I went to see a psychic for the first time and she shared with me a lot of accurate facts about myself and my family. She also told me that my dad's side of the family has an ancestrial curse from many generations past and that I was the Chosen one to break it. She said that I would have to give her my full name and birthdate to carve into specially made candles and that would cost me $500. I'm torn..Is this a scam or is this a true family curse? If it is a scam, how could she get most of the information correct? $500 is a lot of money and I don't want to do certain things that would bring me further from God. Please help me. Thank you for your time.
S
It's absolutely, positively 100% a scam. I have no doubt of that whatsoever, and I am so glad you asked this question. This is a common scam, and usually what happens next is the problems you were having continue, so you keep going back for more blessed candles until the psychic drains you dry.
Psychic ability isn't a sign of advanced spiritual growth. It's not a guarantee of even basic human goodness. It's a talent, like any other creative talent, and can be used for good or ill.
Are there family curses? Maybe. It may be there is a thread of dysfunctional energy running through your family and you may be the Chosen One to break that cycle (hint: the "Chooser" is YOU). I recommend you take the $500 you would have spend on the candles, and put it towards some kind of personal growth class. Learn about the reaction cycle, about forgiveness, and how to break the patterns of abuse. I have recommended one class here many times, The QuinnTessential Experience - there are others out there as well. I have recently discovered the work of Caroline Myss, and highly recommend her books and workshops. Study self esteem, build your confidence. All these things will bring you blessings and power that you can't begin to imagine now. All the "blessed candles" will do is make the bank balance of this "psychic" a bit bigger. How you break the cycle is to learn to love and respect yourself ... and doing that will also bring you closer to God.
Brandi
Showing posts with label fraud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fraud. Show all posts
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Censorship of Psychic Fraud Story?
I was surfing and Stumbling the other day when I stumbled across this story:
Fortune Teller Becomes Fortune Stealer ... with the notation that this particular story was being censored in blogs.
I decided to test that by writing my own story on it. It's relevant here, because it shows how easy it is to defraud even the wealthy and well-educated. In this particular case the former wife of the Sultan of Brunei, Mariam Aziz, was allegedly taken for $4.7 million dollars by a psychic who also allegedly tried to blackmail her, among other things.
As a professional psychic, I am appauled by this story, and stories like this one. I feel it is vital to get these stories out as warnings to the vulnerable, who are unfortunately drawn to psychics at the lowest times in their lives. I sincerely hope this story is not being censored. While the average fraudulent psychic is usally caught long before they can cause this kind of damage, I have had numerous stories of ordinary people being taken for their life's savings. Legitimate psychics charge between $30-$300 for a reading. We don't charge $10,000 for "blessed" candles (if we sell them at all, the going price should be in range of any scented candle, IMNSHO). We don't take "curses" off your love life in exchange for steep fees. If you love your psychic and he or she has been helpful to you, I have no objection if you make a financial gift of appreciation ... but that's a different thing altogether. Use your common sense. If the service offered seems too good to be true, at too high a price, chances are excellent you are dealing with a fraud artist.
Fortune Teller Becomes Fortune Stealer ... with the notation that this particular story was being censored in blogs.
I decided to test that by writing my own story on it. It's relevant here, because it shows how easy it is to defraud even the wealthy and well-educated. In this particular case the former wife of the Sultan of Brunei, Mariam Aziz, was allegedly taken for $4.7 million dollars by a psychic who also allegedly tried to blackmail her, among other things.
As a professional psychic, I am appauled by this story, and stories like this one. I feel it is vital to get these stories out as warnings to the vulnerable, who are unfortunately drawn to psychics at the lowest times in their lives. I sincerely hope this story is not being censored. While the average fraudulent psychic is usally caught long before they can cause this kind of damage, I have had numerous stories of ordinary people being taken for their life's savings. Legitimate psychics charge between $30-$300 for a reading. We don't charge $10,000 for "blessed" candles (if we sell them at all, the going price should be in range of any scented candle, IMNSHO). We don't take "curses" off your love life in exchange for steep fees. If you love your psychic and he or she has been helpful to you, I have no objection if you make a financial gift of appreciation ... but that's a different thing altogether. Use your common sense. If the service offered seems too good to be true, at too high a price, chances are excellent you are dealing with a fraud artist.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Sylvia Browne Controversy
I have been seeing a lot of stories about Sylvia Browne’s wrong prediction about the kidnapped boy who was recently found alive. Sylvia Browne has been wrong before, most notably on the Coast to Coast Show during the mining disaster.
This time however, Sylvia Browne has said "I cannot possibly be 100% correct in each and every one of my predictions. I have never claimed to be." Fair enough. Mediums and psychics are not perfect. We're human, we make mistakes. Just because she made a couple mistakes, that does not mean she doesn't have a legitimate psychic gift. There are odd times when I can't connect with certain people and situations ... yet most of the time it is clear to me that there is more than coincidence or “good guessing” at work in my intuition. I give Sylvia Browne the benefit of the doubt. In her many media appearances she has often had some stunning “hits”. These particular “misses” were tragic. The most recent case was obviously painful to this boy’s family, and it’s fair to ask if such emotional and tragic situations should be explored in the informal setting of a television show. This is one reason I don’t do informal “readings” when I make media appearances.
It is reasonable for the press to ask if a psychic has a real gift or not. I always knew within a few minutes into a reading when I was "on" or "off". It was obvious to me and to my client. When watching Sylvia Browne, John Edwards and James Van Praagh, I have always been struck by how certain they all seem, how direct they are, and how they all seemed to tell, not ask, at least most of the time. I believe they all have real psychic abilities. I have questioned some of that certainty though. Is it reasonable to bluntly tell a kidnapped boy’s parents that you feel he is dead, so matter of fact? Right or wrong, there are gentler ways to release that kind of impression. I did face this challenge once myself, with the parents of a missing boy. I described where I felt he would be found. I told them I could not connect with him, and felt he was likely in spirit. I could not be certain he was alive or dead, but I could not give them false hope. It was probably the hardest reading I ever did. In the end, I was right, but being right brought no comfort. In cases like this, I think Syvlia Browne would agree, most psychics would be glad to be wrong.
It is also reasonable for the media to question the fees of “top tier” psychics. I don’t advertise “readings” anymore, I rarely do them. I think a reasonable fee is $30-60 for a short reading for most psychics. Then again, most psychics are not best-selling authors who are on television regularly and who are swamped with requests for private readings. I don’t know what Sylvia Browne’s satisfaction policy is, but during my time as a consulting psychic, I offered a money-back guarantee, and during that time I could count on one hand the number of clients who asked for refunds. I encourage consumers to ask about these policies before they agree to any reading. Psychics do deserve to be paid for their time, celebrity brings a premium, but I think the bar for satisfaction should be higher when the fee is $700 for 20 minutes.
I do wish the media would question more whether or not the psychic is taking advantage of people, creating a cult-like following. I worked towards empowering my clients to make their own decisions, rather than depending on me. At times I turned away clients when it seemed obvious they were becoming dependent upon me. If my personal belief system was at odds with a client's religious beliefs or their own intuitions, I stepped aside. I did not and do not want to have a "following". My goal is to not to build a following, it is to encourage leadership and personal responsibility. When I see famous psychics starting up their own religions and telling others that they should not trust their own visions if they are not in accord with the famous psychic … I start to get incredibly uncomfortable.
I’d also like to see the media take a closer look at the “skeptics” they drag on their shows whenever a high-profile psychic attracts their cynical attention. I am particularly concerned about CNN's affection for James Randi, and their unquestioning acceptance of his claim to be making a legitimate offer of an award of one million dollars for proof of the paranormal. There is a good analysis here of why this test is deliberately designed to be unwinnable, yet none of the mainstream media I have seen so far have challenged Randi on his claim. The mainstream media continues to give this so-called “skeptic” a pass even though his own methods fall far short of the scientific method.
Brandi
This time however, Sylvia Browne has said "I cannot possibly be 100% correct in each and every one of my predictions. I have never claimed to be." Fair enough. Mediums and psychics are not perfect. We're human, we make mistakes. Just because she made a couple mistakes, that does not mean she doesn't have a legitimate psychic gift. There are odd times when I can't connect with certain people and situations ... yet most of the time it is clear to me that there is more than coincidence or “good guessing” at work in my intuition. I give Sylvia Browne the benefit of the doubt. In her many media appearances she has often had some stunning “hits”. These particular “misses” were tragic. The most recent case was obviously painful to this boy’s family, and it’s fair to ask if such emotional and tragic situations should be explored in the informal setting of a television show. This is one reason I don’t do informal “readings” when I make media appearances.
It is reasonable for the press to ask if a psychic has a real gift or not. I always knew within a few minutes into a reading when I was "on" or "off". It was obvious to me and to my client. When watching Sylvia Browne, John Edwards and James Van Praagh, I have always been struck by how certain they all seem, how direct they are, and how they all seemed to tell, not ask, at least most of the time. I believe they all have real psychic abilities. I have questioned some of that certainty though. Is it reasonable to bluntly tell a kidnapped boy’s parents that you feel he is dead, so matter of fact? Right or wrong, there are gentler ways to release that kind of impression. I did face this challenge once myself, with the parents of a missing boy. I described where I felt he would be found. I told them I could not connect with him, and felt he was likely in spirit. I could not be certain he was alive or dead, but I could not give them false hope. It was probably the hardest reading I ever did. In the end, I was right, but being right brought no comfort. In cases like this, I think Syvlia Browne would agree, most psychics would be glad to be wrong.
It is also reasonable for the media to question the fees of “top tier” psychics. I don’t advertise “readings” anymore, I rarely do them. I think a reasonable fee is $30-60 for a short reading for most psychics. Then again, most psychics are not best-selling authors who are on television regularly and who are swamped with requests for private readings. I don’t know what Sylvia Browne’s satisfaction policy is, but during my time as a consulting psychic, I offered a money-back guarantee, and during that time I could count on one hand the number of clients who asked for refunds. I encourage consumers to ask about these policies before they agree to any reading. Psychics do deserve to be paid for their time, celebrity brings a premium, but I think the bar for satisfaction should be higher when the fee is $700 for 20 minutes.
I do wish the media would question more whether or not the psychic is taking advantage of people, creating a cult-like following. I worked towards empowering my clients to make their own decisions, rather than depending on me. At times I turned away clients when it seemed obvious they were becoming dependent upon me. If my personal belief system was at odds with a client's religious beliefs or their own intuitions, I stepped aside. I did not and do not want to have a "following". My goal is to not to build a following, it is to encourage leadership and personal responsibility. When I see famous psychics starting up their own religions and telling others that they should not trust their own visions if they are not in accord with the famous psychic … I start to get incredibly uncomfortable.
I’d also like to see the media take a closer look at the “skeptics” they drag on their shows whenever a high-profile psychic attracts their cynical attention. I am particularly concerned about CNN's affection for James Randi, and their unquestioning acceptance of his claim to be making a legitimate offer of an award of one million dollars for proof of the paranormal. There is a good analysis here of why this test is deliberately designed to be unwinnable, yet none of the mainstream media I have seen so far have challenged Randi on his claim. The mainstream media continues to give this so-called “skeptic” a pass even though his own methods fall far short of the scientific method.
Brandi
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