(26)    Sun 16 Nov 97  7:45
By: Fredric Rice
To: All
Re: America's Most Wanted "Psychics"
St: Local
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@MSGID: 1:218/890@FidoNet a00755b2
@PID: FM 2.02
America's Most Wanted last night covered a couple of "psychics" which
are hiding from the police.  They took an undisclosed amount of money
from an ignorant old woman after she was convinced that her family was
cursed due to a shipwreck of a ship her family had owned 200 years ago.

Each man who died on the ship, these "psychics" told her, needed
11,000 each to end the curse.  There were 28 or 29 people on the ship.
(Which makes me wonder if the ship was the Edmond Fitzgerald written
in song.)

I didn't see anything very different that these two did which nearly
all "psychics" and astrologers do -- the _amount_ of money was different
yet the deception and taking advantage of the weak and stupid was the
same.  The "psyhic" had learned about this woman's family and learned
about an old shipwreck where people died.  They convinced her that her
family was cursed and that everything bad which happens to it was the
result of this curse.  It wouldn't surprise me if the old woman was told
by the "psychic" that she "saw" the shipwreck in a trance or some other
foolishness.

Tom Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted" stated that these two
stepped beyond "psychic hot lines."  He said, "If you look closely at
the bottom of your screen when viewing ads for 'psychic' not lines,
you'll not that it says, 'For entertainment purposes only.'  If you
want to have a little fun and spend a few dollars..."  that was okay in
his opinion yet, "If you're told your money is cursed or you are asked
to spend money to lift curses, the only thing lifted will be your money."
(I paraphrase this yet it's about what I remembered.)

The pair if "psychics" hiding out were, it was said, probably being
hiddent by their family -- Gypsies in the Florida area living near
what was called, "Psychic City."

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 * Origin: Creationist: Why yes, Rome _was_ built in a day. (1:218/890)