Psychic detective television shows

[Montsegur]

What is going on with all these physic crime drame based television shows? medium and the list goes on? is this what the general public believe or is it just for entertainment?

[grayman]

The sad part is they are promoted as based on real people and/or incidents.

[kevin]

Psych's first episode was a pretty decent anti-psychic show. About the only thing I didn't like was how willing to accept a psychic explanation, but not a more realistic one, all the cops were.

[Montsegur]

i should clarify umm the topic this isnt about psychis dectives the show but tv shows that feature psychic's helping dectives(law enforcement) such as Medium etc

[rustytunes]

I suggest you have a search around the forums, there has been a lot said already on this subject. Also check here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychic_detectives).
My opinion is that these shows are nothing less than tabloid TV. Television shows designed for ratings. Heavilly edited and not to be taken seriously. No law enforcement agency will support the claims made on these shows.

[Montsegur]

thanks

[rustytunes]

i should clarify umm the topic this isnt about psychis dectives the show but tv shows that feature psychic's helping dectives(law enforcement) such as Medium etc
Sorry, I've just read this last post - I misunderstood.
"Medium" is a self promotion tool for the fraudulent Allison Dubois. Its also a ratings winner.

[Beleth]

Psych's first episode was a pretty decent anti-psychic show. About the only thing I didn't like was how willing to accept a psychic explanation, but not a more realistic one, all the cops were. Bleah. I was underwhelmed. Apparently the way to fake psychic clairvoyance powers... is to have inhuman perception powers.

[SRW]

Sorry, I've just read this last post - I misunderstood.
"Medium" is a self promotion tool for the fraudulent Allison Dubois. Its also a ratings winner.

Medium is a guilty pleasure, even though the psychic junk is well junk, I think the stories are pretty good and the actress who plays Allison Dubois is easy on the eyes. And 10:00pm on Monday nights my standards are just not to high.

Steve.

[rustytunes]

I agree that it is a well written program, with a good cast. Patricia Arquette is a good actress, I have seen her in other shows. But I just can't watch it due to the woo factor.

[a_unique_person]

I used to wonder why Randi bothered with frauds like Dubois, I mean, only a few idiots would actually believe that stuff, wouldn't they.

Unfortunately, I now know better.

[rustytunes]

Well, she is high profile enough to attract Randi's attention.

[SRW]

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43d11104z999f814b/c59f/__tn_/f648scd.jpg?phYP0sEB._D5375N

Patricia Arquette. Is a good actress and Alison is a phoney

[gfunkusarelius]

tv programming goes thru phases...right now there have been a few movies that did really well and dealt with this sort of supernatural stuff (sort of jump-started by the sixth sense) and when of the tv shows did well, they started churning them out. they'll go out of style (and then they will come back).

personally, the fiction shows dont bother me. i love zombie, horror, ghost type movies even tho dont believe any of it is real. its the shows on history, discovery, court tv, and biography channels and then also shows like dateline that talk about "true stories" and slant the coverage to make woo seem more plausable that bothers me.

[ObscureReferenceMan]

I liked "Psyche"! It looks like it's got potential. Might even help the skeptic movement - people can see how things could be faked. Maybe they can throw in some standard cold-reading techniques as well.

[Lamuella]

I used to really like Medium. I love the actor who plays Alison's husband, and Patty Arquette (while nowhere near as good an actress as her sister) is suited to the role.

Unfortunately, after reading up on the real Alison DuBois, I can't bear to watch it any more.

[rustytunes]

I used to really like Medium. I love the actor who plays Alison's husband, and Patty Arquette (while nowhere near as good an actress as her sister) is suited to the role.

Unfortunately, after reading up on the real Alison DuBois, I can't bear to watch it any more.
Ditto.

I do like the CSIs when they have their little digs at the quacks, mediums and pseudoscience.

[RSLancastr]

tv programming goes thru phases...Yup. Just a couple of years ago, John Edward's "Crossing Over" was on every day, and Van Pragh's "Psychic Fop" (or whatever it was called) was on daily as well. Now, we're mostly down to the every-Wednesday croakings of Sylvia on the Montel show.

I used to really like Medium. I love the actor who plays Alison's husband, and Patty Arquette (while nowhere near as good an actress as her sister) is suited to the role.I'm waiting for the episode where the middle-daughter (the darling little moptop with her own precocious psychic powers) dies is some grisly way that precludes her from ever speaking another line on the show, even as a ghost.

[Jeff Corey]

Bleah. I was underwhelmed. Apparently the way to fake psychic clairvoyance powers... is to have inhuman perception powers.
Not so fast there. The guy was trained by his father the cop to be very observant. It's possible for people to learn this. How do you think detectives, hot readers, warm readers and cold readers amaze people?
I think Monk is less believable. Sometimes.
Remember when Sherlock Holmes first met Watson?
It's good fiction.

[Beleth]

Not so fast there. The guy was trained by his father the cop to be very observant. It's possible for people to learn this.Is it really, though?

I guess it depends on how much the psychic-debunking aspect is going to play. I was hoping for more. I just feel like the writers want me to trade one willing suspension of disbelief for another.

How do you think detectives, hot readers, warm readers and cold readers amaze people?
Not by having an unbelievable father figure teach them a superhuman ability.

Remember when Sherlock Holmes first met Watson?
It's good fiction.The only SH book I have ever read was The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I just never got into him. I don't see a believable character in him; I see a writer who wants to show how much smarter he is than his readers by inventing a character that just knows all this stuff offhand.

Maybe that's it. I see too much SH in the Psych main character.

[TheChadd]

My opinion is that these shows are nothing less than tabloid TV. Television shows designed for ratings. Heavilly edited and not to be taken seriously. No law enforcement agency will support the claims made on these shows.

Unfortunately, with these shows while mostly watched only for entertainment do give psychics credibility. The concept that police regularily look to psychics for help with crime (and the psychics are successful) is perpetuated into the public's psyche. The thing that annoys me about these shows are that there is always the background idea that it is a reinactment (with some artistic license, they grant) of actual historical events.

[Tamazon]

Well at least Medium is kind of meant to be just entertainment. But what really frosts my muffins is shows like "Psychic Witness", on Discovery Channel no less! It portrays, as fact, certain crimes that psychics solved. They even interview the police officers involved who agree with the whole thing!

:mad:

[The Atheist]

Well, Tamazon, it just goes to prove the theory that for every intelligent, thoughtful sceptic out there, there are 10 clowns who would rather believe the unbelievable than accept facts.

[rustytunes]

Well at least Medium is kind of meant to be just entertainment. But what really frosts my muffins is shows like "Psychic Witness", on Discovery Channel no less! It portrays, as fact, certain crimes that psychics solved. They even interview the police officers involved who agree with the whole thing!

:mad:
Well that's what I mean by tabloid tv. Complete BS. They may ask the officers 100 questions, and if they get 6 hits, those are what we see on the show.

[brooklyn44]

I have hopes for "Psych," the premise is anti woo and it is a comedy about how a guy with terrif observtional skills and deductive reasoning has to snow the police into thinking he is a phychic. Cast is good.

[Tamazon]

Shows like Psychic Witness certainly don't help our cause. One of the first arguments I get when trying to tell a believer that psychic powers don't exist is, "well then why do the police use them to solve crimes?" Of course the answer is "they don't" and I have a ton of links to prove it. But try and convince them of that.
One guy on the Psychic Witness forum said that he had seem enough of these shows to convince him that it's real. Well, I've seen plenty of episodes of Buffy and yet don't believe that there is a teenage girl running around staking vampires.

[RSLancastr]

One guy on the Psychic Witness forum said that he had seem enough of these shows to convince him that it's real. Well, I've seen plenty of episodes of Buffy and yet don't believe that there is a teenage girl running around staking vampires.Of course, the difference is, Buffy never claimed to be based on actual events.

At least, I hope it didn't. :)

[gfunkusarelius]

i thought i would tack this onto this thread rather than starting yet another one, but i cause part of a show (either haunting evidence or psychic detectives) yesterday and the way they do these shows is really misleading and one sided. they had a gentleman at a castle trying to tell the owners about the hauntings/spirits/whatever and as he recounted different people who had lived and died there in all the standardly vague psychic ways, they had little tickers at the bottom of the screen saying things like "[the psychic] did no research on the history of [the castle] before arriving." um, says who? did the producers just take his word for it? it is amazing how people seem so ready to trust someone for their word as if the guy has nothing to gain by lying! there were other similarly stupid things, like the woman giving away info to him as he brought up really vague things, like when he said he felt someone was choking or straining for air (as if in a castle that is hundreds of years old, someone couldnt have had some sort of ailment that lead to death via "a straining for breath." i mean technically i guess we all sort of struggle for breath before dying.
anyway, its annoying how they just seem to introduce these people as psychics as if their powers arent in question

[Tamazon]

I have a job for any of you who enjoy writing letters to irresponsible media or maybe if you're just bored. Anyways, the local ACCESS station here calls itself "The Education Station". Unfortunately they are showing claptrap like "Pyschic Witness" (myself and others from this forum have taken over their little psychic forum) :)
About the show: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/psychic_witness/about.html

They also air "Antiques Psychic" where psychic Kim handles objects that her guests (victims) bring in and then she spews forth nonsense whilst fondling said objects. Quite frankly, she's one of the worst cold-readers I've seen. And she's actually probably doing warm-readings as I imagine she gets plenty of info about her guests before they arrive. Info on Kim:
http://www.clairvoyantkim.com/schedule.htm

So if any of you feel like you have some time to kill you can let ACCESS know how they are "educating" people. You can e-mail them here:
info@accesstv.ca

I already have.

Here's a link to ACCESS television:
http://www.accesstv.ca/

Hee Hee, now that I can post links, I've gone mad....MAD!!!! :drool:

[Tamazon]

It seems Kim Dennis (Antiques Psychic) was in a swift commentary as well. I different television station involved this time.

http://www.randi.org/jr/200510/100705as.html

At the beginning of her show the screen proclaims "What you are about to see is real." Please.

[phaedra]

Anyone interested in the UK aspect of so called psychic detectives might want to check out the The Skeptic Express (http://www.theskepticexpress.com/index.php) who are in the process of running a series of articles entitled 'Psychic Detectives or Psychic Predators?'. Here's a link:

http://www.theskepticexpress.com/psychic_detectives_or_psychic_predators.php

There are currently six pieces available to view although several more will follow shortly. The articles look at the psychic detective from the following aspects: the media, the family of the missing individual and exploitation of such circumstances by psychics. Further articles in preparation include a major contribution from UK police forces and their use of psychics and a piece on the views of major UK missing persons groups.

Hope you find it useful.

[RemieV]

Medium was alright for a season, and then bored the pants off of me. The distinction between fiction, based on reality, and documentary is getting terribly blurred. I've had people tell me, for example, that poltergeist activity occurs around teenagers in angst. I have yet to find a credible source for that statement.

[Miss Whiplash]

Perhaps it came from the teenager throwing things. ;)

[fuelair]

Is it really, though?

I guess it depends on how much the psychic-debunking aspect is going to play. I was hoping for more. I just feel like the writers want me to trade one willing suspension of disbelief for another.


Not by having an unbelievable father figure teach them a superhuman ability.

The only SH book I have ever read was The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I just never got into him. I don't see a believable character in him; I see a writer who wants to show how much smarter he is than his readers by inventing a character that just knows all this stuff offhand.

Maybe that's it. I see too much SH in the Psych main character.

Confusion??!! There are people who have very highly developed powers of observation - and in the Psych show, they even guide you to the things he is observing that he pulls his knowledge and guesses from. The most challenging thing I've noted is reading upside down - and lot's of us can do that.

[fuelair]

It seems Kim Dennis (Antiques Psychic) was in a swift commentary as well. I different television station involved this time.

http://www.randi.org/jr/200510/100705as.html

At the beginning of her show the screen proclaims "What you are about to see is real." Please.

What you see IS real - there is a real set, real people , real stuff is handled. It's what you hear and are expected to believe that isn't real.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :jaw-dropp :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[fuelair]

Medium was alright for a season, and then bored the pants off of me. The distinction between fiction, based on reality, and documentary is getting terribly blurred. I've had people tell me, for example, that poltergeist activity occurs around teenagers in angst. I have yet to find a credible source for that statement.

That's an old one ; often came up in woo books at least through the 70's. Sorry I can't give suggestions of titles - haven't had time to read woo droppings in a LONG time. (oh - usually referred to young females particulary around time of first periods.)

[RemieV]

What you see IS real - there is a real set, real people , real stuff is handled. It's what you hear and are expected to believe that isn't real.:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :jaw-dropp :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

The back of my Ghost Hunters DVD Season I bought for debunking purposes says "100% Real". I assume it referred to the DVDs. Real DVDs... instead of mirage DVDs.

[RemieV]

That's an old one ; often came up in woo books at least through the 70's. Sorry I can't give suggestions of titles - haven't had time to read woo droppings in a LONG time. (oh - usually referred to young females particulary around time of first periods.)

Sounds like "Carrie". Although I don't know if I'd call Stephen King credible... maybe "insane" or "creepy".

[fuelair]

Sounds like "Carrie". Although I don't know if I'd call Stephen King credible... maybe "insane" or "creepy".

I was not intending/referring to fiction - but that is a fiction example of the type. I would call King a credible fiction writer - but what I was talking about were "non fiction" woo books on the topic.

[Cuddles]

Well at least Medium is kind of meant to be just entertainment. But what really frosts my muffins is shows like "Psychic Witness", on Discovery Channel no less! It portrays, as fact, certain crimes that psychics solved. They even interview the police officers involved who agree with the whole thing!

:mad:

I haven't actually watched Medium, but there were a lot of adverts before is started in Britain showing interviews with Allison Dubois saying it was all entirely real and based on the actual events of her life. I don't think that can be passed off as "just entertainment" when they are blatantly trying to deny reality.

[Psiload]

I watched the first medium... and that was enough for me.

The show started out with the character of the lead detective expressing serious doubts about the abilities of psychics. In the very next scene a huge convoy of police SUVs are sent to the airport to pick up the "Medium" and spend the rest of the day escorting her around to various crime scenes. :rolleyes:

That was it for me.

[LeCynthia]

Unfortunately we are the minority, as far as I can tell. If these shows keep up, a whole generation of television watchers will grow up believing in this stuff more than ever. Just my opinion and observation but I think there is about to be a giant boom in all sorts of psychics and related merchandise (crystals, artifacts, tarot cards, etc.). This may be a good time to buy stock in Quartz mines.

[Tamazon]

Unfortunately we are the minority, as far as I can tell. If these shows keep up, a whole generation of television watchers will grow up believing in this stuff more than ever. Just my opinion and observation but I think there is about to be a giant boom in all sorts of psychics and related merchandise (crystals, artifacts, tarot cards, etc.). This may be a good time to buy stock in Quartz mines.

I know, I keep telling my husband that there's gotta be a way to make some money from all these suckers.

But I wouldn't be able to sleep with myself at night from the guilt.

[RSLancastr]

I haven't actually watched Medium, but there were a lot of adverts before is started in Britain showing interviews with Allison Dubois saying it was all entirely real and based on the actual events of her life.For her sake, I hope the "psychic" middle daughter on the show is not based on one of her own kids.

That actress is like nails on a chalkboard.

[Tamazon]

I haven't actually watched Medium, but there were a lot of adverts before is started in Britain showing interviews with Allison Dubois saying it was all entirely real and based on the actual events of her life. I don't think that can be passed off as "just entertainment" when they are blatantly trying to deny reality.

Yeah, I guess that was a bad example.

[Flange Desire]

I'm very impressed with your lucid arguments over there,
rlancaster, rustytunes, and the rest of youse.

Very nice work.