Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

have her watch the south park episode - "Biggest Douche in the universe" where they destroy John Edwards - a so called psychic.

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

[ QUOTE ]
Cold Reading


[/ QUOTE ]

He solved the problem already

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

So how do we explain things such as how the psychic guessed the mother's name and the petunias at the funeral thing? Those are pretty darn specific.

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

Theres a really good southpark about a psychic. Check it out.

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

DD,

"So how do we explain things such as how the psychic guessed the mother's name and the petunias at the funeral thing? Those are pretty darn specific. "

The same way you explain most things most people do. Confusion and stupidity.

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

tl;dr

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

[ QUOTE ]

I don't see why it's so hard for you guys to accept that psychic abilities are possible.


[/ QUOTE ]

Why is it so hard for you to believe that Elvis is alive? So many people have claimed to seen elvis. So it must be true right?

Melch

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

Book on cold reading.

There is a "magician" (he is more than that really) in the UK called Derren Brown. He did an entire show once pretending to be physcic, and was very convincing, enough to have members of the audience in shock/tears etc. Afterwards he explained it was all fake. He's worth looking out for, not sure if he's been exported to the US.

Along with Penn and Teller he's a great debunker.

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

[ QUOTE ]
Why is it so hard for you to believe that Elvis is alive? So many people have claimed to seen elvis. So it must be true right?

Melch

[/ QUOTE ]

Melch,

I think that given that elvis is a pretty recognizable character, but not completely unique, it seems reasonable that a lot of elvis fans could catch a glimpse of a guy who looks like elvis, and because they just want to believe it, or because they want to be famous, they'll report it to others.

but just because they claim to have seen them doesn't mean they actually did see him. as a matter of probability, it seems completely reasonable that a few thousand americans fit this description.

in short, I don't think you read my argument well. or maybe I didn't write it well. whatever. the point is that the more cases that stack up, the lower the probability of sheer coincidence becomes.

probably,
man

Re: Someone please help me explain this to my mother
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why is it so hard for you to believe that Elvis is alive? So many people have claimed to seen elvis. So it must be true right?

Melch

[/ QUOTE ]

Melch,

I think that given that elvis is a pretty recognizable character, but not completely unique, it seems reasonable that a lot of elvis fans could catch a glimpse of a guy who looks like elvis, and because they just want to believe it, or because they want to be famous, they'll report it to others.

but just because they claim to have seen them doesn't mean they actually did see him. as a matter of probability, it seems completely reasonable that a few thousand americans fit this description.

in short, I don't think you read my argument well. or maybe I didn't write it well. whatever. the point is that the more cases that stack up, the lower the probability of sheer coincidence becomes.

probably,
man

[/ QUOTE ]

http://membres.lycos.fr/theczar/jimc...nddumber10.jpg

so you're saying there's a chance...