Medium; Not-So Rare
Me, ..waiting for a live one.
Wouldn’t you know it? No sooner does Connie Sonne fall off the radar, but like a Whack-A-Psychic game at some surreal American funway, another flavor of the month seer pops up all over the news. Excuse me, but I never heard of Lisa Williams until I read about her Las Vegas “show” at http://vegasblog.latimes.com, Thanks Jeff Wagg for the head’s up. Lisa is ringing ‘em in like cattle and with two seasons of Lifetime televsion shows to rock our world, she looks to be the best thing Vegas has seen since nickel slots. In his article “The Movable Buffet: “Dispatches from Las Vegas” Richard Abowitz deftly takes apart Ms. Williams with the accuracy of d’Artagnan filleting a mackerel. We need more people like Mr. Abowitz and my hat is off to him. If we had more critical thinkers like him and less of the Lou Dobbs and Larry King ilk, we would all be better off. Are you listening CNN? …Yo Fox News. Do you care? Probably not.
You can see the wheels turning....
Check out Lisa’s creds at her lilac infused website: www.lisawilliams.com where you are invited to “join her extended family” and get a free healing. This is awfully decent of her isn’t it? Everybody could use a free healing. She says, “Some people say what I do is scary other people say I change their lives. I just say what I hear and see and I see a lot.” Hmmmmmmmm. You are scaring me right now. Take a look at her “Shows and Appearances” box and you will see a huge schedule of 38 shows all over the world including that bastion of phony mediumship, the UK. Wow, I’m impressed. Again I must admit to being a little jealous too. All that adulation, spirituality and cash too. Ah well, I could have taken that road back in the 90’s, but I had to look at myself in the mirror each morning. Maybe she doen’t have mirrors in her house. How does one go about getting so popular? Was there a casting couch involved or is she just lucky? I’m only hoping that some new twists on the old cons surface somewhere along the line. Maybe Lisa will demonstrate new methods of gathering information, adopt a sexy new style of cold reading – or do a levitation. I have to admit she’s nicer to look at than VanPraagh, but that’s not saying much.
Her website has a link for those who might want to sign a petition to get her show “Life Among the Dead” back on the air. I guess Lifetime had enough of that. I never thought we could reach a time in America when we would tune into a television program with that title and not expect to see Karloff or Lugosi. Sounds like s equel to “The Addams Family.” We have certainly come a long way. Or have we?
Listen Lisa, if you are by any chance reading this; Let’s get together some time soon and discuss this whole Million Dollar Challenge thing. I think you are working way to hard. I know you say you don’t need the money and it’s purely an altruistic service you offer, but me being single and all, and with The Skeptologists floundering, perhaps we might join forces and do a sort of “Siskel and Ebert” style program together? The Million would help us as seed money and certainly guarantee an appreciative audience. It envision a sort of “Dick VanDyke Show” format, only ours would be a contemporary look at the modern family: Instead of Rob being a comedy writer and Laura Petrie assuming the role of the stay at home wife, you simply play yourself; the Medium who talks to dead people for a living and I will play myself; a recovering magician hopelessly mired in a world of phony psychic phenomena, …kinda like Dick York in “Bewitched.” I see ratings gold here. Are you with me so far? A bright future is waiting for us both. Being on the road will only ruin your girlish figure. Let’s do something different with our lives. I’m totally open to your input on this. Call me and we’ll do lunch.
Okay, so I can have dreams can’t I? …Nightmares really. I watched some clips of Bill Prady’s sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” at TAM7 and it looked pretty good. There has to be a parody of mediums sooner or later. Or am I deluded? It’s just too much. We might have reached a level that exceeds even the heyday of spiritualism if we were to total up all the woo that’s piling up around us. Seriously: is it just me or are we in the midst of woo-mania?
Early Ghosthunters: Toody & Muldoon
I remember back in the early 60’s seeing hysterical story lines and comedy genius about phony mediums and fortune tellers (one with Maureen Stapleton as the medium) on “Car 54 Where are You.” Now that was funnnnnnneey. What could have been funnier in the 60’s than a show about two dumb cops chasing after phony fortune tellers in The Bronx? If you can dig up those shows and give them a watch, there’s a high-brow skeptical tinge to the writing on those episodes that still rings true. They don’t make television like that anymore. Now I’m afraid I have awakened to a time when we as a culture have totally lost our sense of humor about such things as ghosts, mediums and psychics – and that scares me the most. We take it all as real, day in and day out with no let up on the hype. Lisa is on the road and headed your way. Agents, writers, producers, skeptics, entrepreneurs and other visionaries take note and don’t sayI didn’t warn you: The time is ripe for skepticality.
Trick or Treat Lisa…
I you need help with something in October, I live in Santa Monica.
The more interesting story is that the topless pool at the Rio closed.
She is playing here in Sydney next month and the tickets are $90 (!!!!)
http://www.statetheatre.com.au/whatson_comingsoon.asp?info=260#display
If some people don’t mind losing money to a loser, go along and heckle. :) Well, maybe heckling would get you thrown out, but make up a list of questions to ask. Maybe Mark will have some tips on what to expect and how to make ‘em squirm.
Notice that Tim Minchin is playing the same venue a few months after… Just a tad interesting is all. I hope his event sells well.
Another great blog Mark. Where to these followers come from? When they read Lancaster’s Stop Sylvia Browne site http://www.stopsylvia.com and realize that she is a fake and a monster, do they move on to someone else like this Lisa person “Sylvia is a fraud but Lisa really helps people” or do they realize that all psychics are frauds or delusional? I bet it is a mix of both.
Man, I saw this coming from a mile away…and I’m not even psychic!
The key here is to do something about it.
Act now with AMBUSH SKEPTICISM!
These low-brow seers are out in public scamming people and we should react in kind. Short of buying an actual ticket; arriving out front at her venues and giving out fortune cookies as mentioned is a good start. It’s non-violent and fuzzy enough to appeal to the type of crowd she works. Hand out printed cards or newagey looking flyers emblazoned with your own flowery offer to do free readings. Roam the crowd looking suitably wooish. When you get a response,lookthem deeply in the eyes or stare at their palms for a minute, then tell them something generic. After you have delivered your reading, tell them you are a skeptic and you made it all up. Laughter is good medicine. Keep it positive. If you are asked to leave, demand your free speech rights. Become familiar with the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. It’s there to protect us from these sorts of abuses. If the cops won’t take these people down, we can at least protest honorably.
If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford a ticket to see this spectacle; be sure to fill out one of her “information cards” (which I’m pretty sure will be on hand – how else does she get her information?) Fill it out with plenty of lurid detail. Dress appropriately downtrodden and needy, look weird enough to get some attention from the crew who will be watching the crowd and gathering the info to be used. A whellechair is always good. When and if you are called upon and she starts in on your “reading” and is suddenly gifted with uncanny accuracy, agree with her and let her dig herself in as deep as possible. If you are a good actor and can cry at will, this is a good time to let the water-works flow. After she’s done with you, stand up and loudly proclaim that you made it all up, she’s wrong and a fraud. This is not illegal! Simple really. The only thing to watch out for is that if she’s been coached by John Edward’s folks or is using some new more devious methods to gain information from the crowd (not likely …why fix what isn’t broken?)you need to be more observant. Remember, this whole set-up is made for believers who are not looking for “the gaff.” Like Houdini who escaped from a locked safe, a safe is not meant to be broken OUT of, so it’s easy when you are on the inside. Keep your eyes and ears open. You will probably see people pumping the crowd for info right in front of everybody else. people in these situations just don’t have a clue. If she is using something new or more compliceted or high-tech other than confederates operating in the crowd and the aforementioned card system, take notes and pass them on to us here a Skepticblog. We need to know what she’s up to. Think like a criminal. It takes a thief to catch a thief.
You are making one huge mistake here… And that is thinking that the audience wants to know this information. I’ve heard many a tale of skeptics doing a similar thing (exposing psychics on stage) and what ended up happening was people appologizing to the psychic and getting very angry at the skeptic for ruining the show.
Of course that doesnt mean we should just run away with our tails tucked in between our legs, but just a heads up that we wont be greeted with open arms.
Has anyone tried to respond to woo by using science disguised as woo? For example, one might hand out flyers for a website with a message like “Discover the Mind’s Innate Potential! Everyone has The Gift, Learn how to use it!” and then on the website, it could explain how to use the powers of your mind to cold-read, but phrase it like “the secret language of the soul is visible to all keen observers” instead of “watch for body language”, until at last, it becomes clear to the indoctronee that it’s a trick, and does not actually involve attuning with spirits. Could it work? Would it be unethical? I think one could do it without lying, but there would be some pretty significant obfuscation.
Yes Cthandhs, of course it could work! It WILL work if you make it work. Is it ethical? What??? This whole concern within the skeptical movement sometimes leaves me gobsmacked. I sat through a lecture at TAM7 where no less a personage than Penn Jillette wrestled with these kinds of issues of honesty. People held in high estemm like Jerry Andrus who found it hard to do magic because he was so honest, he couldn’t tell a lie, and on and on.
Please.
That may be an issue for some skeptics or performers who can afford the time to suffer such moments of conscience for their art, but it isn’t going to get any of these bottom feeders off the street and doesn’t really hold much water for me. If we as a group want to really get something done, we are going to have to fight fire with fire. I mean; look at what these scum-bags are doing. Is what you propose any worse than that? They are telling people they can TALK TO THEIR DEAD RELATIVES.
Of course, you might counter with the line that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” But in this case I’m on the side that says “the ends justify the means.” We are not the liars. Saving someone’s life isn’t a wrong. Since when is telling the truth a wrong? If “some pretty significant obfuscation” could concievably save someone thousands of dollars in wasted money spent on useless readings or possibly save another from commititing suicide or falling deeper into depression, alcoholism or drug addiction, wouldn’t that fall under a totally different catagory than “ethics?”
We need to see this scam for waht it is: A internationally known group of criminals diguising themselves as spiritually conneceted grief counselors. Getting paid to pretend to talk with dead people (at least until it is prooved efficacious)is just plain “obtaining money through false pretences” – or fraud. Lte’s call it like it is. It pisses me off that it can’t be seen for what it is by the authorities, but when God gets mentioned, they turn their cheeks away and suddenly it’s off the table.
This fear to tread lightly where people like Lisa Williams proudly strut their stuff across the globe is part of the big problem I see with the skepticism movement in general. We meet, talk the talk and get all hot and bothered, but when it’s time to hit the streets when we plainly have a target in sight that is crying out for our attention, we start wringing our hands and thinking of reasons to back off. Do you think if Lisa Willaims had to choose between selling out a 10000 seat arena in Las Vegas at $125.00 a seat and telling the truth about what she does on Larry King, she would for one minute have some sort of change of heart? Get real, wake up and start fighting back. The life you save may be your own.
Very well, pragmatism it is! ;)
There has been a sitcom based around a medium here in the UK. It was called Shirley Ghostman.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/shirleyghostman/paranormalists/
Her website looks like a tampon box, she’s going to be here in Las Vegas August 2 at the Hilton, I wish she were anywhere but a casino because security is so tight. I’ll try to find a way to get in for free since I do not plan on giving her one dime of my money.
Last year in Nova Scotia a group of skeptics passed out pamphlets to those going in to see Sylvia Browne. They had a brief explanation of cold reading I thought that a variation on this idea would be to put the pamphlets into envelopes and written across the front would be “do not open till you get inside” but I still have to get past casino security.
You all are so brave! I am such a coward, I hate confrontation, but I totally understand what Mark is saying here. I just don’t have the nerve.
someone needs to market some inexpensive t-shirts featuring lots of different witty anti-psychic / anti-woo / pro-critical thinking sayings…
if there’s one thing i’ve learned about skeptics these last couple of years, it’s that they invariably have wicked senses of humor.
Look here at pictures from TAM6 and TAM7 and you will see several great t-shirts. That is a coming out party for all the best shirts, and I am there taking their pictures. Mark Edward wore a great one this year….Smoke Crack, Worship Satan….some woman told him that that is a bit much even for this skeptic crowd.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sgerbic
LOL! some of those are quite interesting – though one that hadn’t much to do with woo was one of my favorites (the “i’m with stupid: arrow points to crotch” one)
you would think there would be a plethora of snarky anti-psychics shirts out there, but not so much.
get on it, funny people! :)
Lisa Williams was scheduled for an appearance here in Atlanta. I thought about organizing a group of skeptics to ambush her but……honestly I did not want to give the woman my money for a ticket. I did write an Email to the venue telling them that “ESP” was debunked YEARS ago. And that to take advantage of people’s grief by claiming to “communicate” with their dead loved ones, is in my opinion, the lowest of the low, the scum of all crooks. Needless to say, I did not receive a reply, and the show went on.