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Research into psychic hotlines

  • 07-11-2007 03:54PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭


    I'm doing an investigative journalism piece into Psychic Hotlines, specifically in Ireland. I would love to talk to anyone with expeience either as customers or as an employee of one of these hotlines. I'd like to assure anyone interested in discussing the subject that I'm approaching this objectively not sceptically. Does the predictions given by tarot readers come to pass or do they simply influence the decisions people make as a result of the counsel recieved? Do customers feel that they get there moneys worth? To what extent can you trust that the person you are speaking to has the expertise to offer advise on important personal problems? If anyone makes use of these psychic services, offers counsel or even has a friend or possibly a family member who rings these numbers please contribute to the research. Any input is appreciated.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    Is this personal research or part of a course, educational instituate, research body etc?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 87 ✭✭witchywoman


    Prunty wrote: »
    I'm doing an investigative journalism piece into Psychic Hotlines, specifically in Ireland. I would love to talk to anyone with expeience either as customers or as an employee of one of these hotlines. I'd like to assure anyone interested in discussing the subject that I'm approaching this objectively not sceptically. Does the predictions given by tarot readers come to pass or do they simply influence the decisions people make as a result of the counsel recieved? Do customers feel that they get there moneys worth? To what extent can you trust that the person you are speaking to has the expertise to offer advise on important personal problems? If anyone makes use of these psychic services, offers counsel or even has a friend or possibly a family member who rings these numbers please contribute to the research. Any input is appreciated.
    i wonder why you wish to research this way, surely you could just ring up a few of the customer service numbers attached to these tarot lines, tell them you are doing research, and im sure you could get verifiable customer figures, reviews, testimonials of individual readers , etc. It is completelylegal and above board to provide these services in ireland, and as such, all line operators are required to pay taxes, licence excise , vat etc. it is a business like any other.it is worth noting that a pack of tarot cards cant predict future events with certainty, and that when people ring a tarot line, they accept that the only person who can alter the course of their own life, is themselves.As to whether the customer gets their moneys worth, of coursr this is an expensive way to get a reading, but you are paying for the instant access to a psychic, obviously at 2.40 per min a half hours consultation works out at 72 euros, considerably more than a face to face consultation with a psychic, which costs in the region of 50 euros.what you need to understand is that phone services are available up to 4am to offer divination, unlike normal psychics, who tend to work a 40 hr week , like everyone else.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭Prunty


    The research I'm conducting is for an Irish language article which is part of my college course work but will be published. The reason I posted a thread on boards was to try and find some members of the public who could share their experiences of the service. This thread is obviously not the only aspect of the research I'm conducting and I appreciate the suggestion that I should call up the customer service numbers for more info. I am presently researching a few of the companies operating in Ireland and although I will approach them for infomation I believe that the majority of information you recieve from any company concerning their affairs is serving their own interests. If I could find some current or former hotline workers in the public arena (this forum), I feel I would get a more honest and accurate account of the work they do as opposed to the description contained in reader testimonials sent out by their employers. Thanks for your input witchywoman, if you know anyone or if you yourself were involved with one of these companys I would appreciate the opportunity to ask them/you some questions. Anyone else who has an interest in or a knowledge of this industry please comment.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭Prunty


    It seems that no one feels confident enough to discuss their own experiences of tarot or psychic hotlines, which seems strange given that the two people who have posted here seem quite outspoken on other trends. As I've said I'm not looking to do a scathing report on a corrupt industry if everyone here advocates the use of the lines or at least is happy with the service, excellent. 6th you posted on other threads saying you were 'on a high' after a reading which is fair enough if you take comfort and the service thats excellent and shows a side to these hotlines not very well publicised. Witchywoman you seem to have a good knowledge of the industry, services and readings why aren't you comfortable talking to someone interested in finding out more? The less input people who enjoy the service give, the less likely it will be that the story will promote the benefits of the service. Please express your opinions. Cheers


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    Prunty wrote: »
    6th you posted on other threads saying you were 'on a high' after a reading which is fair enough if you take comfort and the service thats excellent and shows a side to these hotlines not very well publicised.

    I ahve never used a psychic hotline and unless I do it purely to have an opinion on them then I never will. I have gotten readings in person from readers/mediums but imo that is a completely different thing.

    You may also find that this forum being a community people share more among people who contribute than when someone comes on almost purely to do research. That said I have no problem with what you are doing but dont see anyway that I could help out at all.

    Best of luck,

    6th


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    Actually I do know that there are people on here who work or have worked for psychic hotlines but its their decision as to whether they want to come forward or not.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭Prunty


    Even the experience of readings is more insight then I've received so far, doesn't necessarily have to be conducted via a hotline. If youre aware of former employees could you direct them to the thread if they don't want to post fair enough but could you give them the oppertunity, that would be fantastic. Although I haven't posted on boards.ie until now I have used it as a resource for public views and consider it a very legitimate forum for public opinion. Although this is my first thread, you yourself started with one thread as did all other users, just because my first thread was looking for some help researching an article it hardly alters the aims of discussing a topic. Isn't every thread aimed at gathering information and debating issues what is more loyal to the principles of the site than gathering info and sharing it with others which is what I'll be doing by printing an article on my findings, it's not as if i'm benefiting financially off the back of this. Cheers for replying


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    Try getting in touch with these people:

    http://www.psychics.ie/

    http://www.irishpsychicslive.com/

    http://www.thetarotacademy.com

    These would be a good start for your research.

    Also if you want to drop me an email I might be able to help you out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 87 ✭✭witchywoman


    Prunty wrote: »
    It seems that no one feels confident enough to discuss their own experiences of tarot or psychic hotlines, which seems strange given that the two people who have posted here seem quite outspoken on other trends. As I've said I'm not looking to do a scathing report on a corrupt industry if everyone here advocates the use of the lines or at least is happy with the service, excellent. 6th you posted on other threads saying you were 'on a high' after a reading which is fair enough if you take comfort and the service thats excellent and shows a side to these hotlines not very well publicised. Witchywoman you seem to have a good knowledge of the industry, services and readings why aren't you comfortable talking to someone interested in finding out more? The less input people who enjoy the service give, the less likely it will be that the story will promote the benefits of the service. Please express your opinions. Cheers
    IF you wish to send me a private message i would be happy to give you whatever info you require.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 284 ✭✭Cinful


    I've worked crisis hotline. Obviously different. But confidentiality was key. You might get a bias sample? Nonprobability convenience sample at best? Can't generalize.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 782 ✭✭✭DANNY22XX


    it hard to get a real response from anyone involed with or uses a psychic hotlines,when you say you are doing a report how do we know its not for the paper or anything else,if its a good report or bad ,
    i personally am not psychic but there are a few here ,when you talk about report or story you are involving peoples lively hoods or passion,thats why you may not get the response you are looking for.
    but the best of luck in your quest:)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,934 ✭✭✭✭Stoner


    The Sticky: Psychics & Mediums (ask questions here) is usually at the top of the main paranormal forum due to how active it is, I'm sure a lot of people subscribe to it, this where most of this type of thing is discussed, the mods merge stuff into that thread relating to people looking for info etc, so I'd imagine that that would be a very good place to look for people who have tried it


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,369 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    Prunty wrote: »
    I'd like to assure anyone interested in discussing the subject that I'm approaching this objectively not sceptically.

    You cannot be objective without being sceptical.

    Pat Kenny had a great radio show on Irish psychic lines about a year ago. He had his researchers call in and see what would happen, recording the whole thing. I think he got in trouble for being so damn critical of them on the air, so it shouldn't be hard to track down a recording of the episode.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,369 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    There is no end to how amazing I am: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054854633


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,856 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    You useless fool! The links in that thread are for streaming, but they're 2 years out of date.

    Any links for download?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 56 ✭✭heirenach


    Hi Prunty.I think psychic hot lines are a scam.Most of them take advantage of people who are suffering personal problems ,depression,relationships etc and giving them false hopes of a better life and some put themselves as councillers.I think they should be banned they put so many people in debt.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,369 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    DaveMcG wrote: »
    You useless fool! The links in that thread are for streaming, but they're 2 years out of date.

    Any links for download?

    I have full confidence in your ability to track it down.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭Prunty


    Zillah wrote: »
    You cannot be objective without being sceptical.

    Pat Kenny had a great radio show on Irish psychic lines about a year ago. He had his researchers call in and see what would happen, recording the whole thing. I think he got in trouble for being so damn critical of them on the air, so it shouldn't be hard to track down a recording of the episode.


    Fair enough there has to be a degree of scepticism when critically analysing something, what I meant was that I'm not looking to rip into the whole industry/practice so people shouldnt think I've already decided its a sham. I read about that Pat Kenny interview but havent done much to track it down as of yet.

    In response to the claim that people who work for these hotlines, or simply have a passion for the practice, might be hessitant to talk fearing they might be putting their job at risk I can assure anonymity if they would prefer.

    Has anyone used one of these hotlines before?
    Do people with an interest in tarot readings believe that psychic hotlines are a genuine service or money making scheme?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 27,856 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    Ahh lads someone track that down! I heard it when it happened originally but wanna hear it again :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,247 ✭✭✭✭6th


    From today's Independent:
    SPACE CADET

    He graduated from weather forecasts for friends and family to telephone tarot readings that have earned him millions. Irish Psychics Live founder, Tom Higgins, talks to Donal Lynch about sceptics and space travel
    Tools


    Sunday November 25 2007

    I'm feeling quite nervous as my credit card is authorised and I'm put through to a real live Irish psychic. What if she shuffles her tarot cards or her coffee granules (that's what some of them use, apparently) and can tell I'm just doing research for an article?

    Saoirse puts me at ease as soon as she comes on the line. She doesn't have a mystical, Una Power-ish accent. She sounds young, probably from southside Dublin, and admits up front she can't say for sure if I'm going to win the Lotto or not.

    After some preliminary chit-chat, she shuffles the cards (at least, that's what she says she's doing -- she could be watching Oprah on silent, for all I know). The cards say that I'm feeling frustrated, that I need to take a break, that I'm getting ready for the future and that I've experienced a breakdown in communication with someone recently. All of it true, all of it true of virtually everyone I know.

    I'm disappointed to hear that my future sounds very much like my past. I was hoping she'd pull the Death card or the Hot Lover card from the deck. I tell her that my friends think I'm the gullible sort, the type who will buy even the vaguest, most half-baked advice.

    "Hmmmm, let's see now," she begins. "I'm just looking at your card . . . yes, well, it seems you need to focus on your own needs . . . you're in a hostile environment. You need to get a plan of action and get things into order. Be practical."

    After a few more minutes of soothing platitudes from Saoirse, the line seems to go dead and I fear she has pulled the "journalistic wind-up" card from the deck, but it's just a message telling me that I've been on for 15 minutes (but not that this means I've reached the €30 threshold). When we come back, I'm expecting Saoirse to try to keep me on the line -- after all, she's getting paid by the minute -- but maybe she's as bored as I am because she allows the conversation to finish naturally, telling me it's good to get in touch with my emotions. Later, I get a bill for €42, which would be good value for what Saoirse calls "a snapshot of the future" but probably a bit of a rip-off for half an hour of nebulous rambling.

    It's easy (very easy) to sneer, but with thousands of calls like mine every day, Irish Psychics Live has rapidly grown into one of the most successful premium phonelines in the world. Realm Communications, the company which runs Irish Psychics Live, made more than €5 million in profits last year. It has more than 40,000 regular users, employs 120 people (100 of them psychics) and it has made its owner, Tom Higgins, a millionaire many times over.

    Higgins has a portfolio of 10 properties dotted around the globe and, when in Ireland, divides his time between his Wicklow estate and the Donegal mansion he purchased from Daniel O'Donnell for almost €3 million earlier this year.

    He has also diversified into other areas and now owns a property-rental business in Alicante, Spain and was the executive producer and financier behind Ghostwood, an Irish horror film starring Patrick Bergin. Formerly a fairly low-profile businessman, Higgins has emerged in recent years as very much the public face of Irish Psychics Live and has been involved in a bitter and public spat with Pat Kenny, who he embarrassed last year. Now, Higgins intends to become the first Irishman in space: he has booked his place for a space flight in 2009 at a cost of €200,000, which his business will pay for as a "publicity tool".

    Higgins's rise to the ranks of the super-wealthy is all the more remarkable given that he left school at 16 without any qualifications before working on a few dead-end jobs. His main "talent" as a young man was for issuing amateur weather forecasts to family and friends in Naas, which he would form by looking at the sky and reading Met Eireann weather charts. He had a consuming interest in science fiction and a belief in the paranormal -- his mother, he claims, was psychic -- and he parlayed this into a career as a freelance journalist, supplying stories on "weird happenings" to newspapers and radio programmes, including the Gerry Ryan Show.

    In 1991, Higgins made his first foray into the premium-line business. Having completed a correspondence course in meteorology, he decided to set up a weather forecast phoneline which would rival that of Met Eireann. Despite the fact that the national weather forecaster was at the time offering forecasts free over the phone, Higgins charged 48p a minute for his service.

    Somewhat surprisingly, it was massively successful: many observers pinpoint this as the moment when Higgins first realised that there really is one born every minute. Higgins has always denied this, insisting that the service was more successful than Met Eireann's because it was more accurate and people trusted it. The premium line is still in operation, now known as WeatherTel and run in conjunction with the Irish Farmers' Association.

    Buoyed by the success of the weather line, and already wealthy, Higgins decided in the late Nineties to plough some of the weather-forecasting capital back into a tarot- reading, premium-rate phoneline. He says that he started the business not to make money, but to see if he could convince the broader Irish public of the possibility of psychic powers.

    He approached several psychics and tarot readers who he had met during his days as a journalist and asked them if they would be interested in working for him. Even the psychics were sceptical that anyone would buy a tarot reading on the phone but there were calls from day one and Higgins confidently claimed that Celts were "the most psychic race in the world".

    A trickle of business turned into a torrent when the new service received apparent endorsement from Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy, who at the time was working as a researcher on Kenny's radio show. The reading that Tubridy recorded referred to him being influenced by an older, fair-haired man and indicated that Tubridy would soon be offered a promotion. Kenny professed on air that his "mind had been opened" and Higgins loudly credited a huge upturn in business to Pat Kenny.

    Kenny was understood to be furious at this and nearly a decade later he interviewed Higgins on the subject of Irish Psychics Live. The broadcaster angrily attacked the service on air, alleging that Higgins was a charlatan and, according to Higgins, off air demanded to know why his (Kenny's) name was being used in promotional materials for Irish Psychics Live. The interview virtually descended into a shouting match at one point and Kenny was later censured by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission for allowing his own views to colour the tone of the interview, and forced to make an on-air apology.

    The Commission made no ruling on the other part of the complaint (which was submitted by a psychic, Valerie Pemberton, who worked for Higgins) which related to the veracity of the claim that psychics are con artists -- and, in fairness, Kenny and his researchers put forward fairly irrefutable proof that Higgins is peddling an expensive charade to the extremely gullible.

    But proof that psychic powers don't actually exist is nothing new: for decades organisations such as the James Randi Foundation have been trying to convince the paying public to think more critically about so-called psychics. Randi is a Canadian magician who demonstrates many of the techniques used by psychics (including Uri Geller) and has devoted his life to debunking paranormal myths.

    Randi has made a long-standing offer of $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate under controlled, mutually agreed conditions that they actually possess a "psychic or paranormal ability". To date, nobody has stepped forward to claim the money.

    In the area of psychology, those such as Professor Christopher French, an expert in anomalistic psychology at Goldsmith College, University of London, add their scepticism. French has published many articles in the British Journal of Clinical Psychology explaining how people can lead themselves to believe that a series of coincidences and the techniques of a skilled charlatan can add up to something that could not be possible.

    "The fact of the matter," says Paul O'Donoghue of the Irish Skeptics Society, "is that, to date, no evidence has been offered by the scientific community as supporting paranormal or psychic abilities.

    "We accept that people are entitled to believe, just as we would accept that they are entitled to believe in God," he continues. "It's when people make claims, be that for 'the power of prayer' or for 'the power of distance healing', that you really have to challenge it."

    Many credit the rise of Irish Psychics Live and other similar businesses to the decline in the influence of the Catholic Church.

    "It's certainly the case that, as the Church has gone through a rough few years, so we've seen a lot more of this kind of thing," one priest told me. "It's not just the psychics either -- you have homeopathy, reiki healing and all that stuff as well. It's all very a la carte, it can all be bought -- a little like the practice of forgiving sins for money in the late Middle Ages -- and it doesn't make the same demands on you that religion does, that's the key."

    The defence Tom Higgins mounts for his service is couched in a series of careful caveats and exceptions. On the Irish Psychics Live website it says that: "Psychic prediction is available to those who acknowledge that there is a higher realm of knowing beyond the physical body." This forms the most common justification for a psychic not being able to predict the future to those who do not already believe in the paranormal, and is the catch-all exemption for getting things wrong. When a sceptic seeks a reading the "energy is negative" or the "vibrations are off". And forget laboratory conditions: no psychic could be expected to work in those.

    Higgins acknowledges that no proof is possible but tells me that this is not the same thing as something not being true.

    "Supposing you saw a UFO and nobody else saw it," he says. "Science won't have proven its existence but you'll still have seen it. Does this mean you won't believe it?"

    I tell him I don't believe in UFOs, either. "Ah, you're a lost cause," he laughs. "But seriously, I challenge anyone to try it for themselves. Only when you do that can you say it's not real."

    He asks me if I've ever read Einstein: "His theories support the possibility of someone having psychic powers. He said that at the quantum level, the past, present and future are the same. Human consciousness exists on the quantum level."

    I put this to Professor Peter Hogan, a UCD-based physicist and specialist in Einstein's theory of General Relativity.

    "I don't know what motivates the psychics," Prof Hogan told me. "I guess the mention of Einstein, who is universally known, even by people who have never studied him, is to add an air of seriousness-by-association to their claims, or an air of sensationalism if their claims run counter to something he may have contributed to."

    It's easy to dismiss it as a bit of harmless fun or to say that people are entitled to waste their money however they choose, but one of the most persistent objections to Irish Psychics Live is that it preys on vulnerable people and that the psychics act in a quasi-counselling role -- something they are not qualified to do.

    "That's ridiculous," Higgins counters.

    "My critics are obsessed with evidence for psychic powers but where is their evidence that our customers are damaged or vulnerable? They really must have a very dim view of these people's intelligence if that's their opinion."

    I asked Tom Higgins if I could speak to some of the customers of Irish Psychics Live, but tracking them down proved surprisingly difficult.

    "It's not something people want to admit to using," he conceded. "I'll have to see what I can do."

    Eventually, I spoke to two women, but both agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity.

    Mary, from Dublin, said she contacted the service regarding her son.

    "He had fallen into bad company, he was getting into trouble," she told me. "The psychic told me there was someone I needed to pay more attention to."

    Mary's husband was initially a sceptic, but he listened in one night and was, she says, "fascinated" and "convinced". The psychics, she says, described the house she was going to move into.

    Jessica, from France, told me she had always believed in psychics; she was brought up in a household that was "open to psychic beliefs" and a psychic told her she would move here. She had contacted Irish Psychics Live "the odd time", usually, it seems, on low-level problems such as whether a house deal was going to go through or not. She dismissed the idea that Irish Psychics Live is, for a lot of people, just someone to talk to.

    "I have plenty of friends," she explained, "but this is something different. It wouldn't be the same if they didn't have these powers. But I don't think it's for everyone."

    In England and the US, much of the criticism of psychics has centred around the practice of trying to locate missing people or dead bodies. The parents of Shawn Hornbeck, a young boy from Missouri who went missing four years ago, were visibly distressed as they were told live on television by psychic Sylvia Browne that their son was dead and that she had seen his body. Shawn was found alive earlier this year in the home of convicted paedophile Michael Devlin, who is now serving multiple life sentences. Such cases present a huge possibility for publicity for a working psychic, but also leave them open to charges of being exploitative charlatans. I ask Higgins if he would consider having his employees see if they could locate Madeleine McCann.

    "I have been tempted, to be honest," he tells me, "but it would have to be somebody really good, who was really sure. I wouldn't want to be accused of exploiting the family or the situation."

    If cornered on a point, Higgins tends to say that people should "give it a try", "keep an open mind" and, finally, that people should relax because it's "only entertainment", which seems like a huge cop-out when in the same breath he's telling you that he really and truly believes that it works.

    He speaks with the relaxed satisfaction of knowing that the hazy guff of the paranormal will always be more saleable than scepticism and that for every James Randi there are a thousand Uri Gellers. The more journalists and others try to point out the impossibility of Higgins's claims, the more his business grows and the richer he gets. But of course it's not about the money. It's about "opening people's minds".

    Higgins now opens minds as far afield as Australia and there are plans to expand the tarot service to Spain, the UK and Portugal. Next year will probably (he can't say for certain -- even the psychics aren't sure) see Higgins in space. He's already met Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and undergone training in the US (which was overseen by NASA). He's still waiting to hear back if he or Bill Cullen -- renowned as Ireland's "Mr Renault" -- has the elusive first place on the spaceship. According to Higgins, he had his name down first and has paid, but Cullen is mates with Richard Branson, who owns Virgin Galactic, which is sending the spaceship into space.

    Higgins, ever with an eye to publicity, wanted there to be a space quiz on the Late Late Show to decide the owner of the seat on the first space ride but Cullen apparently would not agree to this and now a draw is supposed to take place.

    "I'll get there," Higgins tells me. "It's like Irish Psychics: the more people try to tell me I'll never make it, the more I try to prove them wrong. I live for the challenges."


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 240 ✭✭Prunty


    Cheers 6th, thats very helpful I wasn't aware of the articlce. What do you make of it? If at all possible I'd still love to get your take on tarot readers and your opinion of the hotlines. Cheers.


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