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Something Wicked This Way Comes?

by Mark Edward, Oct 14 2013

 

Season of the Witch?

  Season of the Witch?

If you find yourself in L.A. over the next few weeks and a partial to things haunted, please make it over to Griffith Park for the annual “L.A. Haunted Hayride.” This will be my sixth year of involvement in what has become known as the most terrifying haunted experience in L.A.  It’s also an excellent  chance for any skeptic to drop by and see up close and personal exactly how it is indeed possible to give the public an entertaining positive  “psychic reading” experience while at the same time injecting a healthy dose of critical thinking and skepticism into the proceedings.  Sound impossible? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Yes, I know there will be those reading this who will automatically balk at such a heretical concept, particularly the “Big S” skeptics who continually call for me to “choose a side.”Those  unfamiliar with my performance style and who may have bought into the absurd “TAMbush” that unfortunately occurred between myself and a few of the hard core skeptics at TAM this year are now hereby officially invited to see for themselves just how I do a so-called “psychic reading. ” You can put up or shut up. In lieu of showing up in the flesh, you might watch a “banana reading” I did for Randi & Co. here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh97S5qzycM

If you think the banana act needs a disclaimer, … you’re missing the point entirely. Although I don’t hit quite as hard in person, if you want a “Free Tarot Reading” without leaving the comfort of your home, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cHl81nArng

This is storytelling folks, not manipulation. Like it or not my “sitters”  leave my tent up-lifted when they go forth into the night after having a brief 8 or 9 minutes with me. If they offer a personal tale, a “psychic experience” or claim psychic powers, I offer back  an IIG Stealth Card and let them know I have $100,000.000 on the table for them if they can prove it.  Zing! This is generally met with stunned silence or laughter. I’m giving an unexpected challenge to their beliefs and a totally new insight for people unacquainted with rational thought. In the “haunt” business, belief is everything.

In an age of over -saturation with paranormal media nonsense, my own brand of psychic shtick runs contrary enough to the norm to make a refreshing dent in the woo and in its own way scare the crap out of most believers. I remind them (especially when I get a dead-on hit or start to impress) that this is a Halloween hayride, not a spiritual retreat. Hundreds of unsuspecting revelers are getting a glimpse of a new psychic reality when they stop by my tent. The lines are long and tedious, but watching the looks on their faces when I explain cold reading to them becomes part of the monstrous charade of seriously tricking and treating. One kid told me he wanted to get into science after hearing what I told him.

Smiles and grins predominate and I’m suddenly no more real than the guy with the chainsaw running around the hay bales or the mad scientist hobbling about on stilts. One of the other shut-eye psychic ladies told me she, “…felt so sorry for me” when she overheard me tell a sitter that my tarot cards were just pieces of card stock with archetypal pictures on them.  My lines are frequently longer than hers.

Just doing my part in my own way.

Before you say Boo to all this, Come by and say boo at this Halloween extravaganza …if you dare.

I'll be waiting...

I’ll be waiting…

 

More info Here:

www.losangeleshauntedhayride.com

I’m in from 7-11:00 p.m. , Thurs.  – Sunday until Halloween Eve.

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