Psychics Gullible

Gordon 1
Stephanie Gordon
College Writing 112.005
Guyant
10/11/11

Psychics reading the gullible

Gordon 2

The world today is filled with psychics claiming they can perform tasks involving extrasensory projections. There are people who say they can speak with the dead, read minds, feel energies, and see into the future. It is very easy, when vulnerable and gullible enough, to fall into what these psychics are saying. Most will say what you want to hear in order to gain credibility for themselves, or even to just earn a living. It is a complicated thing to argue, however, because this science cannot be proven true. It has undoubtedly been proven a hoax time and time again, but there are two sides to every story. Those who believe
Some pet owners claim that their horse or dog or pig have psychic powers. The most well-known psychic animal came around in the 1920s. (Milbourne 40) She was a benign mare named Lady who performed in a red barn near Richmond, Virginia. Mrs. Claudia Fonda, Lady’s owner claimed she could spell, add, subtract, multiply, divide, tell time, and answer questions. Reporters who visited Lady to see the Wonder Horse with their own eyes wrote that she could predict the future and read minds. Mrs. Fonda charged a fee of fifty cents for children and one dollar for adults for admission to see Lady and her talents. People would ask the horse a wide range of questions. Lady was asked anything from “When will I marry?” to “How should I invest my money?” (41) Lady even took part in helping find the body of a missing boy in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. She also knew a lot about baseball, and even had a more success in picking winners than most professional sportswriters. Everything in Lady’s career left everyone astonished, and in 1956 (43), Mrs. Fonda shortened Lady’s time with the public to afternoons only. A man named John Kobler was being sent to write an article on Lady for the Saturday Evening Post. He asked Christopher Melbourne if he was available to come along as a consultant, because he was one who was familiar with the techniques of deception. Since Melbourne had written articles on the horse before, he
Banks carried a camera, so that he would be accepted as a photographer associate to Kobler. When they arrived at Lady’s Barn, Mrs. Fonda assumed her position to the left of Lady. Lady communicated through a giant typewriter-like machine. When she pushed down a plank with her nose, a letter popped up. Mrs. Fonda instructed the men to ask Lady whatever they wanted. Banks asked the horse “What is my name?” Lady spelled out B-A-N-K-S on her typewriter, but his name was not really Banks. He also asked when his brother would return from Europe, and Lady answered “S-U-M-M-E-R”. Banks did not have a brother. After Kobler asked several questions of his own, Mrs. Fonda handed each of the men a long, skinny pad of paper, and a long pencil. She instructed them to write down a number, and Lady would read their minds and know the number. Kobler did as he was told, and Lady guessed everytime. Banks, however, would write the number one, but act as though he was writing the number 9. He would only push the pencil to paper as the spine of the 9 came down. He used this technique for almost every number, and Lady guessed wrong every time. It was obvious that a technique called pencil reading was being used. Mrs. Fonda had given the men skinny pads, so that the stroke of the pencils could easily be seen. This is the same reason for giving them longer pencils. Had a large pad of paper and short, stubby pencils been used, pencil reading could not have occurred. At the end of the visit,