Are you going to the psychic fair?
On Saturday I went to a psychic fair. I like to think I'm a fairly worldly sort of a person but I didn't even know that such a thing existed. It's just that when you're biking along on your way to the supermarket musing on what constitutes a fair price for an avocado, you don't expect to see a sign like the one pictured at right. What can I say, I'm a fan of the "vivid marker on corrugated cardboard" aesthetic. Very low-fi, very now.
Anyway, once I'd seen it I was powerless to resist. I was going to have to check it out for the sake of curiosity. All sorts of things ran through my mind. Foremost would have to be "what the 9=sl;f is a psychic fair?"
I like fairs generally. Rummaging around looking for a bargain among endless boxes of McDonald's toys and seventies coffee mugs. Now that's my idea of a good time. I hardly ever buy anything, mind you, but that's not really the point. It's the only time in my life I actually come into physical contact with doilies. Fairs are noteworthy for that fact alone.
In my not-very-psychic-mind I was imagining that this particular fair might include stalls with books on dream interpretation and tarot card reading, videotapes of old episodes of Sensing Murder and The Ghost Whisperer for sale. Maybe someone would be in a corner making dreamcatchers. At the very least I was expecting tea, for the purposes of leaf-reading.
It turns out that's not what you get at a psychic fair at all. There wasn't even a caravan selling hot chips, room temperature soft drinks and hot dogs on sticks. What a ripoff.
It's not entirely my fault that I was thinking such things. After all, there was a table full of sad, old-looking knick-knacks outside the front of the hall.
So excitedly I trotted into the hall, wondering what the chances were that I might be able to buy my own crystal ball, but when I got through the entrance I was confronted by a poorly lit room with some chairs and tables lining the walls where punters were getting readings. Near the doorway (i.e. immediately in front of where I came in) were two rows of chairs, back to back, where people were waiting until it was their turn. It was the waiting room of the damned and the desperate. It was grey and uninspiring. There definitely weren't any gypsies. Everyone looked up as I walked in, paused for about 2.3 seconds to take in my surroundings, and turned tail skedaddling as quickly as a skedaddler could skedaddle.
Probably just as well. Can you imagine haggling at a psychic fair? Really? You're sure you only have $11 on you to pay for this old toastie maker? Because I'm "sensing" you have a note in your wallet and it's a green one so I predict that you'll give me twenty for it. I'd be like trying to get a bargain from Sookie Stackhouse.
So no supernaturally themed scavenging for me on Saturday. Despite my foray into clairvoyant consumerism lasting barely seconds, I still can't get the tune to Scarborough Fair out of my head.
Do you have the same weakness for random fairs (psychic or otherwise)? Does anyone else think it's weird to have your future "foretold" across a folding table metres away from someone else?
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I'm with Dara O Briain - take psychics, homeopathists, nutritionists and put them in a sack & apply liberal use of a large stick. I love his piece about being on an Irish TV show with a psychic, who proceeded to ask if anyone in the audience had "lost a Mary". In IRELAND! Mary! Talk about an educated guess :)
Uh-oh, Moata. You seem to have hit on something here. I loathe the likes of Deb Webber, Kelvin Cruickshank et al. They are a bunch of parasitic leeches, feeding off the despair of grieving people. It makes me feel physically ill even to think about how they manipulate and lie, usually for financial gain. Disgusting emotional vampires. Jeremy Wells had it right when he called it "Sensing Bullsh*t". It is, and always will be.
Rant over - I'm always up for a good carboot sale or book fair though. I'm always straight for the vinyl (records that is). Last big find, a minter Frampton Comes Alive for $2!
Haha...my mother and sister both went to a psychic at one of these fairs, since you book in with just your first name he didnt know they were related, and told them both the same story!! that in their past life they had been a chinese doctor, and had been responsible for the death of a baby by misdiagnosis and that guilt had carried on to this life! In saying that, while I don't hold the psychics that appear in fairs like that in very high regard, I still do believe the 'good'ones...usually the only ones worth going to are the ones that are in high demand (take bookings 3-12 months in advance.) Honestly, I have been to a few of them that HAVE been spot on!!
"Everyone looked up as I walked in"
That is because they knew you were coming.
@Alice2 #2 - I'm just wondering how you can lump nutritionists in with homeopaths and psychics?
And another thing, there seems to be quite a lot of staunch atheists who hang out on this site.
Don't believe in psychics (or God, btw) but do believe in holistic health care (naturopathy, acupuncture, etc). So sue me.
@ Ctase #6 .. whats believing or not believing in psychics got to do with believing in a God?
I think its utter twaddle too, having people talk to the dead that really is about soothing the living and getting some dosh. As for telling a fortune or the future I'm pretty sure that people who believe in destinies will attempt to follow what they were told making them a self fufilling prophecy.. the question is would all that have happened if they hadn't been told to do it? I mean really.. one day we will look back at this and scoff like we did with predetermination and the kalvinstic church.
There's no difference in believing in psychics and the paranormal and believing in Jesus.
Wow Stuff seems to be giving it to the psychics today! Linley Boniface is a little bit more negative though. And I agree. Leeches! However I went as a teenager with my other teenage girlfriends, it is a girl thing, and was quite annoyed I spent all that money on nothing. Ah well you live and learn. @ Leon I heard that joke endlessly from my relatives as a result.
@ Davo - do you stand in front of department store Santas and tell the 3 year olds he doesn't exist? You have such a negative energy about these sorts of things.
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Oh no......you shouldn't have gotten me started on this! These things are rubbish, they have been proved rubbish, yet some people still believe becasue they "want it to be true". I admit, it would be nice to be able to chat to my deceased relatives, and find out what they have been up to. But just because I think it would be nice, doesn't mean it is going to happen, or is even possible! There are all sorts of studies done which prove this, yet they just get ignored by people who believe in....and I am finding it hard to even say this word...."spirituality". Sorry, I was a little sick in my throat when I typed that. I saw a study where a "seemingly intelligent?" woman was read by a psychic, and she came away amazed at how he "had everything absolutely spot on". Yet when it was played back, and counts taken, exactly 6% of his guesses were correct. The woman had forgotten the 94% he had gotten wrong. In short....we believe what we want to be true. That doesnt mean it is. The only reason I would have gone to a psychic fair would have been to point and laugh. And chat up ex librarians.