Psychics and their Silly Con Games

Does it even need to be said that psychics as claimed are generally indistinguishable from genuine frauds?

Take Allison DuBois for instance, who recently appeared on 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' at a dinner hosted by Camille Grammer. When asked by Kyle Richards for a reading, she said something to the effect of, 'your husband will never fulfill you' (paraphrased). This is the harm of so-called psychic hucksters....they make these declarative statements about people they don't really know, and there's a chance the gullible person will believe the charlatan friend of the dead and act on it. I am not saying Kyle Richards is naive....she could have been testing and baiting Ms. DuBois in an attempt to expose her as a charlatan.

Meanwhile, the so-called psychic, whose claim lies conveniently in the unspecified future, can simply claim success if it happens, or claim it's still in the future if things go differently. It's nothing less than cold-reading and a confidence game, quite literally. The only way psychics continue to enjoy success is because there are too many people willingly give them undeserved confidence. This is the definition of confidence artist aka, 'con artist'.

I was disappointed with the overall lack of apparently skepticism at the dinner table (at least, whatever made it on the air). Why didn't we hear anyone of the housewives calling out Allison DuFraud as a fake and a charlatan? Sure, Kyle Richards asked for a reading and later said, 'this is all bullshit to me', but that seemed more geared toward the argument than Allison's 'psychic' claims. It could be Bravo (or the housewives) were concerned about lawsuits....but why would a 'real' psychic need to sue anyone who doesn't believe him/her? Just prove you're a freakin' psychic already and shut everyone up. Make some very specific prediction in the near future....do this repeatedly and with unambiguous success...hell, win the James Randi challenge and earn a million bucks for a half-hour's work! Anyone can guess at something, but that doesn't make us psychics when we occasionally get it right.

Here's the thing, if people really could talk to the dead, wildly granting that disembodied dead people with no brain activity can muster a way to communicate, and choose to use electronic-cigarette smoking megabitches as their secretaries.....why wouldn't they be more specific about what they reveal? Why would the so-called secrets of dead people be indistinguishable from some asshat just making it all up using amateur cold-reading techniques like Jon Edwards, Sylvia Browne or Allison DuBois?

Real answers don't come easily. Sometimes the answer isn't clear, or there might be more than one. Expecting answers from someone who claims to have 'supernatural' answers to real-world problems isn't all that different from consulting a magic 8-ball or discerning futures from tea-leaves. Real issues require problem-solving with effort, logic, the support of friends and family (and sometimes their uncomfortable insights).

All a 'psychic' is going to do is take your money and make some guesses, loosely based on what they can gather knowing you for a few minutes (or with Google's help). For the people who follow the crazy advice of some psychics, real harm can result. Some will dissolve relationships, miss opportunities and that's saying nothing about the good money people lose being duped by con-artists.

When anyone dares to call themselves a psychic in mixed-company, they're basically either seriously deluded or think we're naive or incurious enough to believe it. Take them to task, force them to stumble all over their deception, don't be distracted by their offense (because it's usually a cover for insecurity among skeptics) and hopefully fewer people will believe (or claim) this nonsense.

As for Allison Dubois, she's indistinguisable from a genuine fraud, and she made a complete ass out of herself on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as a drunken lunatic bitch...probably out fear of being exposed as a charlatan. I am glad her show 'Medium' was canceled. If she keeps up her silly confidence games she'll likely be exposed over and over.

Know that. ;)

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