talking about the sun, but vague as in it can mean anything.
You may think it could mean, the many great summers you had with that person? Or vacationing together somewhere hot? Or the times you were playing outdoors with that person on a nice sunny day? You can pick any answer and the medium will use all this back to you.
If you answer say, “Yeah we did go on a lot of vacations together down south”. Medium can easily follow up with “He’s telling me that he really enjoyed those times together, it was some of the best moments of his life. He tells me that every vacation you will have without him, he’s actually there with you”. Medium may add something funny to end it, to seem genuine “He’s also telling me that although he’s on vacation with you, he’s happy he doesn’t have to pay for the room”. Comments like these are strategically placed to lighten the mood after an emotional conversation.
This is how they expand on their ambiguous claims. It’s easy if you understand their strategy. The best way is to go to a session as a third party, and watch how the Medium interacts with the person being ‘read’. If you want to be read, and you’re an emotional person, vulnerable, or you really really want this to be true, you’ll be susceptible to being easily fooled.
It’s not your fault, we all tend to be vulnerable in difficult times.
The Mediums are the ones who exploit the vulnerable/grieving.
Exposing them:
1. Are you a Christian?
Many Mediums claim to be religious, often they are self professed Christians. The quickest way to call them out is simply by asking if they are Christian or believe the Bible to be the literal word of God?
If they say yes, then you can point out that the Bible is filled with verses warning us of Mediums (Necromancers). The Bible clearly states that these people are charlatans there to deceive us. The God of the Bible does not like Mediums at all.
To me, I never understood why so many religious people especially Christians go see Mediums when the Bible clearly warns us about them.
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Here are a few verses that unequivocally refutes Mediums as Christians. And ultimately exposes them as wolves in sheep's clothing.
Bible verses:
Leviticus 19:31
“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 18:9–12
Anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.
Leviticus 20:27
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”
2. The Ruse
You have a one-on-one with a Medium (Free session, don’t give them money). Ask them for a free trial.
You have to ensure that none of your family members who are believers ever engaged with the same one. Reason being, your family member(s) could have indirectly provided information about you to the Medium without even realizing it. So if the Medium mentions something there’s no way he/she could have known, you may be fooled.
Often, the person that is talking to the Medium will provide too much information because they’re emotional and in a vulnerable state. Always give short answers, make them think, don’t give them so much to work with. Remember they are the “Psychics”, they should be able to figure it out, right?!
With the long preamble aside: Invent a story as a ruse in order to expose their lies. Mention that a particular family member had passed away recently, bring a picture of said person to show the Medium. Explain in great detail how the person passed away to make it look authentic.
Afterwards say; “I really want to know if he’s okay….Some sign that lets me know he’s alright, that he’s not suffering anymore. I can’t sleep at night, it’s consuming me”.
Mediums will often respond with claims like “You may not know right now, but he’s often beside you”, “When you feel a cool breeze near you, it’s him saying he’s okay”. Usual unfalsifiable claims. Or they’ll use animals in your surrounding area as being guardians, usually birds as when they fly they’re free, very symbolic and a sign of beauty. They’ll never say, you know the ugly ferret that shows up once and a while, yeah that’s him saying he’s okay and watching over you. If you had mention things like, you and your loved one used to read a lot, Medium now has ammo to say things like “Every time you read, he’s beside you”. Don’t forget that when they mention guardians watching over you as a form of protection, if I get hit by a car and succumb to my injuries, was my guardian on a lunch break?
Whatever you do please ensure that you are firm with your question, as you can’t leave any ambiguity. Ask them “Are you unequivocally certain that it’s him? I really need to know that there’s no way you could be wrong about this? I desperately need solace, please…” If they answer back in absolutisms “It’s 100% him”, “I can tell you that with certainty, no confusion, it’s him and he’s okay”. If they try & play it safe and say “I can’t be certain but I have high degree of confidence” then you can respond with “How can I tell? How can we know? I need some form of confirmation that he’s okay” Be persistent against their assertions.
You already know that this person is still alive, yet the Medium is talking as if he’s passed away. He made claims about how certain he was to comfort you yet the person is still alive. You not being in a emotionally vulnerable position, you’re not grieving, therefore you can see how Mediums work without falling for their lies.
Once he provides the certainty you need, that way he can’t explain it away with claims like these “We’re not perfect, we can make mistakes”, “We can get confused with so many spirits around” etc.
You can now tell the Medium that the person never passed away he’s alive and well. You now have sufficient evidence to demonstrate that they are a charlatan.
Working on a case
You’ll have some Mediums whom will use the fact that they may have worked with police on investigations (Murders/Kidnappings etc). Please note that there’s never been a confirmed case where a Medium was the catalyst in solving a case. We may have people who say they were, however they can never prove it without any fallacious syllogistic arguments.
What Mediums do, let’s take a murder/missing person’s case for example: They’ll say things similar to “I see water, rocks, perhaps body was dumped under those rocks”. Or, “I see trees, probably bushes or a forest of some sort”. Which is literally how almost all bodies are disposed. And we are unable to verify coincidence from any metaphysical ability. Mediums see murder/investigation shows on TV like the rest of us. We’re already fed all this information throughout our lives. Exactly like our image of an alien, when people claim to be abducted their recolection of the event, the alien always looks the same. Big head, big eyes, little body, skinny arms & legs. Reason being is every cartoon, show, movie about aliens had those common descriptors. We’re extremely impressionable creatures.
If a murder/missing persons case is somehow solved. Even if the Medium had no impact in the case, they can now tell everyone that they were part of a murder investigation that got solved. They will use that ad nauseum to support their position as a legit Medium. Unfortunately that’s disingenuous but they will use it as leverage any way they can. It’s what charlatans do.
Why I despise them.
I despise them because they steal money from vulnerable people who are grieving. Think about it, many Mediums claim to be “religious”, would Jesus take money from people in need of help? This should be a major red flag. The fact that they can lie, pretending they have a “gift”, knowing the people who go see them are looking for comfort, solace and you charge them money…How can you sleep at night? I find it unfathomable that people can do this and feel no remorse.
Conclusion
The day a Medium will actually prove to the world that they are legit, they will win the Nobel Prize for solving one of life's greatest mysteries. Because at that point a proper methodology would be conducted, tested, repeated, with demonstrable evidence supporting the claims. The fact that no Medium has ever won the Nobel Prize to this day, should be another red flag.
I have no issues with people wanting to find comfort during difficult times. What I have issues with is mediums lying about their abilities and stealing money from grieving people.
I guarantee you that if you follow the Ruse I mentioned above, it will work 100% of the time. Which will expose all of them, as I stated please make sure that none of your friends or family know this ruse, to make sure the medium is unaware of your tactic.
The other is simpler, if they have a cross on their neck, or tell you they’re Christian, it’s easy to expose them by showing that the Bible warns us about people like them. Which usually shuts down the conversation right away.
Hope you found this helpful,
Thanks,
J
