Class Post #3: Psychic Crime Detectives, and Psychics in General: Who is Lying and Who is Not?

                    I’ve always been drawn to those who have shown to have a strong, intuitive sense of knowing, and I didn’t necessarily take into consideration who was being honest with their predictions, and who was just trying to finesse the system and take money from others, and simultaneously telling them something that they already know. It took me a while to use my own discernment to come to the realization that not everyone is honest about their abilities, and there is no way to prove that anyone really has this intuitive and prophetic sense of knowing through scientific explanations since the human mind is inherently flawed, and most “psychics” tend to go off of what they know and what they perceive through body language, gestures, and the behaviors of those around them. In the class, we went over Noreen Renier, and she is a psychic crime detective who receives vague messages about cases she was called to take a closer look at. She does not know how the numbers, letters, and structures in her visions make sense, or are even associated with the crimes and missing persons cases in question, but when her information was applied to cases after all of the evidence was acquired and were nearing to a close, it all started to make sense. Ms. Renier also made it a point to seek the knowledge of a psychic after all other efforts to investigate criminal cases were exhausted, so she knows that her abilities are not the most reliable at all times, but it does make me wonder; if police departments or investigative teams had their own personal and qualified psychic on the team, would that make much of a significant difference. Most likely not, but it is interesting to imagine that being a new occupation. Seeing a job posting for a “Psychic Private Investigator,” would have a lot of people thinking about how easy the money would be. 

                    When it comes to criminal investigators, psychics are not going to be taken nearly as seriously in real-life as they are in films and television shows such as Medium, but this is due to the amount of deception that tends to be associated with individuals who claim to be psychic. There needs to be a way for these individuals to prove their abilities, otherwise there is a lot of skepticism and denial. Now, there are those who have been proven to be liars, such as Uri Gellar, but since he had such a large following, he never lost his notoriety and held onto his fame. His abilities involved a lot of preparation time before going on stage, much like a magician who prepares their magic tricks ahead of time. There seems to be a line drawn when someone acquires a lot of fame, as opposed to someone who is up and coming. Another example of a famous, renowned psychic I can recall from childhood who claimed to have heightened intuition was Sylvia Browne, and she made various appearances as a guest on television talk shows. She did readings on the Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, but it came out not too long after her death that she was engaging in an immense amount of fraud and even overcharged police departments for her services, if they were required.  Sylvia Browne has a very messy track record, and it goes to show, we need to trust ourselves enough to be able to come to a decision about who is being honest, and who is not. I have no doubt that there are those who have heightened intuition are in fact legitimate, but there is also the concern that there is no scientific proof or evidence of this being a valid and confirmed concept based off of facts, evidence, data, and statistics. There is not enough of a basis for psychics to prove themselves in a profound manner outside of word of mouth, so there is too much room for deceptive practices, financial exploitation, emotional exploitation, and financial fraud to be enacted by the claimant. This is a highly unfortunate reality.  

https://abcnews.go.com/US/amanda-berrys-mom-told-pyschic-sylvia-browne-berry/story?id=19126853