Not-so-Psychic Sally...

Oh dear.
I recently went to see 'Psychic to the stars' Sally Morgan.
My Mum had wanted to go as she enjoys the cheesy paranormal shows on TV, and I thought it'd be a nice experience. Nice wasn't quite the word I would use now.
Before I start, I must say that personally, I don't believe in Psychics. I'm a Psychologist, a Scientist, and I am an avid following of Derren Brown. 
As Mr. Brown himself once said... ''Psychics who spend their careers being 'psychic', well they're living a lie' and he isn't half wrong.
Having seen his 2013 show 'Infamous' in Plymouth, I witnessed his ability to seemingly read minds, speak to the spirit world and mention to audience members things that appeared to show him communicating with the dead. But he wasn't, and he made that abundantly clear before he started. He did it to show how phoney psychics really are. He did it to show that the ability to speak to spirits is nothing more than just being really good at reading body language and well-timed suggestion.
Poor Sally didn't stand a chance after witnessing the King of Psychology. Derren had both impressed (and, had I not known it was fake, all but convinced me) in the five minute example he gave, compared to the two hours I spent eagle-eyed in Sally's audience.

However, I attended the night with an open mind. I appreciate Psychological talent, illusion, slight of hand and showmanship and I hoped to walk away saying 'well, she was very good at pretending'. And in some aspects, I was pleasantly surprised. But as a Psychologist, for the most part, I saw right through her.

Lets start with the good points.
Her silver glitter stilettos were gorgeous.  

Now, onto the not so good.
Let's start before Sally even took to the stage. A sign popped up on the big screen, flashing a statement along the lines of 'Due to EU legislation it is necessary to state the following; Sally Morgan is investigational and the show is for the purpose of entertainment.' Followed by 'the science behind Sally's ability is not proven...but as Sally would say, it hasn’t been unproven either!"
And there lay my first problem. The show starts, and we see a short 1-2 minute clip of Sally's 'best moments'. We relived (for those that bothered to watch it when it first aired, unlike me) clips from her TV show, tours, etc. But what struck me was the content. It felt like I was trying to be convinced that what she did was real. As if all these people responding positively to her 'ability' should make me want to believe, too. Majority influence. Then the celebs come on for a spot of authoritative influence. Well, by celebs, we're talking Mark Wright of TOWIE semi-fame. But the ending got me. Suddenly, the clips became extremely emotive. We saw Sally 'communicating' with family members, and audience members were shown in tears. Again, I felt like I was being convinced to enter an emotionally open-minded and vulnerable state. All of this clip just made me uncomfortable. Don't people who have faith in their ability, be in singing, acting, or a psychic, usually come on stage and just get on with it?!

Anyway! You want to hear about the show. And I'll explain as much as I remember.
After an explanation of what the show was all about, Sally addressed the skeptics in the room. 'For those of you who are skeptical about psychics, I would advise going to more than one show, not just mine of course....but more than one psychic show to really get a feel for the ability'. Maybe I was in a bad mood but I wanted to make the decision to see her again based on my own opinion of the show.

And then she started. 
The first half of the show involved Sally seeing spirits on the stage with her, and relaying their speech and actions to the audience in the hope that someone will respond with 'that message is for me!'. The first 10-15 minutes were laborious. No one in the audience was responding, and you could see Sally getting frustrated. It was uncomfortable and not so entertaining as I'd expected.
Soon, however, the audience started chipping in and stories were coming together.
What struck me was the intense desire these audience members had to talk to their deceased relatives and friends, and how much faith they had in Sally to accomplish this. Sally gave general, extremely open-ended cues, and people were all to quick to form a link. 'Roger? Does the name Roger mean anything?' she says. An audience member jumps up 'Yes! Yes! That message is definitely for me!' Sally replies 'And how is Roger known to you?' to which the audience member says 'It's my Dad! Well he's called Roy, not Roger, but it's definitely him'. She proceeds. 'Ted? Teddy? Anyone know a Terry? Terence?' with 2000 people in the room, she was bound to get replies. But the moment at which she really lost our enthusiasm as an audience was when she spent a good few minutes describing a man who died in a porta-cabin style office, 'or it could be in a cabin by the Port'. She described how he died from a heart attack and was doubled over in pain. Minutes passed without evoking a valid response. A few people related to the name, one person said 'my Uncle died in a caravan?'. I watched as poor, naive people clung desperately to her words in the hope that their brains would form a relationship which would mean their loved ones were there. Nothing was working. Then suddenly two girls from Liverpool call out. 'Our Uncle died in an office by the Port, of a heart attack, and was found doubled over on the floor. This is the point whereby sighs could be heard throughout the audience. Why had they not responded before? Were they plants, required to respond when things are taking a downward spiral? Sally continues with the girls, 'your Uncle, was he buried with a faux fur pillow? I'm seeing fur' and the girls think before saying 'I planted a fur tree on top of his grave because we could never find it!' to which Sally replies 'it's grown down so far it's his pillow, it's grown right through his head!' - gasps from the audience erupted before Sally quickly backtracked and pretended she'd said 'grown under him'. 
But it was the woman who was looking to speak with her 19 month old Grandson that upset me, and apparently a lot of others who all left the building during the interval. I noticed how she would always say 'darling, I've got your son here, I've got Liam here' making it very specific. She put on a baby's voice and started relaying things that made no sense to the woman stood up, in tears. Her face on the big screen said it all - half of her was crying because she wanted to believe so much that it was true, and the other half knew realistically that she was doing nothing of the sort, except making money out of other people's pain.



Cue a few more people, the first half was suddenly over as the lights went down. And we were gone. 
Why don't the spirits give their full names? Why can she hear descriptions of deaths, repeat word for word a saying from a spirit, but 'Roger might be Roy' and "Kenny might be Teddy'? I was left with more questions than answers,

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. With Derren Brown, I was in awe. He told the audience it wasn't real psychic communication, he admitted it was psychology, yet I still sat there with my jaw dropped, and clapped like it was going out of fashion. With everything he does, it doesn't matter that it's misdirection, psychology and showmanship. In fact, that's the reason that his shows are so incredible - you know he's doing it because he's intelligent, talented, and has worked so hard to perfect his craft.
Sally, on the other hand, passes it off as being real, but denies opportunities to be 'tested'. She stated in her show when describing a certain spirit 'this is my hypothesis' but I bet she's never tested a scientific hypothesis in her life. 


But I would go back. I would. I wouldn't pay, but I'd go back. From watching her, I learnt a lot about the techniques she attempts to use, and from a psychological point of view, her seeming acquired belief in herself is fascinating. If not a little disturbing.