Aussie TV - Secrets of Psychics Reavealed

SquishyDave · 2nd November 2003, 07:07 PM

It's on Prime TV Tuesday 4th of November at 9:30 PM. I am sure our international brethren have seen it, but if I haven't seen it, it's new to me.

SquishyDave · 3rd November 2003, 05:14 PM

What? Oh I thought someone said something.

reprise · 3rd November 2003, 05:17 PM

I'm definitely looking forward to watching this.

I'm also still very pissed of with Nine for dropping Mind Control after only one episode and hoping that they'll let another network (even if it is the Seven "we take journalism to new depths" network) pick up the screening rights.

SquishyDave · 3rd November 2003, 05:20 PM

I never saw mind control, or even heard of it before now. I will probably tape that show tonight to have it on hand, you never know when it might come in handy.

reprise · 3rd November 2003, 05:29 PM

Mind Control homepage with some fun interactive stuff.

SquishyDave · 3rd November 2003, 06:11 PM

I showed the video of him pick pocketing to everyone here at work, we all pissed ourselves laughing. It was great

RonSceptic · 4th November 2003, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by reprise
I'm definitely looking forward to watching this.

I'm also still very pissed of with Nine for dropping Mind Control after only one episode and hoping that they'll let another network (even if it is the Seven "we take journalism to new depths" network) pick up the screening rights.

If the Secret of The Psychics show is the Uk one, rather than the US show of the same name, Derren Brown (Mind Control) does feature several times, but only as an interviewee rather than as a peformer. All the tricks are perfromed by Alastair Cook.

tim · 4th November 2003, 02:08 PM

If it's the programme recently shown here with Alastair Cook it's excellent.
How to demolish nearly all woo woo beliefs in short order.
COMPULSORY WATCHING! WE WILL BE ASKING QUESTIONS LATER!
Let us know what you think!

SquishyDave · 4th November 2003, 02:37 PM

It was the yank version, and I didn't like it. They left too much open, they said you could bend a spoon by pre cutting it, but didn't say it could also be done in other ways, so if you took your own spoon, a unique spoon, and saw someone bend it with their mind, even after seeing this show you would believe they used their mind, coz you [i[know[/i] the fake guys pre cut it. Also in a card trick they said they use marked cards, and in another card trick a mirror in the guys shoe. I don't know much about magic tricks, but I'm fairly sure magicians would scoff at using marked cards or hidden mirrors, am I right?

They also said cold reading was just a series of pre scripted comments that apply to everyone, which is part of it, but so is getting info out of people without them knowing, but they didn't say that, so if you went to a psychic who somehow knew specific stuff, you woould think they are real.

If anything that show left people more susceptible to charlatens.

And Tim, when are you going to grow up?

tim · 5th November 2003, 12:54 AM

Well Dave, I don't WANT to grow up.
My flawless reasoning tells me that if I refuse to leave my first childhood I cannot enter my second childhood therefore I cannot die therefore I am immortal.
Also being small and cute has it's advantages!

tim · 5th November 2003, 12:56 AM

And anyway, that's a picture of me after Renata's evil minions kidnapped me and forcibly shaved me in some bizarre initiation ritual they have. She needs help, poor girl!

a_unique_person · 5th November 2003, 01:00 AM

No, it is a picture of you as a little, cutesy baby.

tim · 5th November 2003, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by a_unique_person
No, it is a picture of you as a little, cutesy baby.

Nah, it's not. See this thread "Renata's Evil Plan" in the forum community section for the truth!

reprise · 6th November 2003, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SquishyDave
It was the yank version, and I didn't like it. They left too much open, they said you could bend a spoon by pre cutting it, but didn't say it could also be done in other ways, so if you took your own spoon, a unique spoon, and saw someone bend it with their mind, even after seeing this show you would believe they used their mind, coz you [i[know[/i] the fake guys pre cut it. Also in a card trick they said they use marked cards, and in another card trick a mirror in the guys shoe. I don't know much about magic tricks, but I'm fairly sure magicians would scoff at using marked cards or hidden mirrors, am I right?

They also said cold reading was just a series of pre scripted comments that apply to everyone, which is part of it, but so is getting info out of people without them knowing, but they didn't say that, so if you went to a psychic who somehow knew specific stuff, you woould think they are real.

If anything that show left people more susceptible to charlatens.

And Tim, when are you going to grow up?

Interesting. My conclusion about that show was totally different. It was that those people who are really REALLY determined to believe in this crap will do so IN SPITE OF being told that they are being decieved. Derren Brown does it better in that he tells people uprfront that he is deceiving them (and they still argue at the end of the show that he only "thinks" that he doesn't have psychic powers) but the repetitive script segment of the show we both watched pretty much proves the Fox Maulder theory of "I want to believe".

You - as a skeptic - are complaining about the manner in which they told people they are being conned (and you are quite right in stating that many of those cons have alternate delivery mechanisms) and that they didn't disclose ALL of the ways in which they could be conned. I look at this programme and wonder how many different methods of conning you have to demonstrate before people accept that it's ALL horsecrap. I remain horrified at the people who don't believe that they have been conned even after they have been shown how they were conned, but our mission as skeptics is to protect the gullible not to indulge the wilfully stupid.

SquishyDave · 6th November 2003, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reprise
Interesting. My conclusion about that show was totally different. It was that those people who are really REALLY determined to believe in this crap will do so IN SPITE OF being told that they are being decieved. Derren Brown does it better in that he tells people uprfront that he is deceiving them (and they still argue at the end of the show that he only "thinks" that he doesn't have psychic powers) but the repetitive script segment of the show we both watched pretty much proves the Fox Maulder theory of "I want to believe".

You - as a skeptic - are complaining about the manner in which they told people they are being conned (and you are quite right in stating that many of those cons have alternate delivery mechanisms) and that they didn't disclose ALL of the ways in which they could be conned. I look at this programme and wonder how many different methods of conning you have to demonstrate before people accept that it's ALL horsecrap. I remain horrified at the people who don't believe that they have been conned even after they have been shown how they were conned, but our mission as skeptics is to protect the gullible not to indulge the wilfully stupid.

Well, to me it wasn't so much that they didn't show EVERY method possible for each trick, it's that they showed the most bleedingly stupid solution for some of the tricks. Like the spoon bending trick, pre cut spoons? Come on, if uri gellar had tried to use pre cut spoons he would have been laughed off the planet before he got famous. And marked cards? Do magicians who know what they are doing use marked cards? I didn't think they did. And mirrors hidden in the shoes?

2nd November 2003, 07:07 PM	#1
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	Aussie TV - Secrets of Psychics Reavealed It's on Prime TV Tuesday 4th of November at 9:30 PM. I am sure our international brethren have seen it, but if I haven't seen it, it's new to me.
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X

3rd November 2003, 05:14 PM	#2
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	What? Oh I thought someone said something.
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X

3rd November 2003, 05:17 PM	#3
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859	I'm definitely looking forward to watching this. I'm also still very pissed of with Nine for dropping Mind Control after only one episode and hoping that they'll let another network (even if it is the Seven "we take journalism to new depths" network) pick up the screening rights.
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859

3rd November 2003, 05:20 PM	#4
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	I never saw mind control, or even heard of it before now. I will probably tape that show tonight to have it on hand, you never know when it might come in handy.
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X

3rd November 2003, 05:29 PM	#5
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859	Mind Control homepage with some fun interactive stuff.
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859

3rd November 2003, 06:11 PM	#6
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	I showed the video of him pick pocketing to everyone here at work, we all pissed ourselves laughing. It was great
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X

4th November 2003, 03:23 AM	#7
RonSceptic Muse Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 514	Quote: Originally posted by reprise I'm definitely looking forward to watching this. I'm also still very pissed of with Nine for dropping Mind Control after only one episode and hoping that they'll let another network (even if it is the Seven "we take journalism to new depths" network) pick up the screening rights. If the Secret of The Psychics show is the Uk one, rather than the US show of the same name, Derren Brown (Mind Control) does feature several times, but only as an interviewee rather than as a peformer. All the tricks are perfromed by Alastair Cook.
RonSceptic Muse Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 514	__________________ "HOMEOPATHY IS IMPOSSIBLE" - Conclusion of the BBC Horizon Program 26/11/02 on failing $1million JREF Challenge.

4th November 2003, 02:08 PM	#8
tim Lasiorhinus latifrons Combat Division Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Bedfordshire, UK Posts: 11,369	If it's the programme recently shown here with Alastair Cook it's excellent. How to demolish nearly all woo woo beliefs in short order. COMPULSORY WATCHING! WE WILL BE ASKING QUESTIONS LATER! Let us know what you think!
	__________________ I think we should be grateful that somehow the material in the universe came together and gave us consciousness. It was statiscally improbable. We won the lottery. We had a life. Hubbard's Law: Don't take life too seriously; you won't get out of it alive.

4th November 2003, 02:37 PM	#9
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	It was the yank version, and I didn't like it. They left too much open, they said you could bend a spoon by pre cutting it, but didn't say it could also be done in other ways, so if you took your own spoon, a unique spoon, and saw someone bend it with their mind, even after seeing this show you would believe they used their mind, coz you [i[know[/i] the fake guys pre cut it. Also in a card trick they said they use marked cards, and in another card trick a mirror in the guys shoe. I don't know much about magic tricks, but I'm fairly sure magicians would scoff at using marked cards or hidden mirrors, am I right? They also said cold reading was just a series of pre scripted comments that apply to everyone, which is part of it, but so is getting info out of people without them knowing, but they didn't say that, so if you went to a psychic who somehow knew specific stuff, you woould think they are real. If anything that show left people more susceptible to charlatens. And Tim, when are you going to grow up?
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X

5th November 2003, 12:54 AM	#10
tim Lasiorhinus latifrons Combat Division Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Bedfordshire, UK Posts: 11,369	Well Dave, I don't WANT to grow up. My flawless reasoning tells me that if I refuse to leave my first childhood I cannot enter my second childhood therefore I cannot die therefore I am immortal. Also being small and cute has it's advantages!
	__________________ I think we should be grateful that somehow the material in the universe came together and gave us consciousness. It was statiscally improbable. We won the lottery. We had a life. Hubbard's Law: Don't take life too seriously; you won't get out of it alive.

5th November 2003, 12:56 AM	#11
tim Lasiorhinus latifrons Combat Division Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Bedfordshire, UK Posts: 11,369	And anyway, that's a picture of me after Renata's evil minions kidnapped me and forcibly shaved me in some bizarre initiation ritual they have. She needs help, poor girl!
	__________________ I think we should be grateful that somehow the material in the universe came together and gave us consciousness. It was statiscally improbable. We won the lottery. We had a life. Hubbard's Law: Don't take life too seriously; you won't get out of it alive.

5th November 2003, 01:00 AM	#12
a_unique_person Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Mt Disappointment Posts: 33,455	No, it is a picture of you as a little, cutesy baby.
	__________________ *Continually pushing the boundaries of mediocrity.* Everything is possible, but not everything is probable. For if a man pretend to me that God hath spoken to him supernaturally, and immediately, and I make doubt of it, I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to believe it. Hobbes

5th November 2003, 01:13 AM	#13
tim Lasiorhinus latifrons Combat Division Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Bedfordshire, UK Posts: 11,369	Quote: Originally posted by a_unique_person No, it is a picture of you as a little, cutesy baby. Nah, it's not. See this thread "Renata's Evil Plan" in the forum community section for the truth!
	__________________ I think we should be grateful that somehow the material in the universe came together and gave us consciousness. It was statiscally improbable. We won the lottery. We had a life. Hubbard's Law: Don't take life too seriously; you won't get out of it alive.

6th November 2003, 07:52 PM	#14
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859	Quote: Originally posted by SquishyDave It was the yank version, and I didn't like it. They left too much open, they said you could bend a spoon by pre cutting it, but didn't say it could also be done in other ways, so if you took your own spoon, a unique spoon, and saw someone bend it with their mind, even after seeing this show you would believe they used their mind, coz you [i[know[/i] the fake guys pre cut it. Also in a card trick they said they use marked cards, and in another card trick a mirror in the guys shoe. I don't know much about magic tricks, but I'm fairly sure magicians would scoff at using marked cards or hidden mirrors, am I right? They also said cold reading was just a series of pre scripted comments that apply to everyone, which is part of it, but so is getting info out of people without them knowing, but they didn't say that, so if you went to a psychic who somehow knew specific stuff, you woould think they are real. If anything that show left people more susceptible to charlatens. And Tim, when are you going to grow up? Interesting. My conclusion about that show was totally different. It was that those people who are really REALLY determined to believe in this crap will do so IN SPITE OF being told that they are being decieved. Derren Brown does it better in that he tells people uprfront that he is deceiving them (and they still argue at the end of the show that he only "thinks" that he doesn't have psychic powers) but the repetitive script segment of the show we both watched pretty much proves the Fox Maulder theory of "I want to believe". You - as a skeptic - are complaining about the manner in which they told people they are being conned (and you are quite right in stating that many of those cons have alternate delivery mechanisms) and that they didn't disclose ALL of the ways in which they could be conned. I look at this programme and wonder how many different methods of conning you have to demonstrate before people accept that it's ALL horsecrap. I remain horrified at the people who don't believe that they have been conned even after they have been shown how they were conned, but our mission as skeptics is to protect the gullible not to indulge the wilfully stupid.
reprise Graduate Poster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,859	__________________ It's a Feathertail Glider.

6th November 2003, 08:07 PM	#15
SquishyDave Graduate Poster Join Date: May 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 1,644	Quote: Originally posted by reprise Interesting. My conclusion about that show was totally different. It was that those people who are really REALLY determined to believe in this crap will do so IN SPITE OF being told that they are being decieved. Derren Brown does it better in that he tells people uprfront that he is deceiving them (and they still argue at the end of the show that he only "thinks" that he doesn't have psychic powers) but the repetitive script segment of the show we both watched pretty much proves the Fox Maulder theory of "I want to believe". You - as a skeptic - are complaining about the manner in which they told people they are being conned (and you are quite right in stating that many of those cons have alternate delivery mechanisms) and that they didn't disclose ALL of the ways in which they could be conned. I look at this programme and wonder how many different methods of conning you have to demonstrate before people accept that it's ALL horsecrap. I remain horrified at the people who don't believe that they have been conned even after they have been shown how they were conned, but our mission as skeptics is to protect the gullible not to indulge the wilfully stupid. Well, to me it wasn't so much that they didn't show EVERY method possible for each trick, it's that they showed the most bleedingly stupid solution for some of the tricks. Like the spoon bending trick, pre cut spoons? Come on, if uri gellar had tried to use pre cut spoons he would have been laughed off the planet before he got famous. And marked cards? Do magicians who know what they are doing use marked cards? I didn't think they did. And mirrors hidden in the shoes?
	__________________ Squishy doesn't irritate the hell out of me. - Quester_X