Psychics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

psychics the only people with more misplaced confidence than Michael avenatti now chances are you haven't thought about psychics in a while which is weird there's not really a whole lot else going on but if you watch daytime TV at all you'll see that they pop up all the time when she was just a toddler she's a wife and a mom who also happens to talk to dead people please welcome celebrity pet psychic our next guest is a clairvoyant to the Stars bond they're all psychic okay I guess it's good that at least dr. oz isn't wearing scrubs in that clip but I'd still like him to do more to signal he now lacks credibility as a medical professional I think a sandwich sign that says walking joke is the clothing choice that I would be comfortable with and look before we go any further I am NOT going to be litigating whether psychics are real in this piece for one they're not see no litigation required also for anyone who does believe in psychic powers I know there is nothing I could say that could convince you otherwise logic isn't the reason that you believe in them and it won't be the reason that you stop which is not to say that I won't be showing you clips of psychics up but that is only because it's really funny this is a girl who you said was beaten and killed okay this little girl is me and you told somebody that she's dead wait a minute you didn't disappear I'm right here well that's interesting isn't it yeah that is interesting I guess her psychic abilities didn't include predicting when she'd be utterly humiliated on national television and look it is easy to dismiss the psychics as a joke really easy fun too but the fact of the matter is one recent poll found 4 in 10 Americans believe in psychics just think about that statistically that means out of all the people who saw John Travolta's Gotti movie four of them believed in psychics so whether they are real or not is incidental what matters is a lot of people think they are and the psychic industries both larger and grimmer than you might assume by one estimate it's a two point two billion dollar industry and there has been a lot of predatory behavior when the the FTC settled charges with the companies behind these psychic readers Network in 2002 the one that featured Miss Cleo they found that over one three-year period they had charged people about a billion dollars and a collected half of it they took in five hundred million dollars I had no idea psychics could make that much money he's like finding out the second richest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos is this gamestop employee named Greg I mean good for Greg I guess but now I've got a lot of questions about Gamestop and literally everything else so tonight let's take a look at the psychic industry particularly one of the most insidious parts of it mediums people who claim to be able to communicate with the dead they are everywhere on TV some even have their own reality shows she's a professional psychic Mary knows bad 9:00 on TLC spirit is important to me just as important as my hair and my nails medium only on TLC the crazy thing about these shows is how they choose to focus on the psychics personal lives who gives a about that if I actually believed they could communicate with the dead that is the only thing I'd want to see them doing the Long Island medium can ask Abraham Lincoln Gandhi and Shakespeare anything she wants so tune in next week as she thinks about getting bangs I want to mixed mediums make for compelling TV most people have seen at least one of them bring someone to tears with messages from dead loved ones like this did you lose your husband man your husband wants to thank you for caring for him and allowing him to leave the physical world with dignity and grace now that woman is clearly genuinely touched although I will say it is weird that the conduit to the afterlife is for some reason Theresa Caputo living proof of what would happen if you added too much baking soda to Edie Falco and while we're watching people tear up can seem incredible the techniques that psychics use to achieve those moments are significantly less incredible because there are two basic techniques that psychics tend to use the first is called cold reading it's basically taking high probability guesses like I'm sensing a loved one who had problems in the chest area or is there a J or an M in a loved one's name here are some cold reading in action alright and is there in theat like a Daniel David like there's a big D so for me it's initials it's usually on months of the year like December being important who is the MRNA mark Mary Marie they don't have to be past they could be here in the physical world you know Maureen Mary Ann there's an M name where's the M connection to you does someone have a scar and the bun of foot I do thank you cuz your daddy is telling me there's a scar on your foot she departed of Alzheimer's or some type of dementia or something of the brain and that you had to make choices and decisions connected to her departure did anybody have either a brain tumor brain aneurysm or a cerebral cerebral hemorrhage not connected to him not connected to you somebody behind you had that Oh someone been under had that nice save buddy interestingly often turns out that a psychics wrong guess is just energy from somewhere else in the room a room incidentally that he's very likely to have someone who had one of the problems he just listed because cerebrovascular diseases are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States it's like asking a roomful of praying mantises has anybody here lost a loved one because you ate them after having sex you know all those little green hands are going up the secret of cold reading is the broader the generality the higher the chance it resonates with someone it is the same reason that fortune cookies predict romantic developments ahead and not your wife is gonna seem icy withholding around the 12th of the month that's because when she asked you to handle the thing with the grout in the shower she didn't mean be the plumbers point of contact we keep abreast of every step of the grouting process she meant she wanted it off her plate and she just feels like text in the middle of the work day asking if she thinks the landlord is gonna ask her the plumbers insurance that's the off her plate that's just new air and filling up the plate instead of the plumber does that make sense Aaron it's not the garbage disposal installation all over again lucky numbers 8 14 and 23 and sometimes psychics may make laughably sure bets for instance here's John Edward in Huntington Long Island a town where nearly 1 in 5 residents are of Irish ancestry is there a Brian Flanagan or a Flynn or O'Sullivan or O'Reilly or some type of whose past Brian Oh something Flanagan Sullivan something like that what are you doing Brian Flanagan or Oh Flynn or Oh something he's supposed to be speaking directly to people's dead relatives not trying to guess the name of the Lucky Charms mascot for the record that leprechauns name ibrahim abdul hameed been selling if that surprises you maybe update you antiquated Irish stereotypes and once a psychic has you on the hook they use your responses as well as nonverbal cues that you may be giving them to make narrower and narrower guesses until you are amazed at what they've just done of course it's not an exact science it's not a science at all and sometimes things do go wrong in fact let's pick up John addresses reading with the family of Bryan Oh something as he doubles down on a bad guess I'm kind of getting the feeling of not liking the older female like not liking the mother figure so if you tell me that you didn't like you're his father's mother then I would understand that I don't think I do I don't think I do I just want to be really clear because I can't tell you what you want to hear I'm gonna tell you what they're showing me and if he's calling your mother a I'm gonna pass them on so what you want about John Edward he's sticking to his guns there none of that maybe this energy is coming from somewhere else in the room nonsense this time no no this time he chooses to go for it yeah Bryan thinks grandma's a and you know what so do I now in fact hang on Amelia Earhart just came through and she just called grandma the c-word so don't be mad with me be mad at Amelia Earhart cold reading is basically just a magic trick and yet prominent smart people are willing to co-sign on psychics abilities a few years ago Tyler Henry the Hollywood medium and anime drawing of Jared Kushner went on The Today Show to do a reading of one of their anchors and I'm afraid it's the exact Today Show anchor that you are hoping slash dreading it is there's a reference to fishing but he's talking about being spoken out loud to I know what this is actually I don't know if you're aware of this but he's acknowledging an individual will be out on a boat and it's like I'm sitting alone and I'm fishing and I'm thinking that and he's having me acknowledge this feeling of like I'm there with you I'm there with you um you know my dad shared two passions with me he shared golf and fishing night and I do go out fish a lot alone on a boat and this idea that that that might be a time to communicate with him or that he is attempting to communicate is phenomenal to me yeah phenomenal it's clear that Matt Lauer is touched there and this time he didn't even have to press were subordinate into doing it maybe Tyler Henry just took a shot that an older straight white male was upwards of lukewarm toward fishing if he did that would be cold reading but he may have been using the other technique here of hot reading which involves doing prior research on a subject so for instance he could have read articles where Lauer talks about his father's passion for fishing or seen interviews little hour gave like this one my dad taught me had a fish when I stand in a trout stream now and I've got the waders on and I've got a fly rod in my hand or I'm fishing for bass I think about sitting in a boat with my dad look maybe Tyler Henry genuinely accessed the afterlife an action which would fundamentally change our understanding of everything on earth or maybe he just googled Matt Lauer dad and hit the jackpot so so to recap hot reading researching people beforehand the even lazier skill than cold reading which basically involves indiscriminately shouting the names of dead Irishmen in a hotel ballroom and what's surprising is whichever technique Tyler used Lauer fell for it and he is smart he's a sophisticated Manhattan sex monster but he fell for it hard so hard he wanted to make it clear to the viewers at home that this was way more than just your standard TV I tell you got home I cried I did plenty of crying when I got home it's amazing we want to let you know season two of Hollywood medium with Tyler Hannah it almost seems weird to be doing it as a promo right now because it was so much more important to me than a promo it premieres Wednesday August 10th on our sister network e well everything about that is a little strange not least the fact that it is weird to envision a scenario in which something happened at the Today Show offices and then Matt Lauer was the one who went home and cried look you can see why people are vulnerable to psychics a message from a lost loved one is something many people in the midst of grief would do anything for and psychics may tell themselves that they offer a harmless way to deal with painful loss in fact just watch as Theresa Caputo pretty much spells that out in response to a fairly obvious question so when a tragedy happens let's say a murder if somebody comes to a loved one and the spirit of the person who was murdered is there could that spirit potentially tell you who did it they will acknowledge maybe the relationship but never will call someone out on the name why is that my thing how I use my gift is I only want messages that I got to help someone for the healing process oh come on first to be clear if I was murdered I would definitely name names as a ghost it's not like one of the rules in heaven is go snitches get go stitches as we all know the only rule in heaven is no the clouds seriously it's a real problem up there and to be fair I'll get it they're so fluffy and you might say at this point hold on where is the downside in telling people their grandmother loved them but I would argue that at best it is reckless for a stranger to take a stab at ventral acquiring the dead loss is complicated and mourning doesn't look the same for everyone but at worst when psychic abilities are presented as authentic it emboldened a vast underworld of unscrupulous vultures more than happy to make money by offering an open line to the afterlife as well as many other services take Rose marks she ran a lucrative psychic ring and in 2014 went to prison for defrauding clients of more than 17 million dollars much of which came from best-selling author Judy burrow who marks had promised to reconnect with her dead son and the sick thing is parents in crisis are frequently actively targeted by psychics at their most desperate moments John and Joann lowitz er have been searching for their 17 year old daughter Ally since she vanished last year but when the case made national news the Houston parents say they became inundated with calls from so-called psychic detectives they say some even showed up at their front door promising their psychic visions could help bring Ally home he guaranteed me they need to find Ally in three days and what parent wouldn't be excited to hear that you're gonna have your daughter home in three days that is absolutely horrible because the last thing any parent needs in that situation is having to fend off an attention-seeking parasite who feeds off personal tragedy like a human sized deer tick and the problem is TV actively enables that ghoulish nurse the Montel Williams Show regularly featured Sylvia Browne a well-known psychic who advised parents with missing children on how to locate their kids on one episode she advised the mother of Amanda berry a missing child who had been kidnapped now a man that was actually alive and watching that episode from captivity and after she eventually escaped she talked about how watching it had felt I would watch her every time she was on Montone I say I wish my mom would go in there and then she could tell my mom that I was alive and then I'm okay she but Sylvia Browne breaks Luana's home I just hate this she's not alive I just broke down crying because I couldn't believe she said that and that hurt even worse that is heartbreaking and Sylvia Browne is clearly an awful person for doing that but I would argue that Montel also bears some blame for giving Browne a platform to begin with put it this way if Oprah interviewed a live alligator and it ate four members of her audience I'd be angry with the alligator but it'd also be kind of angry with Oprah Sylvia Browne actually died a few years ago or did she people have been wrong about that sort of thing before maybe she's alive and watching me refer to her as dead the one thing I know for sure is that Montel Williams his show is definitely deceased but but but daytime shows are still holding hands with this just last month dr. Phil had a psychic detective on to help solve a cold case and why would he do that the only logical explanation for letting a professional guess awayin would be if dr. Phil was actually the murderer and he was trying to throw people off the scent but apart from that explanation that now makes a lot of sense there is no explanation although I will say this every now and then when handled responsibly a psychic on television is a delightful thing just watch this spectacular local news investigation of a psychic named Deborah Dominique who in exchange for 160 dollars met an undercover reporter at a Denny's our producer met her at a coffee shop saying she wants to know what happened to Matthew the ten year old boy in this photo after staring at his photo she uses a special pendulum claiming it allows her to talk with the day and then she claims she is connected directly with memory but is he because we're pretty sure Matthew the boy in this photo is not wearing white or in heaven in fact we know he's wearing black and is alive because you're looking at him sitting in the boat right behind her yep that boy is indeed in the opposite of heaven he's in a Denny's but wait wait till you see exactly how they Buster because it is just perfect I'm Curtis coming from channel 13 how are you showing her the picture of Matthew she tells me she thinks he was taken I understand you said you thought he was deceased yes I believe he could be I've got news for you it might come as a shock but he's very much alive oh that's great he's actually standing right behind you right now it is great it is great it's utter perfection the only way that could have been any better is if the first thing that kids said to her was hey mom and I would argue that that is the only responsible way to put a psychic on television humiliating them with a ghost boy in a Denny's parking lot because this surprisingly large often predatory industry relies on popular culture to lend it credence and validity to put it another way every time a psychic makes a grieving widow cry on dr. oz 10 con artists get their wings and that is a problem because there will always be people who feel an urge to reach out to psychics in their time of need so if you or someone you know is one of them I may have a small way to help here sadly this isn't really the best format for me to show you so please join me on the set of my new daytime talk show instead welcome back to wakey-wakey with John Oliver it's some time between 9:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon then but my next guest is a Staten Island psychic and author of the book these freaking spirits let me tell you please welcome Wonder Joe Oliver thank you for having me John thank you it's lovely to have you here now Wanda if you look familiar to some viewers it might be because you're also my beloved wife I'm it's freaking angel she is no quick question Wanda Joe what happened to your accent are you from the south I'm not from there anymore that makes sense no wonder when did you first realize that you had incredible psychic abilities oh well it was right after I saw a thing on TV about how much money psychics can make and suddenly I was like me too hashtag me too oh no no no that's that's not that's actually a different year my gift with the world no Joe I understand that you've graciously offered to give our viewers psychic readings for free bingo bango as part of a court-ordered settlement I've been forced to set up a website Wanda Jo the free psychic calm just log on now and you can get a breathing for me Wanda joke just like this okay they want me to acknowledge an EM connection that could mean Mark or Mary or Megan it could be someone who's passed or still alive it also doesn't have to be a name it could be any word that starts with M or has an M somewhere in it maybe maybe Museum Oh hamper it could be an upside down and like a W or sideways then like a three or an E anyway that person he or she wants me to tell you that the time you had together was really special to him or her wow that is phenomenal to me and it almost seems weird to be doing this as a promo right now because wonder gave me a reading yesterday and it was so much more important to me than a promo I cried all the way home I told them none of his dead relatives wanted to talk to him that's that's so then the point is go to wonder Joe the free psychic or medium impressive calm and get a free psychic reading we promise it will be exactly as accurate as any psychic reading that you would pay money for oh wait wait I'm getting a voice through for someone at home hold on your grandmother's a Wow [Applause]

Channel: LastWeekTonight

Views: 14,043,034

Rating: 4.8749523 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: WhMGcp9xIhY

Length: 21min 6sec (1266 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/-Kite-Man-]

Wait, which of his own points did he undermine? I think I'm a little fuzzy on the GME episode.

[u/mickeyc87]

The uploader has not made the video available in your country

Cries in Australian

[u/MightbeWillSmith]

So weird hearing audience laughter. I've gotten so used to THE VOID

[u/MysteryProper]

This is quite amazing.

[u/westwoodlander]

Pretty ironic that he predicted the future on the episode where he calls psychics bullshit

[u/mschuster91]

Ape together strong

[u/Floor_Kicker]

What's the timestamp for when he predicted GameStop?

[u/bbbooneville]

I wish he had called the GameStop employee Ryan and said he was richer than Bezos. Still pretty crazy. OP did you just remember this or happen to watch the episode recently?

[u/IceCooker]

Goat