Sally Morgan

Sally Morgan is a British "celebrity psychic" and medium who is totally genuine and in no way, shape, or form a fraud or charlatan. She was in regular contact with Princess Diana—being a "personal psychic" of sorts—and gained some notoriety when it transpired that she successfully predicted Diana's death in a car crash, although apparently only revealed as much about 12 years later having got the victim confused with the Queen.[1] Morgan is often referred to by her stage name, Psychic Sally.

Putting the psycho in
Parapsychology
Men who stare at goats
By the powers of tinfoil
v - t - e

Hot reading controversy

In the middle of a September 2011, voices were allegedly heard allegedly feeding her information allegedly through an ear-piece. When audience members allegedly reported that what the voice was saying was allegedly repeated by Sally on stage only a few seconds later, the story broke and Sally became quite the centre of attention in the skeptic world, but this in no way proves that she has been making her whole "gift" up and conning people out of money.[2] Since Psychic Sally came to the attention of the press, skeptics, magicians and mentalists have taken the opportunity to elaborate on known tricks of the trade (not that we know for sure that Sally uses these tricks, of course) including Derren Brown[3] and street magician Paul Zenon.[4]

Psychic or not?

Now, remember, no one is implying that Sally Morgan isn't genuine, and no one is insinuating that she's a fraud and fake, but in February 2012, one reviewer was sent to a Psychic Sally show and was shocked to notice that she ended an act terrified by the shocking image of an explosion and a man being thrown into the air. When she came back for the second part after an intermission, she described, in detail, a message from Toby ‘Tobias’ Wren, who was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan the previous December.

Now, remember we're not saying she didn't see the image and no one is saying she cheated, or used underhand techniques in her show, but there was, in fact, no Toby Wren - she merely recounted what the reviewer sent via email and sent her via various "Love Letter" cards in advance.[5] So, remember, no one is passing judgment here, and we're not accusing her of being a fraudulent hack because there's simply not the evidence for that - perhaps she psychically read the email, or something - but there simply was no Toby Wren killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, and the story and character in fact bear (presumably coincidental) strong resemblance to a television show.

In fact, Sally Morgan is such a skilled psychic as to successfully contact the spirit of ... a woman who was sitting alive in the audience.[6]

Million dollar challenge

On Halloween of 2011 she was challenged to take part in James Randi's million-dollar challenge[7] by the Merseyside Skeptics Society. This is a prize offered to anyone who can unequivocally demonstrate paranormal powers.

She failed to take part, presumably because of other commitments, like being a fraud.

Michael Marshall, vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, said: "If Sally really is able to demonstrate in a very simple test that her skills are in fact psychically derived, as opposed to produced via the various magic tricks and techniques we know fraudulent mediums could use to appear to have psychic powers, then we'll be first in the queue to celebrate her talents. But until she can show her readings are genuine, we don't think it's right that vulnerable people are led to believe she's really talking to the dead."

Disclaimer

Did we mention that no one is implying that Sally is a fraudulent fake, charging £25 per person per night for her shows, and causing unnecessary distress to grieving families over something that she's made up out of whole cloth? Also, she's certainly not a liar or charlatan, or a fraudulent medium at all. Has that caveat been mentioned enough to avoid getting sued, yet?

Sally's disclaimers

Ms Morgan's website itself contains some interesting disclaimers. [8] including:

  • Please note that Sally Morgan is investigational/experimental and for the purpose of entertainment.
  • Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed.
  • The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy.

The website selling tickets for her entertainment venues says:

  • Sally Morgan is investigational/experimental. There are no guaranteed or certain results and the show is for the purpose of entertainment. [9]

We applaud the honesty implied by these disclaimers.

gollark: As such, we can calculate the probability that it is someone's birthday as 1 - (364/365)^n.
gollark: (The number of people whose birthday it is, that is)
gollark: The number is roughly binomially distributed.
gollark: More people can only increase the chance that it is someone's birthday.
gollark: For any individual person the chance that it is their birthday is 1/365.

References
  1. Merseyside Skeptic Society - Psychic Predicts Princess Di’s Death, Twelve Years Too Late
  2. The Independent - No happy medium as Psychic Sally 'sidekick' prompts outrage
  3. Derren Brown - Testing psychics
  4. Paul Zenon on 'Psychic' Sally Morgan, BBC News
  5. Psychic... or not?
  6. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/celeb-psychic-sally-morgan-embarrassed-3611040
  7. Sally Morgan avoids million dollar challenge
  8. Ms Morgan's disclaimers
  9. Ticket sale disclaimer
This article is issued from Rationalwiki. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.