Mediums and Psychics

This the index to my articles about spirit mediums and other types of psychic practitioners. Some famous, some quirky, and some outright frauds. In any period of history psychic are always unorthodox, adventurous and fascinating people. More will be added as I continue my research.

By definition a psychic is anyone who has abilities than cannot be explained by known, natural laws of science. A medium is more specifically someone who communicates with other people by psychic means, either living people or the spirits of the dead.

When you start looking into psychic it becomes clear that they are a very diverse group and it is difficult to generalize. The following articles cover interesting episodes from the lives of psychics, some well-known and some obscure--but all interesting.

In a way the stories of individual psychics are the story of this activity in the professional realm. They span the range from strangely gifted to outright fraud. Showing that these (alleged)abilities are largely what people make of them.

I remain agnostic about the entire possibility of psychic gifts, probably leaning more towards being a skeptic than a believer. And yet the existence of that possibility if fascinating to me and it would be thrilling to find conclusive proof.

For a human abilities to be claimed so consistencies across history and between cultures there needs to be something to it. Whether it is a real ability or just a deep human need that makes as vulnerable to this kind of delusion.

And even if psychic abilities are not entirely real, this would not necessarily mean their services are without value to those who believe.

It has been suggest that a good psychic functions much in the same way as a psychotherapist in allowing people to face and ultimately overcome the difficulties in their lives.

But some of the stories above are truly cautionary tales where deliberate frauds are willing to prey in people in a moment of weakness.

^{glennwilliamspdx / Foter.com / CC BY}

The bottom line for me was that psychic are such fascinating people. They are people who have taken an unusual path. The way they practice tells us a lot about the history of their time, and especially the role of women. Psychic are essentially modern day witches. they have special knowledge and certain tricks. Some hep people become the best versions of themselves, some scam people out of their life savings, and some are rampant self-promoters. I've told you the stories so you can decide which are which....