Did a Psychic Predict Michael Jackson’s Death?
When celebrities die, self-proclaimed psychics and mediums tend to come out of the woodwork with claims of predictions and/or messages from beyond the grave. When Heath Ledger passed away in 2008, for example, James Van Praagh wasted no time announcing on public television that he’d received a "visit" from the late actor.
Here We Go Again…
It wouldn’t take a psychic to predict, therefore, that Michael Jackson’s death would garner the same reaction. In January 2009, psychic medium Joseph Tittel appeared on MTV Live to discuss his world predictions for 2009. When asked about Michael Jackson, Tittel replied that the singer’s health would deteriorate due to problems with his lungs. Tittel predicted that Jackson would have a "lung collapse" and that "we may almost lose him."
After video of this interview was posted on YouTube under the headline "Michael Jackson Death Predicted on National TV?," the majority of the comments posted have been decidedly uncritical.
"Holly @$@#%!!! he was right!!!," one viewer announced.
"This goes to prove there is something metaphysical going on with these psychic’s, they might be off 25% on predictions, but you can’t look away from the other 75% of information given as true…" another viewer said.
Maybe We Should – I Don’t Know – Research This First?
If any of these impressed viewers had taken even five minute to search "Michael Jackson lung " on google, they would have seen this article from Fox News, which states that, "Michael Jackson is reportedly in desperate need of an emergency transplant operation to save his life from a rare lung condition…" Please note, this article was written December 21, 2008. BEFORE the Joseph Tittel’s interview with MTV Live..
For those who don’t like Fox News, here’s a similar article from Eonline. And one from the Washington Post . And one from People.
The Facts:
As suggested by the above articles, rumors of Jackson’s lung problems were started by best-selling author Ian Halperin, who at that time had recently completed a book about the singer’s life. Halperin claimed that Jackson was suffering from a potentially fatal disease known as Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, as well as emphysema and gastrointestinal bleeding.
All of these articles were originally posted between 12/21-12/23 of 2008. Although it appears that the claims of Jackson’s lung problems were false, (the People article contests that Jackson’s official spokesperson called these rumors "total fabrication") the fact remains that these rumors circulated the web BEFORE Joseph Tittel appeared on MTV Live to "predict" that Michael Jackson would have serious problems with his lungs.
It’s is worth noting, also, that while Tittel’s prediction clearly links MJ’s death to lung problems, the actual autopsy "did not reveal a lung disorder."
Analysis
Tittel failed in every specific prediction he made; the only thing he appeared to get right was that Michael Jackson “may almost” die. Claiming that someone may almost die is very different from saying they WILL die. And given that rumors were circulating about Jackson’s ill health at the time of the prediction, the claim that Jackson “may almost” die was relatively safe. The way his prediction was worded, Tittel could have claimed accuracey whether Jackson lived OR died. This, in a nutshell, is how psychic powers work, ladies and gentlemen: pretend to have come up with specific information you actually got from elsewhere, and be so vague about future predictions that you can’t possibly get them wrong.
Inevitable Conclusion
Now, think about which is more likely: Tittel has magical powers that allowed him to foresee a celebrity’s death, or, Tittel is a schmo who read some rumors, made a prediction—and got lucky.
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Gee, if somone on the INTERNET said it, IT MUST BE TRUE!
there are too many “phsycics” today.
wait, wait..I’m getting a message from the beyond…
A CLEBRITY WILL DIE FROM DRUGS IN A YEAR!
Can I have my Fox news interveiw now?
Actually, a psychic did predict the death of Michael Jackson two months prior to the event.
Here is the story:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=172457818&blogId=497594275
Aaron C. Hanson appeared on talk radio to discuss this prediction…the link can be found below:
http://spookysouthcoast.blogspot.com/2009/11/spooky-southcoast-radio-11-24-09.html
Stephen, I hope you’re not serious.
I checked out your links. Aaron C. Hanson’s original prediction was, “The prominent one is dead, his name in the news exhausted, the people weary.”, This by itself is completely unimpressive. Hanson could have claimed success if ANY prominent person had died. Hanson then claims that, “When adding in reverse ‘…prominent’ the word “Michael” is noted thus when constructed in a logical sequence, the entire phrase “Michael Jackson is dead” becomes chillingly apparent.” I find this confusing, but I take it to mean that, if we play SOME of the statement in reverse, and add it to “..is dead,” we hear something that sounds like “Michael Jackson is dead.”
Can you not see how weak this claim is? If Hanson could have know, ahead of time, that MJ would die, why not just say that? Sorry, but if you can be impressed by an after-the-fact claim of, “Take my original prediction, mash it up, play it backwards, and it sounds like Michael Jackson,” than I submit that you haven’t really critically examined this man’s claim.
While doing my research, I stumbled on this: http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/theuglytruthaboutaaronchanson/ Apparently, Hanson’s (or Donahue’s) parents have quite a lot to say about their son. Of course, I have no way of knowing if their claims are 100% true–but they do present an additional side to the story.
Either way, I do not find the original prediction convincing.
Oh yeah, that website that’s run by the crazy Theta healers? As you can see on James Donahue’s “News Page” another level of charlatanry has emerged:
“In These Uncertain Times
Communicate With The Oracle
For More Information Go To Bottom Of This Page or Click Here(http://www.namaste39.com/)
Who Is The Oracle? Her Name is Suzie
Suzie Donahue, a long-time resident of California, was born into a family of gifted psychics, clairvoyants, mediums and seers that go back for generations on both sides of the family. While she inherited many natural abilities, she has enhanced her skills and knowledge of the occult through studies that began in 1986 and continue to this day. Click For More(http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/galleryi/id94.html)”
So, apparently James’ daughter, Susan, is now The Oracle. Absurd! How legitimate is an incoherent website packed with the impression a cacophony of repetitive non-sense, delusional half truths, misinterpretations, embellishments, and pathological irrelevance? How can anyone believe “The Ugly Truth,” when it’s managed by a quack who is being accused of child molestation by his own son? For more on that go to Aaron’s blog posting: http://thepropheticlight.com/blog/?p=10.
If you have a valid argument to present, do so without embarrassing yourself with the drivel of James Donahue.
Stephen, I wish you’d stop wasting my time. If you’ll read my original post, I never said that I completely accepted Jame’s Donahue’s claims. In fact, I said, ” I have no way of knowing if [Donahue's] claims are 100% true–but they do present an additional side to the story. Either way, I do not find the original prediction convincing. ” The fact of the matter is, Aaron claims to be psychic, his parents claim that he is not. I have no way of knowing who is telling the truth, what the parents are or are not guilty of, etc. My only point was, for the sake of argument, to present an opposing view on the subject. Frankly, if both sides are claiming to have psychic abilities, than I find both highly questionable, and I would say that the separate claims of both sides need to be evaluated. So far, the only claim I’ve evaluated is Aaron’s Michael Jackson prediction, which I find laughable at best.
Regarding the prediction itself, I already did present a “valid argument,” as you put it–I was very clear in my previous posts about why the Michael Jackson prediction is unconvincing. Oddly enough, you chose not to actually respond to my argument there, and instead to focus on the almost irrelevant point of James Donahue. As you should be able to tell from my above quote, it doesn’t really matter what James Donahue has to say about his son. The Michael Jackson prediction, on it’s own, does not strike me as impressive.
Now I’ll say to you, if you have a valid argument to present, do so without quibbling over arbitrary details or misrepresenting my position.
I don’t think you understand the technology here. Let me give you another example:
http://thepropheticlight.com/blog/?p=526
In the above link is another phrase with is reversed. In the reversal, you hear details with further elaborate on the information presented in forward speech. By reversing forward speech, in theory, it is possible to obtain subconscious messages within verbal forward speech communications. The unique approach that this particular psychic applies to his work can be a bit confusing, which is typical of newfound methods.
As for his legitimacy or accuracy, I challenge you to put him to the test regarding his terrorist attack prediction and all others. For New Years 2010, he returned to the aforementioned Spooky Southcoast radio show*. Within this broadcast, he gives specific details regarding this future event. He even went so far as to give a possible time frame. If this does happen, I do hope you look further into the theory that subconscious processing of information can be found in the reversal of forward speech communications. If the predictions made on the show do not occur, then I will agree that I am wasting your time. I simply wanted to expose you to an intriguing, unconventional, and perhaps a controversial way of presenting psychic and prophetic functioning.
Keep up the good work on exposing charlatans.
*Spooky Southcoast 2010 Predictions Show Archive: http://spookysouthcoast.hipcast.com/deluge/b0ee4847-3f3f-8ed7-9301-f959df9058fb.mp3
Hello Steve,
Suzie Donahue here. Email me and work out a time and I will give you a free ThetaHealing. ThetaHealing is a technique that uses the Theta Brain wave to alter beliefs in the beta brain state. This changes anything that keeps you from living a life without suffering.
I offer you a chance to have the experience because I know when one does not understand something it is easy to judge it. Have an experience then make your opinion.
Suzie
Sara, the offer extends to you also. If you would like a free ThetaHealing Session contact me through my website:
http://WWW.namaste39.com
ThetaHealing is a holistic healing technique that uses the theta brain wave to attain miracles for your life. It transcends dogma and goes beyond religions, yet is accepting of them all. As Christ said, “All these things you can do and more”
Are you kidding me? Seriously now. Open your closed mind just a little bit and you will see that there are many very gifted individuals out there that can see into the future and communicate with the dead. It has been proven over and over again and goes back to ancient history. People like you make me feel sad for you. You must lead a very boring and negative life style.
I’m a big fan of Psychics and Mediums and believe I too have a little something going on since I was a little girl. I understand that there are well to many people out there that claim to have a gift and are nothing but deceitful liars. But sorry folks, not all of them. Especially the Medium you talk about here, Joseph Tittle. Have you looked a little more into his predictions, radio shows and television appearances? He is dead on and has been tested over and over again on live television. If you look him up on YouTube you will see what I mean. His predictions are amazing. He predicted the outbreak of the Swine flu just to mention one of dozens of precise and detailed predictions.
So once again, open your eyes and your mind a little more and you will see for yourself that there are truly gifted people in this world. People that reach out to help others with their gift as does the Medium you talk about. I attended one of his events in the past that was a fund-raiser for Breast Cancer. It was awesome, as is he. Have a nice day and open that closed mind.
Marge
Marge, I tried opening my mind, but it was slapped shut when I saw his website.
Yikes!
If a psychic makes you feel good about life, more power to you. But you can’t talk about powers without getting a response like this. Baloney!
I don’t need someone like this… but you do… that’s cool, I guess.
@Stephen
[I don’t think you understand the technology here]
I don’t see any “technology” whatsoever. I see unsupported and childishly naive assertions. Only assertions that fall apart with all but the most cursory and accepting viewing. Brian Dunning has a very good Skeptoid episode about this “technology”. In short, it’s a fairly unimpressive and trite effect that can be attributed to a pareidolia-like speech recognition system in our brains.
@Marge- nothing has been “proven over and over again” except that flim flam artists can find gullible ninnies in every age to take advantage of. Maybe that’s unfair, because even the best and brightest of us have the capacity to be fooled on occasion. But we can try to use some very basic tools of reasoning to tell reality from fiction more often than not. If you find yourself easily believing in things without critically analyzing them, you are open to some very odd beliefs. How many other things do you find yourself believing in that are not accepted by “scientists”. Do you think science misses or is unable to detect these things for some reason? Do you think there is a conspiracy amongst “scientists”?