Lisa williams

[iloveliz9406]

Hello all i am new to the forum but have enjoyed stalking the pages.
i was wondering what everyones thoughts were on lisa williams. i havent read much about her on here. thanks for any help!

[RSLancastr]

iloveliz, I have yet to see Williams in action, but from what others have posted on this forum about her, it sounds like she is yet another cold-reader. No surprise.

[Piggy]

Hello all i am new to the forum but have enjoyed stalking the pages.
i was wondering what everyones thoughts were on lisa williams. i havent read much about her on here. thanks for any help!

iloveliz9406, there's really only one script for these folks. It's all the same game.

My advice to you is to watch how she operates and compare her to the other "psychics" you've read about on these pages.

You won't find any substantial differences.

Take a look at this video, for instance:

VVIx-8dWtJM

Watch how she works her way into the session, beginning with psychological prepping ("You're open to everything." "Yes."), starting with vague statements ("a female") and judging the subject's reactions, asking questions she should know the answer to if she's psychic ("Is your mother still with us?"), balking and re-directing and even stalling when a thread doesn't pan out ("I've got a mother figure, who's giving me the mother figure?... she's saying your mo- your sist-... she's not calling her your sister or your mother. Let me explain something.")

And so it goes.

Pay careful attention to the subject's reactions -- nods, frowns, startles, silences -- and observe how Lisa modifies her lines of questioning as those reactions appear.

I think you can see for yourself, if you observe objectively, precisely what's going on here.

ETA: Notice also how the subject projects onto Lisa's statements things that were never said. Lisa never said there was distance between her and and her mother and sister. She brought up the "distance" with "a female", then by fishing drew out a narrative about the mother, sister, and grandmother a few minutes later. The subject connected those in her mind. By simply going with lines of narrative that get a response and abandoning those that don't, she effectively allows the subject to construct this narrative herself.

[Orangem]

I personally joined this forum BECAUSE of Lisa Williams. After watching most of her shows on Youtube, I was a little distraught... thought she seemed "more real" than other star "psychics". I thought she was pretty precise in a lot of her readings but, of course, there's always the problem of editing. I came here, learned all about cold reading, watched her again and still wasn't convinced. I thought: "Well, if she's a cold reader, she's a damn good one!"

As I heard she was coming in my home town, I decided to buy tickets and go see an "unedited" performance. That was 4 days ago. Well... that's exactly what it was: a performance. In another thread I wrote it was crap but I think that's not a strong enough word. It was text-book cold reading in front of a 99% sold audience. She got a standing ovation just by stepping on stage! Anyway, I'm writing an anthropology paper on this... don't know yet what angle I'm gonna take. (Sigh)

You know, I never saw myself as a hardcore skeptic, something inside really hoped to be blown away. But after seeing this, I feel that skepticism (when it's not cynical) is the only sane option when it comes to these things.

[Chef Fincher]

classic cold reader. I'm not too fond of people who prey on peoples emotions like this with lies and deceit. I'm afraid I have nothing good to say about her.

[Gilmar]

Hello, iloveliz9406. Welcome to the Forums!

[Nursefoxfire]

Hello all i am new to the forum but have enjoyed stalking the pages.
i was wondering what everyones thoughts were on lisa williams. i havent read much about her on here. thanks for any help!

You might be interested in this previous thread about her entitled " Lisa Williams, New Show Same Schtick": http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=68937

[TraneWreck]

No, she's for real. You can tell because her psychic "chi," if you will, is so powerful it turned her hair blonde. That means she's a very powerful psychic.

Watch this documentary on how psychic "chi" turns hair blonde:

=nnck7xnguqE

[iloveliz9406]

I thank everyone for their kind words and winsdom. i almost spent the money to see her when she came to massachusetts. For a long timei\ i never questioned her talents. Perhaps it was because she comes off as such a kind helpful sweet person. As for the person who has seen her live could you please give me some more details on what the experience was like? thank you all for your help

[ExMinister]

I personally joined this forum BECAUSE of Lisa Williams. After watching most of her shows on Youtube, I was a little distraught... thought she seemed "more real" than other star "psychics". I thought she was pretty precise in a lot of her readings but, of course, there's always the problem of editing. I came here, learned all about cold reading, watched her again and still wasn't convinced. I thought: "Well, if she's a cold reader, she's a damn good one!"

As I heard she was coming in my home town, I decided to buy tickets and go see an "unedited" performance. That was 4 days ago. Well... that's exactly what it was: a performance. In another thread I wrote it was crap but I think that's not a strong enough word. It was text-book cold reading in front of a 99% sold audience. She got a standing ovation just by stepping on stage! Anyway, I'm writing an anthropology paper on this... don't know yet what angle I'm gonna take. (Sigh)

You know, I never saw myself as a hardcore skeptic, something inside really hoped to be blown away. But after seeing this, I feel that skepticism (when it's not cynical) is the only sane option when it comes to these things.


This is interesting. Could you give some examples of the classic cold reading and how you formed this new opinion of her?

I watched a few of her videos and I find it hard to see the cold reading on the videos, at least. She is pretty specific. However, the two things that do occur to me are:

1. There is no reason to think the videos we are seeing haven't been heavily edited. We don't know how many questions were asked that were either misses or that might have revealed information that led to the things she said that seemed so specific, and not seeing that would go a long way toward making her look very impressive.

And 2. We have no real way of knowing whether or not Williams has done any hot reading on these people, obtaining information in advance, or even through things they might have told an assistant, or the TV producers, etc.

Seeing her live, of course, is seeing her without the benefit of either of the above crutches. One of the things that finally convinced me John Edward was cold-reading (or hot reading or both) was noticing how inaccurate he seemed on Larry King live compared to how amazingly specific he seemed on his pre-recorded, edited show.

[Orangem]

This is interesting. Could you give some examples of the classic cold reading and how you formed this new opinion of her?

I watched a few of her videos and I find it hard to see the cold reading on the videos, at least. She is pretty specific. However, the two things that do occur to me are:

1. There is no reason to think the videos we are seeing haven't been heavily edited. We don't know how many questions were asked that were either misses or that might have revealed information that led to the things she said that seemed so specific, and not seeing that would go a long way toward making her look very impressive.

And 2. We have no real way of knowing whether or not Williams has done any hot reading on these people, obtaining information in advance, or even through things they might have told an assistant, or the TV producers, etc.

Seeing her live, of course, is seeing her without the benefit of either of the above crutches. One of the things that finally convinced me John Edward was cold-reading (or hot reading or both) was noticing how inaccurate he seemed on Larry King live compared to how amazingly specific he seemed on his pre-recorded, edited show.

I had the exact same impression when I saw her "Living With the Dead" shows on Youtube. Even after learning about cold reading on this forum I still thought she was pretty impressive. But I've studied and worked in film and television post-production for a couple of years now and I'm really aware of how much you can manipulate a message with editing... and I was right!

OK. Her live show. After explaining to everyone how she works, she begins by describing the first spirit that's come to her. For example: "I have a child in spirit... a little girl... I hear the word leuchemia... I don't know if she died of leuchemia or if there's a connection with a blood disease around her, but I just feel like there’s a blood disease." Then, she waits for the people in the audience who make a connection with their own experience to raise their hands. In this particular example, there were about 5 people, so she added a bit more information: "She has long blond hair", 3 people were left with their hands up. She asked them to say out loud how this information connected with them and she went with the one that was closest to her story. Basically, it's the audience that makes her right.

Then, when she has the "right" person, she develops the story. And when I say story, it's beginning, middle and end. It lasts about the same time for everyone, between 15 to 20 minutes, so in 2 hours, she only covered 5 people. And oddly, those 5 people were evenly spread in the room. One at the back, one in the mezzanine, one in the front, one in the middle, one on the side. She asks way more questions than on her TV show and it's all very general : pictures, jewelery, sudden deaths... She had a few hits of course or she wouldn’t be as big as she is, but nothing that came close to how well she seems to do on her TV show. At one point, she justified a miss in a previous reading (LW: Who's the musician? Person: Uh... LW: I see musical notes. Who likes music? Person: I don't know. There’s not a lot of music in my family.) saying that the spirit she was currently reading for was trying to come through (party animal who loved music)!!! I thought that was pretty lame.

But what actually threw me completely off was something probably very specific to my hometown. We are francophones. Although most are bilingual and understand english, some don't so she had a translator onstage with her. At one point, both her and the translator were lost in translation. The translator mistranslated something to Lisa, completely changing the meaning of what the person had responded, but Lisa built her next 2 or 3 messages on this misunderstanding. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I could go on for a while but I think you get the idea. She’s very charismatic and funny... Oh yes! The producer who organizes her show is called « Just for Laughs », I thought that was pretty ironic. But she’s a really good entertainer, and she’s all about « I love you all! You live in a wonderful place! I wish I could live here! Blablabla! » And blah, is what it was!

But I really do have to emphasize the fact that I came in there hoping that it was true, wanting it to be true. I had my backdrop of skepticism of course, but I was really open. Goes to show how unconvincing she was. :mad:

Cheers :)

[Burning Beard]

Here's another one of Lisa's tricks...

I got into a conversation about a Lisa Williams show a co-worker of mine went to. One of Lisa's "revelations from the other side" to one of the sitters was something X-rated that she "can't repeat on stage" but "you'll know what it is" - the sitter agreed and left it at that.

THAT was the big hit that has my co-worker convinced.

And no, I couldn't put her right on it.

"But how is she so accurate?" she kept on saying. "She's not accurate, the sitter makes the connection" I reply. "Oh well I still think she's for real" she'd say snottily.

I tried describing how you can manipulate the rules of conversation to appear psychic and she just started babbling over the top of me. I just gave up and walked away.

Ugh.

[Robo Sapien]

Do as Mark Edward does. Master the technique yourself and SHOW people it is baloney. Intelligent, objective discussion only works on intelligent, objective people. Most folks don't see the light until you embarass them with a good old fashioned reality check.

[Susan Gerbic]

I have her iphone app. It was free.

She is a common psychic but her "talent" is that she is really pretty, and she comes off so sweet. Her website is all kittens, rainbows and daisys. How could someone that sweet be lying?

I do know that she has been divorced a couple times, which brings us back to the fact that she is human. And why can't see see the marriage will end in a disaster, I mean didn't great-aunt Elizabeth tell her not to marry that guy, so what if auntie is dead. She should know.

Here is Mark Edward's blog (http://skepticblog.org/2009/07/30/medium-not-so-rare/) about her.

One thing that Lisa Williams (http://skepticblog.org/2009/07/30/medium-not-so-rare/) does that is different than most psychics (I think) is that she posts these comments she gets from dead people on a monthly blog on her site. Check these out... I mean they are just random messages she just made up, people scan them in the hopes that their dead loved one is trying to send a message. This takes only an imagination to create. Easiest scam I have seen in ages.

Marie – Charles Rue looking to connect with you, can you let her know I am fine, she worries about me and that is not right. She is on a pathway to discover herself and she has the gift and needs to know that I will guide her every step of the way. It’s going to be easy for her. She just needs to believe. I will watch over her.
Adam – Tony is watching you and says hi. He is showing me that he passed quickly and that you were there when it happened and that is was hard for you. He is telling me that you did all you could for him and he thanks you never feel guilty my friend you saved my life before. Thank you and stand up and be a man. Love to you.
Sandy/Sandra – I’m her mother and it’s been a while since I came through to her, she is not expecting this. Tell her I love her and that she has done her best with everything and that the world will always change and she must change with it, it will help her so much. She needs to look forward not backwards
Norma Jean - We are her parents and she was hoping that we would come through as it’s her birthday soon, and we are thinking of her. She is happy and we see that and we want her to grow and have fun in so many ways. Believe in yourself and your dreams we are in them. We love you very much. Your father says hello too!
Marty – Hey bro how are you. Remember the time when we were fishing and you thought you were going overboard… how funny was that, we needed to drink more beer! Hey can you tell the wife and kids that I am ok and I am having fun and they should not worry about it anymore, I am safe and well and so happy. Tell them I will watch them and make sure that the kids grow up safe and well. I love them very much and I will show her the right way. Cheers man… I love ya! Oh and always do the right thing by ma!

[Burning Beard]

Do as Mark Edward does. Master the technique yourself and SHOW people it is baloney. Intelligent, objective discussion only works on intelligent, objective people. Most folks don't see the light until you embarass them with a good old fashioned reality check.

Well I AM talking to a woman who routinely uses the word "thingamywhatsit" in nearly every sentence.

I agree, a demonstration is the only thing that would get across the message. Most people I can put right with simple logic, the ball drops and they walk away a little wiser.