Preachers too.

If there are penalties, shouldn't chuches also be assessed such penalties?

Yes. They specifically prey on gullible people.

They are con artists and thieves, preying on the gullible.
Just like religion.
Which is why they suffer little to no consequences.

One of my personal heroes, Harry Houdini, made it a point to actively debunk psychic and spiritualist con artists as he traveled the vaudeville circuit in the first half of the last century. He made a lot of enemies and was eventually murdered at the height of his fame during a stand in Chicago by those criminal interests. Entertainers are one thing, people who exploit the weak minded are quite another. We all have a responsibility to stay aware, but being duped by a professional conman is no shame, and the ones who do the duping are criminals, plain and simple.

adults are responsible for their thoughts & actions; i reckon that includes credulity. if fortune tellers get treated like con-artists, then yes, where to draw the line? are magicians cheating on our perception? on our children's innocent perception? i am all for un-nannying the people.

The James Randi Educational Foundation was founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. The JREF offers a still-unclaimed million-dollar reward for anyone who can produce evidence of paranormal abilities under controlled conditions.

Maybe we need a PsiCorps, like Babylon 5.

Politicians and Priests and Televangelists. See any Difference?

You may try to regulate the snake oil salespeople but what about the gullible snake oil buyers. Barnums famous quota, "A sucker is born every minute".

They do not present themselves as entertainers. And I do not think it is good for society to allow such people to part fools and their money. While it is funny in a way to do the WC Fields "never give a sucker an even break" routine, it does not contribute to the sort of civil society I want to live in.

I've been forced to watch most haunted with some guy called Derek Acorah...why can't he get a real job working with police like in Izombie

it truly is amazing the shit people believe..from photoshopped jesus clouds,or gates to heavens in the sky,to amazing footage of the sun in front of clouds...blahhfuckingblahh

Years ago, M. Lamar Keene wrote a book called "The Psychic Mafia." Long before the internet, "psychics" had their own information storage system. They kept information about their customers, and if one would move to another area, their files were sent on to the next "psychic." They referred to those files as their "poems."

I can just imagine how much more streamlined it is now thanks to the internet.

Psychics have always been part of a criminal underground. They should be treated as such.

Or, better still, they should be treated the same way alchemists were. Alchemists claimed to be able to turn lead into gold. On occasion, they would be kidnapped and provided with full laboratories. Their price for release? All they had to do was produce some gold, and they could go. They couldn't admit they were frauds (it wouldn't have helped anyway), so they spent the rest of their lives in captivity with their beakers and chemicals..

Just get some "psychics," put them in holding cells, and have them do some reading on people in the next room. If they have a statistically significant number of hits, they can go. If not, they have to do it all over again. Yeah, that woulod be fair.

"For entertainment porpoises only"

Not if you choose to go to them. Now in my mind they’re just a bunch of immoral ass hats. I know they prey on the weak.

Hmm..depends. If they're like carnival status "hey this is just for fun, im gonna pretend to be spooky and read your fortune" its harmless entertainment as long as people don't think they're..real haha.

The problem is the stupid TV shows. "oh my gawd im a psychic for jersey and i'll talk to your dead family for money, I mean closure." Or john edwards back when he was relevant.

ugh. I have co-workers who swear up and down its real, and 100 % follow any advice given, and say things like "i know its real because my aunt is a psychic" uh..huhhhh....this is the same group of people who believe the earth is hollow and inhabited by lizard-men. I wish I was joking. FML.

I've changed my mind! haha. ban 'em all.

Can we prosecute all the religious leaders? Nope.

I think these folk should be accorded the same.

They're entertainers. People choose to pay them, and to believe what they want. Any reading I've ever had they clearly (and are obligated to by law) state that the reading is for entertainment purposes only.

Only if they claim any sort of accuracy in their predictions, or go back on any form of guarantee. If they let you know it is only for entertainment, then that is not an issue

At best, they are entertainers.
At worst, they are con-artist charlatans who would take advantage of people.

I believe that it depends on the person. I find them a silly little game to make me smile for a little bit. But the people who blow all their money on them in hopes to win big or contact lost love ones need people to keep them away from them.

It is personal choice. Some people believe, and some people are entertained. I personally want more less government intervention.

If there were penalties for lying our entire Congress would be doing hard time..except Bernie.
Most fortunetellers merely tell people what they want to hear.
There are already plenty of laws about getting money by false pretence

Magicians don't actually think the audience thinks they are wizards or doing real magic. "Psychics" and "fortune tellers" know that their customers are taking the subject seriously. They are preying on people's emotions and selling them snake oil.

I think it is a little of both, entertaining and preying on the uncouth.

There are some who are genuinely good at reading people, but rather than super natural abilities, i ascribe this to hyper observance. When i was younger and befor i was half blind, I could "read" peopel very well just by watching them. I beleive that good "psychics" also do this, only they may be even more observant than I was. I was able to freak people out by tellign them things I surmized by their expressions, how htey moved and so on.,,, although my ability to "read" them was not wholly conscious on my part. It was more liek from watchign them i got impressions which usually turned out to be true.

There is nothign supernatural aobu tit. We ar eanimals and hae instincts and senses tht observe of which we are nto always conscious of. In our evolutionary past they served us well for survival and determiing the intentions of others. I think it is more of an istinctual ability, but some people may be able to learn it. Although, I myself woudl have no idea of how to go about teaching it to somebody else, and beign partially blind now, I no longer am able to do it. (I assume if it were supernatural, I'd still be able to do it, so I have come to a different and mroe comon sense explanatio of the source of it).

I have heard that soem intelligence agencies knwo how to teach hyper obaservance. I am told a great deal depends on the natural abilities as to how successful teaching it can be.

So, anyway, the hyper observent person can be in a way doing a legitimate "reading". Whether or not they are tryign to help the person or defraud them depends on th eperson's nature of whethr or not they are honest.