Froth Slosh B'Gosh

"Psychic" Psyued

Seems like the dead did not bother to tell John Edward that one of his employees was unhappy.

Perhaps they're tired of him constantly pestering them?

How They Operate

Great piece in The Guardian on how so-called psychics operate!

 Drew explains that he was one of just a handful of people fortunate enough to receive a reading during the Edinburgh show. The reading related to someone called Toby who had been killed in a bomb explosion. It was a particularly disturbing and dramatic reading, but it meant a lot to Drew's wife, who was also in the audience and stood with Drew when the reading occurred. Drew's wife had been in love with Toby.

Drew had tried his absolute best to have this reading come through, inasmuch as he had emailed details of Toby and how he died to Sally's website and had left notes (so-called "love letters") in a box in the foyer just before the show. Skeptics might wonder if Sally had access to this information and used it as a basis for her reading, while believers will assume that Toby's spirit was stood next to Sally that night.

You might not have made up your mind yet whether you're a believer or not, but one extra piece of information might help. Toby was a fictional character. Drew's email and love letters were based on the death of Toby Wren in the 1970 BBC science fiction drama Doomwatch....

I am curious to know if Sally thinks it is possible to contact the spirit of a fictional character, or if she coincidentally contacted the spirit of a real person whose life and death matched the experiences of Toby Wren, or if there is an alternative explanation.

Now that's how its done!  Perhaps the P-G can take some notes on how an actual investigation into alleged supernatural powers is conducted the next time they want to do a puff piece on someone who claims she can talk to your dog.

More Like This Please

So-called "psychic" gets five in the slammer.

(via Ed Brayton at FTB)

WTF????

The Post-Gazette wastes two columns of the Magazine front page and six more columns of page 2 on a story of a woman who claims she can communicate telepathically with dogs.  Never mind that human telepathy has never been shown to be remotely possible, we're treated to a credulous article about communicating with freaking dogs! 

What is going on in this dog's head? Allow Renee Takacs to explain:

"Some of it is just puppy energy, but I just felt [his] vital energy that came through me, like 'I have to do something with this,' " she said.

Ms. Takacs is an intuitive consultant, or telepath, for both people and pets.

Actually, the proper title for Ms. Takacs is "fraud." This charletan charges $150.00 an hour to pretend to talk with your pets, and you MUST pay up three days in advance, no refunds!  Oh and she does Reiki and distance healing as well; in fact her entire website screams "CON ARTIST."

The article contains these gems:

She also sensed "there is another dog he seems to like that can be a bit much for him. And this dog appears to be brown-colored, maybe with long fur ... can you place the dog? Medium-sized, a darker fur."

And:

More surprising was what came next. "He's showing me an image, outside. I know we don't have waterfalls in this area, but there is running water. He is showing me water moving in a small area."

And:

Bingley also said he misses a "young man, medium-tall, with a kind of a deep voice." This person was kind to him -- could it be my nephew, Kyle, who last summer visited regularly to let out the dogs and play with them?

As for chewing everything from magazines to table legs when the family is away at work and school, well, we already knew he gets bored and we try to create a safely interesting environment. Bingley apparently knows it, as well: "He says that he is very intelligent and does need to be stimulated."

This is basic cold reading, a standard trick used by so-called psychics and scam artists (oh wait, that's redundant).  In any neighborhood, it would be unsurprising to find brown dogs with long hair.  The mark is even asked for confirmation.  If however, the target said, "no, there are no dogs like that around here" the "telepath" would move on to some other topic, and the missed hit forgotten, but its far more likely that Takacs spotted a dog matching that description in a neighbor's yard while arriving at the author's home. 

Running water could be nearly anything, a small creek, storm water running down the street, a toilet flushing.  The article's author mentions that a small water feature was removed "a few days ago."  Is that water feature still around the house, perhaps in the trash can, or someplace where the disassembled feature could be viewed by the "seer?"  Controls people!  Controls!!

A "young man, medium-tall, with a kind of a deep voice." Wow, that's pretty damn vague.  I can think of dozens of people off the top of my head who match that description, so yes Maria Sciullo, I suppose it could be your nephew Kyle.  It could also be the meter reader, your postal carrier, someone who did some work around the house, or the teenager down the street.  We really don't know.  What we DO know is that Renee Takacs doesn't know either, and she's NOT talking with your dog. And wow, a dog that chews magazines and table legs when its bored?  Unheard of!  Thank goodness we have pet psychics to let us know at $150.00 a pop that our dogs get bored when we're not around.

If Takacs can, with proper scientific controls,  prove she communicates telepathically with people or pets, James Randi has one million dollars for her.  However, she cannot,  so she will not take the Million Dollar Challenge.  And why should she, when gullible stooges happily hand over their money to her while she does nothing at all?

Shame on the P-G for allowing such a load of crap to be splattered across the newspaper's pages without any kind of skepticism. What's next, an article on fortune telling?