Things to Ask a Psychic

[yesvirginia]

What are some things to say to a psychic to essentially "trap" him into saying the wrong thing?

 

I know this sounds petty and everything, but there's this psychic who's been saying things about me to my family that have changed their views on me. I didn't bother arguing because I knew they'd somehow filter out everything I say in favor of what the psychic has said, but my family said something to me last night that ticked me off so much that I just have to do something about this psychic dude.

 

EDIT: After re-reading the forum description, I just realized that I may have posted this in the wrong forum. Don't hold it against me?

Edited January 29, 2011 by yesvirginia

[mississippichem]

Ask the psychic if he could speak to your dead aunt "Edna". When he starts to speak with "Edna", inform him that you don't have a dead aunt "Edna". Please take down a transcript of the conversation or record it. You might create a skeptical classic.

 

Or ask the psychic to give you stock market advice. He will try to dodge the question because he knows he will be wrong.

 

Even better yet. Present the psychic with a complicated math problem. If he can't find the determinant of a 5x5 matrix, he can't predict the future. If you know the answer to the question he would've just been able to envision you giving him the right answer five minutes from then.

Edited January 29, 2011 by mississippichem

[John Cuthber]

Ask why he hasn't claimed a million dollars.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

 

Come to think of it

"What are some things to say to a psychic"

"psychic who's been saying things about me to my family"

How about saying "here is a writ for damages"

[Mr Skeptic]

Psychics excel in "reading" their customers. A wedding ring for example, everyone knows what that means but there are much more subtle things, your dress, your demeanor, and the very things you say, like Sherlock Holmes does in his books. In fact, one of their favorite techniques is basically making their customer answer their own question (reply with something generic and vague and ask for confirmation from the customer, who will then provide the details). The psychic would be very unlikely to be "saying" bad things about you if your family did not already think such things about you.

 

So if you do want to trick the psychic consider also the details of your appearance, so that they match whatever deception you're planning. There's three sort of things you could ask them, one being something they clearly won't know the answer to, one getting them to talk about people or things that don't exist, and perhaps for fun you could have them talk about your actual family (with fake names in case he knows their names, but real details) and have him say bad things about them right back at them. Of course all of those involve visiting the psychic, so if you don't want to do that there is the fact that she hasn't claimed the $1,000,000.00 prize for the Randi Challenge.

[ydoaPs]

I thought Randi cancelled the challenge.

 

You could always go in with a gun and a knife and ask the psychic which one is the weapon with which he will be murdered.

[Ringer]

perhaps something that may not be considered criminal mischief. . .

 

Just lie; not just your words either. Lie with your body soft relaxed smiles to make the person think they're right. A look of confusion when they say something on the money. If they are just using cold readings they will go along with the smiles and progress on the lie; opposite with the confused looks. The most important thing is not to say something for them that they can take credit for knowing before hand.

 

Hot reading would be more difficult, but assuming this is just a local psychic they probably don't have the resources to do research or have knowledge of who will come in beforehand.

[tomgwyther]

EDIT: After re-reading the forum description, I just realized that I may have posted this in the wrong forum. Don't hold it against me?

 

Sir, You have most certainly come to the right place. One thing we specialise in is taking down out-right liars such as you have described.

 

If it were me, I'd issue this psychic with a formal 'cease and desist' letter; asking him/her to stop making libellous comments about you to your family; with the threat of court action if he/she does not comply. If you do decide to try and trap the psychic into making obvious false assertions, be sure to record the conversation - with a mobile phone set to record; tucked into your inside pocket.

It looks like quite n easy libel case from where I'm sat.

 

p.s. as for the psychic ability thing: ask them if they can offer information about me (say I'm an old friend or something)

If you Google my name (Tom Gwyther) there's all sorts of info about me living in England; being a jazz pianist etc. See how accurate this charlatan really is.

Edited January 31, 2011 by tomgwyther

[John Cuthber]

For a small fee a lawyer could tell you the difference between libel (which this individual's behaviour probably isn't) and slander which it probably is.

[yesvirginia]

A bit background information...

 

This psychic lives on the other side of the world where American laws do not apply. He randomly stopped by my family's house because he felt that it was haunted by one of too many ghosts and volunteered to exorcise them. My family was mostly skeptical, but they agreed to an exorcism just to humor him and get rid of him ASAP. It was during this exorcism that even the most skeptical of my family witnessed strange things. One thing led to another, and he became a trusted family psychic.

 

And to be honest, I'm not 100% convinced that there's no such thing as the supernatural either. As examples:

 

1. I'm still DEATHLY afraid of all things ghosts. On a normal day I don't even think about it and I can come up with 101 rational explanations for any weird thing that happens before my eyes, but if I were to spend the night on a cemetery my mind would be playing tricks on me the whole night long and I'd probably go bonkers by sunrise. I guess in theory I don't believe in ghosts, but in practice not so much.

 

2. The first time I heard about this psychic, I already tried to "test" him. Someone in my family told him that I was a nonbeliever and requested that he made some predictions about me. So he asked for my name, meditated on it and came up with something that more or less described my situation at the time. He got ONE thing wrong, though, so I'm still holding that mistake over his head.

Edited February 2, 2011 by yesvirginia