Reply #5: Overall rating? I'd say an 8 or a 9 [View All]

[Orrex]

I was truly quite surprised at the straightforwardness of it. I watched from very near the beginning to the end, and I didn't hear a single disclaimer on behalf of "real" psychics, and several times the VO announcer referred to "frauds" or said "that's how the con is run."

If I counted correctly, they had five actors posing as psychics, four men and a woman.

The woman was a spiritual "reader" and speaker-with-the-dead. Her segments were shown in a small occultish parlor with a series of unsuspecting customers. Her first demonstration was the most damning; she gave exactly the same reading to four different people, and afterward all of them expressed their amazement that she could read them so accurately and specifically. It was all general stuff like "you're facing uncertain financial times," or "you sometimes feel that you have a psychic side, too," and they all fell for it completely. The camera even flashed to a prepared script that the "medium" had obviously memorized, with a bunch of generic platitudes designed to appeal to the biggest crowd.

Her second segment involved communicating with departed loved ones, for which she employed an assistant who hid beneath the table. As the medium spoke with the victim, the assistant scribbled meaningful notes--gleaned from the conversation--on a small chalkboard, which he then covertly passed to the medium. When the time was right, she revealead the chalkboard in such a way as to make it seem as though the writing had appeared there magically, and the one victim was nearly moved to tears.

The first man was a mentalist who did a trick involving three people, each of whom wrote a number onto a single pad out of his sight. A fourth person added these numbers together and then opened a sealed envelope that miraculously contained the exact sum. The trick? The man had already written three numbers onto the pad, and through some basic sleight of hand presented these to the fourth person. Since he'd already calculated the sum, it was naturally easy to have the same number written and concealed beforehand.

There were others, among them a John Edward-style medum who spoke with the dearly departed, gathering his information with the help of audience plants and eavesdroppers who monitored conversations while the crowd was waiting in line for the show.

Good stuff all around. Entirely clear and without sensationalism. I am truly surprised that this was aired, since it's so pointedly contrary to just about everything else on tv about the supernatural.

If I have one complaint, it's that the explanations seemed too simple and easy, so that a victim of woo would likely say "I would never fall for that." But as the announcer stated repeatedly, the oldest and simplest tricks are still the best.


If they show this program in your area, make a point of watching it. It was a refreshing and well-constructed break from the otherwise omnipresent woo.