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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 18:02, Mindpro wrote: Psychic fairs in Canada are done in a completely different manner than the ones in the USA and are vastly mor profitable. I must have done hundreds of them. As for House Parties I have done a ton of them too. I have tried every combination imaginable. I have found without doubt that the best way is just do readings and be done with it. Get rid of the "demonstration". It takes up too much time and it isn't what they are there for. |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
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On 2011-07-15 18:56, MentalistCreationLab wrote: I may well have said this but I do not consider the psychic business has anything to do with show business. It is a different business entirely. At a house party the "show" should be omitted. That way you can spend more time with the clients. I personally dislike house parties so have a limit of 6 people maximum. If I stay there more than 3 hours my head will pop. I give them all a 30 minute reading and that is that. I suppose I could fit in more people but then I would have to cut the readings down to 20 minutes. The trouble is that the shorter the readings the less satisfied the client is. I do know psychics that will travel miles to do a psychic party. They will take a lot of people. They do these things not in the evening but usually on a weekend during the daytime. They stay all day and do perhaps 10 to 15 readings, say 20 minutes long. It is more like a one day psychic fair for them. They charge enough to stay in a hotel overnight if the venue is too far away. I would find this unadulterated torture so I don't do this. You must remember I have done literally thousands upon thousands of psychic readings and too much of it can drive you nuts. Look what happened to me............. |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
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On 2011-07-15 21:11, Mindpro wrote: I am afraid I do not believe this one bit. I have done thousands of readings and know many, many genuinely gifted psychics. Very few of them use no equipment whatsoever. Possibly 10% at the most and these are usually spiritualist mediums. There is a difference between a psychic and a medium. It should be remembered that tarot cards, for example, are one of the most powerful divination tools known to man. If your friends had doubts about this particular psychic it would have been because of her lack of ability rather than the "props" she used. If you go to any psychic fair anywhere you probably won't find a single psychic who uses nothing at all. I do psychic fairs regularly and there might be 30 or 40 readers there. There is only one lady I know of who uses nothing. She does psychometry from a borrowed piece of jewellery but that is about it. Everyone else uses everything from Tarot Cards to Rune Stones. We all have our specialities. Mine is palmistry and the tarot which I find very powerful. In fact one psychic fair promoter told me that the strongest combination for a reader was palmistry and the tarot. I believe he was correct. Clairvoyance is not something you can turn on and off like a tap. You need something to trigger it off. I find reading the palm first to get a general idea of the person and then doing the tarot makes the "vibes" if you want to call it that very much stronger. Quite frankly I wouldn't be able to work if I didn't have that trigger. |
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Lord Of The Horses Inner circle 5406 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 20:44, Mark Lewis wrote: Brilliantly stated, Mark!
Then you'll rise right before my eyes, on wings that fill the sky, like a phoenix rising!
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mota Inner circle 1658 Posts |
Thank you to everyone for this wonderful thread. My experience matches Tony's and Mark's. I did it both ways...they want the readings. It isn't even close.
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On 2011-07-16 13:49, Moderncelt wrote: Moderncelt, two questions... First, what do you mean by "it depends"? What depends? A second question...of the two formats, hostess pays for all or guest pay their own...does one pull significantly more money than the other? Is one format easier to book? OK, that's three questions...lets go for four... How did you ever get started in this? |
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Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 20:44, Mark Lewis wrote: The only time I ever consulted a psychic or as close to a real one that I can ever claim to seeing was as a New Orleans homicide detective. Her name is Mary Jo McCabe. She was in Baton Rouge, now she is in Florida. All my partner and I needed to do was narrow a suspect list to a particularly troublesome homicide we inherited. The previous detectives botched the investigation and it was on its way to becoming a cold case. Under controlled conditions, I met with her. I drove in my personal vehicle, no Crown Vic, I wore regular clothes jeans, polo shirt and tennis shoes, no suit. No appointment was booked. I walked in and sat in the waiting area. She came out with her previous client shook her hand and then looked at me and said, "I'm sorry but I can't help you." Then she said, "The best I can tell you is that you are looking in the wrong place, the gun is in a shallow body of water near the university and the person you need to focus on has a K sound in his last name." "Like Mack," I said. She nodded. "McLauren," I asked. She nodded and then added, "This case will never rest." That evening the gun was found in a ditch inside a culvert next to the apartment complex where the killing took place. the ditch bordered an small patch of woods between the apartment complex and the University of New Orleans. We narrowed our suspect list to McLauren after we spoke to him and started to pick his story apart. He then lawyered up. McLauren was never arrested as not enough physical evidence could be tied to him. We had a lot of circumstantial evidence no hard core physical evidence. It's the only case I never solved. Funny, years later when a serial killer was terrorizing Baton Rouge, I consulted on it. Someone else told them they had two serial killers. I told them they actually had three and none of them working together. They didn't believe me until they arrested the second killer and murders couldn't be tied to either of them. I told them there was a third killer because of the different signature from the other two, it was close to one but not an exact match. An eyewitness from a crime scene gave a statement along with FACES recreation a suspicious person's face that was seen outside of the home three days prior to the murder. The FACES recreation was a dead on match for Matthew McLauren and the victim looked like his first victim. So, no, psychics don't need palms, cards and stuff. Maybe something else triggered it but it wasn't cards, palms, diving rods or any "toys."
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
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Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 21:27, mota wrote: I just put my police training to work. For me, readings are just profiling nd interrogation. In fact, I was introduced to cold reading at the FBI academy as an interrogation technique.
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
"interrogation"? A good psychic never asks a single question. I used to argue with that horrific old monster Ford Kross about this all the time. He sent me a tape of him doing a reading and he was asking a million questions in it. I told him that was a crap way of doing readings since a client will start to think, "you are supposed to be telling me" and he retorted that I just liked to hear the sound of my own voice. And we called each other names ever since. Poor old Ford...........
Anyway this chatter about policemen and readings tempts me to give you an extract from my memoirs, "The Lives of a Showman" The incident concerned happened when I was just starting to delve into the world of psychic readings. ........................................................................................................... Then there was the lady who believed that she was herself psychic. There had recently been the murder of a child reported prominently in the Irish newspapers of the time and this lady was convinced that the mother was the perpetrator. In fact, she had gone down to the police station and insisted to the detective in charge of the case that she had psychic abilities and insisted that he arrest the mother of the child. The officer in question had some doubts as to the lady’s psychic ability or indeed her sanity and declined to cooperate. The woman then came to me and wanted my opinion of the matter. I told her that she might be right but then she might also be wrong which of course covered both eventualities and was 100% accurate. She seemed happy with that and made me promise that once I got a more certain vision of the guilty person that I contact the detective in charge of the case. She dutifully wrote down the phone number of the police officer, handed it to me and departed my office leaving her money behind in my pocket, which of course was of more concern to me than solving a crime that was more properly left to the authorities to figure out. |
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Moderncelt Veteran user Twin Cities MN 343 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 13:49, Moderncelt wrote: Moderncelt, two questions... First, what do you mean by "it depends"? What depends? A second question...of the two formats, hostess pays for all or guest pay their own...does one pull significantly more money than the other? Is one format easier to book? OK, that's three questions...lets go for four... How did you ever get started in this? [/quote] Well I'd say about 40% of the home parties are being paid for completely by the host in which case I charge by the hour. I have found that they pull down about the same. I personally prefer charging by the hour, but that is just me. That way I know ahead of time how much I'll be making. I wouldn't say that one is necessarily easier to book than the other, but some of my clients appreciate having the option. As for how I got started, I started studying palmistry with a woman while I was in college. We did psychic fairs and intuitive arts festivals. After I graduated from college, I took a few years off to focus on my primary career, then started doing readings in coffee shops and bookstores and then added home parties and corporate events later. I really don't do the psychic fairs anymore as often the good ones can be near impossible to break into or the table fees are way high, or so under advertized that almost no one shows up. |
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mota Inner circle 1658 Posts |
Thank you for the answers. Your mention of palmsitry triggered another thought in my mind.
What if...(realize this thought is about two minutes old)... There might be something worth doing before the private readings...a group palm reading as Sheila Lyons does. It would focus the party to begin with, take about three to five minutes, then you would give them each a handout. The handout would be something along the lines of "How to Read Your Own Palm". This would give them something readings-wise to do during the party and increase interaction...they would be reading each other's palms. The handout would have to be straightforward and positive. On every handout would be your contact information. They would never throw it away. When you finish the short group reading you might mention that you will answer palm reading questions after the private readings so as to focus on the tarot (or whatever) of the private reading. That would (hopefully) prevent you losing reading time to answering basic palmistry questions. So, maybe a good idea, maybe not. Whaddya think? |
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Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
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On 2011-07-16 23:03, Mark Lewis wrote: I love reading your posts Mark, if we ever meet I'll let you buy the first round. Questions? A proper interrogation is not a Q&A session. It is a fact finding session. It consists of very few questions but rather me telling the person everything I know about him/her: past, present and future while listening to every word, verbal and no-verbal that he gives me, which is usually very little. A proper interrogation is the interrogator getting neck deep in the person's life, walking around inside their mind and there is nothing they can do can stop it. Sometimes it is negotiation. It was me telling someone with a single hostage, "You're not going to kill anyone. Because you woke up this morning and found yourself overwhelmed financially. Bills need to be paid, car in the shop, out of work, no money. I understand. It feels like the world is piling on. the world can be incredibly racist at times. You're trying to make it through life the best way you know how and you just want a break but can't get one so you take the bull by the horns and take care of business yourself. It becomes especially hard when the person you love thinks you less of a man because you can't put food on the table and support your family; it is an insult to your manhood. I understand. Others have felt the same way. You're not gonna kill anyone because you are a good guy who happens to be caught in a bad situation. The gun is intimidation and you didn't plan on taking a hostage but things went south. I am only here to help you so when you are ready to talk some sense just release the hostage and call me back." Guy called back within five minutes, released the hostage. SWAT didn't shoot anyone; everything was hunky-dory...well not for him but for everyone else. One particular interrogation was me listening to a witness, Eric Naughten...later a suspect...because some people just don't understand the right to shut the **** up drone on ad nauseum accounting for his activities on the night when a friend of his got his head bashed in with a beer bottle. In Louisiana, law enforcement are required to advise witnesses of their rights as witnesses have nasty habits of practicing magic and suddenly becoming suspects. Anyway, this guy would not shut up, a clear sign of either intense nervousness or guilt. His body language led me to the latter. I told him: "When you were a young child, eight or nine years old, you were at a picnic or some sort of outing. There were people there, people who loved and cared about you and they were all around you. Your mom especially. There were other children there so it was something big, a fourth of July outing or a little league baseball party." Eric quips up, "It was both. It was a tournament held on the fourth of July weekend and there was a team picnic afterwards." "You were eating watermelon and it was getting all over you. In fact, most of it came from someone else as they threw a large chunk of it at you and a watermelon fight ensued and everyone was covered in red sticky juice and laughter filled the air. The smell of freshly cut grass. I love that smell. Can you smell it Eric? He said, "I can smell it." He smiled and then he then asked, "I remember that party, were you there?" "Nope, I wasn't there. But I'm right here." I tapped him on his forehead. And how does it feel to know that Daniel Bourgois will not be coming home this fourth of July? How does it feel to know that Daniel will no longer be able to smell freshly cut grass? How does it feel to know that Daniel will not be able to savor the sweet taste of watermelon this fourth of July? How does it feel to know that Daniel's mother will no longer be able to relive these memories with her son?" He refuse to look me in the eye. Then I said, " I believe you Eric. I believe you, Daniel and your two friends bought a case of beer and went behind the levee and spent the day water skiing and drinking. I believe you when you say later that evening you went and bought another two six packs and picked up three girls and rode around Fat City. I believe the four of you took those three girls behind the levee for ***. But I also believe the '"And stuff"' you keep talking about is the more eventful part of the night. It's the part of the night where Daniel got his head caved in." That's how interrogation works. Throw in a little cold reading and they are putty in your hands. If not then just remind them how long their life expectancy is once everyone on the street finds out they are a narcotics snitch.
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
That is all very well but it doesn't sound like you get much money out of your "clients". And I believe a client should walk away from a reading feeling better for having met you. I get a feeling that isn't the case with you.
But what happens if you get an astute suspect who refuses to open his mouth and utter one word? He has heard about people like you, after all. And that actually happens a lot in a psychic reading too. There are clients who refuse to give anything away and say nothing throughout the reading. And it is their perfect right to do so. To be frank I know nothing about body language or cold reading. I use other methods which I have described elsewhere on this forum which sound a trifle metaphysical but are actually grounded in practicality. I once privately asked an ex-policman member of this forum who shall go nameless what happened when a suspect refuses to answer any questions and he said "that is when you have to hit them with the phonebook". No doubt you can suggest a more subtle way of going about things. I still remember the time that Gordon Lonsdale alias Konon Molody, the Russian spy was arrested in Britain and simply refused all interrogation saying, "To any questions you ask the answer is no, so you need not bother to ask" and then refused to speak from that moment on. Of course, I suppose the average drug dealer isn't quite as bright as a highly trained spy. Lonsdale amused me greatly when in his memoirs, he did a survey in prison of all the inmate's former professions. He was a trifle bored at the time. It seems the leading profession in jail happened to be second hand car salesmen, but I was highly amused to hear that the second most common former profession of the prisoners were police officers. I think the least common profession was Russian spies so there probably is a moral in that somewhere. |
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FocusYourMAYND Regular user 174 Posts |
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On 2011-07-17 00:21, mota wrote: This approach to a Psychic Party was actually described in Psychic Soirees by John Riggs in 1994. |
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Dreadnought Special user Athens, Georgia 836 Posts |
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On 2011-07-17 07:23, Mark Lewis wrote: My clients always walk away happy. Unhappy clients don't pay...unless you get the money up front.
Peace
"Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum..." Scott Would you do anything for the person you love? |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
I don't see how going to jail makes your clients happy.I must be missing something somewhere.
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Tony Iacoviello Eternal Order 13151 Posts |
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On 2011-07-17 09:20, Mark Lewis wrote: LOL!!!!!!! Mark, thank you. You just made my day! |
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
I think it might be interesting to see how I used to do psychic parties. I no longer use this structure that is to be described but it should be interesting to read. Around 22 years or so ago I did a psychic house party in Ireland. To my surprise a journalist was there and wrote the whole thing up in a national newspaper. It was a very large spread and it took up nearly two pages. I intend to reproduce it here for I suppose, historical purposes. I have had to figure out how to condense the whole *** thing into two posts or so and I believe I know how to do it. There were a couple of large photographs that I don't have to worry about along with a couple of small photographs of Irish celebrities who like the psychic world.
There was a lot of waffle about various Irish celebrities who liked astrology but since they weren't at the bloody party I don't see why I need to give them further publicity so I have cut out their opinions. And I certainly won't be including the bit about a rival astrologer in the Dublin area. Here is the essential stuff about what I used to do at these parties. My format is completely different now though. ................................................................................................................................................... BRING STARS TO YOUR PARTY WITH TAROT CARDS by Charlotte 0"Brien Tupperware and knicker parties are out of vogue. Now, the trend in house parties is to tantalise your guests with tarot cards and turn your sitting room into a psychic palace. The air of excitement filled the north Co. Dublin sitting room where 12 men and women in their 30s had gathered for a magic horoscope party. The flames of the blazing fire flickered across the ceiling. The wine glasses were full to the brim. Spirits were high and expectations even higher. All eyes were fixed on Mark Lewis, the middle aged man, dressed in a navy suit, who was going to read their tarot cards and reveal their future. Will I ever meet the partner of my dreams? What about winning the Lotto? Will I get that promotion? Is that the patter of tiny feet I hear? These were the questions in people's minds. Coupled with the excitement were the pangs of anxiety which gripped people from time to time as their minds wandered to the darker side of life. Will he tell me I have no future? Is the pain I'm felling in the pit of my stomach more than just apprehension? Marion Kelly (33) from Donabate, Co. Dublin told me she had come to the party because of her deep interest in astrology wile Andy Murray ((35) from Lusk, Co Dublin, had come along just for the fun. On a more serious note, Pauline Roche (35) from St Margaret's Co. Dublin was interested in finding out what the future held in store for her. However the eager crowd were going to have to wait a little longer to find out their fate-it was time for fun in the form of magic and psychic demonstrations. "It's like having Paul Daniels in your front room," said Bernadette Meade (32) from Donabate, Co. Dublin, as the man juggled with cards at the speed of light and made things disappear and reappear. Peals of laughter from one and all set off the party mood. And there was more to follow. An item of jewellery was taken from a willing hand. The astrologer moved his fingers to and fro over the ring waiting for some inspiration. "Did you burn yourself recently?" He asked. "Yes I did" replied Brian Lambert (35) from Swords Co. Dublin. Everybody gasped in amazement. ........................................................................................................ At this point I am going to take a rest from typing. There is more to come. I expect I will be able to fit it all in with the next post. Do you find it interesting so far? |
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Tony Iacoviello Eternal Order 13151 Posts |
Thank you Mark, yest it is very interesting!
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*Mark Lewis* V.I.P. 1325 Posts |
Well, even if it isn't interesting I am going to post the rest anyway:
OK. Here is the rest of it: ................................................................................................................................................... Do you have a scar on your left knee and a crack in your kitchen door?" Brian answered yes again. More shrieks from the audience. Now we were down to the serious stuff. The astrologer asked was somebody's watch broken. Everybody checked and replied that theirs was fine. Now the sceptics looked smug. He doesn't know it all they said to themselves. Then Mary Flood (35) from The Ward, Co. Dublin remembered that she had her son's broken watch in her handbag.....he was right after all. After some more dazzling of the crowd, the man withdrew quietly into the confines of the kitchen to meditate quietly and tune up his psychic powers. Now the knives were out as the sceptics battled it out with the believers. "It's all too general. There's nothing specific about it. " said John O'Neill (35) from Ratoath, Co. Meath. "I think it's a great night's fun but wouldn't take it too seriously" proclaimed Maurice Meade (33) from Donabate, Co. Dublin. Talk turned to tales of past psychic readings and favourite astrologers. Meanwhile, people were being summoned one by one for their readings in the kitchen. Even the sceptics were fighting to get to the door. Some had their questions answered, others not. Bernadette Meade was told she'd have another baby. No one was going to win the Lotto but a few were going to get promotions. By the end of the night everyone had recounted what lay ahead for them and a weary tarot reader returned to his bed richer than when he arrived. Mark Lewis who is in his 40s, is a native of Glasgow and has been practicing astrology in Dublin for two years. The Scot became interested in the subject in 1984 at a psychic fair in Birmingham. Before this he was a magician. Now, Mark combines both his skills at magic horoscope parties in Dublin City and suburbs. He entertains up to 20 people at their chosen location with palm reading, magic, psychic demonstrations and tarot card readings .......................................................................................................... Anyway that is the gist of it all. I had to cut out perhaps 50% of the write up and just put the most interesting bits. The article then goes on to give my phone number and I seem to remember insisting on it as a condition of allowing the journalist to chatter about me. As you can imagine I was very busy for weeks afterwards. Mind you, you don't always need the phone number in the article. Michael Jackson came to Ireland in 1988 and the newspapers asked me to do a reading for him. I got a full page write up about it. However I was disappointed to see that my phone number was not in the article. It made no difference though. I was as busy as you can imagine when that write up came out. At first I didn't connect why I was so busy because my phone number wasn't in the piece. Yet I realised later that people made it their business to search me out. Newspaper publicity is a fantastic way of getting extra business. I have no idea how you get this kind of publicity. I never did a single thing to attract it. The newspapers always came to me and the above article is only a small fraction of the publicity I got in Ireland. In Canada I don't get a fraction of the press recognition I got in Ireland. I must say Canadians are very boring. |
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Tony Iacoviello Eternal Order 13151 Posts |
Thank you for sharing that!
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