Religious and Supernatural Frauds
If someone can convince us they have supernatural powers or some
privileged connection to God, they are very dangerous,
since this gives them great leverage in acquiring our money by playing
on our fears and emotions.
Houdini and mediums who claimed to contact the dead
Houdini, the famous magician and escape artist was very interested in
the possibility of contacting the dead, especially after his mother
died. Mediums who performed
séances to contact the dead were common at that time, so he
tried many of them in hopes of contacting his mother. Unlike most
people who went to mediums, Houdini was an expert in magic and the
techniques for fooling people. Although he searched far and wide, every
medium he encountered turned out to be a phony.
Fortune tellers
Fortune telling of various sorts has been a popular way for the
unscrupulous to make money. If a client is wealthy, a popular ploy is
to tell them they are in grave danger but there is a way to avoid it,
although there are expenses
involved, such as extra sessions and magical candles that must be
burnt. Naturally they are strung along as long as possible with the
price increasing to ever higher amounts.
Fortune telling techniques
People are often amazed at the knowledge of palm readers and others who
claim to have psychic powers. Typically these people are skilled at
making vague suggestions, often in the form of questions, and being
very attentive to pick up clues about their client. They might ask "Are
you fond of pets?". If the client says yes, they reply "Yes, I could
sense that.", while if the client answers no, they might say "I didn't
think so." An unsuspecting client might not realize that there was no
prediction made here at all.
Other techniques involve noticing details of clothing, speaking style,
and the nature of friends that may accompany the client in order to
improve the likelihood of impressing the client with correct statement
about them.
Faith Healers: The Wheelchair Trick
Some dishonest faith healers will invite people in wheelchairs to stand
up on the stage to show a miracle of healing. When they successfully
stand, the crowd understandably believes the healer has demonstrated
healing powers. One way this can be accomplished, as observed by the
magician and debunker James Randi, starts off with careful preparation
as the crowds arrive at the meeting place. Anyone who actually arrives
in a wheelchair is directed to a location in the back of the
auditorium, well out of sight of most attendees. When someone arrives
who has a limp or other minor walking problem, the healer's assistants
insist that they take a wheelchair provided by the healer and sit near
the front. The healer knows that those in the specially provided
wheelchairs are actually able to walk, and that they will be able to
stand when he asks them to. Those who do the standing aren't given an
opportunity to say they were able to walk beforehand. They assume the
healer has made an honest mistake, while the rest of the crowd is
amazed by his healing power.
Faith Healers: Divine Knowledge
Healers sometimes like to amaze their audience by knowing information
about selected individuals, like name and address and the nature of an
illness, that seems like it must have been received directly from God.
Typically the information is gathered by the healer's assistants
beforehand, perhaps by asking them to fill out "prayer cards" which are
then collected. The healer, who has been trained in memorization
techniques, is shown the necessary information which he later uses to
wow the crowd. In one case, James Randi exposed such a healer who was
receiving radio transmissions to a fake hearing aid he was wearing. An
accomplice was sending him detailed information that had been gathered
from people in the audience.
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