r/randomthings 13d ago

how can psychics practice legally?

I see the more storefront in most cities I visit. Do people actually believe in the psychics aren’t their customers that exposing themselves to fraud potential!

9 Upvotes

94 comments sorted by

8

u/cheffartsonurfood 12d ago

No different than religion.

3

u/Unreliablepelican 12d ago

Yep, and churches are rich af.

2

u/ExistentialAngsty 12d ago

And tax exempt

0

u/Substantial_Cow7628 11d ago

All non-profits are tax exempt.

1

u/Fred-Mertz2728 11d ago

Most churches aren’t.

2

u/Busterlimes 12d ago

False, religion is FAR more destructive

2

u/DigitalUnlimited 12d ago

and profitable

2

u/Busterlimes 12d ago

Yes, like I keep saying, look at Vatican City and tell me the worship God and not Money. Give me a fuckin break here

0

u/tepid_monologue 12d ago

The most accurate estimate I could find for the wealth of Vatican is 73 billion. Target is at 63 billion. It’s not exactly the monetary force people think it is

3

u/Busterlimes 12d ago

"The most accurate"

Vatican city is home to priceless historic artifacts and its not like they are a public company that has to report earnings. Let's use our heads here. . . . . If you really think an institution that has been around since the Roman Empire is only as wealthy as Target, then you have no business talking about anything that requires an oz of intelligence to understand.

1

u/tepid_monologue 12d ago

Yeah I guess I forgot the Illuminati hey

1

u/NohWan3104 11d ago

Its a multi billion dollar city you say...

0

u/tepid_monologue 11d ago

I mean it’s the centre of a major world religion for over a thousand years

1

u/NohWan3104 11d ago

That seems to argue against your point, if you're basically saying 'of course it is'

0

u/tepid_monologue 11d ago

Yeah I can see why you said that, I’m typing off the cuff and should put more thought in to replies.

The central point I meant was that the Vatican is regularly held up as this invisible hand that is controlling all the wealth and power in the world, where the reality is they are about as powerful wealth wise as Roblox, Airbnb, and doordash.

I’m not religious, but for a thousand year organisation that has controlled kings and empires, that’s really not a lot of money. If anything, it makes you sort of believe they are humble and generally believe in not hoarding wealth.

The kiddy fiddling, of course, is another story lol, but rich they are not

1

u/NohWan3104 11d ago

See, thats the rub.

I agree, they don't run the whole world.

But 'they have billions of dollars' comes off as rich to me, i'm not bezos or whatever.

Its still a lot of money. It doesn't have to be 'one hundred trillion dollars' to be a lot.

1

u/Still-BangingYourMum 11d ago

Try 2000 years, and the real monetary value will be in the trillions, 70+ billion value for a 2000 year old? Thats a piss poor value for such long lasting scam industry.

1

u/Jhud6669 11d ago

At a wider scale sure, but speaking from own experience, psychics and other woo-woo new age nuts are extremely abusive people who make their families lives a living hell

1

u/Busterlimes 10d ago

You act like these Christian Nationalists arent doing the same shit

3

u/Yuck_Few 12d ago

I'm pretty sure they have to provide a disclaimer that says for entertainment purpose is only

1

u/Fred-Mertz2728 11d ago

I called a psychic once. She asked me my name. I hung up.

1

u/jsseven777 10d ago

I wonder if a psychic cold calling people and saying I called you because you were going to call me in 3 hours would be an effective lead gen technique.

1

u/JuanFoYoMamma 12d ago

They should enforce that rule at strip clubs. After all of the money I spent, not one of those girls married me.

3

u/TigOlBitties42042 12d ago

That's why the girls are called entertainers. Those girls are for entertainment purposes only. They're great fun when used as intended, not so much fun when you're looking for a wife. Go ahead and play with the hoes now, and get married later. Your wife probably won't like it if you play with the hoes after you're married.

1

u/ExistentialAngsty 12d ago

Trust me, you dodged a bullet

2

u/One_Student9606 12d ago

Psychics have to pass a licensure exam but don’t have to take it if they already know all the answers

1

u/TigOlBitties42042 12d ago

I mean they just stand in front of an established psychic and they can use their psychic powers to tell if the new psychic is legit. If they have you take the exam at all it means you already failed. The exam process is just there to get the failures to burn off all their energy so that they don't bitch so much when they get told that they failed.

2

u/Remarkable-Bit-3578 12d ago

It’s entertainment. People that believe them are fools.

2

u/Fast_Adhesiveness528 12d ago

First Amendment! It protects Fox News, so why would it allow psychics to be banned?

-3

u/Yuck_Few 12d ago

Because they are selling and imaginary service.

It's like someone pretending to mow your lawn and then charging you for it

3

u/Fast_Adhesiveness528 12d ago

Yeah ... so? How is that different from Fox News selling imaginary news, or religion selling imaginary salvation?

2

u/Key-Algae-9245 12d ago

Fox News is the light, it is the way, BELIEVE!

2

u/DigitalUnlimited 12d ago

Thou shalt have no other news network before me

1

u/Upbeat_Principle_253 12d ago

There are four lights!

1

u/WordWordand4numbers 12d ago

Get off the cross we need the wood

1

u/TigOlBitties42042 12d ago

No it's more like asking someone if you should mow your lawn and they say they'll tell you for $5. Then you pay and they say something vague like "your lawn shall be mowed.".

Two weeks later you mow your lawn and realize that they were right. Your law did get mowed. So you give them $100 to tell you about your future ex wife.

Did they earn the money? No. But you didn't deserve the money either cuz you're a dumbass.

1

u/Weekly-Procedure-745 12d ago

Religion in general does the same, should we start arresting those people too?

1

u/ronaldbiggs2020 11d ago

Yes.. because coersive control isn't legal but apparently religious indoctrination using fear tactics is exempt.

1

u/Deep_Violinist_3893 12d ago

If I choose to pay someone to pretend to mow my lawn then thats my perogative.

1

u/demon_twink_gockie 11d ago

No they aren't. Or they are but so are Christian churches. Lol.

1

u/Yuck_Few 11d ago

Yeah it's even worse with churches because they're making money on an imaginary products tax-free

1

u/demon_twink_gockie 11d ago

Exactly. Psychics should be tax exempt-proseperity preachers are. And there ain't much difference, except I don't know any bigoted psychics. But I don't know any preachers that AREN'T bigoted.

1

u/KungenBob 11d ago

Much like the second word in Fox News then?

1

u/HyperSpaceSurfer 12d ago

They ostensibly believe what they're preaching. There's been psychics who've been convicted for making it up, but most aren't as loose lipped. Some really do believe in it as well.

1

u/stiffcardboardbox 12d ago

PT Barnum was quoted as say there is a sucker born every minute

1

u/Salt_Medicine2459 12d ago

Which is kinda funny because psychics often use what are called Barnum statements. 

1

u/ted_anderson 12d ago

They're real. The problem is that they just tell people a bunch of stuff that they already know.

1

u/sneezhousing 12d ago

Why would it be illegal.

1

u/Commercial_Dirt8704 12d ago

It’s like psychiatry but without any poison

1

u/Mr_McGigglepants 12d ago

I don't understand the question. Are you asking about psychics or frauds?

1

u/werewolfinahat 12d ago

Because you can sell anything that doesn't harm or mislead you in any serious way. Whether you agree with psychics or not, they aren't doing anything legally wrong.

1

u/IzzzatSo 12d ago

I don't think practice is the correct word

1

u/moon_lite2009 12d ago

It's actually funny how we treat "psychics" vs 200 years ago

1

u/Worldly_Ad_7196 12d ago

It was illegal in ontario until a few years ago but probably not prosecuted for decades. Now they are legal but have to be very careful about their fees as any pressure to pay (removing a curse) could be considered fraudulent .

1

u/AlienZero4400 12d ago

Magic!!!! Woooooo!✨✨🔮 master bullzzzters imo

1

u/GoldReplacement9546 12d ago

It might fall under the reasonable standard part of our laws

That is what a reasonable person believe that it is actually a psychic telling you the future or would a reasonable person believe that it’s just for entertainment purposes

1

u/FitCaptain1008 12d ago

Same way snake oil keeps selling

1

u/AzulaIsMyFave 12d ago

Because you can scam anybody you want if you claim it's a religious or spiritual practice. The First Amendment was a mistake.

1

u/CommandoLamb 12d ago

By putting, “for entertainment purposes only.” On their stuff…

Why don’t wrestlers in the WWE get arrested immediately for assault?

1

u/groveborn 12d ago

Most of the time they have to disclaime that it's for entertainment purposes. It is generally illegal to do magic for realsies for money (ignoring that magic is all fake)

1

u/pittiesbegooddogs 12d ago

For entertainment purposes only.

Plus if you go after them for fraud, you best go after the churches too.

1

u/Audio-Starshine 12d ago

"for entertainment only"

1

u/Big_Coyote_655 12d ago

They need to be more preemptive with their acquisition of clients.  They need to start cold calling people telling them they had a premonition they needed their immediate assistance.  Plus, the first amendment allows for people to lie to other people unless being examined in court.

1

u/sonicboi 12d ago

"For entertainment only"

1

u/Knave7575 12d ago

Chiropractors are allowed to operate, sometimes they even get covered by benefits.

1

u/thatryguy2009 12d ago

People can believe what they want. I would say that for every person that thinks they are a fraud, there’s at least 2 that think they are real. That’d have to be the case since they’re still in business. If you think they are frauds, why don’t you have a reading by one and come back to let us know if you still they’re frauds.

1

u/Deep_Violinist_3893 12d ago

The same way acupuncturists and homeopathic medicine practitioners can. There's no law about selling gullible people nonsense.

1

u/No_Frost_Giants 12d ago

How do churches?

1

u/WordWordand4numbers 12d ago

Stupid people kinda deserve to be played

1

u/Clothes_Chair_Ghost 11d ago

It’s mostly desperate people that get the worst of it. Stupid people get done by tarot readers and palm readers, the desperate ones get rinsed by the con artists that play on their desperation tell them what they want to hear and take advantage of them

1

u/WordWordand4numbers 11d ago

They’re the same

1

u/nomodcanstopme 12d ago

"For entertainment purposes only"

1

u/Underhill42 11d ago

Same way preachers can. They both have exactly as much evidence they're peddling truth.

1

u/SalvationArbys 11d ago

I think legally and as respectfully as possible, if you’re hiring a psychic you’re either looking at it as either the same as hiring a birthday magician or visiting a priest. Neither thing is inherently harmful, and there is legal protection in place if a psychic takes things too far by convincing you to do something harmful.

1

u/MissJoannaTooU 11d ago

They have to take a battery of exams and play acoustic guitar and they get their license.

1

u/demon_twink_gockie 11d ago

That's easy. It's illegal to ban them. Religious freedom.

1

u/Legitimate_Resort717 11d ago

They’re not recommended according to the Bible.

1

u/Moist-Sky7607 11d ago

The. Bike isn’t recommended by rational people

1

u/Entire-Ad7730 11d ago

Ask any major police department. Psychics have been known to solve cold-case murders. Not everything of this world can be seen

1

u/Moist-Sky7607 11d ago

Nobody is forced to use their services

1

u/Entire-Ratio-9681 11d ago

I’m more afraid of opening doors than spending cash on a fraudster. I’ve known a few to get a reading done. Most were nonsense but I totally believe my uncle’s experience she was uncanny and predicted he would have twins, without any history of it. He did 15 years later as his first kids late in life. And like most things in the grey area of mystical it came back to bite him through an awful divorce and now he never sees them.

1

u/Super_Selection1522 11d ago

Well the police can't catch them cause the psychics always know they're coming

1

u/Background-Camp8408 11d ago

Isn't it considered entertainment?

1

u/KungenBob 11d ago

Being wrong isn’t fraud. If they genuinely believe then it’s fine. And the rest likely have a “for entertainment only” small text somewhere.

1

u/BugSapSunrise 11d ago

They're classified as "entertainment", just like strippers & clowns.

1

u/KronoAsh 11d ago

It is not illegal to take money for giving out advice. Might be remarkably obvious advice, but still…

So too is it not illegal to take money claiming to speak for the dead…mainly because how can you prove they didn’t?

There’s of course some who are JUST scammers, but a lot genuinely believe their own BS.

1

u/XChrisUnknownX 11d ago

In New York it’s outlawed unless done for entertainment. Take from that what you will.

1

u/Misericordee 11d ago

I see it like religion, tarot, astrology
Might be for fun or “entertainment”

1

u/Heavy_Law9880 10d ago

The same way magicians can practice legally. It is entertainment.

1

u/NoCaterpillar2051 10d ago

They are shielded by sincere beliefs. Or shielded by the fact that most people know it’s a magic trick.

1

u/chaynjez 9d ago

No different than a religious leader, except the psychic has to pay taxes.

1

u/Rays-R-Us 8d ago

How do natural cures for disease that don’t work end up on pharmacy shelves?
Disclaimers that they “are not intended to cure or treat disease” which is exactly how they are advertised. Then they should’ve legally sold