Psychic Nearly Destroys Family
 

This article comes from the heading: "W.T.F. were they thinking??"

How in the world did this BS get so far?? We're talking about (supposedly)
educated people that swallowed this garbage hook, line and sinker. By the
Gods, if these fools fell for this crap so fast, I've got swampland in
Antarctica to sell them and I'll even throw in a free bottle of Brighto, to
boot!!
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http://www.livescience.com/strangene...-psychics.html
Psychic Nearly Destroys Family
By Benjamin Radford, LiveScience's Bad Science Columnist

posted: 17 July 2008

Many people go to psychics for a handful of typical reasons. They want to
know if they will get their dream job soon, or make a big move, or end up
with the hunky new guy who seems shy but might just be The One.

Most of the subjects are personal, minor, and relatively inconsequential. If
the information seems valid, then the client is happy. If none of it comes
true, then the subject just chalks it up to a bad reading and only loses a
few bucks. No real harm done.

But what happens when the psychic lies to the client (or is wrong), telling
her information that is not true about something with real-world
consequences?

Consider the case of Colleen Leduc, a single mother of an autistic
eleven-year-old girl in Barrie, Ontario. On May 30, she left her daughter
Victoria at her elementary school. Leduc was soon called back to the school
urgently, and confronted by the principal, Victoria's teacher, and a
teacher's aide (educational assistant, or EA). Puzzled and alarmed, Leduc
asked what was going on. The group told her that they believed that Victoria
was being sexually abused. They had contacted the Children's Aid Society, a
case file had been opened, and her daughter might be taken from her "for her
own safety."

Leduc was shocked by the explanation: "The teacher looked at me and said:
'We have to tell you that Victoria's EA went to see a psychic and the
psychic asked her if she works with a little girl with the initial V. When
the EA said yes, the psychic said, 'Well, you need to know that this girl is
being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'" The EA
reported it to the teacher, who then went to the principal, and so on.

Because Victoria is autistic, the child couldn't speak for herself about the
alleged abuse. Leduc didn't believe the psychic's allegations, and said they
could not be true since her daughter did not even come in contact with any
men of those ages. Furthermore, Leduc could prove it: Because of Victoria's
disability, Leduc had equipped her daughter with a GPS tracking system and a
continuous audio recorder. A review of the audio proved that at no point was
Victoria sexually abused in any way by anyone.

The case was eventually closed, but Leduc was stunned that it had gotten as
far as it did based on such dubious evidence. The psychic has not been
identified nor arrested for providing false report of a crime. (For more on
this, see www.WhatsTheHarm.net, a web site the tracks the damage done by
psychics.)

If you believe that psychic information should be taken seriously, consider
that at any time, you could suddenly be accused of anything from murder to
rape to child molestation on nothing more than the word of someone who
claims to get messages from supernatural sources. Psychic powers have never
been proven to exist, much less provide reliable, valid information.

Some psychics are careful to claim that their readings are "for
entertainment purposes only," tacitly admitting that their information
should not be taken seriously. Most, however, are happy to do their work for
paying clients and accept no responsibility for the truth of their
information. If you consult psychics, the next time you meet with one, ask
him or her to promise in writing that what they are telling you is true and
accurate. I predict you won't get any takers. Ask yourself why they will
take your money but not promise to give you the truth.

Benjamin Radford is managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer science
magazine, and he has investigated psychics and psychic powers for over a
decade.