:)

Terry

I am pretty sensitive to being as ethical as possible. As I have said in other comments, I actually stopped doing some effects for friends because they started to believe my powers were real. Having said that...

IF I were to do a headline prediction (which is unlikely) and IF there was a horrendous event, here's some possibilities of what I would do:

1- Make my prediction very vague, even if that means the effect is diminished. For example, if the headline concerned a major earthquake in California, my prediction might involve a "the west coast" and maybe the rictor scale reading as a whole number, or a series of numbers (ie: 7.5 would be 7 or 7, then a 5). That way I could say that I didn't know what the number referred to, but that it would be a big event.

2- As mentioned elsewhere, the prediction could be the headline of another story or a different section. I would just suck it up and say I missed the main headline.

In any case, if it became an issue, I would definitely NOT try to claim supernatural powers. I wouldn't do that anyway, but especially in this case, it's not a time to play semantic games and let people guess whether or not I was genuine.

This was discussed quite a bit on the NBC forum... Loribeth has some info.
Hell, even the FBI and CIA sent memo's to the President

Here's jut one
http://warning-notice.blogspot.com/2007/......ice.html

When I went to that web site I found a prediction from 1983(!)-Well I guess it's at least a bit more current than Nostradamus- about a plane attacking the Capital building piloted by a man whose name was like "Jerry, Gerard, or Gerlado." Small problem: this prediction did not come true. No plane was flown into the Capital building even if you do think "Ziad Jarrah" sounds like "Jerry." Why didn't this psychic see the planes that actually hit their targets? Sorry. No cigar for the vague 18-year-old vision.

Also on this site was a 1986(!) prediction...something about "burning and loud noises, almost like banging. Focus is then averted to Washington, D.C. and the White House. There is a feeling of great sadness within the crowd, while at the same time almost like relief. The sadness has been occasioned because of the death of military personnel who were killed while aborting an air attack directed at Washington." The White House was not attacked on 9/11 and I don't remember any military personnel being killed "while aborting an air attack" on the Pentagon. No cigar here either.

Closer to a cigar would be this same psychic who said, in a vision of New York City, "Site is a massive grey smooth structure. It has a stepped or different level feeling ... Newspaper headlines have something to do with a collapse of a building -- a lot of people hurt or injured. I also sense a feeling of panic, people scrambling and perhaps something to do with an aircraft ... I see the object may cause structural damage as it crashes through the building. All of this takes place sometime in the future." Sometime in the future, eh? Wow. That's very helpful. I hate those predictions about the past!

The article fails to go into these psychics' other predictions and what percentage of other vague "hits" they've had as compared to their misses. If all their vague visions take place in the future, with no specific time frame then what practical use are they? I'm sure if we wait another 15 years or so we'll get another aircraft flying into another building somewhere. In fact (going into a trance), I predict it!

I'm a member of a paranormal meetup group here in NYC. I'm their self-appointed resident skeptic. A couple of months ago at a meeting, I brought up 9/11 as evidence of the nonexistence/uselessness of psychic predictions. A couple of members claimed they did have premonitions. One said, "During the weeks before 9/11 the number 11 kept popping up in my life. Whenever I looked at the clock it was, like, always 11 minutes after the hour, etc." Again I ask- what good are any of these vague premonitions if they do absolutely nothing to avert a tragedy?

I think quite often, what is labelled as psychic - is often what is a hollywood version of what psychic could mean...

like a superhero almost, being able to stop death in its track at all turns, predict lottery numbers all that jazz...

but it could, dependant on how you choose to view things, actually mean that one person is just that bit more in touch with what some would call:
intuition
gut instinct
or, a form of mental awareness

a higher state of mental awareness, could, and I only mean could, be what psychic-ability should mean...

so, though you can't say "mind guerrilla will today buy a new item that's stored in his kitchen..." though that is vague and general, you could look at it as at least slightly specific - as you could do a miilion and one things on each day..

so the wider view its still pretty good that I mentioned:
you buying something
and its in the kitchen

but close up its rubbish cos:
in the hollywood view of things, I should also know you spent a certain amount of money, it was going to be plates, and you'll be storing them in a glass cabinet (bottom left) of your cupboards..

maybe we should entertain the idea that psychic doesn't have to automatically mean "full blown precise mental predictions", but just a higher state of awareness in comparison to most other people...

just my view anyway...

talking of 9/11, on the english version on the underground 7/7, I remember suddenly having the urge the day before, to take that following day off work (i did)when I awoke that morning on someone's couch - and turned on the tv - there was the tube line I used everyday, it went off when I'd be using it, and where I usually sit/stand too...

complete coincidence I know...but maybe we should loosen our views on what psychic means...maybe?

Sure, as long as we can all agree on how useless they are.

If vague feelings and coincidences are indistinguishable from so-called psychic phenomena, why choose to use the label "psychic phenomena" as opposed to "vague feelings and/or coincidence"? Seems like a whole lot of wishful thinking to me.

The notion of psychic ability is exciting and romantic but is it real? The notion of Earth being visited regularly by extraterrestrials is likewise exciting and romantic. Like Fox Mulder, "I Want to Believe." Unlike Fox, however, I can't believe without solid proof. I'd like to believe a bite from a radioactive spider could give me the ability to climb buildings too. But believing in something just because it makes me feel good doesn't cut it for me.

Our reality is full of so many wondrous things, why must we search beyond it? Seems like the ultimate form of greed to me, i.e. "The known universe just isn't enough for me!"

Ah..i didn't use the word "psychic phenomena"...

the thing is, not a lot of what we do is ultimately "real" is it...there are exceptions, but in general, we are all performing stuff that is "unobtainable" for most people...we are performers, performing the exceptional...

exciting an romantic - that's exactly how I see it, and I think there's a lot of emotional connectivity/depth to that if used correctly...

it's like some people mistake psychic with mediumship...two massively different things...but some don't see the difference...

as a side note, I'm personally sick of some (and only some) performing using the whole nlp/body language thing nowadays, purely cos they've seen derren use it...i think there's quite a wide variety of explanations available for people to explain their overall geist as it were...

I think to do something outside of the known universe is rather spicy and tantalising...

I won't bore you all with my atom-argument...

just because you cant prove something, doesn't mean it doesn't exist..it just means we don't have the ability to prove that it does yet...

or we're lying..

when there's been tsunami, all the animals dissapeared before it struck, I'd love to know exactly how - some kind of inate sense of "something" bad happening? or do they just have a better way of forecasting the weather and they keep it to themselves?

I will revist this controversal subject since I am planning to do my first headline prediction. Like already said, I would be vague in the prediction or go to another area of the front page. I mean, the host will have the newspaper with her (or you of course will have a copy just in case).

OT: I am planning a signed sealed prediction. I am planning on doing a SIGNED Headline Prediction tomorrow and have a question.

I have never done one before and am wondering how to present the prediction to the woman to sign. I don't want her to be tempted into opening it is what my dilemma is.

If I tell her its a signed headline prediction, she may get curious and open it before the show on Thurs.

I don't want to tempt her but then again I want her to know what she is doing at the time of the signing. I am using the method presented on Radio Magic.

Any help appreciated.

Candin

I did this a while back.

Use a small locked box (I used a cash box)to keep the envelope in. Then let the lady keep the locked box while you keep the keys. That way, no one has access to the envelope within until the day of the show.

Thanks Jeff, I have a box with a little lock and heading to meet her tomorrow before Thurs show!