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Showing posts with label psychic. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 ~ Have your say...

Psychic Fails: 2011 Failed and Forgotten Predictions

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Each year at RelativelyInteresting.com, we take a look at some of the world’s premier psychics and evaluate the accuracy of their predictions.  The year 2011 has come and gone, so let’s see how they fared…

Psychic Craig and Jane Hamilton-Parker

Here is what the Craigs had to say about 2011:

Prediction:  Tropical Island is evacuated due to volcanic eruption

Wow – so general.  Any island along the Ring of Fire could be a target, and that’s a lot of targets.  This is an easy “hit” because it’s so predictable.  Doesn't count.

Prediction:  Earthquake in California and the famous Hollywood sign is damaged.

Looks like it’s still standing, unscathed…

Prediction:  Wild animal disease scare results in mass slaughter of livestock.

Nooooope.

Prediction:  In February the Beckhams reveal that are planning a divorce.

Not that I care about this one in the slightest… but they are still together as of December 18th, 2011:  http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Entertainment/20111218/david-beckham-post-los-angeles-galaxy-moves-111218/

Prediction:  Liverpool wins the FA cup

Nope, someone else won.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_FA_Cup_Final

Prediction:  Leading politician dies in a plane crash

A bit more specific, maybe?  A president?  Prime minister?  A cabinet minister?  Come on.


Psychic Nikki
She has hundreds of predictions on her website, but let’s take a look at a few of them…

Prediction:  The Playboy Mansion will burn down.

This would have been big news, but alas, it did not happen.

Prediction:  A gold rush will occur in Hawaii.

Nope, didn’t happen.

Prediction:   The first brain transplant will take place.

Seriously?  Didn’t even come close.

Prediction:  A horseshoe-shaped UFO will be spotted over Roswell, New Mexico.

Swing and a miss. 

Prediction:  Hilary Clinton will win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nope.  It was awarded jointly to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman.

Prediction:  A big computer virus will take out large swathes of communication for a 48-hour period, which could affect air travel.

Fail.


Monte the Psychic

According to Monte,  “I have been having psychic experiences since I was 8 years old, but have been working with Angels & Guides for the last three decades doing readings and workshops for Spiritual awareness”.  On his website, he states that “No other psychic in the world has posted more than 500 future World Predictions since 2008 with more accuracy!”

That sounds really impressive.  Let's see how he did...

Prediction:  2011 will be a year of economic change for most people by late Summer from high food cost and major shortages all over the world due to soaring grain and corn prices…Expect to see food protest in China, Russia, the UK, and USA….

Food protests are nothing new, and “a year of economic change” can easily be considered a “hit” any year.  Doesn’t count.

Prediction:  North & South Korea will continue their fighting and economic collapse is coming to N.Korea before late Winter which will trigger a revolt in their country by citizens wanting change, the leader at that time, Kim Jong Un may not survive the revolt, or he may go into hiding in China…

Completely wrong, and considering that Kim Jong Il died on December 19th, 2011, wouldn’t Monte try to predict that?

Prediction:  Russia and China will sign a major military pact that will make them a dominant world power rivaling NATO….

I missed hearing about this in the news – perhaps it’s a secret.

Prediction:  A major volcano eruption in Indonesia will become the largest in that country’s history, killing many, the people there need to leave now to be safe.

Again, fairly easy to consider a “hit” since there are many active volcanoes in the region.  There was one, in fact (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/15/indonesian-volcano-erupts) but it wasn’t the largest in the country’s history. 

Prediction:  A device to allow people to levitate will be built where you can walk on a platform and levitate…

I hoped this one would be true, but alas, no such device exists.

Prediction:  Japan and China will have a military standoff after more ships are sunk near a disputed Japanese Island by China almost bringing these countries to war, Russia will intervene to settle the dispute.. …

Didn’t happen…

Prediction:  The US military will sabotage President Obama’s administration by leaking damaging information on him to the public…

Didn’t happen…

Sidney Friedman
We then took a look at Sidney Friedman. Friedman bills himself as ‘psychic to the stars’.
Prediction:  Lady Gaga becomes a teacher at a university. Maybe it’s just for a day or two, but she lectures at a school of higher learning.

This is a useless prediction.  I’m at a loss for words.

Prediction:  Economically in the U.S., I sense the climate in some ways continues to improve, slowly but surely.
He had a 50/50 chance of getting this right, and he got it! 

Prediction:  This I truly hope does not occur: A major league baseball player inexplicably dies on the field.

As far I could tell, one active MLB player died in 2011, but it was not on the field – it was a stabbing.  http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7266671/2011-mlb-death-mariners-greg-halman-leaves-some-stunned  Sorry, Sidney, this doesn’t count as a hit.

Prediction:  I am not precisely certain of what this is, but an explosion in the sky is seen in the middle part of the country.

Could you be more specific?  Seriously – this could be a plane, a meteor, a flare, a hot air balloon… this is so general that it probably happened a number of times, but was so insignificant that it was never reported in the news.

The Psychic Twins

Psychic Twins, Terry and Linda Jamison, claim to have been the only psychics to predict the 9/11 attacks. They have been correct on a number of predictions which have given them a high profile in the United States.

Here’s their predictions for 2011:

Prediction:  President Barrack Obama will not be re-elected, and more women will come to power in the next a few years.

This might happen in 2012, but all one must do is look at the US opinion polls to make an educated guess.  I wouldn’t really consider this a “hit” even if it comes true.

Prediction:  There will be many medical breakthroughs for diseases such as cancer in general, including lung cancer, colon cancer, bone cancer, as well as diabetes, heart diseases in the year of 2011.

It’s pretty fair to say there will be “medical breakthroughs” because 1) it’s hard to define what’s a “breakthrough”, and 2) they chose diseases/conditions that are heavily funded and researched – so there’s a decent chance that if there’s a discovery or “breakthrough”, then it will be for one of those diseases/conditions.

Prediction:  They have predicted job recoveries, especially in the second half of this year, albeit they are slow job recoveries.

This is a safe bet.  The unemployment rate did decrease in 2011 compared to 2010, but, it’s important to note that it actually increased in June (the start of the second half of the year), and then dropped again in November.  So you see, as soon as they try to get specific, they… fail.

Ooops... What About These Forgotten Predictions?

The year 2011 also had some epic moments in the news… and you will note that the psychics above failed to predict any of them. 
  • Japan Earthquake and Tsunami and the associated nuclear crisis
  • Bin Laden's Death
  • Tucson, Arizona Shooting Rampage
  • Death Amy Winehouse
  • Occupy Wall Street
  • Kim Jong Ill's death
  • Arab Spring
  • Penn State abuse scandal
  • Steve Job's death
  • Tornadoes across Midwest and Southeastern U.S.
  • EU Fiscal Crisis
Wouldn't it have been incredibly useful for the public to know where the tsunami would hit Japan?  What about saving the military's 10 year hunt for Bin Laden... and just telling them where he was hiding? Maybe a little warning about the Tucson shootings?  No.  Nothing.  Why?  Because no psychic can predict anything useful with any sort of accuracy.  Good luck in 2012.



Monday, January 3, 2011 ~ Have your say...

Psychic Fails for 2010: Failed and Forgotten Predictions

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Psychic Fails for 2010

2010 has come and gone, and predictably, a slew of failed psychic predictions have also passed.  Let’s take a look at a few and see how well the psychics fared.  The author’s comments will appear in italics throughout the article…

Let's start with Sylvia Browne.  On her site, www.spiritnow.com, they claim “Sylvia Browne is without question, "America's #1 Psychic," an internationally known psychic and medium.”

Based on that, I would expect precise predictions with a very high success rate...

Sylvia Browne writes…
Around 2009 to 2011, I predict Americans will start working on what I like to call our "buts." There are problems that we are aware of that make the global community smaller. We have liked to say, "Our system works"..but...
Not sure what she’s trying to say here… but let’s continue with some predictions.  
...Children are not properly fed, clothed, educated, protected or given adequate medical care.
 Pretty vague and general statement, but this has always been the case with any civilization.
...Many in our population do not have a place to call home. 
 Yup, we already know that.
...Some of our youth get more attention from gangs and drug dealers than they do positive role models. 
 Yup, we already know that too.
...People who are ready, willing and able to work cannot find decent jobs. 
 This has always been the case.
...Our elderly are not cared for properly either financially or medically.
  Yup, we already know that.
...Some death row inmates are innocent. 
  Unfortunately, we already know that.
...Some elected officials and large corporations do not think of the welfare of the people as a high priority - they'd rather just increase their bank accounts. 
 Yup, we already know that.  I’m getting tired of saying the same thing.  Her predictions, so far, have been pretty meaningless.
I predict we'll develop strong resolve and resources to address these problems and come up with some good solutions. 
This is completely general and vague.  Governments and social groups are always working to resolve the issues she’s listed.  I’m sure they will continue long into the future. This is an utterly useless “prediction”. 
I predict a great rise in skin cancer in children until 2010. There is a lot of media coverage about the UV rays and many products to protect people against them. But people are still often careless when it comes to the sun. Then again, people could pay attention - and reverse this prediction right out from under me. I would certainly be all for that! 
 Again, this is a pretty obvious statement – it’s not a prediction.  According to this document (which took me 20 seconds to find) (http://www.cancercare.ns.ca/site-cc/media/cancercare/Skin_Cancer_Statistics.pdf) , she’s stating what we already know:  skin cancer is on the rise and has been since at least 1980, and it is common in the young population.  But then read this prediction again carefully:  “Then again, people could pay attention -  and reverse this prediction right out from under me.”.  So she can’t lose – she’s “predicted” both possible outcomes.  That’s like saying:  “I predict that when you flip that coin, it’s going to be Heads or Tails.”   
I predict the President elected sometime between 2008 and 2020 will die in office from a heart attack. The Vice President who will finish their term will have an unpopular and mistaken intention to declare war on North Korea. By that time, North Korea will have weapons of mass destruction. In the middle of efforts to declare war, I predict the Vice President will be assassinated. 
 Considering that heart disease is a leading cause of death amongst men, there’s a decent chance this might actually happen.  Not exactly a precise prediction.  How about a name of the president?  How about a date?  Who will the Vice President be?  Details, please!
There will be a worldwide investigation into the Vice President's death with both pleasant and unpleasant surprises. A lot of attention will be paid to one of the investigative congressional committees and serious accusations will be made regarding missing funds. Finally, it will be revealed that their accusations are part of a conspiracy to damage the American people's faith in their government, with the media manipulated to "fan the flames," and the committee will be vindicated in the end. 
There’s almost always a scandal for missing funds with some politician, so this is a very general prediction. These scandals always challenge the faith of the people’s belief in their government, and the media always hypes these stories.   Give a name, at least, of the Vice President in question.
I predict we can truly say "goodbye" to the common cold in 2009 or 2010. The solution to the common cold involves heat. Keep in mind that the body's first response when we develop a cold is to come down with a fever. Many doctors today no longer rush to push patients to take temperature reducing medications when they come down with a fever, unless the fever is dangerous. They feel the immune system is the patient's best medicine and should be given a chance to fight back. So as the immune system fights a cold with heat, the cure for the common cold certainly may lie in this first signal to heal.
 Sigh, the common cold persisted through 2009 and 2010.
I predict that a small cubicle will become available in doctor's offices sometime in 2009 and it will be heated to a very precise temperature. There may be a special vapor placed into the cubicle. Patients will stand in the cubicle for approximately five minutes and the rhinitis germ will be destroyed. 
 This did not even come close to happening in 2009 or 2010.  Note that this is her most specific prediction, and it’s a failure.
Another wonderful bit of good news on the health front with this discovery - since this cubicle can easily take on the rhinitis germ, many people that have breathing problems with allergies and asthma complications will find some breakthroughs as well. We will see this cubicle discovery used for healing for those with breathing disorders. The cubicle will become available in 2009 or 2010.
 Ok, enough with the magical cubicle.  It didn’t happen in 2009 or 2010.  Fail, again.
I predict hypnotic past-life regression will become available through a group of trained psychologists on both the east and west coasts of the U.S.A. in 2009. It will prove to be quite a success and will be widely practiced by 2011.
Maybe there are some people practicing this – it has been practiced before with terrible results.  Also, hypnotic past-life regression therapy doesn’t work, because nobody has ever had a past life.  So this entire prediction is based on a false premise, and therefore, cannot come true.

Sylvia Browne, you did a terrible job predicting anything in 2010 – why do people still buy your books?  Why don’t you take James Randi’s challenge?  It’s a free million dollars.  Check it out here.

Ok, let’s try another famous psychic, Psychic Nikki.  I’m only going to point out the big predictions that would be useful to know (so I’m excluding all the Hollywood predictions and all the insignificant predictions and the long list of extremely obvious “predictions” like “they’ll be major storm in the north east USA”).  Admittedly, this is a selected shortlist, because I don’t have the time or patience to go through the hundreds of insignificant and ridiculous predictions on her list.

  • Trouble on the moon’s surface and atmosphere.   Fail.  The moon has no significant atmosphere, only trace amounts of some elements. 
  • A hostage taking incident at a New York City bank.  Didn’t happen…
  • The Lost City of Atlantis will be found.   Wow.  Psychic Epic Fail.
  • A worldwide power blackout.   Swing and a miss.
  • A tsunami in Japan.   Sigh, didn’t happen.
  • Reptiles invading El Paso, Texas.   Not.  Even.  Close.
  • A plane will be hijacked at Toronto International Airport.   This didn’t happen.
  • Two cruise ships will collide in the Caribbean.   Nope.
  • Passing of Fidel Castro.   He’s still alive!  But he’s in his mid 80s and is obviously quite ill, so even if she got this right, I wouldn’t be impressed.
  • A very large earthquake in Seattle, Washington destroying a lot of landmarks and killing many people.   Didn’t happen…
  • Air Force One will be hijacked.   Didn’t happen…  This would, however, make a great movie.
  • Assassination of Barack Obama.   There’s a psychic fail, if I ever saw one.  He’s still alive and well through 2010.
  • Invasion of Iran by the US.   Didn’t happen…
  • Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Alaska.   Wow, can you be more general?  Alaska is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire – there are always volcanoes and earthquakes.  Useless prediction.
  • A new species of fish will be found.   No kidding?  I thought we had found every possible fish species by now.  I can’t believe we’ll find yet another!!!
  • A terrorist attack in London, England, Los Angeles, New York, Scotland, Ireland, Toronto, Florida, and Chicago.   Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, and nope.  Maybe she should have listed a few more major cities.
Let’s try another psychic, to see if he fails.  Surely, we’ll see some success?  

From Psychic Craig:
 
  • Bin Laden dies.  He lives!  Or we just don’t know if he’s alive or dead.  Kind of hard to verify this one.
  • Quantum physicists discover extraordinary way generate electricity from water.  Pssst, it’s called a “hydro-electric dam”, and they’re everywhere…   And stop using the word “quantum” to explain anything mysterious.
  • MP caught in indecent act in public toilet.   Maybe this happened; this is from a UK site, so I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in UK politics.
  • Important public figure revealed to be a member of a white supremacy movement with 2011 seeing a serious increase in racist attacks.  Not aware of this…  therefore I can’t confirm or deny.
  • Secret human cloning experiment attempts to clone famous person.   Didn’t happen… or maybe it’s soooo secret that we just don’t know about it yet.
  • X factor in 2011 will be won by a group of friends who were choir boys together.  Sure?  This prediction has no value whatsoever.  And think about it – he could have easily done some research to see if one of the groups competing for the X prize grew up together and sang in a boy’s choir.  It’s entirely possible.
  • Celebrity is kidnapped and a ransom demand made.  Not aware of this… and I suppose it depends on your definition of “celebrity”.
  • Barack Obama expresses an interest in holistic healing and ‘world healing’ becomes a dominant theme and key phrase to his 2011 speeches. He brokers a historic deal between Israel and the Palestinians.  Let’s see if he starts doing this in 2011…

What about the things psychics failed to predict at all?  Here's a few news stories that were huge in 2010, but were not predicted:
  • The earthquake in Haiti, and the rise of mobile donations during the relief effort
  • Massive floods in Pakistan
  • Chilean earthquake 
  • Chilean miners rescued
  • Eyjafjallajokull Icelandic volcano eruption
  • NASA discovering Arsenic loving bacteria
  • Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion, and ensuing mess (yes, some predicted there would be a "problem" on an oil rig, but for a prediction to be valuable, it needs to be accurate.
  • Guatemalan sink hole
  • Mount Merapi eruption
  • Chinese Yushu, Qinghai magnitude 6.9 earthquake

So it seems the world’s most popular psychics didn’t do well for 2010.  I’ll take a stab at it… 

 Here’s my predictions for 2011:
  • Sylvia Browne will continue to make loads of money by scamming people into believing she has psychic powers.
  • Psychic predictions made for 2011 will not come true, unless if they are completely vague and likely to happen anyways. 
  • Some people will become very defensive when they read this article and will disagree with the content.
  • Some people will agree with the content of this article.

Monday, June 21, 2010 ~ Have your say...

How to be a Psychic

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The folks over at Skeptic.com have produced a fantastic document which outlines how anyone can be a psychic.  This is a must read for an aspiring Sylvia Browne!  The abbreviated version is below.

Learn to be a Psychic in 10 Easy Lessons

Psychic readings and fortunetelling are an ancient art — a combination of acting and psychological manipulation. While some psychics are known to cheat and acquire information ahead of time, these ten tips focus on what is known as “cold reading” — reading someone “cold” without any prior knowledge about them.

You can download the pdf here.

1        Set the stage for an intimate, comfortable, experience.  Establish your psychic authority with props such as important looking charts, or bookcases, full of reference books.
2        Project a sympathetic personality.  Put your client in a receptive, cooperative mood by explaining that a reading is a team effort.
3        There are seven things people most want to talk about:  Love, Health, Money, Career, Travel, Education, and Ambition.  Stick to these themes by asking a lot of questions and making plenty of statements from each category.
4        Start with a “Barnum” reading that offers something for everyone.
5        After general statements, you can begin to home in on specifics that apply to most people.
6        Extract information from your client by disguising questions as statements.
7        Appeal to the authority of ancient wisdom and mysterious secrets by peppering your reading with esoteric jargon.
8        Don’t be shy about using a little scientific knowledge from psychology or sociology to deduce your client’s concerns.
9        Don’t forget the obvious.  Flatter your subjects.  Tell them what they want to hear.
10    Have your excuses ready.  Turn every outcome to your advantage.


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Failed and Forgotten Psychic Predictions of 2009

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Each year, psychics around the world make predictions for the coming year, and each year, the Skeptic community checks to see their track record.

Our friends over at Skeptic North have done a wonderful job of outlining the failed predictions from "top" psychic Sylvia Brown and John Hogue. The track record speaks for itself.

John Hogue's 2009 Predictions
Sylvia Brown's 2009 Predictions

Over at the CSICOP, you can check out the track record as far back as the 90's.

It's interesting to see which predictions were a miss, but it should also be noted what wasn't predicted for 2009. Wouldn't the world's leading psychics want to predict these juicy news items?

  • H1N1/Swine Flu outbreak
  • The Tiger Woods scandal
    Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Deadly bushfires in Australia
  • The outstanding success of Twitter
    Deaths: Micheal Jackson, Natasha Richardson, Walter Cronkite, Patrick Swayze, Brittany Murphy, Farrah Fawcett, and others.
  • The sudden fame of Susan Boyle
 Finally, let's look at Psychic Nikki's predictions for 2009, now that the year has passed.  How do you think she did?

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