I am new to this site and the Forums, this may be the only time I post, but I really, really had to say something.
Last night me and mum went to a Tony Stockwell evening, really for a bit of fun. We had seen him on TV in Street Psychic, and thought he looked OK, a cut above the other ones (Acorah, Fry). I really want to believe in the paranormal, so I went with a completely open mind and a willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt. So I did not read reviews or anything else before I went to see him.
Can I just say that I was absolutely disgusted by what I saw and heard. My mum was more charitable, she was only disappointed but thought he had brought comfort to a few people, and this is a lady who likes Colin Fry, no matter what I tell her.
Before he came on, we were treated to powerpoint slides of how we could spend our money.
When he did come on, I have to say the anticipation was there, and he started with a messge from a women in her thirties who had died - no takers.
He then went on to have messages from, an elderly gentleman who had died in a hospice, an old lady who maybe had alzheimers, and an old lady who had died of cancer - "and you held her hand on the right hand side didn't you.."
The people he gave the message to had all been recently bereaved, and for some of the reading they were really struggling to agree with him. There was one lady, who no doubt will feature on the dvd, who had put her hand up maybe three or four times, and was eventually given a message from her "nan", who had looked after them because her father was an alcoholic. (Can I just add that, in Northern Ireland, your "nan" is usually your granny - nobody of my acquaintance has a "nan")
But, what really disgusted and disturbed me were two in particular - a message from a young man who had killed himself, and two messages from children. One, from a child of 3 months (?) and the other from a boy- who he said was 11 but actually actually turned out to be 15, when the mother put up her hand - "he was small for his age, wasn't he".
At the end of the first half he said that the energy just wasn't there and we should move about and come back energized in the second half.
The second half, he did only two readings, both from photographs. The first one, was the most disturbing - the photo (shown to the camera to invite the loved one to step forward) - was a young, attractive well groomed girl in her thirties, with a low cut top.
The sisters and mother were there, but not the husband. He went on to say, she had manicured nails, wanted a child, enjoyed flaunting her chest. He then went on to say that "you think the husband doesn't grieve enough.." they agreed and added - "did you know he was dating again". They didn't, but he would be proved right later - ".. just remember what I told you".
I am really sorry to have gone on for so long, but I have never been so disgusted or disappointed with anybody - and that includes BT Broadband customer service. I went with no preconceived ideas about him - I wanted to like him and enjoy the evening.
We were however, treated to the most blatant display of, what I suppose is cold reading. I just can think of no other word than disgust for what I heard and the exploitation of recently bereaved people was sickening.
I've never been to one of these before, and will not go again, I just would not have the stomach for it. Think I'll leave Tony get on with his sell-out "spiritualist cruise" to Egypt, and he can put one of his £9 "bag charms" on his suitcase as he goes.
Thanks for the post francesr and don't worry about long posts. What you had to say, you wrote clearly and concisely. Tony Stockwell is a charlatan and has been proved to be so on countless occasions. If people want to spend their hard earned money on him or other frauds then that is their choice. I don't want to see people getting banned because some of us know the truth of the matter. Its all a matter of personal choice but what you can do is tell as many people as possible, and websites about your experience and eventually people like him will hopefully disappear into the wilderness. Thanks for your post.
Thanks for that honest review francesr and welcome to BP
This kind of review is exactly what more people need made available to them before they consider wasting their money on going to see the likes of Stockwell so perhaps it should go on the mainsite as an article.
(Jon what do you think ?)
Much of what you reported is exactly the same old thing so many mediums pass off as "readings" in their stage shows and it's never a surprise quite how low some of them will stoop with their comments to greiving families.
Thanks for the kind words - I know it was very trusting to go on the strength of a couple of TV programmes, but he came across as a very decent person, so I wanted to give it ago. I deliberately didn't read anything, because, as I said, I wanted to give him a chance, plus it was a birthday present for my mum. Neither of us had ever been to a show like this and we thought it would be an experience - well it was, just the wrong sort.
Post by Mr. Jon Donnis on May 21, 2010 22:02:22 GMT
I would like to put this on the main site, but the description of the event does not really give the outcome of the readings mentioned.
I would like more details too.
Time, Date and location of the gig.
The more details the better.
You say you were disgusted but i want to know exactly why you was disgusted.
Welcome to the site by the way and thank you for posting, I hope you can go into more detail on teh reading so that more people can see the truth about this fraud.
Also I hope you have learnt a lesson too when it comes to these psychics, and hopefully you wont waste your money on one ever again.
A bad ass who will beat you like he's using the fists of god.
Post by The Legendary Barb on May 22, 2010 8:36:40 GMT
Welcome to the site Francesr, your post made interesting reading. Glad to read that you will not be spending any more of your hard earned cash, lining the pockets of so called psychics. Cheers Barb xx.
your never too old to set a new goal or dream a new dream[C.S Lewis]
Post by farsideofthemoon on May 22, 2010 16:38:00 GMT
Thanks for posting, but it's hardly surprising to those of us that have been here a while.
I find Stockwell pretty disgusting - he plays the nice guy act but a lot of what he comes out with is very offensive.
I just wish more people could use their critical faculties at these shows and put 2 and 2 together. I doubt there were more than a handful of people like yourself there. The rest just lap it up.
Welcome to BP Frances . Good article and one that deserves to be read by anyone considering going to see the like of Stockwell, Fy, Acorah etc and with a bit more detail I'm sure Jon will put this on the main site.
morganp
You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
francesr prooves my point. When the likes of Derek and Mr Stockwell are being filmed for television they leave nothing to chance and so already have imformation on people they can bring out if they need to; but when the cameras are not there its back to cold reading and that doesn't always work.
francesr prooves my point. When the likes of Derek and Mr Stockwell are being filmed for television they leave nothing to chance and so already have imformation on people they can bring out if they need to; but when the cameras are not there its back to cold reading and that doesn't always work.
Why are many of these mediums or whatever they are very good/accurate in their TV studio audience shows but not at the live theatre shows? I just don't understand. If there were a trick or technique to it then why does that not work so much or at all at live shows?
That's not the whole story, sure they probably get bits wrong in the studio and that gets edited out but they do far better in the studio session than 2 hours in the live theatre in my experience. In the post reading interviews you get sitters saying how accurate the medium was and he knew whatever it was straight away. In the live theatre session, it seems in my experience that doesn't happen - the readings are much more cold-reading like generally speaking although the sitters often seem just as convinced and join the massive post-show queue for a signed copy of the medium's book. In other words, TV show sitters seem justifiably pleased with their readings, but theatre live show sitters seem equally so for less obvious to me reasons.
As mentioned on another thread, can I also draw your attention to the co-worker of my mother's who had CF do a reading at home for the show. He seemed very impressed when post-sitting interviewed on the programme. If he's the same person I think he is that worked with my mum in a charity shop, then he's not one for false praise, he's a tell it as it is person. I went to a CF live show btw, I was not impressed with most of it.
The thing is Leon when you watch Colin Fry's TV show, Colin himself throws statements out to the audience, lots of these statements can relate to most people, but the big giveaway for me is after he has done a reading for someone in the audience you see them in a separate studio telling you their version and 99.9% it's the sitter making it fit and they are the one ultimately telling you the story and when you relate the two together i.e studio and separate studio it's clear that Colin really knew nothing about the sitter anyway because the sitter elaborates more in detail themselves.
I have sat there and watched many of his shows and it's so obvious Colin is cold reading, yes sometimes he can get it quite spot on, but let's be honest here if you do the amount of readings he does the odds are he's going to get a good hit sometimes but ultimately he gets it wrong or he's way off track because he always has to ask question after question to the sitter.
I could do exactly what he does and of course I would at some point get a hit that's fact but i'm not psychic.
As mentioned on another thread, can I also draw your attention to the co-worker of my mother's who had CF do a reading at home for the show. He seemed very impressed when post-sitting interviewed on the programme. If he's the same person I think he is that worked with my mum in a charity shop, then he's not one for false praise, he's a tell it as it is person. I went to a CF live show btw, I was not impressed with most of it.
The trouble is there is no way of knowing what information your mother's co worker had unwittingly given either to Colin Fry or his researchers who would have had quite a bit of interaction with him/her on setting up the reading.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Christopher Hitchens
The thing is Leon when you watch Colin Fry's TV show, Colin himself throws statements out to the audience, lots of these statements can relate to most people, but the big giveaway for me is after he has done a reading for someone in the audience you see them in a separate studio telling you their version and 99.9% it's the sitter making it fit and they are the one ultimately telling you the story and when you relate the two together i.e studio and separate studio it's clear that Colin really knew nothing about the sitter anyway because the sitter elaborates more in detail themselves.
I have sat there and watched many of his shows and it's so obvious Colin is cold reading, yes sometimes he can get it quite spot on, but let's be honest here if you do the amount of readings he does the odds are he's going to get a good hit sometimes but ultimately he gets it wrong or he's way off track because he always has to ask question after question to the sitter.
I could do exactly what he does and of course I would at some point get a hit that's fact but i'm not psychic.
Tracey, I fully appreciate your point of view and not for one moment saying you're entirely wrong. All I'm saying is that when I go through the probably edited as you suggest broadcast it seems far beyond cold-reading. If you have watched as many of his programmes on FTN and other channels as I did you get to see/hear some readings which are seemingly too accurate to be cold-readings as I understand cold-readings to be. Now, okay, my understanding of cold readings is perhaps poor. I expect a cold-reading to go something like this...
I'm getting a T, a grandparent, very thin before they died, died of cancer, had grey hair. Anyone?
Instead, here's a real randomly chosen transcript from one of Fry's recordings:
[CF] Let's see where the spirit take me...ahhh...clears throat Right, Okay, you talking to himself or spirit are not Vivian!? This is very unusual, I know that...that this does indeed happen: I have a gentleman whose name was Vivian. And I do feel as though I have to be higher up in the gallery somewhere. Would someone please understand...? Yes, my love...?
[female in audience] Yes. My grandfather was Vivian, he was French.
[CF] Was there some talk recently of looking into that side of the family?
[same f i a] Yes definitely yes yes.
[CF] Um, right OK, I've got this feeling. er would you understand...are two of you going on a trip of exploration?
[same f i a] Yes yes...
[CF] Right, so 2 of you going off on a trip of exploration. In your family history was there someone who was involved in the clothing industry?
[same f i a] Yes.
[CF] ...particularly in women's fashions?
[same f i a] pauses then answers I'm going to feel really embarrassed saying this now ... [CF] It's okay...
[same f i a] My father owned a strip club in London!
[CF] Er, I was just wondering why I was seeing women's clothes, you see! Anything else you want to confess?!!
[same f i a] laughs and audience laughs along with Fry
Pretty much cold-reading style so far, yes? Someone in the audience just responding to a name, clothes connection turning out to actually not be from a fashion business or from the grandfather but actually from the sitter's father and actually being from un unrelated activity being nude dancing. But then, still cold-reading now..?
[CF] I'm also being told I've got a lady called Phylis here.
[same f i a] Yeah yes, mumbles 'mum'...that's my dad's first wife.
[CF] Right....waffle...your dad's in the background and is rather ashamed of not settling that financial matter before he passed over.
[same f i a] empahtically: So he should be! laughs
What are the chances of CF guessing the name Phylis as the correct former spouse's name and guessing a financial irregularity or financial 'mess'? Financial messes at time of death - not that rare but not a certainty by any means. Guessing Phylis as the correct name - pretty unlikely. Is your theory that he said Phylis only after a list of unsuccessful name connections and they edited it together to make it look like he immediately knew a Phylis was relevant to the f i a?
Otherwise, how did he do even the small example above? Lucky guess? How many lucky guesses and wrong names tried on does a 'psychic' have to do to get a sequence right? The audience would be there all day or all week! The old trick of stooges? Has my mum's old charity shop colleague joined the acting profession at his age?!
I would dearly love to know. All the books I've read about confessions of stage psychics cite very obvious cold reading methods. So, what advanced cold-reading tricks am I missing? I repeat that at the live show I attended there was nothing terribly impressive, the only impressive one was him correctly stating to an audience member that she lived near the cemetary and visited her loved one there often and that the loved one was saying don't come so often to see me, get on with your life. I spoke to that same person in the bar afterwards (I know, I'm very cheeky, but at £20 ticket I wanted some value), and she was fairly stand-offish to me but tearful and genuine or fabulous at acting, I don't know which. Her friend was a little more gregarious, but wouldn't stop and chat much and they took their drinks and sat down. I couldn;t pull a chair over and insist I sat with them like Alan Partridge!
Pretty much cold-reading style so far, yes? Someone in the audience just responding to a name, clothes connection turning out to actually not be from a fashion business or from the grandfather but actually from the sitter's father and actually being from un unrelated activity being nude dancing. But then, still cold-reading now..?
[CF] I'm also being told I've got a lady called Phylis here.
[same f i a] Yeah yes, mumbles 'mum'...that's my dad's first wife.
[CF] Right....waffle...your dad's in the background and is rather ashamed of not settling that financial matter before he passed over.
[same f i a] empahtically: So he should be! laughs
What are the chances of CF guessing the name Phylis as the correct former spouse's name and guessing a financial irregularity or financial 'mess'?
Financial messes at time of death - not that rare but not a certainty by any means. Guessing Phylis as the correct name - pretty unlikely. Is your theory that he said Phylis only after a list of unsuccessful name connections and they edited it together to make it look like he immediately knew a Phylis was relevant to the f i a?
Let's look at the evidence here...for a start Colin only get's a name right, ok Phylis is an "old" name but surely if Colin is actually communicating with this Phylis (even though he's been told this) he's throwing this statement out to the sitter, so if he gets this name wrong he more than likely would move on quickly with another name in the reading hopefully waiting for the sitter to feed him more information (iv'e seen it many times on TV), however the sitter does feed him info by saying "yeah tha'ts my dads first wife" and that's how cold reading works and as said before this happens far too frequently on his show, just because Colin gets a name right he didn't know the other information the sitter gave ie; dads first wife.
Once you start to see the pattern it's so obvious. Try and watch the american psychics they have cold reading down to a fine art James Van Pragh and John Edwards good watching for a learner in cold reading
I can't remember now, but I think it was those 2 you mention that I looked into a good few years back and I was not impressed after I sifted through the hype.
Can I just ask you, as a newcomer to BP I am unaware of members' views, so can I ask do you think there is such a thing as a genuine medium if I define the term medium as someone who receives messages from non-human not incarnate sources or perhaps even the spirits of those passed away?
Can I just ask you also, this is not meant in any way sarcastically or anything like that, but if you do not believe in such then what explanation do you feel comfortable with when stories are related of dying people seeing their own already dead relatives or at least suddenly conversing with them? Photos moving in bereaved persons' homes, etc? Do you consider them to be the hallucinations or resurgence of memories of a failing organ such as the brain?
To save you finding my first post, I have come across several people whose opinions I trust relating such anecdotes, none of them religious types at all. Also the hospice nurse who heard along with her sister their late father saying something, they both looked at each other and said something like "Did you just hear that?" and they both heard it. That hospice nurse reported no other unusual stuff in her life before that or after that at the time we spoke some years ago. Neither her nor her sister were likely to be on drugs or anything like that, although I can't prove it, I s'pose you never know !
What I am getting at is that it is very normal for a person to disbelieve until they see for themselves. When I told an ex girlfriend about what I had seen, she looked horrified but didn't disbelieve me. I said to her it was not scary at all, it was a privilege because from that day on I knew to no longer laugh at people who saw similar. But the reason she didn't dump me and brand me a nutter was because, I later discovered, she'd had a phone call from her grandmother saying "I am ringing to say goodbye to you my darling Laura" or something like that. When she mentioned it to her father [the son], he said "Eh? When did she call? She couldn't have called you this morning, she took ill and passed away in the middle of the night [at a London hospital] !" Now, if you think my ex was some kind of nut, can I just tell you she was as ordinary and normal as you can get, from a completely normal family, I had never before that ever got the slightest clue she would even be interested in the daily horoscope let alone have a story like that to tell me. I cannot remember the exact words of the call etc because it was over a decade ago, but if the story's untrue I'd be surprised from what I knew of her as a person.
I'm not sure where to begin Leon with "is there a genuine medium" but to be quite honest, I really don't think there is. I would love nothing more than there to be geniune people who could talk to the dead but from my own experiences I have never seen or had a genuine reading, alot of psychics are motivated by money and actually believing that they have a "gift" as such...lots of people in this world have had some sort of paranormal experience such as myself (I have questioned my own experiences). Going back about 20 years ago my ex saw a young boy sitting in the chair next to his bed one morning just staring at him and I remember him saying that this boy was in solid form, he described him very clearly and what he was wearing, but who knows he could of been dreaming, i will never know.
There are strange things in this world that perhaps don't have an explanation or maybe they do if you investigate further, but one thing (this is my opinion) I really don't believe you can talk to the dead i just have never seen or experienced anything tangible and let's be honest Derren Brown is a magician and not psychic and even he does it better than all the tv psychics
As mentioned on another thread, can I also draw your attention to the co-worker of my mother's who had CF do a reading at home for the show. He seemed very impressed when post-sitting interviewed on the programme. If he's the same person I think he is that worked with my mum in a charity shop, then he's not one for false praise, he's a tell it as it is person. I went to a CF live show btw, I was not impressed with most of it.
The trouble is there is no way of knowing what information your mother's co worker had unwittingly given either to Colin Fry or his researchers who would have had quite a bit of interaction with him/her on setting up the reading.
I can't argue with that, I simply don't know, you could well be right.
