930: Silver Dragon

[littlp]

I love Robert Alvarez. I voted on Yes, I think there is something there. I can't buy fully into it, but I can't deny that he seems to have something going for him in that regard. At the very least, it is entertaining. Love his laugh too.

And when I first heard about David, I imagined that there was another guy in the room with him whispering in his ear and not talking to anyone else, that part was really confusing to me.

[archicat]

Robert seems like a good guy but I'm not buying any of the psychic witch stuff, generallly he's one of my least favorite guests as the episodes always seem much slower than others.

Proud to be a cynic

Love his laugh too.

I do like it too, he as an infectious laugh.

[Jonny Face]

Robert Alvarez is a loveable guy and is entertaining to have on the show once in a while, but he's full of shit.

He uses the same old tricks that all 'psychics' and cold-readers do.Lets break it down a bit.Firstly he is a very nice friendly guy and overly complimentary to everyone, Im not saying this is a front but it makes him a lot easier to trust.

Secondly, pretty much every 'reading' he does is either something that applies to pretty much everyone, or is congruent with where that person is in there life.For example telling the lady that she needs to forgive someone.Well, most people will have at least one person in their lives they have a grudge against or are pissed off with, so that's just an observation that is almost guaranteed to hit home with most people.
Similiarly when he said to Mike that he needed to focus more on what he is doing at times...again this could apply to anyone, who doesnt daydream when they are doing stuff? Also a lot of the stuff he said to Mike worked so well just because he is 19, and it's easy to predict the things he's going to go through in his life, because we all go through the same shit when we're young!

Thirdly he uses a lot of fancy rules (e.g you cant have your legs crossed), and strange language (e.g 'Jesus the Christ) or official-sounding terms (e.g 'Claircognizance') to make his mumbo-jumbo sound more impressive.

Also rather than claiming that all his predictions and readings come from his own 'powers', he gets a lot of it from supposed outside sources, i.e David and the Tarot cards.This makes it more impressive because it's coming from a higher power of some kind and it's harder to question him on it than it would be if he claimed it just came from his own psychic abilities (it also allows him to be a lot more vague).

Lastly he just tells people exactly what they want to hear!Funny how whatever card he pulls it always seems to support a nice answer, even if it's the death card.Even if it doesnt give the nice answer, there's always a nice spin on it.

Can I just point out aswell that at 56 mins he says something along the lines of '90% of the time, when people cross over, whatever anger and resentment people have is released'.How the fuck can you make a statistical claim about what happens to people's feelings when they die?Is someone doing surveys up in heaven??

Im sure Robert honestly believes all this stuff that he says, and that's probably why he comes over as so honest and trustworthy.But do you know what that also makes him?A crazy person.You basically have a real life Ally McBeal on your show, talking to people in his head.

This is good entertainment, but I think it's totally immoral.He is playing with people's emotions (in a positive way mostly, I will admit), claiming that he has knowledge of what's going on with people's dead relatives, and making money from it.And that is sick.Telling Mike he is not gonna get a girlfriend soon, that's sick too.Fuck you, Robert Alvarez.

[Junkenstein]

Immoral? C'mon...

If anyone goes to Alvarez and finds solce in this, what makes it more immoral than religion or therapy?

Personally, i wont go to a psychic, but i do not believe in anything. But calling it immoral is over the top...

[shantastic]

i love robert alvarez. love. him.

[lolaclare]

Originally Posted by Jonny Face

Robert Alvarez is a loveable guy and is entertaining to have on the show once in a while, but he's full of shit.

He uses the same old tricks that all 'psychics' and cold-readers do.[/B]

I agree.

Also, when he says something that is dead wrong, he plays it off as a prediction of something that will happen in the future. Anyone could make guesses and if they are wrong say "Oh, that may not be true now, but it will happen soon - look out for it in the future".

I find it odd that 'David' didn't inform him the times during this episode when he completely missed the point of what Keith and Chemda were saying.

I am not sure to what extent to which Robert really believes his own bullshit. Does he have a real voice in his head that he truly believes is called David and is giving him information about the people he does readings for? I can't decide. He seems to genuinely believe what he's saying but that could be a very good act. Or he might believe it in which case he is obviously not all there, mentally.

[Blitzgal]

Originally Posted by lolaclare

I find it odd that 'David' didn't inform him the times during this episode when he completely missed the point of what Keith and Chemda were saying.

I noticed that, too. LOLs.

The Randi Foundation's prize offer will expire in March of next year. If Robert can prove his powers under scientifically controlled conditions, he'll get a million bucks. The Foundation has had this prize offer for over ten years. Not a single supernatural being has managed to win.

I once had my palm read and decided to see how far the person could get if I refused to give her any additional information in response to her guesses. Usually what they do is allow the client to feed them info after providing vague references that would apply to almost anyone. She was correct that someone close to me had died, however without me immediately jumping in to tell her it was my father, she then went on to talk about my relationship with my parents and clearly had no clue exactly who it was who had died. She was good at picking up certain personality traits because I tend to be rather aloof in person anyway, and she could see that through my posture (arms crossed, leaning away from her).

A good reader is very observant and can spot clues in your body language. They fill in the blanks when YOU feed them information during the "reading," and then build off that. And then afterward you don't remember that you're the one who told them the details. You think they came up with it themselves. A good salesman does the same thing.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Blitzgal

The Randi Foundation's prize offer will expire in March of next year. If Robert can prove his powers under scientifically controlled conditions, he'll get a million bucks. The Foundation has had this prize offer for over ten years. Not a single supernatural being has managed to win.

Why's there a deadline? Interesting...

You see, as a Silver Dragon I can't prove to skeptics my powers. They'll blame me being right about everything on luck. I won't have this ability till possibly July of next year, and by then I'm out of the running?

But by then of course I'll be a Gold Dragon, and I'll be so enlightened that I won't feel I'll need to prove anything to anyone, so whatever.

[lolaclare]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

Immoral? C'mon...

I find it questionable, morally, to charge for a service which cannot be proven as being what it is advertised.

There are laws against false advertising yet psychics, astrologers, etc. are allowed to make all kinds of outlandish and unproveable claims for their services which have no basis in verifiable fact – and they can charge for it with no proof that they are really doing what they say they are doing. If a drug company sells a drug – they have to rigorously test it and show that it does what they say it will do (and investigate all the possible negative consequences of taking the drug). Yet there is no legislation to deal with people like psychics who claim things that by definition cannot be tested and so they can freely make money out of them.

However, generally, I just think that people gullible enough to waste a lot of money on this kind of thing deserve to be deprived of their money because they obviously don’t have the sense to spend it wisely…

But there is the angle that a lot of people who get taken in by psychics are really suffering – e.g. from the loss of loved ones, or from generally shitty lives. And it is wrong to take advantage of their pain and take money from them with the false claim that you have supernatural knowledge or skills.

[GirlNextDoor]

Why isn't there a Maybe answer to the poll? I used to give tarot card readings myself in high school. I mostly made up stuff because high school kids are very predictable. The few times I did do real reading I was a on base. I've also been know to have a vision or two of something about to happen, usually to late to stop it though. I may not be a Silver Dragon but I'm a copper one.
So who knows maybe its real, or maybe I’m crazy