The following article was written by a member of the BadPsychics team. They have asked for their name not to be published as "the author", due to the personal connection they have to the client talked about. - Jon Donnis
A note of caution about Marcus Day
I’ll start off with a confession: I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to write this article. As at the time of writing, this psychic isn’t particularly well-known in the UK. As far as I can ascertain, he has spent most of his life working as a DJ at weddings – and his psychic mediumship performances are a more recent venture.
A few months ago, he was apparently spotted by the producers of ‘The 6ixth Sense’ – (a TV programme which featured the late Colin Fry) – and he filmed episodes for a forthcoming TV series. It remains to be seen whether the series will actually be broadcast, although he certainly seems to be promoting it heavily on his Facebook page.
I have watched a few of his videos, and not been impressed. The fact that the show was produced by the same people who made ‘The 6ixth Sense’ was already enough to sound alarm bells for me. In theory, it would be pretty easy to research anyone who attends one of these tapings - especially as audience members usually have to provide personal information like names and addresses when they get the tickets.
However, my attention was drawn to one particular clip because it featured a reading with someone I know. And quite frankly, it really made me sad to see how she seemed to believe that Marcus Day was genuinely communicating with a dead family member.
Having watched the video and carefully transcribed it, I could only conclude that Marcus Day was simply using a technique called ‘cold reading’. In short, this involves throwing out lots of general statements, asking questions, and then adjusting his spiel depending on the reactions he got.
In fact, despite the clip being VERY heavily edited, he got a lot of things completely wrong. Other things he said could have applied to anyone or simply did not make sense.
You are, of course, free to make your own minds up about him. But I ask you to read my analysis, which will hopefully raise awareness of how cold reading works. If his TV show ever sees the light of day, this should also encourage people to be skeptical as they watch it – and exercise extreme caution (or avoid) booking a reading with him.
You can watch the reading below first.
"Remember this is a highly edited promotional video, and should not be taken as a fair representation of Marcus Day. He is much much worse in real life." - Jon Donnis
The transcript follows below.
Key
Marcus Day – normal text
Sitter – blue
My analysis – red
Parts of the reading that I wish to draw attention to are indicated in bold
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Marcus: So, I have a lady here that makes me feel as though she is taken to hospital where she collapses and there’s a feeling there of being taken away in the ambulance, being taken away before she passes to the spirits. The first memory she gives me here. I know very much that someone will recognize her diary or where she kept a diary or kept notes. That’s just something that this lady had in her lifetime and this is what I feel here. I also know as well that she makes reference to growing things in the garden like onions and this kind of thing, and someone will remember that ‘cos I can smell them, I can see them, I can feel them, and she brings these onions to me which is a funny little memory, but I know that would be something that would be correct.
This is typical of the ‘shotgun’ approach used in cold reading. Note how he does not mention any names He’s just throwing out VERY general things that could apply to many people.
2. Most people would have had diaries or made notes in the days before PDAs or Smartphone apps.
3. Similar story with growing vegetables – especially for anyone who lived through World War 2. Remember that the UK was subjected to 14 years of rationing and the British public was encouraged to ‘grow their own’. If they hadn’t, then they might have starved.
But I must say that I’m intrigued by the idea of a spirit waving onions in his face. So onions also exist in the afterlife? The next time I chop one up, I will bear in mind that it will live on in Heaven.
Marcus: Now, I know that the lady I have here had taken a bit too much medication. I’m not saying it was something she had meant to do, but she’d taken too much of her medication. Does that help anybody place this lady?
So far, the looks on the faces of the audience have been pretty blank. So he’s now asking a question about overdosing on medication to see if anyone can help him. Why doesn’t he just say the name of the spirit instead?
Marcus: Lady here. What do you think you don’t understand?
Sitter: The last bit you said.
Marcus: About having too much medication?
Sitter: Yes. And um..
Marcus: Could you understand that she was taking quite a bit of medication and she felt it was too much?
Sitter: Yes.
I think that part of the reading was cut here. Marcus is now suddenly asking an audience member what she doesn’t understand. So it looks as though there was some kind of interaction beforehand. Notice how he switches tactics after getting negative feedback. We’ve gone from the spirit taking too much medication to her THINKING she took too much.
[Scene cuts to a post-reading interview with the sitter]
Sitter: It was my mother-in-law who came through. With lots of evidence that left me in no doubt that it was her, really.
Sorry, but even at this early stage of the reading, I’m not convinced. Not only did Marcus get the ‘medication overdose’ claim wrong (which he then tried to correct) but his description of the spirit’s death does not really tie in with what happened to the sitter’s mother-in-law. He implied it was a sudden death with the woman being rushed to hospital in an ambulance before passing to the spirit world. But here is an extract from an e-mail that I received when the sitter’s mother-in-law died in 2005.
As you can see, it was not an unexpected death. She had been in hospital for a week before taking a turn for the worse. And as I stated above, 55% of deaths occur in hospital, anyway.
[Scene returns to the reading with Marcus]
Marcus: Do you understand who pressed flowers between a book…
Sitter: Yes
Marcus:…or pressed flowers because she has a memory or sees this from the spirit side of life?
This is a question, not a statement – used to elicit information from the sitter. Again no name is provided. He’s just mentioned a hobby that was very popular from the Victorian era onwards and asked if she knew someone who did it.
Marcus: And there’s a lovely bracelet that I see that’s either being bought or somebody wants and I know it feels like it’s a young girl and it’s got jewels in it. I say ‘jewels’, ‘gems’. But I know it’s not hugely valuable, but it’s more like it’s a dress thing and it’s a sentimental thing. And you’re looking at me like you’ve got no idea whatsoever.
Okay, keep in mind EXACTLY what he says here about the bracelet
Sitter: No, I think I know exactly what you’re talking about
Marcus: That’s good, that’s good. So your face didn’t give it away. She had a poker face on there.
So Marcus admits that he’s looking at her body language to see whether he’s on the right track or not
[Scene cuts back to the post-reading interview with the sitter]
Sitter: I think it was amazing. I’ve just been with my daughter in Brighton this last couple of days and I bought her a bracelet for her birthday in October which has magnets in to help with her back. So, yeah, it wasn’t expensive. It’s not worth much, but it’s…you know, it’s part of the healing as well, I guess.
Her daughter in Brighton is a married woman in her mid-30s – not a “young girl” like Marcus described. Notice how he also said the bracelet had jewels or gems. Magnets are NOT gems. It also seems like the bracelet was bought as a healing aid, not the “dress thing” he referred to.
Furthermore, it is not unusual for women to own bracelets or be given them as presents. I have several – most of which are not valuable. In fact, I avoid wearing expensive jewellery because of the risk of it being lost or stolen.
[Scene returns to the reading with Marcus]
Marcus: And will you understand that if it’s not you, it’s someone close to you? Because she’s talking about the bottom of the spine and going into the hips as being painful and difficult and an absolute nuisance where painkillers have needed to be taken for that as well.
Sitter: Absolutely.
Did nobody take anatomy classes? The bottom of the spine is NOT connected to the hips. He’s also mentioning something that is very common. Who DOESN’T get aches and pains in their back or hips as they get older? And notice how he throws open the field by saying, “if it’s not you, it’s someone close to you”.
Marcus: Okay, you understand that? She also feels that someone has to have blood tests. You understand this? And this is her way of showing I’m around and we’re looking at iron levels
Sitter: Oh yes
“Someone” has to have blood tests? Why be so vague as to who this person might be?
I think we all know “someone” who has had blood tests. They are a routine part of a doctor’s visit if you are feeling unwell. And a full blood count will always measure your haemoglobin levels, which will indicate whether you could be iron-deficient.
Marcus: You understand what she’s saying? And she’s talking about someone’s liver function’s being looked at as well, she said.
Same technique as above. Why can’t you mention any names, Marcus?
[Scene cuts back to the post-reading interview with the sitter]
Sitter: I was meant to have surgery for my hip, which I can’t because my blood sugars aren’t right because I’m diabet – diabetic. My daughter has just been diagnosed as being very, very severely iron-deficient. So, she’s got anaemia. Blood disorder. When I have my diabetic blood checks, they also look at liver function as well, so yeah…
All these conditions are very common. Statistically, 160,000 hip and knee replacements are carried out every year in England and Wales.
I myself have had anaemia several times, and I can think of numerous diabetics I’ve known – including my great grandmother, my great uncle, my best friend’s mother, former colleagues, and people I went to school with.
Sitter: This is the second time my mother-in-law has come through. We didn’t particularly like each other an awful lot. Our relationship was always a bit….erm…fraught, I think is probably the politest way to describe it. Although in her later life, I think she…I think we perhaps warmed to each other as we both got older. And I think she certainly appreciated the help that I offered once she was living on her own and disabled.
But she was a very private person as Marcus described her when he first started talking. Before she was disabled, she loved gardening and he talked about having a garden before and growing vegetables which she always did.
When did Marcus describe her as a “very private person”? There was no mention of that in this video, unless it was something that was edited out. But being “very private” is not exactly an earth-shattering revelation. Neither is growing vegetables. As I mentioned above, practically everyone who lived through the war years did so.
What happened to the onions, though? What was so significant about them that the spirit had to wave them in Marcus’s face?
[Scene returns to the reading with Marcus]
Marcus: She feels that there was a worry of cancer in the family.
Sitter: Yes, just this last week actually.
Marcus: Oh, okay. Because she’s saying I see these thoughts from the spirit world, stop worrying, look after yourself and just really, really embrace life.
One in three people will develop a form of cancer in their lifetime. So it’s not surprising that someone in a family would be concerned about it. I realise that this is meant to be positive advice. But should he really be saying “stop worrying” where a potentially serious illness like cancer is concerned?
Marcus: I know I have a lady here that makes me feel like she’s mum to you, that makes me feel like she’s mum. And I know as I’m here with her, it’s the funniest little thing, do you ever remember…did you say your mum is in the spirit world?
Hang on a minute! Is Marcus saying that it is the sitter’s mother who has come through? So NOT the mother-in-law? And WHY does he need to ask whether the sitter’s mother is in the spirit world – if he is supposedly communicating with her?
Sitter: Yes
Marcus: Do you ever remember your mum drinking hot chocolate or Ovaltine in the evening before bed?
Sitter: Yes
I would be shocked if she hadn’t. Hot chocolate and Ovaltine are traditionally drinks that people have before going to sleep. In fact, Ovaltine has often had an image problem in that it’s regarded as a drink that is only enjoyed by old people at bedtime.
Marcus: Because she’s just said to me while we’ve got time I want you to take this Ovaltine, take this hot chocolate and just have a drink on me. Some spirit people bring a glass of beer or whatever. Ooh! Your mum’s handed you a massive box of chocolates
How bizarre! It turns out that not only do onions have an afterlife in the spirit world, chocolates do too. I wonder how that works. Are there cows in the spirit world which are milked to produce it?
Sitter: Ooh!
Marcus: Your mum’s handed you a massive box of chocolates and I know that’s what she just did for me. I’m really sorry. Do you understand whether there’s been diabetes in the family as well?
Sitter: That’s why I pulled a face at the chocolates. I’m diabetic.
I’m afraid that by ‘pulling that face’, you gave away the fact that there’s an issue with someone giving you chocolates. Marcus hit on the most common condition for people who can’t eat sugary foods and – yet again – he expanded the field to ask if it was in the family.
Marcus: That’s why she said have the chocolates, but can’t all have them and that was to do with that. And she’s giving me the ones with the hazelnuts in as being her favourite.
Sitter: Oh, my goodness! I was just….I did some allergy testing last week and hazelnuts was something I reacted to.
This is information which the sitter voluntarily gives to Marcus. Not something that he tells her.
Marcus: That’s what she’s just plucked out. There you go and she’s teasing you with it, she’s saying “that’s my favourite.”
[Scene cuts back to the post-reading interview with the sitter]
Sitter: Oh, that’s amazing. I was away last week and I had some allergy testing done. And some really random things came up that you wouldn’t think and one of them was chocolate, interestingly, and the other one was hazelnuts….
Okay, so here’s my mother-in-law offering me chocolates and showing me the hazelnut one. It’s just amazing, isn’t it?
Well, I find it amazing that he could suggest that a mother would give her daughter chocolates with hazelnuts, knowing that she is diabetic and allergic to both those things. And even if we think it was the mother-in-law instead, would she really do that to you? Even if you didn’t always get on with each other.
Sitter: I find it very reassuring to know that there’s something other than this earthly life. I’ve pretty much always believed that, but it’s just nice to have that evidence and that confirmation with very specific things that, you know, only relate to you.
There was absolutely nothing that I could find in this reading that was “specific” or would relate only to the sitter. In fact, I regret to say that it was exactly the opposite.
This article is not intended in any way to criticize or belittle the sitter, who is a lovely lady. But I became very concerned that she was being taken advantage of, and that vulnerable, grieving people could be misled into thinking that Marcus Day can really contact deceased loved ones.
As I say, you are all free to form your own opinions on him. But I hope my analysis encourages people to be skeptical of his show if it ever sees the light of day. Or exercise extreme caution before booking a reading with him. Or better yet, avoid booking one with him at all.
This article is not intended in any way to criticize or belittle the sitter, who is a lovely lady. But I became very concerned that she was being taken advantage of, and that vulnerable, grieving people could be misled into thinking that Marcus Day can really contact deceased loved ones.
