Destiny Calls… (Texts Cost £1. 50 Per Received Text.)

I seem to be having something of a pick on celebrities week but, let’s face it, they do make it easy, don’t they? And, just because something is easy, it doesn’t mean it isn’t fair game, in my opinion. Especially when people are being duped out of encouraged to part with their hard earned cash.

“Last year I was introduced to a team of psychics who each gave me a personal reading. They were fabulous and told me things about my life that made so much sense. I was amazed by their skills and accuracy and now you can benefit from their wonderful psychic talent through Destiny Calls.”

The above was is taken from Cilla’s Destiny Calls website — a new service in association with Cilla Black whereby you can talk to a live psychic (as opposed to a dead one, I suppose… though who knows?) on subjects ranging from love, relationships and dating. A fairly limited brief, for such a varied bunch of psychics, but there you go.

As with many such services, they do, of course, have numerous “success cases”. Among them, a young lady who was upset about an argument with her boyfriend who…

“… called Joanne [the psychic]. She was amazing and told me to be patient as he had a work problem. Everything is now fine again. “

Now, I could go on about cold reading techniques until I’m blue in the face, but I suspect that would be like preaching to the converted since most of you probably know how these people work. There’s nothing miraculous about it, it is, in fact, very simple — so simple that even I can do it. What I would rather focus on and question is the gullibility or, perhaps, cynicism of Ms Black.

I can only assume, as loathe as I am to give her the benefit of the doubt, that she genuinely believes in the abilities of these people based on what was probably a hot reading (this is a similar technique to the above-mentioned cold reading, but with research information added in… Ms Black is famous — there’s a great deal of information available about her and, with skill, the unknowable can quite often be deduced from available facts.) Even famous people can be gullible. Let’s face it, most of them believe their own hype — so believing a psychic when he tells you that “Bobby says you should get on with your life” surely doesn’t require that much extra effort.

But am I being too generous? This is a business, not a charity. Calls cost £1.50 per minute from a standard BT phone with a maximum call duration of twenty minutes. A lot of money is being made — and for what? To be told reassuring things from people who claim to be able to talk to the dead, amongst other things. People using techniques (and I use the term loosely) that have no basis in a scientifically supportable reality. Charlatans? Quite possibly… what am I saying? Most definitely.

Whatever her reasons for getting involved with this — her own gullibility or sheer greed — I find it deplorable that this kind of ridiculous venture is still allowed to profit. It’s all well and good saying that the people who use the services deserve all they get, but, frankly, that still doesn’t excuse this. It doesn’t even come close. At a vulnerable time, many who wouldn’t normally be so can be susceptible to such lunacy. They need protecting.

As for Ms Black? No, I don’t think she needs protecting. Nor do I really think she’s all that gullible, if I’m truthful. Her blatant attempts at trying to publicise this venture speak volumes to me. I seriously doubt that she’s doing this for the good of the people.

Money. Says it all, really, doesn’t it?