Russian Ghost Car DEBUNK

Captain Disillusion deconstructs the viral dashboard camera video showing a "ghost car" appear on the streets of Russia.

Scariest Places Victoria Inn Chester (Most Haunted Spoof)

Take the Cake proudly present Scariest Places, the Most Haunted spoof around...

Join Annette Pielding, Merrick Alora, Carl BT, Chris O'Beef and Dick Feelit for a spine tingling ghost investigation at The Victoria Inn Chester.

What will the team discover after spending the whole night in a pub full of spirits.



Written by Tim Benge

Co Written by
Michael D Roberts
Kevin Fowler
Phil Woods

Directed by
Michael D Roberts

Produced by
Adam Blackburn

www.facebook.com/takethecakeproductions

Twitter: @takethecakepro @michaeldroberts @MerrickAlora @SimonSPHealy @AnnettePielding

www.takethecakeproductions.co.uk

Are Psychic Stage Shows Entertainment?

All the world is a stage, according to the bard, and all the men and women merely players. Well, in the second decade of the twenty first century the stage is big business. Once the arena of Shakespeare, Alan Bennett and Tennessee Williams, it is not just the play-write who can make a living: the stage show can earn good money for the modern psychic. If people are willing to shell out for pure entertainment that is one thing, if they are shelling out for the promise of distress-mitigation or greater understanding of the unknown then that is quite another. Big claims, especially attracting big money, are bound to attract the skeptical.

There is a growing body of people who want a justification for a practice that seems to have passed from helping the bereaved come to terms with their loss to entertainment. If there is something in it, fair enough, but prove it. If possible scientifically. It must be in the interests of all for what seems on the surface to be an unlikely phenomena to justify itself. Especially if it is raking in the big bucks.

Psychics unhappy free speech works both ways

When the skeptical activist Mark Tilbrook wanted to issue leaflets to people planning to attend psychic shows by Sally Morgan, the UK’s biggest stage show psychic, he was approached by members of Sally’s “team”. After publishing footage of these ‘approaches’ in later shows, he was then further approached by Sally’s “legal team”. Psychic shows on stage are now something that is big enough to pay for, and indeed require, a legal team. As a result of Tilbrook’s publications Sally Morgan was forced to sack her manager and her tour manager. Especially embarrassing for her as they were her husband and son-in-law respectively. That’s show business. 

Academia gets involved too. London’s prestigious Goldsmith’s college, founded by Goldsmiths in 1891, staged a Halloween Challenge for two mediums to undergo scientific tests. The tests were designed by Professor Chris French who at the time, October 2012, was Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at the college. An interesting degree to have on one’s CV. In 2009 Professor French hosted the James Randi Foundation’s Million Dollar Challenge. One Million dollars! Presumably the Educational Foundation is confident they won’t have to pay up.

It is not just the skeptics who are querying the validity of psychic stage shows. The Daily Mail took great delight in reporting the two medium’s failure to pass what they saw as fair tests. Psychics, and the attending skepticism, shifts copy.

The problem with psychics as a stage show

In the UK the TV popularist Derren Brown has made a name for himself, among many other things, for testing the authenticity of psychic phenomena. Brown tends to concentrate on the stage show aspect of psychics rather than the healing one-to-one. Professor Richard Dawkins, too, likes to wade in on the side of the skeptics, and he comes with a harder line than Brown but both are interested in putting science in front of those who are driven to engage in stage shows, now firmly in the world of entertainment by presentation if not by content, so are open to examination and, if by failing without proper justification, to ridicule. The heartache being the lonely people reaching out for comfort. 

Why are these shows so popular? Curiosity may well attract some; some may attend for the entertainment value alone. Often, however, the audience is people lost in the aftermath of bereavement. There are many stresses in life and although moving house or losing one’s job are particularly painful none compare with the heartache of bereavement.

Is it right to make money from bereavement?

Bereavement  can make people vulnerable. Vulnerability within the human condition is dangerous for not only can it lead to a position of victimization, it can lead us to unhealthy ways of ameliorating the vulnerability.

There are two issues, equally powerful forces. The ache or loss in the first place and then the recognition, even if subliminal, that there is a vulnerability. If low self esteem sees this as a weakness then the hole is too often filled by turning to substances that help us forget. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs may not make the vulnerability go away, but often they help us forget. 

For some contact with a psychic may provide solace, but for many this is not enough. When human beings find themselves on the painful side of the human condition it is incredibly important that those offering to help are doing it for the right reason and genuinely helping. Not just doing it for the cash. There is already enough snake oil in the world.

Article by freelance writer Helen Hunter

Robert W. Lester Gets a Reading from a Psychic/Medium

By Robert W. Lester

Barely educational, but fits the bull by the fact that such tricks are passed off as ESP, whether it's psychics or other traders it makes little difference, it's easy to learn methods to read a person, and in this case a debunker gives wrong responses in order to see how the reading works, although body language may have nearly given the game away. By giving the medium bad information the so-called psychic gives the client bad information, which is strange if she as a medium claims to speak for my dead grandmother.

Note that this Medium, Psychic, Healer, is a teacher/master of Reiki, this is why she pushed the angle of the Reiki healing, well that and the idea of a link to Asia that was assumed by the box.

She also said I could call her any time to get help, I think she wanted me to buy into her Bullshit training in psychic and reiki abilities, luckily I'm not a moron. Her mistake was to assume of my clothes and speech that I was an educated person who travels for work, as an improve I made up my higher education, I was never in university, yet by spinning a series of ideas I was able to let this idea grow from nothing, and I only offers small bits to feed the psychic. Her description of my Grandmother was not anything like anyone I know, and was yet another display of nonsense from the gifted, but note the way she avoided responsibility for the reading by saying it's up to you(me) while saying my nan (grandmother) was telling her this information. Interestingly she didn't seem to give names, dates, ages, or anything any good, and works with a crystal ball at this event, so she was simple very poor at what she claims to have and do. The box is old, repaired, part restored, 19th century, but not worth much, and was purchased off ebay for a small sum, and is Chinese, not Japanese, nor Tibetan, and is not a family antique at all, yet I chose to trial out this deception to see how the psychics medium reacts, see if she has any gift, or if she is taking people for a ride.

Note that she asked am I a sceptic, about 21 minutes into the video, I avoid exposure myself by staying with the act, but note she seems to think scepticism was drummed into me by religion, and that there opinion is they are "all mad, need to be drowned, burn, or hung". Odd as it may seem most religious folks in the UK don't think this at all, nor do non-believers, and yet many spiritualists do say their critics think they are evil and should be abused or even killed, as if any rational human being in this century in Britain would think that is a good idea. The thing that sparked the idea of sceptic or scepticism in this reading was wondering about the questions, she thought maybe this intelligent guy who is recording this reading may have questions, when I didn't fire a dim question about the points of the reading she may have assumed some doubt on how the reading is going. Any discussion on this event is highly hypothetical, and not the way to be sure of the facts.

Next time, I will see a new psychic and spirit medium, he will get honest responses from me, I won't tell him hardly a thing, BUT I will tell him I got the box of the internet as a haunted box, the ghost story will only be suggested and little information given, unless pressed for information. If pressed I will claim I have only had a few bulbs blow at home in the last few weeks, and this was a reported idea that the previous owners said happened to them, I will say I'm open-minded and not a sceptic, because in the end that's half true, I am open-minded and a sceptic.

The Skeptic Zone Podcast #319 - 30.November.2014

http://www.skepticzone.tv

The Podcast from Australia for Science and Reason. Join Richard Saunders and the crew for interviews and reports from around the world.

0:00:00
Introduction
Richard Saunders and Stefan Sojka

0:03:35
SGU in Australia
Interviews with Evan Bernstein, Steve Novella, Postie Linley, Michael Marshall, Jo Benhamu, Ross Balch. Jo Alabaster and more!

0:24:10
A Week in Science
The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people to science.

0:27:00
Ghost Adventure Part #2
Join Maynard, Alethea Dean and Richard Saunders has they wonder around the Field of Mars Cemetery.

Direct download: The Skeptic Zone Podcast #319