In addition to the reasons stated in the catechism to avoid mediums:
There’s 3 logical possibilites
- The medium is a fraud
- The medium is sincere but is transmitting information created by her own psyche
- The medium is transmitting genuine information from some source outside herself.
We can write off cases 1 & 2, so only case 3 would be of interest. Let’s say she is getting genuine information. What is the source of the information?
If it is coming from a spirit, what reason do we have to assume that it is benevolent? Most New Age afficionados who traffic with “spirit guides” take it on faith that any spirit they get in touch with is good, if it’s not spewing overt mayhem. (If we can lie and put on an act, I’m sure a spirit can, too, if so inclined.) Or because contact with the spirit creates feelings of warmth and love in the medium, they assume the spirit is projecting that love, and is therefore good.(These feelings can be caused by manipulating a person’s brain chemistry. Also,one’s feelings about something don’t necessarily tell one anything about the thing itself. A lady recently was mutilated by a bear when she tried to pet it. No doubt just prior to this, she had feelings of affection for the animal. She learned the hard way that although the bear caused her to feel love, it did not mean that the bear was therefore emanating love.)
Any info coming from an unknown & possibly hostile source is suspect!
Sylvia Brown uses “mentalist” techniques that more honest magicians have used for ages. One such techniques is what I think professional magicians call “cold readings”. I have known people who were not magicians or psychic but who were very skilled at this. It’s all based on psychology and probability.
Watch carefully how Sylvia works. She talks to the person she’s “reading”, and suggests some things that are very common to the human experience - a loved one that has died, for example. She tentatively throws in some details about age or gender, and watches the person’s reaction before going on with more “details”. If the reaction is negative, she modifies what she’s said (the mark says: “No; I can’t think of any men I know who’ve passed on who have red hair.” Sylvia: “Well, this is someone who was connected with a family member of yours who has crossed over…” the mark: “Ohhh…I think I remember Aunt Julie saying her father had red hair”) She lets people feed her information without realizing they are doing so, then expands on it.
People like to think they and their life situations are unique, but performers like Brown play upon the fact that there will be many commonalities between people, and it is possible to make a guess that if A,B, and C is true about someone, then C, D, and E are very likely to be true as well. And when she gets a complete miss, I have heard her say…“Well it is so – trust me, I’m the psychic.”
A good performance is about 50% raw chutzpah!
