Livid
- Thread starter Wij
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2003
- Messages
- 9,353
All mediums who make a living from it must be frauds because if it was possible I doubt it would be very easy to do every day on command.
It must be easy enough scanning the obituaries columns and getting current customers to talk about their friends (as probably happened in Wij's case) so not hard to make money as a medium as long as you had no morals.
Personally I keep an open mind as to whether its ever possible - I'm pretty sure that humans are more than bags of meat with some electrical activity in the brain but I've no idea if its possible to communicate with a spirit and if it would even remember anything of its former life - no-one knows I guess.
It must be easy enough scanning the obituaries columns and getting current customers to talk about their friends (as probably happened in Wij's case) so not hard to make money as a medium as long as you had no morals.
Personally I keep an open mind as to whether its ever possible - I'm pretty sure that humans are more than bags of meat with some electrical activity in the brain but I've no idea if its possible to communicate with a spirit and if it would even remember anything of its former life - no-one knows I guess.
xane
Fledgling Freddie
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 1,695
Whilst I agree that mediums probably do play a part in helping people, there is no authority you can go to if they don't help, and no way of checking that the advice they give is good or bad.
If a doctor gives you the wrong pills, or the councillor gives the wrong advice, or the physiotherapist twists the wrong arm, then there is recompense and a way of acknowledging that the treatment was incorrect, to that end, doctors etc differ because they are forced by law to be responsible for their actions and advice.
If a medium gives advice that causes you to lose money, or have some other adverse effect, then what can you do ? If you complain, everyone laughs at you and calls you foolish, and would require a serious court case and a pretty smart lawyer for you to get something back, I'd be willing to bet that mediums know this and it is what keeps them in business.
As with many alternative medicines and practises, they are fraudulent by default because there is no authoritative definition of what is beneficial and what isn't.
As regarding the proof behind what mediums do, it is not for anyone to prove they are fake, as that is trying to prove a negative, it is for mediums to prove they are real, and to date that has never happened. There has been a long-standing challenge to anyone who can demonstrate psychic ability, including mediums, which has never been seriously attempted, let alone the prize of one million dollars ever claimed.
James Randi Educational Foundation
If a doctor gives you the wrong pills, or the councillor gives the wrong advice, or the physiotherapist twists the wrong arm, then there is recompense and a way of acknowledging that the treatment was incorrect, to that end, doctors etc differ because they are forced by law to be responsible for their actions and advice.
If a medium gives advice that causes you to lose money, or have some other adverse effect, then what can you do ? If you complain, everyone laughs at you and calls you foolish, and would require a serious court case and a pretty smart lawyer for you to get something back, I'd be willing to bet that mediums know this and it is what keeps them in business.
As with many alternative medicines and practises, they are fraudulent by default because there is no authoritative definition of what is beneficial and what isn't.
As regarding the proof behind what mediums do, it is not for anyone to prove they are fake, as that is trying to prove a negative, it is for mediums to prove they are real, and to date that has never happened. There has been a long-standing challenge to anyone who can demonstrate psychic ability, including mediums, which has never been seriously attempted, let alone the prize of one million dollars ever claimed.
James Randi Educational Foundation