I saw that "psychic" "medium" John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt on the television with Kelly and Mark yesterday. It's always a treat to see people bamboozled as people "gifted with powers far beyond the normal" are able to read minds and foresee the future.
They used to call these people "soothsayers." The word comes from the Olde English "sooth" meaning truth, and "sayer" meaning "he won't stop talking." And The Amazing Randi could tell you how these sharpies operate, but he's dead since 2020...and he knew about it well in advance.
What I saw on the TV was a guy talking to a woman "chosen totally at random from the audience" who just happened to be sitting there with a microphone in her hand as the wizard peered out at her. She asked if her late husband had a message for her from beyond the grave. The soothsayer said, "Which one? I'm seeing two husbands."
These days, two marriages seem to be the arithmetic average. But her mouth was agape.
Then, He Who Knows All said, "I'm seeing August. Did he leave in August?" Clearly befuddled, the woman shook her head, but the seer kept on: "I'm seeing the number 8!" Still no sale.
And he said, "I'm seeing a kitchen remodel in your past." Safe guess; at this lady's age, she's seen a Radarange or two installed. She nodded enthusiastically, but the guy took one too many steps when he said, "I'm seeing a disagreement about one corner of the kitchen. Is that anything?"
Seeing him floundering like a goldfish who jumped out of the bowl, Kelly and Mark swept the segment to a close.
Randi explained how these guys operate. The key is that there some questions that everyone will nod to, and from there, just get the person to tell their story, and claim the credit for "knowing" it.
Of course, if the man from TV is any kind of psychic, he already knows that I blogged about him today, and should be contacting my attorney, Perry Mason, sometime later.
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