Charlatans

This morning I got quite pissed off by an article I read in Sp!ts. After a report in the dutch TV programme Zembla about how medium Char Margolis (apparently only known in the Netherlands) uses cold reading to ‘speak to the dead’, it would seem that she’s back for more. This time she talks to victims of several disasters to get them in touch with their dead relatives. As remarked in Sp!ts, apparently people forget very easily. Wasn’t it already established that she’s a fraud?

Char is not the only person fooling us Dutch people. We have another Uri Geller show coming up and then there is Derek Ogilvie. I have to be ashamed of myself and say that even I believed that guy for a while, until I remembered Char and the Zembla report. I wondered if similar reports exist about Derek Ogilvie, and indeed they do. In a blog post by a spectator of his show the skepticism is quite clear. But this guy is better than Char. Cut the scenes for his shows right and you have a guy who knows that the wallpaper in the second room to your left on the first floor has been torn apart.

But all they do is guess. James Randi, the guy who’s trying to uncover all these frauds, tested Ogilvie and he only got 1 out of 20 tests right. Randi has a reward worth US $1,000,000 for the first person to pass his test. He has yet to meet the first person to pull it off.

So we know all of this. We know Uri Geller, Char and Derek Ogilvie have all been unmasked. So why do we still believe them? Why do the networks and these clowns still make money out of emotional people who are willing to believe anything? The answer to that is the same as the answer to why religion exists. It soothes people, they’re lured into a false sense of security. Your loved one is with you, don’t worry. What is his name? Oh is it a she? Does the name start with an R, E, or a T? Tina? Oh no of course, I meant to say Caroline. She’s with you. And she says you should give me more money.