Fortune Tellers

Derren Brown did a feature where he gathered a group of sceptics together, told them how fortune tellers worked and that he could actually do it. He said that instead of giving a vague reading he would give each of them an individually specific reading, personal to them. The whole group couldn't believe how accurate they all were, and questionned whether he'd researched on them prior to the show. Derren then asked them to pass them round to each other - they were all the same.

It's such rubbish, how couldn't it be!? spirits do not exist and if they did they wouldn't talk to old hippies with beads on their head.

g2d I saw that episode ... it was so funny ... the looks on the faces of those students was priceless

Claire, it's a load of bo||ocks IMO.

Do they say specifics? or stuff thats quite general and can be easily interpreted, much like horoscopes?

Matt

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Derren Brown did a feature where he gathered a group of sceptics together, told them how fortune tellers worked and that he could actually do it. He said that instead of giving a vague reading he would give each of them an individually specific reading, personal to them. The whole group couldn't believe how accurate they all were, and questionned whether he'd researched on them prior to the show. Derren then asked them to pass them round to each other - they were all the same.

It's such rubbish, how couldn't it be!? spirits do not exist and if they did they wouldn't talk to old hippies with beads on their head.

I saw it too. I also saw him live and he slagged off the medium business off big styley

And damn right. It's such rubbish! You shouldn't profit out of a persons idiocy.

mumbo jumbo (IMO)

In a word, cobblers.

Yep, it's all done with cold reading techniques. Not to say all fortune tellers are willfully fake, some people are just naturally good at it and assume their "power" is otherworldly. A good book about this stuff is pseudoscience and the paranormal by Terrence Hines

they prey on the weak. i dont mean that in an offensive way, i mean weak as in you will give signals when he/she is searching for information, the words they use are generally ambiguous and its you that turns them into how you want to hear them

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

It's such rubbish, how couldn't it be!? spirits do not exist and if they did they wouldn't talk to old hippies with beads on their head.

The most convincing argument i've heard