Medium performance from psychic Tony Stockwell
Hits and misses with audience at The Grove.
TELEVISION celebrity illusionist Derren Brown has done a lot recently to debunk the mystery surrounding psychics and mediums.
Those who still believe in their abilities refuse to waiver in their faith while those cynics among us smile smugly and acknowledge the endorsement of their scepticism.
But the big hitters still draw bumper crowds who are eager to get a message from "the other side" and last week I joined them at The Grove to see Tony Stockwell in action.
Tony is a great entertainer. He comes on stage and immediately sets up a rapport with the audience but I have to say I felt uneasy at his performance.
From the outset he tells everyone he is prone to get things wrong or misinterpret messages as though giving a verbal indemnity for the show we are about to enjoy.
He then explains that he receives feelings and impressions about someone who has "passed over" saying, for example, that there was a woman with him, a mother of three who died of cancer, and asks the audience if anyone identifies with that description.
I couldn't help feeling he was playing the numbers. What are the chances that in an audience of 500 people someone doesn't recognise that description, particularly when so many vulnerable and needy people who have lost loved ones are sitting in the auditorium?
He gets stuck in to the first "visitor" a man, aged 26, with brown short hair, green eyes, slender, and the name Michael. He asks if anyone can relate to the information and, after fishing around the audience, he has no luck and moves on.
There's more fishing trips through the night. Often, when descriptions begin to go awry he tells the audience member that he knows he is right and to check out the information once they get home. We, of course, have no idea whether he's telling the truth or simply giving out misinformation.
There were a lot of generalisations during the evening – a man in his 70s who died of emphysema, who loved to fix things, grew roses and told jokes (that covers a pretty large portion of the population – again, playing the numbers game.)
Were people agreeing with him because they were so desperate to believe ?
And what sort of profound messages were coming from beyond the grave?
While we waited for something historic one person was told she had to buy a new fire while another learned her deceased relative still watched their favourite TV programme Coronation Street (does this give ITV access to untold new viewing figures I wondered?)
Once or twice Stockwell gave pause for thought. Mother and daughter Doreen and Jennifer Pullum from Lewsey Farm, Luton, were astounded and reduced to tears when the medium mentioned Jennifer's twin brother who died as a baby.
Stockwell had started out asking if anyone knew an outspoken and rather common woman called Margaret or Molly who lived in a flat.
Somehow the women recognised the description of Irene, the mother of Jennifer's ex-partner. The medium then described, I thought, a typical pensioner, mentioned Betty (a neighbour), a dog and then a baby boy – at which point Jennifer began crying. He later asked if anyone knew a Doreen and Jennifer's mother again put up her hand.
Speaking to the couple afterwards they confirmed that everything the psychic had described was 100 per cent accurate and that neither of them had ever attended a Tony Stockwell show before.
A man was told about his dead teenage son, another told to invest in some new cushions as a zip was broken on the old ones, another was told to buy bananas, a dead woman told her relatives she was planning to go on holiday with them (though it could be tricky taking a ghost through customs).
All were told that their loved ones were happy, safe, and sent their love .
Stockwell also took photos from some in the audience and got in touch with the dead images. It was all very slick but it left me unimpressed.
For those who believe there is the comfort that the dead are having a great time, worrying about whether you're eating enough while enjoying their favourite TV programmes.
For the cynics I have to say I'm yet to be convinced.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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