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Actually, his first mistake was to lie to people that he could talk to dead people. Far too much leeway is given to this kind of thing, to the point where we call people who don't believe him 'sceptics'. I'm as sceptical about his powers as I am sceptical that Paul Daniels can really do magic. Are there people that think that his tricks are real?

I don't believe for one minute that psychics talk to the spirits of the dead, or angels, or fairies, or anything else. BUT... something IS happening... these people are having some kind of mental experience that, for cultural or religious reasons, they are 'framing' as seeing/hearing the dead. The fact that such people ARE prepared to put themselves up for public ridicule (look at David Icke!), only demonstrates how profound, and how profoundly 'real', the experience is for them.

Unfortunately, it's self-perpetuating: until science can actually explain why these people have such experiences (and it's a worldwide phenomena as old as humanity), they will always have no better explanation for it than their own beliefs, however wacky they sound. But it's precisely because of that wackiness, that science refuses to take the phenomena seriously, and actually investigate it. Merely labelling it as 'hallucinations' isn't enough. I'd like to see science look beyond the crazy beliefs and discover what is really going on. But until they do, this sort of thing is never going to go away.

#1 - Apparently there are.

#2 - These are not psychic or mental experiences, it's a process called "cold reading" and anyone can learn it, and then if they choose to do so, use their skills to fool people. By the way, I have an excellent selection of magic beans for sale, would you like to buy some?

I saw Joe Power yesterday at his 4pm show and I have to say it was fantastic!. Joe has a great sense of humour and the information he bought through to the people in the audience was spot on.
In the show he gave first and second names, detailed information on deaths, accidents, their personality and then gave random people readings he calls aura readings. I have seen a few psychics and would have to say Joe is very accurate compared to alot of the rubbish I have seen.
I say go and see the show for yourself I recomend it.

I know you were punning on his line of work, but the pun was flawed because in theatrical slang to "corpse" on stage does not actually mean to "die", it means to burst out laughing.

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At least the guy had the balls to go out and do the five minutes.
Actually getting the name almost right I think was impressive as its not a common name.
I saw this myself and what he did say was "I have a dad in the spirit world here and the name of Prokoski. He is saying sorry to you and acknowledging your two sons".
Borkowski took the information to be correct but couldn't take the change of work around 23 years ago. It took a couple of minutes to get the dialogue going as Borkowski didn't shout up and it took another member of the audience to shout out that their was a Borkowski in the audience. Their was a small group who heckled at Power, and to be honest I think the guy held is own under the pressure and came up with the goods in the few minutes he had. Everyone is talking about him which can't be bad in my book.

christem, are you impressed by his cold reading technique or do you really think he talks to dead people? If you'd seen the Derren Brown show, you'd know how he does it and why people think he's good, even though he's not.

I believe his acurrancy is too good for just cold reading. Yes I saw Derren Brown's show which was one sided coming from a sceptical point of view only.
If he is cold reading as you suggest then he is the best in the business.

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Is it that hard to believe that Joe Power might be well researched enough to know who Mark Borkowski is, and to have spotted him in the crowd.

Its not like the guy is short of celebrity, and is well known in PR circles. The kind of circles Joe Power and his cold-reading abilities needed after they got well and truly found out on Derren Brown's excellent show, exposing his techniques for all to see.

I note that a psychic should really have expected that to happen shouldn't he?
I mean it shouldn't be an unforseen circumstance now, should it?

christinem: But Derren has shown that Joe does use prior knowledge in addition to cold reading, as do other 'psychics'. It has also been tested repeatedly, with a one million dollar prize for the first person that can do it, so far no-one has come close to proof. Everything that he does is easily explained by those that know how, just like card tricks. If he really could talk to the dead, his information should be 100% accurate.

#3. Actually your scepticism is just as rigid and blinkered as those who believe in psychic powers. If you read my post carefully, you'd have seen that I too don't believe in these powers: I was talking about what is going on in these people's brains, the experience they are having. If he just wanted to be a conman, he could be far more successful, and wealthier, if he quietly remained undetected, not setting himself up for public ridicule and possible exposure.

But these people clearly don't choose this as a career path, they have some sort of mental experience that leads them to believe that they are in contact with 'spirits', or 'fairies', or 'angels', or even 'aliens'. It's the genuine underlying experience itself that needs to be studied and understood, if only to prevent people from forming silly beliefs around it, in the absence of a proper scientific explanation. Until that's done, and fatuous comments like 'it's only cold reading' are done away with, then such things will continue.

Joe Power's first mistake was to be so thoroughly exposed as a charlatan on the Derren Brown show.
People who attend psychic shows have a pathological desire to be fooled: Power should stick to his natural constituency.

In the show he gave first and second names, detailed information on deaths, accidents, their personality and then gave random people readings he calls aura readings (). I have seen a few psychics and would have to say Joe is very accurate compared to alot of the rubbish I have seen. However wacky they sound. But it's precisely because of that wackiness, that science refuses to take the phenomena seriously, and actually investigate it. Merely labelling it as isn't enough. I'd like to see science look beyond the crazy beliefs and discover what is really going on.