I was watching a programme by Derren Brown called The man who contacts the dead (found on Youtube) and it exposed a psychic. But what got me was Derren Brown himself (who said he has no abilities) was able to do an accurate reading for someone.

This makes me wonder if people who claim they can contact spirits can't really, they can just read the living person's energy or something and collect what they've been thinking about.

It feels like this puts a spanner in the works of believing that life after death exists. I like to think though that Derren Brown is misleading the public and what goes on in his shows are all staged, so he knows all about the person he's reading for beforehand, but they look so surprised when he reads for them that it does make me wonder if that's not the case unless they're just a really good actor.

What do you think?

I’ll have to go look up this Derren Brown, as I’ve never heard of him, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not legit.  There are so many people out there who are flat out fake or wish to come of as something they’re not. 

I am a person who believes that everyone has psychic abilities…it’s just that a lot of people aren’t aware of them at all.  So it’s very possible for someone to say they have absolutely no psychic ability when in fact they do.  My daughter, for instance, doesn’t think she has any ability, yet she’s very accustomed to being “lucky”.  But I think that kind of luck is a form of having psychic ability but not being aware that that’s what it is.  If she were to develop it, she’d be more aware of when and how she’s using that ability.

I also believe that it’s possible that some people who supposedly are communicating with spirits are in fact actually just reading a person, whether it’s psychic reading or they’re just really good at picking up on things and not using psychic ability at all. 

Anything’s possible, and everyone is different.  Different people interpret things differently.  I watch a lot of paranormal shows and it’s so interesting to see how differently people talk about their gifts or abilities and what their interpretations are as far as what things mean.  For instance, someone could say that when they sense a spirit and get a chill, it means that it’s a negative spirit.  Or they might say when a spirit appears to them kind of blurry, it means the spirit doesn’t have good intentions. 

I think people just assign meanings how they see fit, and it doesn’t mean everyone has the same kind of ability or that it means the same for everyone. 

Thank you for your reply. It all makes sense.

You're right about how we interpret things. I would think of a spirit and a chill as just meaning there's a spirit nearby. Or a blurry spirit to me could mean they just don't have enough energy to manifest more.

Yes Derren Brown might have more abilities than he realises. Another thing that popped in to my head this morning was that I don't remember him reading anything about a spirit when he gave the lady the reading. I think it was just her present life, though I could be wrong.

So it could be that some people can connect with spirits through their energy just as some people can connect with the energy of a living person.  That makes me feel better about it all now as when I watched the programme, he was trying to disprove people who can see and talk to spirits as all fake but that's just his interpretation too.

I hope that makes sense. I've got myself a bit confused lol. But what I mean is that it's not bothering me anymore. I think there's an explanation now :)

I understand what you’re getting at. 

There are people out there who want to disbelieve so badly that they feel compelled to convince other people to disbelieve too, as if that somehow makes them right. 

The truth as I see it is that just because it’s possible to “read people”, that doesn’t mean that spirits don’t exist.  Just as, just because some people are fake mediums, it doesn’t mean that all mediums are fake.