Price$18.95
Media TypeBook
CategoryMentalism
Date AddedAug 19, 2012
Psychic Blues: Confessions of a Conflicted Medium
Mark Edwards
Feral House
(Based on 1 review)
Edward is a professional mentalist who has worked the Magic Castle in Hollywood for over thirty years and is also on the Editorial Board of Skeptic magazine, where he has worked with other critical thinkers to reveal the methods of psychic scamsters. This entertaining book is at once confessional and instructional regarding human belief and those who exploit it.
Edward believes that most practitioners of the psychic business are out-and-out scam artists, and that the common need to believe in things supernatural is merely a part of human nature.
Reviews
(Top ▲)
This isn't a magic book per se, but it contains many secrets. Mark Edward is a magician, mentalist, and long time Medium of the Houdini Seance at the Magic Castle. But, like many of us, he has a day job. But unlike you and I, his day job is being a professional psychic.
Psychic Blues is a fun and fast read. Virtually every page holds a fascinating anecdote from Edward's time as a 900-number psychic, a regular at SoCal psychic fairs, or his time spent reading Tarot at high-powered Hollywood parties. This book delivers if you're looking for gossipy, engaging tales.
But as an expose about the paranormal business, well, not so much. James Randi's enthusiastic endorsement and foreword notwithstanding, by the end of the book, the reader has mostly learned that psychics are eccentric, gifted with gab, and often mistreated by those who hire them. You won't learn very much about the seedy underbelly of the paranormal business.
The book is not without its flaws. It could have a used a better proofread, and the ending is rather anticlimactic. CSICOP members will be disappointed that Edward casts a rather sympathetic role. Shuteyes who read this book will just be left with the caution that some psychics aren't real; no big surprise there. But those of us in the middle of those two extremes will laugh, cringe, and have difficulty putting the book down. Those who are interested in magic will definitely enjoy the inside references sprinkled throughout.
I foresee good things for Edward on the talk show and promotional circuit, and I predict that most My Lovely Assistant readers will enjoy this book.
Psychic Blues is a fun and fast read. Virtually every page holds a fascinating anecdote from Edward's time as a 900-number psychic, a regular at SoCal psychic fairs, or his time spent reading Tarot at high-powered Hollywood parties. This book delivers if you're looking for gossipy, engaging tales.
But as an expose about the paranormal business, well, not so much. James Randi's enthusiastic endorsement and foreword notwithstanding, by the end of the book, the reader has mostly learned that psychics are eccentric, gifted with gab, and often mistreated by those who hire them. You won't learn very much about the seedy underbelly of the paranormal business.
The book is not without its flaws. It could have a used a better proofread, and the ending is rather anticlimactic. CSICOP members will be disappointed that Edward casts a rather sympathetic role. Shuteyes who read this book will just be left with the caution that some psychics aren't real; no big surprise there. But those of us in the middle of those two extremes will laugh, cringe, and have difficulty putting the book down. Those who are interested in magic will definitely enjoy the inside references sprinkled throughout.
I foresee good things for Edward on the talk show and promotional circuit, and I predict that most My Lovely Assistant readers will enjoy this book.