Theatres used by performers pretending to speak to the dead

Are psychics charlatans? Yes and no. I honestly think there are psychics who do believe themselves to be psychic. The "messages" they hear are created by their own imaginations, but they convince themselves that these are truly signs from "the other side". If they truly believe they are psychic, and a paying audience believes they are psychic, and everybody is on the same page, are they truly fraudulent?

Then comes those who believe themselves to be psychic, but may actually ask leading questions of those they are reading, whether subconsciously or by design, in order to have a higher "hit rate". I believe most stage psychics fall into this category. They believe themselves to be the real deal, but are not above a bit of cheating in order to make the show more successful.

Then there are those who are entirely fraudulent. I remember reading an actress' biography in a programme once many years ago and found that she had once played a "guest medium" on Most Haunted!

I'm a big fan of magic, but part of the unwritten magicians' code is that, amid all of the trickery, sleight of hand and misdirection, there should be no explicit lying. An example would be, don't say you're not using a stooge when you are. Another would be to explicitly state you're using a perfectly normal prop when in fact it's modified for the trick. You should instead allow the audience to infer it's normal from a clever use of language.

I've seen some illusionists break that code occasionally, including Derren Brown, and that's disappointing and fair game to criticise. Sometimes it's because they panic in the moment when a trick is not quite going to plan and they say something off script.

Of course cold reading is a major part of the "psychic's" toolbox, but a show that relied solely on that would have no wow factor unless they got really lucky on details. Sometimes, the performer already has the required information to be revealed and recites from memory; other times, it's fed to them live. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't the odd stooge or two.

The difference between seeing Derren Brown and Psychic Doris or whoever, is that Derren makes no secret of the fact it's all illusion. If you go to see Derren and come away believing he has genuinely been able to predict your choices from your body language, it's really your own fault for not paying attention.

He can be quite audacious in revealing how some tricks are done while still fooling many. I remember one show where he proudly used an overhead camera to show off in close-up his incredible legerdemain skills with cards, only for a trick much later on to have only been possible if what the audience member on stage was doing was visible by, say, a camera above them.

The way I see it, either the self labelled psychic knows they can't speak to the dead in which case they are a fraud or they think they can and so are mentally ill.

Neither option should see that person be put on stage in front of a paying audience.

They see their cheques clearing, that’s all that really matters.