talkmagic.co.uk

Is it not on 40D yet?

Mandrake wrote:at Mandrake Mansions, there seems to be no 'window of opportunity' where I can get at the VCR and watch the programme

You have a VCR? I imagine it's connected to some form of cathode ray tube? Does it pick up this new digital wireless?

It's actually a digital DVD/Hard Disc recorder thingy (which can no longer dub over to a DVD for some reason) but it's connected to the TV and the Sky Box. Therein lies the problem, there are zillions of other progs on Sky which others in the Mansions class as taking priority. However, I have now booked the next available timeslot on the machine, 4.30am August Bank Holiday Monday..... 2014...

Ted wrote:

Mandrake wrote:You have a VCR? I imagine it's connected to some form of cathode ray tube? Does it pick up this new digital wireless?

I have one too, in fact I have 2. I have far too many things on video tape to ever get rid of them. Watching something on video is something Im very fond of (especially old horror films)

jim

Ted wrote:

Mandrake wrote:at Mandrake Mansions, there seems to be no 'window of opportunity' where I can get at the VCR and watch the programme

You have a VCR? I imagine it's connected to some form of cathode ray tube? Does it pick up this new digital wireless?

I'm working on a thriller at the moment, and I had a character put a tape in a VCR. My editor e-mailed me to ask what a VCR was. I'm falling behind the times, I think.

LOL I still have hundereds of movies, magic videos, etc on VHS. I also have hundereds of vinyl albums. I still watch and listen to these all the time. Sure I've DVDs and Cds but I love the classics as well. Music to me sounds much better on record anyways, exspecialy Blues

Mandrake wrote:there are zillions of other progs on Sky which others in the Mansions class as taking priority

Wish they'd show a few around here, then. There's been nothing worth watching on our set for weeks. (Walking Dead and Rubicon excepted.)

Sadly, very few of those zillions appeal to me either!

Im a Christian and I believe that this faith healers are a pure scam. I believe in God as almighty and I believe in respect to human beings as well.
Anyone can believe in anything because we are free to choose our lifes and our believe system. Surely Derren is doing the same thing as this "faith healers".
Preaching and putting his truth as the real truth.

I really think that Gospel isn't about paraphernalia and false healings, is about love and Jesus. Is necessary to put in the massive medias that this faith healers are charlatans, but this is really not the way to go.

Very entertaining and unethical show.

I watched it and I'm not sure I can say I was 'entertained' by it. I found it such uncomfortable viewing because of the obvious conflicts and ethical issues that were explored, but all of that paled when they told the story of the 13 year old girl with MS

Not what I was expecting from the show at all, but fascinating stuff non the less and I was glued to it.

Due to a certain matrimonial event today whereby the wimminfolk were all congregating elsewhere, I managed to watch the show this afternoon.

Certainly the big finish wasn't all that big, careful camera angles obscured how many were in the audience but even so, the journey to that point was interesting. We all know, or suspect, that the big names in US faith healing are laughing all the way to the bank and there were sufficient examples of those evangelists promising material wealth and possessions which has nothing to do with healing. The watertight security and personal air force shown indicates that there's a hell of a lot of money in this game and they big names aren’t going to roll over and confess to any cheating, even if it is shown to be such - the leg lengthening was a prime example as was the gleaning of data from registration cards which is then 'divined' mystically. The very temporary effect of adrenaline on sundry aches and pains is well known but for some reason that knowledge flies out of the window when presented as some kind of miracle. I guess people will believe what they want to believe and programmes such as this won’t have a long term effect. I read recently that ‘psychic surgery’ utilising slight of hand and assorted animal offal is still big business yet that’s been exposed as a fraud more times than I can count.

I can understand the urge for magicians/mentalists to probe and expose such charlatans, after all it’s ‘our’ methods and secrets that are being used to con those who are most vulnerable. Whether this programme did enough I very much doubt but it was a useful masterclass in how very basic methods can have such a high impact. The homily at the end was appropriate, nobody with a faith should feel challenged or at a disadvantage over what Derren & Co did but cheats, conmen and charlatans ought to be squirming in their seats - just in case they’re rumbled by someone who’s learned from this show.

Finally got around to watching it. Not sure if I'd give an entirely positive review, but definitely an interesting piece of television. Even more interesting, to me, was the fact that many of the moral and ethical issues were at least expressed, though often not resolved.

Issues of performance of Christianity continue to interest me, but thankfully, as a researcher, I do not have to pretend to be anything I am not, and I do not envy Nathan... Despite the ease with which we, as outsiders, can condemn the ideas and practices, the people, the preachers, believe in what they do, and this combination of the exposure/dicussion and the human aspect is more difficult than one might think. Its harmful effects and the influence of money make faith healing an easy target, yet even so, immersing oneself in such a world is a much harder task than it seems, and as such, I think Nathan did extremely well, being able to keep hold of himself under circumstances such as these.

A quote from a book I’m reading:

Josef Weissenburg was a case in point. At seventy he had already created a vast occult empire, called the New Jerusalem sect, which included houses of prayer; healing clinics; various publications and newspapers, celebrating its man-god founder; a museum run by his daughter; and a getaway agrarian colony just outside Berlin. In addition, Weissenberg promoted his own holistic brand of foodstuffs which his flock of 100,000 was required to purchase.

Weissenberg’s homeopathic healers (“angel-sisters”) prescribed Quark for all serious ailments. The yogurt-like cheese (cured in vats and exposed to airborne particles of horse manure) was life’s elixir, the sectarians enthused. When a diabetic child died after the white cheese replaced insulin injections, Weissenberg maintained the parents had simply not applied enough Quark to the boy’s body.

The book is Erik Jan Hanussen – Hitler’s Jewish Clairvoyant by Mel Gordon; the events described took place in 1930 so there’s nothing new under the sun....

Not at all; the ideas that I looked into are a souped up, modernised version of the fire-and-brimstone preachings of people like Edwards in the 18th century, now presented as a Christian scare attractions to 'scare the sin out of you' and save you from damnation.

Alleluia, let's take a collection!