The Psychic Mafia

[admin]

I've just ordered The Psychic Mafia by M.Lamar Keene, has anyone read it by any chance? Here's the description:

'This is a fast-paced autobiographical account of a confessed charlatan who was one of the first mediums to admit his deception. M. Lamar Keene exposes the secrets mediums use to exploit believers.'

Sounds good!

[catzzzz]

Ive heard a bit about this book hun, do let me know if tis any good as I might yet buy it

[admin]

It seems to be very hard to get if you're in a hurry. Amazon Marketplace promised me a 1-2 day dispatch.. that was on August 30th and I'm still waiting. There's another book I want called Jesus The Magician but it looks like it's even harder to get. All these delays, tsk, I guess I've got no excuse not to do my revision.

[admin]

The book arrived today!! I read the whole thing this morning.

It was written in 1975 I think so a little outdated (and explains why it was out of print) and was mainly about Victorian-style seances that we don't hear as much about today, apart from the alleged CF trumpet incident.

However, there was some very interesting information about hot reading. It turns out that the spiritualist churches take down as much information about their congregations as possible and keep cabinets of information that is then made available to any guest medium visiting the church.

Another hot tip for getting information on someone is to pick-pocket them, or plant listening devices around them to gather information. Which didn't actually surprise me.

One very interesting part mentioned was the blind believer syndrome, where when Keene admitted his deception, people still refused to believe he was fraudulent and continued giving the church thousand of dollars even though he insisted it was all a lie.

What was great about the book was that it was straight to the point, completely matter of fact. He openly described how he sent accomplices into peoples homes to gather information and steal items, then when he spoke to them he urged them to give money to the church (which he owned) just because their deceased loved ones were saying they should, which they weren't obviously.

"Most mediums probably are what psychiatrists call sociopathic. They have a moral block..... most mediums apparently manage to anaesthetise their consciences......all the mediums I've known or known about have had tragic endings.
"The Fox Sisters... wound up as alcoholic derelicts.
Margery the medium lay on her deathbed a hopeless drunk.
The celebrated Arthur Ford fought the battle of the bottle to the very end and lost."

Rather telling.

A good book but I'd like to read something more modern now, something involving more cold reading and psychological techniques, and something that doesn't end with 'it's all okay because God loves us' (which unfortunately, this one did).


Lauren

[catzzzz]

Cheers hun!