talkmagic.co.uk

IAIN wrote:

Craig Browning wrote:Some years ago I caught a Spiritualist minister doing what was essentially the same billet reading act I was doing in my show at the time... I had this dude bare handed and yet the authorities couldn't do anything because NO ONE HAD FILED A COMPLAINT AGAINST HIM. However, they could and did enforce the court order that said I couldn't word things so as to create prejudice towards him and his congregation... now figure that one out.

i may be missing the point of that bit, but surely YOU could have filed that complaint as you caught him red-handed?

I expressed concern but I had no "legal" foundation to work with in that particular state (Ohio) because of how their laws are written and too, the municipality has its own guidelines to such things. Basically if several influential types file Larceny charges on the guy then the cops "might" do something. Sadly nailing jerks that hide behind an established church type shelter can prove a PR nightmare for law enforcement. The case I'm helping with here in my town keeps hitting similar road blocks... we caught the woman three times but she got the charges dropped by giving people back the money she stole.

It's just not quite as easy to make things happen at the legal level but if you know how to tip toe around the laws pertaining to slander and maliciousness you can OUT such people through area media, which I've been doing for three years now with this current case.

The slip-up we hope to catch this particular operator on is the strong-arming she is rumored to apply when it comes to area competitors that draw her clients away from her. So far we only know that three Readers within 10 miles of Northampton (Mass. -- USA) have closed their doors and even left town since the pressure was started on our star culprit.

themagicwand wrote:

IAIN wrote: why the obsession with toes?!

I must admit, I have quite a crush on those Fox girls!

what, Mrs Fox from Dads army?

the whole psychic thing does interest me, i think that its down to language...

i hate the hollywood definition of psychic, which is a catch all word to cover mediumship, and everything else...

but i have thought about it this way - lets say that its the 1800s, and you are able to tell when people are upset, kinda whats on their mind and generally how they are feeling....now, there's no scientific basis for this, however, you are pretty damn accurate and consistently so...

now, back then, when people had more profound/stronger beliefs than the majority of us do these days - maybe people start feeling weird around you because of this "gift"...

however, maybe, the reason why you can do what you do, is that you are naturally good at micro-muscle facial movements a la Ekman...however as he's not going to be alive for quite some time, you have none of this evidence to work from...

so though you can tell how people are, how they are feeling etc, due to language - and time period, the answer is "psychic", however these days its because you can spot the minute movements of the human face to a high degree of accurracy...

i rated near 100% on my visual/spatial memory in my IQ test, i can tell people their height, distances between objects (without swami) and all kinds of stuff - even whether beds and sofas will fit in certain spaces...I'm also rather good at the whole Ekman stuff too, naturally...

i think the more we understand ourselves, via science, via art, via any medium (pardon the pun) the better off we are...however, we should also remember that we are not any different from the next person in that we all have different inate abilities and strengths...what you consider natural for you, may seem odd and alien to another...

its also why i love enrique enriquez's work - he clearly states "i do not believe tarot is to do with the occult or anything like that..." and approaches the tarot as art, and with some Jungian style thinking mixed in, along with other ideas...

I can't remember where I read this (I'm sure one of you will remind me!) but picture a nice sunny day in the park, a man and his wife, possibly late 30s early 40s are sitting on a bench when a very attractive young girl walks past, short skirt, wiggling hips etc. The man looks at her and follows her with his eyes as she walks past, his wife notices that he's looking at the girl.

It's probably no great feat for any one of us to have a darned good idea of what the man is thinking and also what the woman is thinking. Not mindreading yet we still know more or less what's going through their minds .

Mandrake wrote:I can't remember where I read this (I'm sure one of you will remind me!) but picture a nice sunny day in the park, a man and his wife, possibly late 30s early 40s are sitting on a bench when a very attractive young girl walks past, short skirt, wiggling hips etc. The man looks at her and follows her with his eyes as she walks past, his wife notices that he's looking at the girl.

It's probably no great feat for any one of us to have a darned good idea of what the man is thinking and also what the woman is thinking. Not mindreading yet we still know more or less what's going through their minds .

I think Craig said it along the lines of 'How I can read minds.' When dealing with Hecklers.

IAIN wrote:the whole psychic thing does interest me, i think that its down to language...

i hate the hollywood definition of psychic, which is a catch all word to cover mediumship, and everything else...

but i have thought about it this way - lets say that its the 1800s, and you are able to tell when people are upset, kinda whats on their mind and generally how they are feeling....now, there's no scientific basis for this, however, you are pretty damn accurate and consistently so...

now, back then, when people had more profound/stronger beliefs than the majority of us do these days - maybe people start feeling weird around you because of this "gift"...

however, maybe, the reason why you can do what you do, is that you are naturally good at micro-muscle facial movements a la Ekman...however as he's not going to be alive for quite some time, you have none of this evidence to work from...

so though you can tell how people are, how they are feeling etc, due to language - and time period, the answer is "psychic", however these days its because you can spot the minute movements of the human face to a high degree of accurracy...

i rated near 100% on my visual/spatial memory in my IQ test, i can tell people their height, distances between objects (without swami) and all kinds of stuff - even whether beds and sofas will fit in certain spaces...I'm also rather good at the whole Ekman stuff too, naturally...

i think the more we understand ourselves, via science, via art, via any medium (pardon the pun) the better off we are...however, we should also remember that we are not any different from the next person in that we all have different inate abilities and strengths...what you consider natural for you, may seem odd and alien to another...

its also why i love enrique enriquez's work - he clearly states "i do not believe tarot is to do with the occult or anything like that..." and approaches the tarot as art, and with some Jungian style thinking mixed in, along with other ideas...

You are echoing much of what I've said for years Iain or, to be more accurate, what the old axiom about yesterday's magic being today's (or tomorrows) science. But you brought out one particular point here that I want to emphasize... it's one that I teach my shut-eye students and stress to them and one of the chief influences or "skills" that tie the psychic world to mentalism -- your sense of recollection and spacial understanding.

Harry Loraine said it long ago in his Memory Book that a person with an exceptional memory can come off seeming to be psychic. Several occult based tomes as well as those on shamanism, wicca, etc. all impress the importance of memory skills and being able to KNOW your surroundings... especially the subtle or "invisible"as it was once known, in that these were the things not common to the typical citizen's awareness.

These are a few of the reasons I outwardly support the validity of things "Psychic". Granted, there's much more to it all, but this is a very important part of the over all picture.

There is one more point that I am compelled to make, the fact that knowing the secret does not take away the magic or intrigue. If that were the case most of us would avoid seeing another magic show again in our life time.