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Lisa Williams | |
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| Born | Lisa Michelle Williams 19 June 1973 |
| Occupation | Psychic medium |
| Spouse | Kevin Harris (m. 2004,separated) |
| Children | 1 |
Lisa Michelle Williams (born 19 June 1973) is British and claims to be psychic and a medium, she is also an author, known for her appearances on television in the UK and the U.S.
Williams starred in two shows on Lifetime Television: Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead (2006–2007) and Lisa Williams: Voices From the Other Side (2008).
Williams also appeared on Deal or No Deal when the episode aired on NBC on 31 March 2008. She also made a guest appearance in one of Lifetime's other shows, America's Psychic Challenge .
On 21 June 2019, media personality and skeptic Alistair MacLauchlan presented his review of Williams in part three of four medium investigations he conducted in Scotland. He attended one of William's mediumship events in Edinburgh. [1] He reported that in her opening statement Williams asked how many people were there for forensics. One of the seminars the following day was on forensics, breaking down evidence supplied from spirits and extrasensory perception. According to MacLauchlan, while highly publicized missing person cases tend to attract many mediums who use it as a means of building their portfolio, most law enforcement do not acknowledge their involvement.
Of her event, he says, as Williams began the discussion, she primed the audience saying they should "think outside the box" and make connections to the messages she claims to receive from the dead because they can sometimes be muddy. Further MacLauchlan then reported she went on with basic cold reading tactics even speaking to a dog that had passed away. MacLauchlan concluded the article saying that while Williams has good stage presence building rapport with her audience, she uses wild guesses from a primed audience, firing questions then picking through their reactions that fit her narrative. [1]
On 30 October 2004, Williams married Kevin Harris. They moved to Los Angeles, California, when she was producing her TV shows. [2] On her Hay House Radio show on 9 December 2009, Williams announced that she and Kevin were separating. Williams was in a relationship with a female partner, but later became single and lived in Upstate New York with her son and their two dogs. [3]
Cold reading is a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, and mediums. Without prior knowledge, a practiced cold-reader can quickly obtain a great deal of information by analyzing the person's body language, age, clothing or fashion, hairstyle, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, level of education, manner of speech, place of origin, etc. during a line of questioning. Cold readings commonly employ high-probability guesses, quickly picking up on signals as to whether their guesses are in the right direction or not, then emphasizing and reinforcing chance connections and quickly moving on from missed guesses. Psychologists believe that this appears to work because of the Barnum effect and due to confirmation biases within people.
John Edward McGee Jr. is an American television personality, writer and self-proclaimed psychic medium.
Spiritualism is a social religious movement popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by the living. The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to interact and evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to the belief that spirits are capable of advising the living on moral and ethical issues and the nature of God. Some spiritualists follow "spirit guides"—specific spirits relied upon for spiritual direction.
A séance or seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word séance comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French seoir, "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma". In English, however, the word came to be used specifically for a meeting of people who are gathered to receive messages from ghosts or to listen to a spirit medium discourse with or relay messages from spirits. In modern English usage, participants need not be seated while engaged in a séance.
A psychic detective is a person who investigates crimes by using purported paranormal psychic abilities. Examples have included postcognition, psychometry, telepathy, dowsing, clairvoyance, and remote viewing. In murder cases, psychic detectives may purport to be in communication with the spirits of the murder victims.
Sylvia Celeste Browne was an American writer and self-proclaimed medium and psychic. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, and hosted an hour-long online radio show on Hay House Radio.
Victoria Helen McCrae Duncan was a Scottish medium best known as the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for fraudulent claims. She was famous for producing ectoplasm which was proved to be made from cheesecloth.
Harry Price was a British psychic researcher and author, who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent spiritualist mediums. He is best known for his well-publicised investigation of the purportedly haunted Borley Rectory in Essex, England.
Doris May Fisher Stokes, born Doris Sutton, was a British spiritualist, professional medium, and author. Her professed ability to communicate with the dead, public performances, television appearances, and memoirs made her a household name in Britain. During her lifetime she was a controversial figure, with some believing her to possess psychic abilities, but investigations published after her death demonstrated that she used techniques including cold reading, hot reading, and planting accomplices in her audience, giving the appearance of having paranormal abilities.
Allison DuBois is an American author and purported medium. DuBois claims she used her psychic abilities to assist U.S. law enforcement officials in solving crimes, forming the basis of the TV series Medium.
Mediumship is the pseudoscientific practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija. The practice is associated with spiritualism and spiritism. A similar New Age practice is known as channeling.
Mina "Margery" Crandon was an American psychic medium who said that she channeled her dead brother, Walter Stinson. Investigators who studied Crandon concluded that she had no such paranormal ability, and others detected her in outright deception. She became known as her alleged paranormal skills were touted by Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and were disproved by magician Harry Houdini. Crandon was investigated by members of the American Society for Psychical Research and employees of the Scientific American.
This article provides a selected list of fictional stories in which Spiritualism features as an important plot element. The list omits passing mentions.
Psychic Detectives or Psychic Investigators is a television program produced by StoryHouse Productions for Court TV. The program documents real-life cases of situations in which police departments have enlisted the aid of psychics in solving difficult cases. The series production does not investigate the claims of the psychics showcased or confirm their claims. For entertainment it instead recreates some of the atmosphere surrounding psychic claims using a selection of well recognized intuitives, crime psychics, psychic detectives and supporters of paranormal beliefs. A cross section of paranormal psychics are profiled though most are women who typically are engaged as self-described psychic mediums communicating with the dead. Robyn Hutt was executive producer.
Rosemary Altea is a British author who describes herself as a medium and healer. She has appeared on various programs, including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and featured in the series premiere of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! alongside mentalist Mark Edward. She has written six books and claims to have a "healing foundation".
"Extra Large Medium" is the 12th episode of the eighth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. Directed by John Holmquist and written by Steve Callaghan, the episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 14, 2010. In "Extra Large Medium", Peter discovers that he has supposedly developed "extrasensory perception" (ESP) after his two sons, Chris and Stewie, go missing during a family hike in the woods. Soon after being rescued, Chris decides to ask out a classmate at his school, named Ellen, who has Down syndrome, and eventually takes her on a romantic date, which he goes on to regret. Meanwhile, Peter begins performing psychic readings, but is eventually discovered to be faking his ability once he is approached by the town's police force.
James Van Praagh is an American writer and television personality who describes himself as a clairvoyant and spiritual medium. He has written numerous books, including The New York Times bestseller Talking to Heaven. Van Praagh was a producer and screenwriter on the 2002 CBS primetime semi-autobiographical miniseries Living with the Dead starring Ted Danson. He also hosted a short-lived paranormal talk show called Beyond with James Van Praagh.
Mark Edward is an American mentalist and author. He has written books on mentalism, séance theory and production, including Psychic Blues published in 2009, where he discusses working for the Psychic Friends Network. Wilson has appeared on television as both primary consultant and on-air performer in such diverse programming as ABC's "The Con", A & E's Biography: "Houdini, the Great Escape", NBC's "The Other Side" and "Psychic Secrets Revealed", The Sci-Fi Channel's "Mysteries, Magic and Miracles", The Discovery Channel's "Forces Beyond", and on two episodes of The Learning Channel's "Exploring the Unknown". His featured segment as a spirit medium on the pilot episode of Showtime's "Penn & Teller's Bullshit!" series entitled "Speaking with the Dead" helped secure an Emmy Award nomination for that episode in 2002. He is a fellow with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
Theresa Caputo is an American psychic medium, best known for her TLC reality television series Long Island Medium.
Jeanette Wilson is a New Zealand medium and spiritual healer who says that she can heal people with the assistance of spirits. Wilson has been criticised for promoting New World Order theories, anti-vaccination views, unproven supplements, anti-5G claims, and dangerous COVID-19 health advice.
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