Out of the Frying Pan and Into…?
I Was One of America’s Top Psychics — and Like All of Them, A Complete Fraud!
So reads the banner at Alternet.com Yep – that’s me folks! As reported in a series of short excerpts on Alternet, “PSYCHIC BLUES” is starting to get some positive traction – and ruffle some woo feathers too. Not a peep from “the skeptic community” but plenty of good feedback at Amazon and Alternet.
If you go to: http://www.alternet.org/print/
One of my favorite comments (so far):
“If you read all the comments here from people complaining that “true” psychics have been smeared then you will realize the immense value of such an article to humankind.”
Wow. Put that on my tombstone when I’m gone.
So what will the big media people do with all this? Probably nothing. It would upset their fall programming of more paranormal bull crap. I have tried to reach Witch Doctor Phil and others to no avail. I will remain calm and cautiously optimistic for now. Most of the people who wrote such contrite comments as “Mark Edward is doing a great disservice to all the real psychics” will likely never take the time to read “Blues,” and that’s a shame, because that’s what having psychic blues is all about. It’s sometimes a sad dead end road no one really wants to travel. As Robin Williams has said, “…Reality, what a concept.”
I’m not de-bunking, nor am I a convicted criminal (as some seem to think) making tons of cash as I languish in prison for my fraudulent lifestyle. Nope, I’m just telling a true tale of business as usual in The Golden Age of the Con we are living in right now. I won’t press the issue any further here but rather invite readers who may be curious to read the reviews at Amazon and watch the Feral House video trailer here:
Thank You Feral House Publishing!
-Fairfield County Weekly
“The most courageous and incendiary publisher in the U.S.”
-Headpress
SRO Crowd in Reno for the Kick-off PSYCHIC BLUES Book Tour at The End of Time Annual MENSA Gathering
I like this idea a lot, but it also scares me. I wonder how long it would be before my re-read stack was just as big.
Thanks Mark – I’ll have to get myself a copy. :)
Ii has been suggested that I stop feeding the trolls over at the “Psychic Blues” Alternet comment section. This is difficult because it’s so tempting to try to combat the mis-representations that could grow out of the misinformation people are spreading – without even reading my book! So THAT’s what a troll is. It’s frightening to think there are still people out there who are concerned about crop circles, remote viewing and that old “ten percent of the brain” myth. Barnum was right.
Pre-ordered my Kindle edition yesterday, Mark. If you have a Phoenix stop on your book tour, I’ll bring it by for a signing.
Oh, wait…
:)
The Universe is an infinite source of ideas that can find a home and take root on a writer’s pages and an artist’s canvases — if one is open to them. You obviously are.
Another spam fail.
From a person who bought and read “Psychic Blues,” I had to sahre this email. These are the sort of notes I get that make it all worthwhile:
“Thank you for your support. I always knew it, but I now know that I am not alone in doing readings at our little thrift shop. I have an undergraduate degree in psychology, but it as useless as the pope’s balls when it comes to finding a job. I will never get rich at $40.00 per, but I will never go without food for me and my son, I hope.
“Nightmare Alley” keeps me on the straight and narrow. I tried for a graduate degree in counseling, but failed. I could not do it, but I now owe $11,000 in student loans. The students in my class scared the hell out of me. They were in a mess…How could they ever help anyone when they could not help themselves? The entire system would collapse if everyone involved stopped “signing on.”
I am a card reader and nothing more. I do not believe in psychics. If they were psychic, they would know lottery numbers and have the best 401k’s. I do, however, believe in intuition.
Thanks Again”
Although I don’t want to be responsible for encouraging or creating any more psychics of any stripe out there, this fellow got the message, the “Blues” part of the message that is – that people in times of woe or stress are going to seek out soemone to talk to and I hope his plight is not made worse for it.
Sounds like the blind leading the blind.
Really? Who’s the blind person here? I don’t get what you mean. Pretending we don’t have a totally messed-up social system with people in desparate need of some sort of way to vent or express their fears without recourse to the superntaural scammers seems like a reasonably good fit to me. I doubt if 10% of the frauds out there have degrees in psychology. Common sense tell me if I owed 11k in student loans and had the knowledge and will to help out a few people that way, I sure wouldn’t flip burgers for a living.
People who can’t find a decent job or pay off their debt shouldn’t be giving financial and career advice, unless it’s “Don’t do what I did.”
That may be exactly what the “intuitive” side of this person’s advice will be. I can only hope so.
The olny true psychics have window signs, “Walk-ins Foreseen”
It is very interesting written article of yours. Thank you for sharing this information.
Click here to seeSSC Ultimate Aero
I just finished reading “Psychic Blues” and am a bit confused as to why James Randi endorsed it. Randi’s reward for doing so is to appear in the “Acknowledgements” section alongside Uri Geller, which must hurt. The author at no point shows any particular remorse about his actions and implies that he continues to make a living by telling people their fortunes. I suppose I was envisaging some sort of conversion or something, but, no, he keeps on suckering chumps with Tarot cards for money.
There is also the fact that he has come to actually believe his own nonsense. Consider:
“The amazing thing was that, even though the cards of these two Hollywood toasts-of-the-town had been thoroughly mixed by each of them individually, Brian and Gigi had ended up with the exact same three cards, only in different aspects— past, present, and future. It was evident they were true soul mates, but with patterns that ran in different directions. This kind of tarot spread almost never happens. Sure, once in a while a married couple may have one or two cards alike, but rarely all three.” (p. 205)
“Conflicted” may indeed be the word, because it looks there like Mr Edward actually does believe that the people’s mystical vibrations are influencing their tarot card selections — even though he mocks his true-believer associates as “shut-eyes”. Laying down with dogs will get you fleas, I suppose. A similar confusion seems to exist when it comes to his “trusty pendulum” (although he also reports having “many different pendulums” so who knows how trusty he actually thinks it is):
“When most people hold the end of the pendulum chain and ask it a question, it will swing in a back-and-forth line for a yes answer, and in a small circle for a no.” — page 140.
Well, quite. I’d like to see that tested.
The “Conflicted” of the title manifests also in the endless stream of self-serving and even quasi-heroic anecdotes wherein his readings save damsels in distress. Well, gosh, Mark, aren’t you wonderful? That makes up for scamming poor and vulnerable people for a small cut of $3.99 a minute and acting in phony Psychic Friends ads that used staged hot-reading techniques you had sworn were beneath you, I’m sure.
But the most obvious and sad part of the “conflict” that the author feels is that he yearns for “respect”. He deplores a coworker who views psychics with “thinly disguised disrespect, if not outright distain [sic].” — p 102, and complains that “I sometimes get paid quite well for my services— at least as much as a plumber— but respect is a whole other matter.” — p 185.
At the end of the day, it seems that Mr Edward is “a Conflicted Medium” because knows his contemptible, dishonest career hasn’t earned him the respect he craves.
Not quite. At the end of my day, I have been writing here for over four years, work heavily within the skeptuic community (and always have) and more to the point; know that simply writing another de-bunking book without any magical moments would not be realistic and will never reach the mass audience that the “conflicetd” title suggests. Take it or leave it.
I still like your way better though. A blog should be appreciated for its overall beauty