Are they frauds? According to a Wikipedia article there are documented cases where psychic detectives helped police solve crimes. What do you think? Were these psychic detectives merely lucky or was it their abilities which enabled them to solve the crimes?
I think while in some cases these psychic detectives have helped the police solve crimes, and there's too many times for it to be considered just luck, I still have my doubts at how legitimate these people are. At the end of the day though, it doesn't really matter if people believe it or not, as long as they are helping then who are we to complain.
I've watched some of these shows and not many have come up with anything new. I also have been looking at some websites, where readers offer their services to the police for free, so maybe some do help, but they keep the media out of it and their assistance low key. I think in the case of cold cases where the killer may already be dead, then making a show could help, because there is no threat, but at least it may stop the rumors and stories.
I know of several psychics that I read in the papers. They usually publish their predictions every new year and used to keep a copy of the magazine or newspaper to check after a year if the predictions came true. Well, those predictions that came true were the generalized ones like "an actor will die" or "a great calamity will happen" because those kind of predictions are more likely to happen. Now, if a psychic will be used for detective work, I don't think they will be effective because they don't have the accuracy to their predictions.
I think there are some out there who are genuine but I also think that there are a lot of frauds out there too. Nothing everybody that claims to be a psychic is. If it was mine family and I couldn't get the answers I needed then I would definitely hire one. At that point you would have nothing to lose but they maybe able to help.
From personal experience I don't know anyone who's a psychic detective in my country nor have I met one. The only time I see these "psychic detectives" are on movies and it looks to me they're there for the money. Are they really real? I'm not so sure and those I see on tv seem fake to me with all that make-up and motherhood guesses but they're very entertaining though so a career in showbiz seems appropriate.
Some people really do have psychic abilities. They have helped solved many crimes. Some of the people on TV are frauds that waste everyone's time in my opinion but the gifts of true psychics are real and have helped solved crimes.
I also think that a lot if the TV psychics are frauds and are just in it for the money. Surely if they was that good, they would be able to make enough money without having to resort to making TV appearances? The fake psychics also give the genuine one (if there are genuine ones) a bad name also, and that makes their jobs even harder.
I think that they just got lucky, as you said, Rainman. I think that, like the saying of the older generation, "if you throw enough manure against the wall, something's going to stick. So if a psychic says something like "the killer is hiding out in a big city in a small apartment"... well to me that only says that they did their homework and that criminals often *do* head for places like that where they can stay anonymous for the most part. Then if at some point the bad guy is found in an apartment in New York City, the psychic is suddenly all over the talk shows. Yeah, I'll have to call fraud on this one. Another reason I feel this way is that psychics always come around when there are missing children. I *so* wish they would be sincere because missing kids is one of the most horrible things a parent can ever face. But fact is that very rarely are they right. If they *are* right, it's usually about a no-brainer like the child fell into a nearby pond. Well, any of us could have come up with that one! I'm thinking that if psychics could truly find missing children... well, then there would *BE* no missing children, would there?
I have never heard of any psychic detectives here in my country. However, I'm not really one to say that they don't exist. They can sure exist, maybe they have abilities that we don't have. Maybe it's not even psychic or supernatural, they just have sense that enable them to see the evidences and connect them all together. And as long as these psychic detectives are helping these cases, I don't have a problem with them. Now, if they are not doing anything right and they're just wasting precious time, money and resources, then that might be the time that we rethink whether they really are an asset or a fraud.
