In an unusually relaxed frame of mind, I found myself idly hopping through the myriad of terrible TV channels provided to me at exorbitant cost by Richard Branson. And I stopped on a channel called ‘Pick’, of which I had previously never heard. Who should be on but ‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan.
Ms Morgan is notoriously litigious and her family have been known to be…ahem…slightly aggressive towards those who regard so called psychics are frauds so I have to be careful what I say. But I cannot pretend what I watched, albeit briefly, was cheap, unpleasant and exploitative.
There is no evidence that anyone has psychic powers. The great Jame Randi has, for many years, offered $1m to anyone who could demonstrate their so called powers under scientific conditions and to no one’s surprise not a single ‘psychic’ has yet taken him up on his offer. You would have thought that would be easy money to someone who really did possess such amazing powers and there can surely be only one conclusion as to why no one has stepped forward.
The first part of the show I witnessed was with ‘Psychic’ Sally talking with a young man who was desperate to talk with his grandfather. The only problem, the same one I find when I try to talk with my grandfather, was that he was dead. The man was weeping and so, eventually, was ‘Psychic’ Sally, who naturally was able to extract some soothing quotes from the old man. He seemed quite pleased at that, despite the fact that the man’s grandfather surely remained dead and he only had ‘Psychic’s’ word that he was actually present in the ‘spiritual world’. The what? A ‘spiritual world’, devoid of flesh, blood, bones and reality, made up; just like religion.
Then onto a ‘live’ show, where ‘Psychic’ tossed out what appeared to be random names to the audience and people responded by standing up. ‘Psychic’ would then talk to the audience member, revealing generally uninteresting ‘facts’ about the dead person which seemed to resonate with the poor punter. Far be it from me to doubt ‘Psychic’s’ unique powers, but I am not sure that Derren Brown couldn’t have done any of what she was doing, albeit far more professionally and far better. And of course Brown freely admits he has no psychic powers.
We have seen all this for generations, illusionists, shysters, psychics and now we have a new generation. Remember Uri Geller, Israel’s genius spoon bender who fooled many people for many years? It was like professional wrestling in many ways with people suspending rational belief to share in the illusion of reality. We saw Geller bend spoons and draw pictures of things that were hidden in sealed envelopes and accepted that there might just be something in it. Now, Geller is reduced to flogging jewellery on cable TV, his star having waned, his act being tired and dated. And people now generally accept it was all an act.
Sadly, there is an audience just waiting for the likes of ‘Psychic’, usually vulnerable, sick, bereaved and desperate people who want to believe what probably isn’t true. But does truth matter? If it gives people comfort, does it really matter if it is an illusion? In which case, are we so say that it is perfectly alright for conjurors and illusionists to exploit them because being told a lie is okay if it gives them comfort? I’m not sure there is a yes or no answer for everyone since I am not everyone, just me. But just as god is probably not real, then the spiritual world probably isn’t either.
Reality can be a very difficult place in which to be because the truth is not always nice. But when reality and truth is replaced by dishonesty, exploitation and a lie, then is that really right?
