Psychics- Charlatans.
Anybody claiming to have extra-normal ability in that sense is probably out to exploit somebody. Now, we face the problem of 'But wait, Surely magicians claim extra-normal ability...'
Well, yes and no. The fact is, no matter what angle a 'magician' takes, people know magic doesn't exist (certainly not in the sense of making a card jump back to the top of the deck...), that what we do isn't real. We aren't exploiting, we are just asking our audience to hang their logical belief system at the door in the name of entertainment.
Psychics however... I have a friend who has been deeply, thoroughly exploited in the past by the use of supposed 'Spirit mediums'. I won't gop into it here, but needless to say, it only further tainted my opinion on the practice.
Now a quick little story to illustrate the possible reasons it is a lucrative proposition...
"A couple of years ago, one of the bars I frequented was my unofficial testing ground for new material. One evening, I was having a few drinks, when I thought 'okay, lets go'. I approached a table and offered some free entertainment. I performed a couple of new effects, then finished with Stigmata. The couple I was performing for were suitably impressed. The lady asked me if I was psychic. I said no, so she insisted that I WAS psychic. I still said no. She DEMANDED a reading... So i thought 'Okay, lets mix it up'... I started cold reading her, with the intentions of explaining how I did it afterwards to prove my point. She, in turn said 'No, no, don't cold read me, I wan't specifics!'."
She knew what cold reading is, but didn't take it into account that they were probably paying weekly fee's to some charlatan with a crystal ball for very much the same thing. In this sense, It makes logical sense that people would want to do it for a living. But it still doesn't make it right.
CL
