I know a lot of you don't believe in this shit but

[johnnie]

Real quick. I have a friend that is a "medium". He has been impressive to some people, but personally, I never seen anything.
OK, so anyway..I have a friend who's son was going into boot camp and she asked me to ask the "medium" if he saw anything. This was about a month or so ago. He said a few small things and then he said "Tell him to watch out for his left knee. I see him tripping or something and messing it up during basic". I scribbled it down and then I told her that night.
I haven't talked to her for a while, but I talked to her the other night. She just called and was telling me about some stuff going on in her life. She then told me that her son was training and slipped into a ditch. He tore up his knee and might need surgery. I said "Wait...did you just hear what you told me?". She say.."What I said he.." and then she gasped..lol. She had totally forgotten and so did I until she said it.
She then called his g/f and told her, and asked her what knee. His g/f said she thinks it was his left.
I just was a bit freaked by this. I thought I would share it. I know..I know, but still. Thousands of men and women a month go though basic training and what is the ratio that tear up their left knee?
OK, make fun :)

[Mutley]

1. I don't know what to think about that stuff

I do know my stepmothers mom (step-grandmother?) went to a medium a few years ago and was told she was going to get really sick within 2 months and 5 weeks later she had a heart attack (she lived and is fine now). Thats my only experience with it.

[mongo]

2. Some people just have the gift.

A lot of things that happen CAN be explained by coincidence - but then again, there are people who seem to truely have a gift.

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. My mom went to one about 7 years ago.

Predicted stuff in her life (and mine) with a pretty darn high accuracy rate. Not just mundane things, either, but she predicted I'd get a career in engineering (which, at the time, was nowhere near my expertise, or even ambition), but sure enough, it happened, and I never even sought it out.
All in all, there are a lot of scam artists out there. I try to stay skeptical, but I do believe a select few have some sort of gift for such things.

[TlalocW]

16. Devil's advocate

Did you make a list of everything the medium predicted about your life, or is it one of those things where one of the predictions come true, and you recall the medium "predicted" it? How much feedback did you give the medium? One common thing that they'll do is say things like, "It seems to me like you like working with numbers," or "It feels like you're good at math." These are said as half questions to get you to respond to them positively or negatively so the medium will know which line of quasi-questioning to abandon and what he or she should be focusing on.

They might even straight out ask, "Do you like working with numbers?" If you say yes, they might respond back with, "Yes, I was getting that feeling from you. You're very intelligent and can reduce various situations to working with numbers" If you say no, "I was getting that impression because I can tel you're very intelligent, but maybe not so much with math, or you don't care for it." Both of these responses compliment you for one thing, which will tend to get you on the psychic's side, and two, leave an opportunity for you to respond further. The psychic then starts making more vague remarks/questions until he or she is able to narrow down a little bit about you, etc.

TlalocW

[Beware the Beast Man]

19. No. My mom took notes, and the lady was relatively specific.

This wasn't some Miss Cleo jive, either. I had no engineering training prior to the reading, and had no intention of seeking out a career in such. Out of the blue, two years later, I got a call from my aunt with an engineering job offer in Ohio.

Trust me, I'm usually way skeptical about such things, but I thought that was pretty amazing. She was wrong, however, about me marrying an older woman.

[TlalocW]

22. Not to slight your mom or you or anything

But these notes... Did she write down word for word or record on tape what the psychic said? There is a big difference. You can sit a person down with a psychic who will do the cold reading jazz that they all do, and you might come out of it feeling like he was pretty accurate until you have a tape played back of the session, and you start counting the hits and misses.

If for whatever reason, you were giving off an engineer vibe (seemed intelligent, analytical) then the psychic's best bet is to toss that out - just like he's done for everyone else who's given him that vibe. It's just in this case, it came true.

Go back to this psychic sometime and get another reading. When the session starts, no matter wht predictions she makes, just respond with a neutral, "Okay." No feedback other than that. I've gotten money back from psychics because when you do that, cold reading doesn't work - they have to have feedback.

TlalocW

[Beware the Beast Man]

34. To clarify- I wasn't there.

For the record, I'm not out to debunk this person. I don't live in that area anymore and I really don't care.

[Mrs_Beastman]

44. sorry , didn't see your post

[hickman1937]

4. That's wierd.

I would think, given the low enlistment numbers, that the military would be very careful of injuries.

[johnnie]

6. LOL

That's true

[belladonna]

5. I won't make fun

Some people truly do have the gift. I've been made fun of for saying that and for believing in hauntings and ghosts as well, but hey, I've seen what I've seen and I'm sticking to my beliefs :shrug:

[johnnie]

8. Well

He is just a friend of mine. I have heard things from other people about what he has said, but this was the first time he told me something like this.

[graywarrior]

7. I think mediums weigh the odds and make predictions based

on their experience of analyzing types of people, their common reactions to situations, etc. It's definetly a skill, but I don't believe they see the future.

[johnnie]

9. The kid he was talking about lives in Texas

He has never met him or talked to him.
And also. What is the odds of a person tearing up their left knee in basic training? I didn't think they were that good.

[skypilot]

10. I'm still kinda of the fence about stuff like this.

I do think that it's more fun to believe that true psychic ability does exists. I've had some dreams that did seem to be prophetic. For instance, on the night of Sept.10, 2001 I had a dream that a huge crack ran down one wall of my apartment and I was suddenly convinced that the entire building was going to collapse. I go into the hallway and start yelling up to the other tenants (I'm on the first floor need the entrance). I was afraid to go upstairs because I was afraid the building would collapse while I was up there. I didn't get a response. I soon woke up.

[johnnie]

11. I have only heard things this guy has told other people

I know people who freaked over some of his stuff, but he never said anything specific to me that I was blown away. This was just a little weird.

[bobthedrummer]

12. I think there is something to all ESP related stuff there are some gifted

people that have developed those talents. I don't trust those that ask for money, however, or seek publicity for themselves.
Prophecy is part of that school of spirituality too.

[TlalocW]

13. What were the "few small things" that he also said?

I doubt that one can go into something as physically challenging as basic training and not come out with some sort of injury - minor or worse. In high school, there wasn't a week that went by without one of my fellow wrestlers having some sort of injury. Basic is surely tougher than that.

The thing with "mediums" is that they are "successful" no matter what when it comes to people who believe them.

If it had been his right knee, you might make the excuse that the psychic was just a little off.

If it had been any part of either of his legs, you might score that as a "hit," and he definitely would. If he's particularly bold, any injury might be scored a hit by the medium depending on how much finagling they would do to convince you.

If he hadn't hurt his knee, you would have forgotten about it and not counted it against the psychic. But if you and he sat down and discussed the kid in basic training, and he learned the kid didn't injure his knee, he would say something like, "I'm glad you followed my advice and warned him about taking care of his knee."

Just about anything could be scored a hit, and "mediums" will always have an out if they're actually called on something.

TlalocW

[johnnie]

21. Here's the thing

He is a friend of mine and doesn't charge me shit. We talk of other things besides this and all I did was ask him for my friend if they should be aware of anything. He said something about seeing her son as an officer, but he joined as artillery. That hasn't come true...yet. Considering that he might have torn up his tendons, he might not be in the field and have to do something else..I don't know.
As for the knee, he just said..tell him to watch out for it. I have to disagree with the fact of the odds being high that a person will join up and go to basic training and tear up their left knee. I would say that chances are slim. Injuries..yeah, specifics..no. That's my opinion though.
As I said, he doesn't charge me and it was just what he "saw". Yes, he might throw things out there, but it isn't always 100%. I think the people who are skeptical are usually ones that seen "psychics" on TV or they have heard all the people who talk about "cold readings" and they think that is how people like my friend work. It's not anything like that.

[Modem Butterfly]

49. Turns out, knee injuries are among the most common during basic training

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3912/is_200304/ai_n9224882

Therefore, patellofemoral pain is the second most common symptom, preceded only by tibial bone stress reaction. Patellofemoral pain has been reported to cause a loss of 6.8 days per injury or 0.6 days per recruit during basic training.1 These data were confirmed by other studies in which patellofemoral overuse was reported as one of the main reasons for loss of time.4,5

http://www.odu.edu/ao/instadv/quest/militarymed.html

Lower-extremity musculoskeletal injuries resulting from physical training, such as ankle sprains, knee and thigh injuries, and shin splints, are particularly prevalent in the military population.

http://tinyurl.com/8gtxr

For both men and women recruits, all of the most frequently occurring injuries, reported and unreported, were anatomically distributed from the knee downward.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7984296&dopt=Abstract

Injuries to the knee, lower leg, and ankle accounted for more than 80% of all injuries.

[johnnie]

51. Lol

OK, I will ask my friend if he studied military injuries before I asked him.
I like skeptics, they go through a lot to prove things aren't real.

[Modem Butterfly]

52. It's conventional wisdom

Extended periods of exercise = extended potential for injuries. But I admire your persistance.

[johnnie]

53. Well, I have nothing to prove

I'm just trying to not be rude by not responding to people who post in my thread.
Now we just have to find how many knee injuries come from accidents, which is what I was told was going to happen. Not just stress on the body.

[Modem Butterfly]

55. ROFL!

Your friend made an educated guess based on the extreme likelihood of injury in basic training. If you believe that he has some sort of gift, then that's your perogative. If you actually believe that predicting someone might fall and hurt their knee in bootcamp is a sign of psychic ability, there is nothing more that can be said.

[JAbuchan08]

14. I don't believe in psychics, but I do believe some people have an

intuitive "Acums razor" (I know I spelled that wrong) type ability to ferret out future likelihoods through observation and subconscious intuition.

[roguevalley]

48. my friend's niece has a 'woman in black' that comes to her and has

since she was a baby. she can predict pregnancies, deaths and all kinds of oddities with 100% accuracy. She has since she was tiny. She was crying as a three or four year old and someone asked her what was wrong. She said her grandpa died. They called and he had. She says that a woman with long hair dressed all in black appears to her, she can see her but no one else can and she tells her things. Makes my skin crawl even as I type this. She has saved a ton of people all kinds of grief. She told my friend, "Never own a yellow car. You will die in it if you do." Sort of bummed her out because a yellow mustang is her favorite car. She isn't going to get one however. :)

People ask her not to tell them stuff, she's so accurate.

[Modem Butterfly]

15. I used to be a psychic when I was in college.

I read Tarot cards, read palms, and used a crystal ball, I would just make shit up based on what I'd heard about the person and how they seemed. I'm an intuitive person, so I was able to fake it pretty convincingly, enough to make some fairly good money at it until my conscience got the better of me. It helped that college kids are more gullible than they know. It also helped that I have a gift for not laughing while saying the utterly ridiculous.

Psychics, mediums, fortune tellers, they're all con artists. Some of them may believe in their own bullshit, but they're all fakes, as shown by your friend's experience (hurting your knee in basic training? That's a gimme if I've ever heard one).

[TlalocW]

20. This is very similar to

Dr. Ray Hymann, who's a psychologist as well as a bit of a psychic-debunker. In college, he got a job as a palm reader, but he didn't believe in it, but he read the books so he would know what to say. As time went on, he became a rabid believer in it because he scored so highly with the people whose palms he read. A friend then dared him to say the opposite of whatever he was "reading" in a person's palm so next night on the job he did so, and the woman he read was shocked silent for a moment because he had been so accurate about her. At that point, he stopped believing in it.

It doesn't matter what you tell people as a medium/palmist - if they believe, then they want you to succeed, and they'll fine some way of making connections between what you say and what's going on in their lives.

TlalocW

[johnnie]

24. I agree

The connection between him saying "He will mess up his left knee" to him actually screwing up his left knee yesterday (6 weeks after I was told this) is a long shot. I am grasping at straws..lol. :)

[Modem Butterfly]

26. I once told someone she would lose something important...

...while she was drinking. She lost her wallet four days later at a party. Does that make me a psychic? Not really, since the girl, like most 18 year-olds away from home for the first time, was a beer-swilling ninny who wouldn't have kept her own left knee very long if it hadn't been attached.

[Left Is Write]

32. Hmmm.

"Wallet" is not what came to mind immediately upon reading that she would "lose something important" while drinking.

:D

[Modem Butterfly]

37. Yeah, I was having a laugh at her expense

Of course, then she started to come to see me all the time because of my startling accuracy, and that's when I began to realize I was really taking advantage of people.

[johnnie]

23. So you are saying

That the odds of screwing up your knee in basic training is quite high? Then going by that thinking, screwing up arms are high. And we can add maybe screwing up your hands, ears, neck, elbows, wrists, foot, back.. I'll stop there. With all those "gimmes" how does anyone get out of basic training?
And as I said a few times, this guy doesn't charge me a cent. What is he conning me out of?

[Modem Butterfly]

25. Injuries in basic are VERY common

I don't know if you've ever been through basic training, but you spend about 14+ hours a day running, jumping, climbing, crawling, fighting, stretching, bending, and moving in all manner of new and interesting ways. Injuries in basic training are extremely common, especially knee injuries, since the knees really take it on the chin, so to speak, in most of basic training (running, jumping, climbing, etc.).

Look, your friend got played. The "medium" is clearly a master of the obvious; injuries in basic are common, knee injuries are also common with physical activity, why not put the two together? She made a lucky guess as to which knee (or maybe not, since your friend's son's girlfriend isn't sure which knee was hurt), but there's only two to choose from. It's not rocket science. What would be impressive is if she could have predicted the day, time, and method and manner of the injury. Of course, if she had that degree of psychic "ability", she would have predicted the correct lottery numbers long ago and not have to work as a medium.

[johnnie]

29. Got played?

What way did she get played? The "medium" is a guy btw. He told me that he will trip and to tell him to watch out for his left knee. The kid might need surgery because he might have torn ligaments. That's a little more than an ouchie on his knee.
Just because you conned people in college, doesn't mean that my friend is making tons of cash going around reading palms. He works for the Govt. and used to be a school teacher. He just told me this because I asked. No money was exchanged and to be honest, he has probably forgotten.
It's cool for people to believe what they want.
And no, I have never been through basic training, but I will ask him how many of the soldiers where he is at has torn their knee up enough that it might require surgery. I'm guessing it wont be many.

[TlalocW]

38. So your friend falls into the category of

Self-deluded believer in powers he doesn't have. That sounds harsh, but it's better than scam-artist making money off of other people's gullibility.

Those are the only two categories of people who claim to have any kind of supernatural power.

And yeah, it is a bit more of an ouchie, but what if it had been an ouchie? What if it was just bruised from bumping into something? Or scratched? Or it temporarily buckled but was then okay? Those would all be "hits."

TlalocW

[johnnie]

40. But, it wasn't a what if

It is a reality. And here is another thing, I haven't talked to my friend who's son is in the service in weeks. She didn't even remember I told her about this at first.
As I have said, everyone is entitled to their opinion on this and some of us think the same way about skeptics as the skeptics think about us believers.

[Modem Butterfly]

45. Absolutely

When you know someone is going to be doing intense physical activity for 8 to 12 weeks, how much of a stretch is it to say that they'll trip? When you know someone is going into a situation that is defined by intense physical activity, is it really difficult to claim, to quote your original post, to"see him tripping or something and messing it up during basic?" Isn't that a little like predicting the protesters who went to the GOP convention in New York might face intense harassment, even phyiscal threats?

I know for a fact that I was making shit up when I was playing psychic, but there were people who believed me intensely. A few years ago, someone even looked me up in the alumni directory to tell me about how a prediction I made had come true. I don't remember making the prediction, which was that she would be "surprised by love". How hokey is that? Anyway, at the age of 30 she fell in love with another woman (she had believed herself hetero up to this point). Surprise.

[Left Is Write]

31. I had my palm read in my late teens.

The person told me I would only give birth to one child and that I would marry young.

I married at 31 and have birthed three kids.

I also had two Tarot readings. One said I would marry young, one said I wouldn't marry at all.

[johnnie]

33. Yeah, there are a lot of people out there doing that

This guy doesn't read palms, read cards or tea leaves...lol. He doesn't even like to "predict" the future, but he says sometimes he gets that. And as I have said, he doesn't charge me a cent. He is just a friend of mine. Maybe he is conning me into being his friend..yes, I am worth it..lol.

[Left Is Write]

36. I wasn't intending my post to be a response to your specific situation.

I was sharing experiences that Modem Butterfly's post about palm readings and Tarot cards reminded me of.

[johnnie]

41. Oh, I know

I wasn't taking exception to it. I was just joining in on the convo :)

[Modem Butterfly]

42. That's why you have to keep predictions vauge

Like the example above, a knee injury in basic training is a nice, vague prediction. Even if someone doesn't actually end up on sick call, they'll still have knees (and achy everything else, but people have a tendancy to meet psychics and other con-artists half way).

[Magrittes Pipe]

17. I am a "large."

But I do know some "mediums."

[redqueen]

27. *snicker*

[Taverner]

18. I beleive Phillip K Dick's asessment of precogs

That their minds have evolved to a point where ours havent, where they can make astute predictions based on small amounts of data.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

28. I've had some amazing experiences...

with mediums and other intuitives. You won't hear me making fun of you. :)

I believe there are some people who are able to access information in a differant way than others. And one day I think science will catch up and show us how it is done.

My sister saw a reader just a few weeks ago that had her pretty rattled. The reader was saying our dead grandfather was making an appearance and went on to relay information about things my sister immediately recognized. The one thing that was said that she did NOT understand was a repeated reference to "a horse with wheels". Neither she nor our Mom knew what that reference meant. When my sister told me about the session and mentioned it I immediately knew what it was -- when I was two years old I had a little wooden horse with wheels that I would drive around the garden following my Grandpa as he did the yardwork. I have always strongly personally connected my Grandpa with that time and place.

Hearing about that prompted me to do something I had been feeling a huge urge to do (and repeatedly dreamed about) for the past few years -- visit my grandparents' house I haven't been in since I was 18 and go visit the garden. Their old house is only two blocks away from where I currently live. I drove past the house, saw that the garage door was open and -- inspired by the horse with wheels image -- I went in, found the renters and asked if I could visit the backyard. They were very gracious and allowed me full reign. And when I was finally standing in the backyard, I looked down at my feet and saw the one thing that had not been changed over the years -- a brick walkway laid by my grandfather, the one I used to drive my wooden horse with wheels down all those years ago.

It felt so nice, like I was reconnecting with my Grandpa.

[johnnie]

30. That's pretty cool

My statement about going ahead and making fun of me was just me being me. I don't think I have ever given a shit what people thought of me..lol.
When I see people trying to discount anything that they don't understand it sort of makes me laugh. I have seen and heard enough to know that there is this kind of stuff out there, and I agree...science is way off. Science was started to disprove this sort of stuff, and all they have been able to do is not prove it.

[sam sarrha]

35. I come from long line of clairvoyants, I see natural disasters in dreams in

the near future, my mother saw things awake in the relative near future, like when my friend was about to leave the house and she stopped him and told him there was something wrong with the front of his car..she said if it didn't get fixed immediately it would flip over and kill him. i told him she was never wrong ..he laughed and the next day the suspension failed and it flipped over and killed him.

My grandfather saw things at a great distance in the fairly distant future. my mother said she was about 14, about 1936. he had refused to sell the scrap iron of his farm to a collector, she said they stood quietly for nearly a half hour watching the horse drawn wagon go slowly down a long road on the prairie and the sun, a red shimmering ball was setting directly at the end of the road, as it touched the earth her father said ,"do you know what they were going to to do with that iron??" she said "no", he replied.."they are going to take it across the great ocean and make bullets out of it and shoot it back at us, that is why i wouldn't sell it". He only had a 2nd grade education. As it turned out the Japanese were buying all the lose iron, technology had made a lot of the farm machinery obsolete and there was a of it. The Japanese make war ships and the bombs that they dropped on Pearl Harbor out of it.

My mothers Grand mother saw people in danger in real time at a distance and would ride a horse alone through Indian Territory for 3 days to find them and help them. Mom said they were always tearing off somewhere and meeting the people halfway that were comming to get help. as a result of helping so many Indians who were sick or hurt and their own people didn't know where they were.. the Medicine Men wold come and share their knowledge with her and sometimes stay for a week showing her the herbs and things. My mother always used this stuff on us when we were growing up..

I personally know it is real... not that everyone who says they use are tho.

[johnnie]

39. Thank you for your input

That is all very interesting and I enjoyed reading it. The truth is, this stuff has been around a long long time and science came well after. I have read a lot of books from a lot of different places in the world that take this stuff as naturally as breathing. The western world is a bit behind on it all though.
Thank you again.

[roguevalley]

46. my mom's family -only the women- had the 'touch'. They could

touch you and make things heal. They also can tell if someone is going to be a dud or not with 100% accuracy. Also, they can tell when something bad is coming by a feeling, not actually sight of it. I believe.

[Mrs_Beastman]

43. Mr B's mom went to a psychic years ago

She told him he would get a job as an engineer(he was a stoner history major at the time) and that he would move for the job and meet a woman he would marry (me)

there you go, it happenned.

[shrike]

47. My husband's had psychic dreams

Although he does think most people who purport themselves as psychics are charlatans, because psychic ability (he says) is something you can't control.

Anyway, one night he dreamed that a co-worker was going up in a small airplane. The co-worker was the only passenger, and when the plane crashed, he died and the pilot survived.

He goes into work and the co-worker's all psyched about going up in his friend's plane. Hubby tells him the dream, he gets spooked and cancels the flight. Friend goes up without him, the plane crashes, and of course there's no passenger.

Take it for what it's worth.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

50. I totally believe it.

I think it has to do with some of the people I've met and some of the people I've read about. I think there are definately people out there who are fakes and scam people, but it's the people who don't charge for their services who are real. Makes me think of the lady on "Medium." That is based on a true story. There are people who just have a connection with the dead and can have true dreams. I think they are instruments of fate, if you will. No one's destinies are written in stone, and what looks like is going to happen can be changed if given a chance. I think it's all very cool.
Duckie

[miss_kitty]

54. No I won't make fun

My dad had an aunt who would *know* stuff before it happened, and could *see* stuff that did. She worked in Ogden UT where it is illegal, but, fuck, the cops went to her on a semi-regular basis...and she was quite successful with them.. There are many 'Aunt Blanche' stories in the family.

[GardeningGal]

56. Like everything else, I think there are legitimate ones and

others that are scam artists. I had a positive experience, but the explanation is sooo lengthy I won't go into it here. I will say that one of the convincing items I was told is something I was present at but didn't remember. However, my brother who is Mr. Analytical is the one who remembers it distinctly (over 30 years ago)and is totally convinced because of that.