How about the ones that don't charge the fools?

Patty, remind me always to stay on your good side. :a20:

Believe that they should make certain readings mandatory at the US high school level. Age of Enlightment books like Candide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

I think they are still working on literacy.

Some areas yes. My high school teacher Mrs. Mitchell turned me on to books like Anna Karenina when I was 16. I was just interested in Edgar Rice Burroughs' works and other such adventure stories up to then.

Still believe that education can work wonders if you can get people to read and learn to think critically.

True story...back in 1999 I decided to give myself a perm (remember those days?) and was bored waiting for my hair to finish "cooking", so I called a psychic hotline - purely for entertainment, of course. The woman who answered proceeded to tell me how someone I was formerly involved with was now a changed person and was the person I was meant to be with. So, because a faceless phony psychic said so - and because he had been really, really nice to my mother - I remarried my ex-husband. Before the charge even appeared on my phone bill, I knew I had made a huge mistake.

I only get salon perms now.

I tried a perm around 1979 also felt that this was a bad mistake. Never believed much in psychics you see on TV or any who peddle their wares any other way. The real ones probably see their abilities as both a curse and a gift. I sure would not want to be hearing the voices of dead people. Sounds like a one way ticket to Belleview.

It's not an either/or. You can believe in God and also believe that some people are gifted with Psychic abilities. :pray:

You may be right about some of the more liberal denominations, but I believe you can group all the spooky weird stuff like witches and psychics and cults, all into one package that all border on demonic practices.

Yeah, those home perms were not a good thing, mine frizzed and turned red, I looked like Ronald McDonald's sister.

I don't know anyone who views this as a curse, you don't hear voices of dead people unless you are a medium and even then you can control it.

As far as the psychic thing, you can fine tune it, the more you work at it the more accurate you get.

Demonic practices? I guess that was the thinking in 1692 at the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Thankfully, today we're more enlightened.

I recently went to a Medium here in ATL. I was very skeptical and didn't know what to expect. Well let me tell you she blew my socks off! She knew nothing about me, even my name. I walked out of there shaking. You can't tell me they are all fake or don't have the power because she certainly did.

I have always thought that Salem crowd was way too liberal.

Patty. Patty. Patty. :a20:

The Terror of History.
 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOQND4fVF_w]The Terror of History: The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe, UCLA - YouTube[/ame]

This is one of the more interesting Great Courses. It goes into the sociological/political/historical reasons for the persecution of witches.

Here is the 50 minute or so YouTube. It is by UCLA Professor Teofilo Ruiz. You do have to get used to his thick Spanish accent.

Whoa, only 40 minutes till the LI Medium and I am still sacrificing a dead chicken.

In the Bible didn't prophets have dreams and (psychic) visions from God? Who's to judge where gifts come from?

I guess I see so many poor souls that struggle with reality and especially the young that push these kind of things to the point of violence. Its like how some say the jump from marijuana to heroin is a short distance, I feel the same about going from a Ouija board to animal sacrifice. If you play with fire you may get burned. I see these activities fun, but silly, however, some get bug eyed entranced and that is where I see the danger. I love magic, but I keep my focus on trying to figure out how the TRICK is done rather than believing it is supernatural. So, go, have fun, but don't get so drawn in that you turn over your bank account or slip away from reality because these are all parlor tricks be they the carnival crystal ball reader or a nationally famous medium.

Watch the eyes of a child when grandpa pulls a quarter out of their ear. I see those same eyes when a more sophisticated trick is pulled on an adult. Please understand, I say enjoy, but be cautious and sensible with how you process the information or vision.

Thank God. Thanks Barefoot.

Has anyone ever been to Salem, Massachusetts?
We've seen the courtroom and the little skinny narrow cells they kept them in.......unbelievably cruel........visited the cemetery, etc.

Lack of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Supposedly, the "rye flour" had developed a mold which made the young girls hallucinate.

Belief in God has nothing at all to do with having premonitions.

Belief in God has nothing at all to do with "sensing" a beloved one who has just departed.....such as a dream visitation.

I've always believed in God. Read some of the books out there by folks who have died and "come back".......all their loved ones were waiting on the other side.

Most of my "dreams" have been peaceful, calm and comforting.....just a "goodbye" type of visitation.........actually all of them, except for ONE.

This was my best "adult friend" who passed too soon at age 50 after a lung biopsy in Albany New York broke some of her ribs....causing her to slowly hemmoraghe.........through the entire Christmas season the couging of her insterstitial fibrocystic lung disease got progressively worse........long story short, in early February, after carrying around two oxygen tanks.........she ended up in our hospital here in town.......they were trying to get a lung transplant for her.....to no avail. She had two children still in school............we were all gathered around her when the worst case scenario happened and they had to intubate her and put her into an induced coma in the I.C.U..........hoping against hope for a heart /lung.........all of our neighborhood was up there, including my daughter who drove down. I gave her husband, who is non religious, a rosary for her ........he entwined it in her hands as we all stood around, helpless.............but there was no happy ending. Still in a coma.

The grief counselors spoke to the family and the children.........

Next morning...........while still in bed......to my right side I STRONGLY FELT A MASS OF ENERGY WHICH SEEMED ANGRY......nothing like my ethereal peaceful visits from friends and family after their passings.

I sat up straight. It was a bit frightening, to say the least. Long story, just a mass of colored angry energy....which then departed.

THEN THE PHONE RANG...........my friend's daughter called to tell me her mom had just died.......they had pulled the plug, so to speak.

She had been intubated. Now she was GONE. Being she was a feisty little lady who LOVED LIFE and never wanted to go for that biopsy in the first place......but had a severe coughing fit while in Austria with hubby on business.........she didn't want to depart the earth as she still had a son in high school and a daughter as a freshman in college.........so yes, she was ANGRY.....not supposed to be dead.

The nurses had told me in I.C.U. that she had received PREDNISONE plus an EXPERIMENTAL DRUG.......they said, "Sometimes the prednisone makes the condition WORSE AND THEY BLEED OUT".
She literally drowned in her own blood.

The way I see it, she should still be alive. We all say, had she not gone for that biopsy in Albany N.Y.......yes, she'd be having the chronic cough but her own grandmother lived to age 95 with the same lung disease, supposedly caused by pigeons in Hungary where they were born and lived before coming to West Liberty Ohio after the Revolution in 1956.

Trust me. If I am a witch, than I'd like to be known as a good witch.

p.s.
An interesting side note........in the old days, when the peasants were poor and illiterate, they looked up to their PRIESTS......who had all the education. Once the peasants evolved and were educated, they began to think for themselves and not to totally follow like sheep. You know what you know. My pet peeve is doubting Thomases....without any real experience one way or the other.

Priest is actually just another word for "teacher".

My own husband was always a doubting Thomas as he had no frame of reference for the supernatural if you wish to call it that..........

He's now a believer. Better late than never.

some good reading on the Subject
 

Went to a seance in Cassadaga. They used a tip table. It was so much fun.

...or jumbo shrimp?

Phone #
 

Hi, Can you forward me the phone number too.

Thanks.

I know people who had readings by John Edwards, this was a while ago. They said there was a long waiting list, was expensive, but was totally amazing.

What's a tip table?

:BigApplause:

Absolutely! No one would want to be taken by a charlatan. :jester:

I had posted this on another thread and am adding something that seems relevant.

------------------------------------------

For what it's worth, the best friend of a cousin of mine is a psychic. Her explanation for this is what I emphasized above in part of the quoted comments [some folks are just more in tune with things spiritual or unseen…]. This woman has been called on by her local police to do everything from finding a body to locating evidence and has done things like this time and again. She has also served people in her community in matters relevant to her abilities.

She makes one point about her ability to do this that she says is crucial, and that is that it's a gift that she's been given, and it's her responsibility to use that gift to serve others. Consequently, she absolutely and categorically refuses, EVER, to accept any form of payment or gift or do anything (such as a lecture circuit or a book) that would generate personal income for her, stemming from her using her psychic abilities. She feels that it would be simply wrong to "capitalize" on her psychic abilities and does not agree with those who say that there is benefit to sharing what it's all about for her and be somehow paid for doing so. Her view is to simply use the skills to serve others. I mention this without comment other than to explain that this is simply her point of view....

------------------------------------------

This woman helps individuals as well, not just governmental agencies, again refusing ever to consider accepting a gift or payment. She was called to the home of a couple whose young adult child (who still lived at the family home) had committed suicide, seemingly out of the clear blue and with no explanation. The parents were naturally devastated and confused.

She spent a while sitting and chatting with the parents, listening to everything they said which by and large were expressions of feelings rather than anything concrete. She then asked if she could spend some time in the child’s room, just to get a “feel” or “sense” of something—anything at all. After doing so, she came back downstairs to where the parents were sitting and apologetically explained that, unusual as it was, she had sensed nothing and regretfully could offer them no explanation and no solace other than her condolences.

She then added that the only thought or picture that had come to her mind made no sense and seemed completely irrelevant but that she would run it past them. She asked them if a “penguin” would seem to have any meaning to them in relation to their child, explaining that that image kept coming to her. The parents could not connect a penguin with anything, told her that it seemed meaningless to them, and she left.

Several months later the parents finally confronted dealing with the child’s room, packing up clothing, books, music, equipment that they had no wish to keep, and so forth. Suddenly, out of one book, a favorite of the child’s who had spoken about it to the parents in the past as having been very moved by it, fell what turned out to be a suicide note, the contents of which at least offered an explanation for the child’s rejection of life, though sadly nothing more. The book had been published by Random House and was part of the Penguin Library series.

The parents naturally contacted the psychic to tell her; she in turn felt relieved that at least the parents had some degree of answer for these devastated people. And to her, serving others with this unique skill (if that’s even the right word) was ALL that mattered; “cheap,” “charlatan,” “flushing one’s money down the toilet” were not even remotely part of the equation, so to speak, and so were irrelevant….

Great post. Thanks for sharing story of the amazing, caring friend of your cousin....who wasn't out to make money but to assist those in need.
Not knowing........would be so painful to those left behind.

By the way, does anyone know John Edward's real surname/last name?
Cancel that request:
John Edward - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's John Edward McGee Jr. I always thought he was Italian.
Instead....does anyone know the maiden name of John Edward's Italian mother?
My elderly cousin Jean once told me that I would really like John Edward.......
Many folks have been in awe of his readings.

One would have to come up with something that only the person in the audience would be aware of......in that case, they'd believe.
Of course there are charlatans in all walks of life.....but often there are God given gifts bestowed to some..........or maybe they just see more clearly.........

So many more "average" folks are phonier than any psychic going.

People have to "trust their gut" and "trust their intuition" before they give over money to a self proclaimed psychic.

[quote=senior citizen;661512]Great post. Thanks for sharing story of the amazing, caring friend of your cousin....who wasn't out to make money but to assist those in need.
Not knowing........would be so painful to those left behind.

By the way, does anyone know John Edward's real surname/last name?
Cancel that request:
John Edward - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's John Edward McGee Jr. I always thought he was Italian.
Instead....does anyone know the maiden name of John Edward's Italian mother?
My elderly cousin Jean once told me that I would really like John Edward.......
Many folks have been in awe of his readings.

One would have to come up with something that only the person in the audience would be aware of......in that case, they'd believe.
Of course there are charlatans in all walks of life.....but often there are God given gifts bestowed to some..........or maybe they just see more clearly.........

So many more "average" folks are phonier than any psychic going.

People have to "trust their gut" and "trust their intuition" before they give over money to a self proclaimed psychic.[/quote]

I am too thrifty to consider it.

For a moment, since I read quickly, I thought the politician John Edwards had entered a new fiield.;)