talkmagic.co.uk

Afternoon all,

Allow me to explain an occurence that has given me food for ethical thought with regards to mind-reading.

I found myself recently being overcome by guilt after divining a name that a spectator was thinking of; ironically enough, I wasn't to know that she was part of a Spiritualist Church.

I asked her to think of someone close to her, and then preceded to tell her the name, before being met with quite a startling reaction (on a far higher and creepier level than usual). She told me that this person had passed on, and asked if I knew anything about how she was and so on, before going into a whole rant about spiritualism and life-after-death without letting me get a word in edge-ways.

What was I to say? I'd normally offer psychological techniques/body language as the vague explanation, whilst mentioning that Psychics and Mediums use the same techniques in order to create their "illusions". This particular spectator however lived and breathed the type of mindset I was trying to debunk, and some of her very best friends were mediums.

To be analogous with indoctrinated religion; although I'm far from religious myself, I'd never try and explain my reasoning for not believing in religion to one that was. To explain that I wasn't in fact psychic would have left a gaping hole in this person's belief systems.

This is obviously a fairly isolated case, but it has made me think about the meaning that I attach to my performance, and made me a tad afeared of it happening again.

Any thoughts? Has this kind of thing happened to any other mentalists?

And finally, what meaning do others attach to what they're doing?

TrulyM

There's a rather lively discussion on this very kind of thing going on in Dove's Head

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic8766.php

Take a look and you'll find there are people who share your opinions.

thanks very much indeed Demitri, I'll look into this.