The photo above represents probably the most obviously scam in the history of the internet, or at least since yesterday. Who wouldn’t have a story to tell about their grandfather, who was always full of wisdom, kindness and stories? Everyone’s grandfather was the greatest grandfather who ever lived because, well, he’s their grandfather. And it’s great that people want to tell the world about their grandfather. Nothing wrong with that. But here, I smell a big fat smelly rat. The person sharing the photo on social media, Rebecca Anne LoCicero, is a psychic medium.
Hopefully, you don’t need me to tell you that no one possesses psychic powers. In the history of man, not a single person has been able to prove that they can speak to people who are dead and put them in touch with people who aren’t. There’s a very simple explanation for this: dead people are dead. People don’t survive their own death to re-emerge in the so-called ‘spirit world’, which of course doesn’t exist.
But there are, and I understand this, people who are unable to let go, who will take any opportunity to re-acquaint themselves they loved, but sadly died. And when someone comes along, say a psychic medium, promising the impossible, they leap at the chance.
And we know how it’s done. Psychic mediums don’t have any powers: they have techniques, like cold reading or hot reading. Indeed, I have met people who genuinely, sincerely believe they have psychic abilities and earn a tidy living at it. But that’s the point: the spirit world is an opportunity to earn a living and not all its practitioners are, shall we say, in it for the right reasons.
Whether Ms LoCicero is in it for the right reasons, who knows? But has it occurred to the thousands of people who have shared details of their own grandfathers that she might see this as a huge business opportunity? How difficult would it be for her to select certain people and then message them to offer psychic services? As a non-expert, I can glance through social media and sense the people who might be tempted, not least those who have religious tendencies. If you believe in the existence of a supernatural creator, is the next step of employing someone who can connect with dead people in a spirit world that much harder to take?
Because that’s the reason why this woman has invited folk to share stories of their grandfather. It’s cynical exploitation and it needs to be called out.
Looking further down Ms LoCicero’s social media timeline and she posted this on April Fools Day. Unwittingly, she’s spot on, particularly about the fake world of the psychic medium.
