Skeptible Thinking Paper After watching some of these videos and reading comments and skepticism about these so called "psychics" or "healers", the only thing that would cross my mind is the ability that these men and women have to actually try and manipulate the weak minded to fill their own pockets. From the very beginning the first thing I thought was, how desperate were these people for financial gain? The believers who fell for the scams were sadly just being human and as a human, we like to put our faith in something to feel more at ease about anything that is bothering us. Which is why religion is an often easy target for scammers because there is no definite proof since it is all based on faith, and anybody willing to be credible enough to go in the lords name must be telling the truth, but the power of money is far more powerful then the faith of these "healers". Sylvia Browne on the other hand is a different story with the same context. She also uses an idea or faith which cannot be proven to make a personal gain off of others losses. In her videos, she seems absolutely sure in her readings but we find out later, almost everything she had said was false. Now, if a "real" credible psychic could come up with these accusations in front of millions and know that they are false, what would be the reason? Money! Money is the fuel source that drives the train of deceit for these people. I personally believe that these psychics or spiritual healers are absolutely fake and there is an uncountable amount of evidence to prove it. There was an article about a fake spiritual healer who was arrested and they found a copious amount of marijuana and money stashed away with ten of his accomplices. Since there has been an increase in people seeking spiritual healers, there has been an increase in the rise of people in this profession. It would only make sense that there would be a rise because people are seeking some kind of financial gain in this plummeting economy. Which in turn, the economy is what is leading people to seek spiritual healers and psychics for guidance and something to look forward to. I was reading along about Silvia Browne and found a website exposing her and alot of the tricks and scams she used on t.v. to become famous. There is a laundry list of explanations for every kind of act that a psychic would or could use to further persuade the audience that they are supernatural. But, we can't ignore the fact that some of these people actually do believe that they are being touched by God, or another higher being. Throughout history there is multiple reports and stories of somebody who has a spiritual connection with God and lots of times they are simply and plainly delusional. This could be brought on by drugs or alcohol causing the person influenced to truly believe what they are perceiving are messages from God or from a higher being. The video of the preacher Benny Hinn is the perfect example of a drunken man preaching the words of God and displaying the "power God has bestowed upon him." There really isn't much to say about this besides how can people believe a man who is drunk in public trying to deliver a speech and heal others. Perhaps the most unbelievable scam about psychics are mediums who can communicate with dead! Thanks to t.v. and other sources of entertainment, these mediums have been gaining an awful amount of popularity. I believe that only crazies and extremely gullible people actually believe in this stuff! Since it's on television of course it gives it the sense that it is actually true, and it appeals to the viewers because it is supernatural! But, like I said before, the people who actually do these sort of things sometimes do believe in their "powers" and it is unfair to question their beliefs as humans. Of course we may come up with our own opinions about it but we can truly never know what is going on mentally, based on a psychic level.