If you’re a regular reader of this site — or if you listened to my radio show — you know how much I detest the frauds who call themselves psychics (here’s just a sample of the blog posts I’ve written on this subject).
I’ve railed against them repeatedly for decades, especially the vultures who insist they are mediums, with the power to talk to dead people. Of course, we can all talk to the dead, in the same way we can talk to a table or a paintbrush. The trick is getting a response, and in the case of all three — dead people, tables, and paintbrushes — that’s impossible. Not unlikely. Impossible.
That’s why I was happy to see John Oliver take on those lowlifes during his HBO show Sunday night. He touched on many of the stories and con artists I’ve written and spoken about, from John Edward to Theresa Caputo to the truly evil Sylvia Browne, whose own death didn’t mean we’d get messages from the beyond anymore than ordering the Oreo Dream Cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory without whipped cream means you’re on a diet. The vermin in that profession don’t care about your feelings, the fact that you’re mourning the loss of a loved one, or anything other than how much cash they can suck out of your bank accounts.
The problem with Oliver’s segment is it’s unlikely to be seen by potential victims of these criminals. Or, if they did come across it, they’d think, “Well, those people were obviously fake, but my psychic medium is completely honest, which is why I give her so much of my hard-earned money.”
Frankly, after all the years I devoted to trying to educate listeners and readers about these frauds, this show made me a little depressed, because it reminded me how susceptible so many people are to the lies. And I continue to be angry at the media outlets — a small number of whom are mentioned in Oliver’s piece — who enable this bullshit to not only exist, but proliferate.