Do You Believe In Telepathy? - Derren Brown

A Young Derren (with hair) uses his astonishing mind-reading skills to great effect yet again.

A look at so called "Celebrity Psychic" William Constantine

Sometimes I get bored, and when I get bored I mess about on twitter, today I thought I would search for the term "celebrity psychic", and why not. Anyway one of the first results I received was a man by the name of Dr. William Constantine. Now to be clear, I have never heard of him, and psychics and mediums are kind of my thing, so to call yourself a celebrity is of course a grandiose claim, but maybe i am wrong and this man really is famous. After all I could walk past one of the stars of TOWIE and have no idea who they are, yet someone else may go up to one and ask for an autograph.

So starting from a point of no knowledge about William Constantine, the first thing I can do is look at his Twitter account. @wmconstantine firstly let me state that I am posting his Twitter account here purely as a reference point, I do not condone or encourage anyone to troll him, send him messages, or try to catch him out.

Looking at his Twitter account he has some impressive numbers.
Tweets 13,600
Following 133
Followers 9,347

Now, Twitter is all about ratios, if you follow 10,000 people, and you have 10,000 followers, that gives you a ratio of 1:1 This is a fair ratio, but it does not mean you have 10,000 people interested in you, or fans of you etc, it just means that the vast majority of people you follow, just followed you back.

Now William Constantine has a pretty impressive ratio, for every 1 person he follows, he pretty much has 100 people follow him. I know its not exact, but you get the idea. This is a very good ratio.
But then I noticed something strange, his average tweet was only getting the odd 1 like or 1 retweet here and there, not what you would expect from someone with 10,000 followers. Something seems odd. So I decided to use a site called "Twitter Audit" to find out how many of his followers were actual real accounts. Here is what I found.

According to this the vast majority of his followers are fake accounts! And in fact he only has 152 real followers! This would make sense as to why he doesn't get many likes or retweets. And if you look at the fact he follows 133 people, suddenly his real ratio isn't that impressive is it, Pretty much 1:1

Now before anyone moans, here is a twitter audit of my own followers.

You can check out my Twitter account @JonDonnisShow

Now pretty much every twitter account will have some fake followers, usually bots that auto follow people who post certain hashtags and so on.

Clearly it seems that William Constantine either purchased his Twitter account with the followers already there, or he purchased fake followers. Either way it is my opinion that he is being dishonest about how popular he really is on Twitter. Also worth noting that archives of Twitter have shown that his follower count is slowly dropping too, which would suggest that the paid for fake followers have been removed from Twitter, something that Twitter does every so often as part of their clean up efforts.

The same pretty much goes with his Facebook page too. About 8000 likes, but only about 1% of that number is interacting with him. His last 50 photos posted the most likes any got is about 10, with only the odd comment here and there. So it is safe to suggest that his facebook page has grown from paid "likes", I would put the real number of likes at less than 200, and probably closer to 100, which would kind of match his twitter stats.

So clearly in his social media accounts he is being manipulative, and trying to present an image of someone much more popular than he really is.

Now the reason i have gone into some detail about social media numbers is that these are very important to PR companies, as that is what they look at when judging whether to book someone for a gig of not, or to marketing companies etc who want to buy advertisement or sponsor and so on.

So if you know a psychic that has a high number of followers, don't automatically assume they are really popular so must be good. Unless they are a huge name, I guarantee you those followers will be fake.

Also he calls himself Dr. William Constantine, D.MSc. Sounds a bit fancy doesn't it, but what does the D.MSc. bit mean? Could it be Doctor of Medical Science. No.

Its one of these paid for online degrees that have no real worth in the world.

He is a  Dr. of Metaphysics, but lets not say that too loud, after all "DMSc" does mean Doctor of Medical Science, but he is not a real doctor, not by any stretch.

You can even buy one of these degrees for under $40! See here
Although there are more fancy courses you can do, usually cost about $1000 and you can get the degree, and the letters after your name, sadly it is completely legal, and nothing at all wrong with doing that, but again to call yourself a Doctor is a bit rich.

UPDATE: He got his "Doctorate" from The University of Metaphysics. And it would have cost him roughly $1200

Basically these Metaphysics degrees are a load of spiritual mumbo jumbo, but are protected by law due to religious protections.

So what have we learned today about William Constantine, well he has vastly exaggerated his "celebrity", and he is not the kind of Doctor you would want near you if you were having a heart attack.

So ask yourself now, if he goes to these lengths just to make himself seem more popular than he is, and to have fancy sounding letters after his names, whats the chances that he really can talk to the dead?

If you have ever heard of him or had any experiences with him let me know.

He could be the real deal, he could be the worlds first real psychic medium, but in my opinion he is just another person pretending he has magical powers so he can charge $250 for a 1 hour reading! (Yes that is actually how much he charges) and before I finish off for today, lets take a quick look at the disclaimer on his site. Something he has written in teeny tiny font on his website making it hard to read. Luckily I will keep it at normal size here. My comments interjected in RED

Legal Notice & Disclaimer:

You must be at least 18 years old to use the consulting services of Dr. William Constantine. Payment for William’s time must be by credit card in your name.  

First alarm right here, you must pay for his services using a credit card and in your name!
Some would say that is so he has time to research you. Not me though, I would never suggest such a thing. After all what has searching about something achieved for me today? :D

Please be advised that no psychic reading can predict, forecast, diagnose or provide information with absolute certainty. 

So in other words, he is saying that if he is wrong it is not his fault.

No guarantees or assurances of any kind are given and William Constantine will not be held accountable for any interpretations or decisions made by recipients based on information provided during readings.

That is a fair enough statement to cover his own backside.

 As law mandates, all readings are for entertainment purposes only.

Does the law mandate this? He is in America, so I am not as familiar with US law as I am UK law, but I would suggest that the law does not mandate any such thing, and that if he was the real deal he could say so. It is almost like he is admitting that he is not really communicating with the dead, but trying to get out of it by saying he is forced to say that by those evil law makers!

William does not provide any advice regarding medical conditions, legal issues, psychological disorders, financial matters, or investment opportunities. All advice for any such issues or matters should be obtained from a qualified professional. No consultation with William is to be considered as any kind of medical or psychological diagnosis or treatment for any condition. Any discussions pertaining to any professional matter is for general information purposes only. Do not ignore advice from a qualified professional based upon any consultation with William.

This is actually good advice, it is just a shame that people tend to ignore all of this when they go to see a medium, it is kind of the whole point. You go to see a psychic/medium because you want information that you cant get through any other way, whether it is what will happen in the future, or advice from a dead relative. 

You understand that William cannot make any warranties or guarantees regarding the information he provides and that he cannot be held responsible or liable for the actions you take as a result of the session. 

This disclaimer is all about covering his arse, but the best bit is the final 2 lines.

You are completely responsible for any actions you take after any consultation with William.

PAYMENTS MADE FOR READINGS OR CONSULTATIONS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.

In other words he can say what he likes to you, he can give you any advice he likes, and he is not responsible. Unlike REAL Doctors who ARE responsible for what they say and do, and can face serious consequences if they mess up, including losing their job and even imprisonment, our new friend William Constantine doesn't care about you, and whatever you do, is not his problem.

But the best is the last line, you can pay for your reading, and even if you are unhappy, even if you are convinced he has conned you, lied to you, whatever, you can't get your money back, and the very fact you have a reading with him, you are accepting that.

Now one last time, does this sound like an honest man you should trust with your personal problems? Your grief, your stress, your pain?

I don't think so.


By Jon Donnis

Disclaimer: This article is the OPINION of the author Jon Donnis, any assumptions he makes in this article are based on the evidence available to him at the time of print. If you have any issues with anything said, please leave a comment and we will try to reply to them.

A Look at Psychic Joe Power

The following article was originally published on 25th June 2009

In recent times a 'psychic' by the name of Joe Power has come into the media eye, in fact we have covered the last few years of his professional career in some detail on this site, but how has a psychic such as this manipulated his position in life to that of a 'wannabe celebrity' psychic. Well for that we must go back to the beginning, well not the beginning, but lets say 2006 instead.

In April of 2006, Joe Power caused controversy when he made it public that he was going to contact the spirit of John Lennon, as you can imagine this caused a lot of discussion, even Yoko Ono had her representatives release a statement calling the stunt “Exploitative”, but of course this is exactly what Joe Power wanted, media attention. A US TV station had apparently found someone who would be willing to partake in this stunt and for what? A pay-per view TV special. Oh how very spiritual, and only $9.95, that's a good $5 cheaper than the Princess Diana séance from a few years earlier.

So what did John Lennon have to say for himself, well the ground breaking message from the dead Lennon was “peace....the message is peace”, now if that isn't worth $9.95 then I don't know what is.

Despite appearing on this American special, things were still not going great for Joe, despite his own claims, he was having to cancel shows on a regular basis due to poor ticket sales, when you cant sell out small hotel function rooms then you know that a new stunt is in order, especially since the Lennon séance did nothing for his career.

One of the claims Joe has made over the years is one that many psychics use, that being that they have helped the police solve crimes, you hear this all the time, but with Joe Power we decided to dig deeper. He claimed to have helped Southport Police in the Lyndsey Quy murder case, yet when we asked Detective Superintendent Geoff Sloan, he made the following statement: “I wish to state, categorically, that as Senior Investigating Officer on the Lyndsey Quy murder, I made a policy decision not to use psychics on the investigation. Joe Power has allegedly made claims that he assisted the enquiry but this is not the case.”

So like most if not all psychics Joe Power was simply making claims that were not true, but this would not stop him from using such claims in the future, claims we would show were untrue time after time after time.

Joe also claimed “through one of his astonishing spirit links” to have known the killer of model Sally Anne Bowman and that he informed the police that the killer was a “Stephen” or “Stephan White”, aged between 24 and 26 and was a delivery driver. Yet following DNA evidence the police arrested and charged 36 year old chef Mark Dixie who is now serving a life sentence in prison. So yet again Joe is wrong. Yet he keeps telling people how he helps the police.

So despite cancelling 44% of his publicised shows in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Joe Power was still hungry for 'power' and fame. In 2008 he made an astounding public statement when he said “‘TV mediums are ripping people off. The place is saturated with fake mediums getting away with playing on people’s emotions ....” Yes the same man who did a tacky pay-per view TV special in America contacting John Lennon, despite the objections of the Lennon estate and Yoko Ono.

Throughout 2008 things just got worse for Joe, of 65 advertised shows at least 51 were cancelled due to poor sales.

But in 2009 Joe saw an opportunity, an opportunity to get himself on the front page of every newspaper in the country, and he took it. This was at the time when the Madeleine McCann story had become worldwide news, another child by the name of Shannon Matthews had gone missing in similar circumstances, knowing full well that the interest of this story would be front page news Joe visited the Shannons mother Karen Matthews and her partner Craig Meehan, he gave them a reading which would even be quoted in the Sunday People newspaper. Suddenly he found himself in the papers, In a photograph standing next to Karen Matthews, this was exactly what Joe wanted, media attention.

Unfortunately despite claiming to be clairvoyant, clairaudient, and clairessient, and despite spending a lot of time with the family of Shannon Matthews, Joe seemed to have missed one tiny detail, that being that Karen Matthews had actually been behind the fake kidnap of her 9 year old daughter. Karen Matthews is now serving time in prison, and has shown no remorse for her crimes. This is the woman who Joe Power happily had his photo taken with, and who he gave readings too.

As you would expect this was not the kind of thing that Joe had hoped that would happen, he now found himself in the position of failed psychic once again.

Joe Power claims he has helped the police solve crimes, we know this is not true, in fact from the very mouths of the police, he has not helped them at all. The one case where he truly put himself on the line, he failed miserably.

So now we find ourselves bang up to date, many tacky stunts, failed tours, cancelled shows, yet still Joe Power manages to find himself a book publisher, although when a member of Bad Psychics went along to one of his signings, all that could be found was a lonely figure of Joe sat at a table on his own, no line of people, no crowds scrambling for his photo, nothing, maybe this is all that is left for this man, or maybe he has already planned his next stunt, only time will tell.

But Joe would have one last dig at those who dare to doubt him.

I will quote from my good friend, Bad Psychics member and Merseyside skeptic Marsh who recently met Joe Power, and handed him an application form for the JREF Million Dollar challenge, Joe would reply:

“The thing about you sceptics, is that you sit there, festering in front of your computers at 3am, thinking up ways to get at people. What if I were to sit in front of your house and tell people you’re a paedophile?”

“because you’re there festering, at 3am, plotting to get at me, in the same way that paedophiles fester and plot to interfere with children – you both have to be sick in the head to do what you do.”

”I think most sceptics probably are paedophiles. I mean you’re sat around at 3am, plotting, aren’t you? Do you deny that?”

And people wonder why Joe is disliked by so many people, why he has to cancel show after show, and why no one turns up to his book signings.

Joe Powers career should be a warning to any wannabe celebrity psychic out there. Don'tt make claims you cant back up, because the one annoying thing about skeptics is that we simplydon'tt take things on faith, we investigate, we search, and we find out the truth.

By Jon Donnis – BadPsychics.co.uk

If you have had any recent interactions with Joe Power please do get in touch, leave a comment, or send me a message.

Top 10 Sally Morgan Fails And Mistakes - A Psychic Medium Exposed

You may disagree, you have that right. 



More reading
Article on Sally.
http://hayleyisaghost.co.uk/the-arrogance-of-sally-morgan/

Richard Bacon vs Psychic Sally Morgan
http://www.badpsychics.com/2017/01/classic-psychic-fail-richard-bacon-vs.html

Sceptic Mark Tilbrook confronted and abused by family of "psychic" Sally Morgan.
http://www.badpsychics.com/2014/10/skeptic-mark-tilbrook-confronted-and.html

Classic Psychic Fail: Richard Bacon vs Fake Psychic Sally Morgan

Sally Morgan goes on Richard Bacon's radio show, and fails miserably. This is a classic case of cold reading gone bad! Huge respect to Richard Bacon for taking on Sally Morgan and making her look like a fool