Young Writers Society

[Removed by YWS by request of author]

Do you believe that any psychic mediums are actually capable of communing with the dead or knowing personal details through some mystical, otherworldly force? Or do you think all of them are frauds and charlatans?

Some psychics are actually capable of receiving messages and knowing personal details through a mystical force, some are absolute frauds.
Science is more believable then supernatural experiences. It's an ideaology that deals with what's familiar to us, that works with the real world, and has evidence that can easily be seen, touched, and experienced through the senses.
However I cannot discount the possibility that the paranormal may exist.
Just because something has an alternate explanation doesn't mean it should be discarded. And just because one explanation for something is more believable doesn't mean it's the right one.
There's a little understood part of the brain called the 'God-spot', or the parietal cortex. Whenever people engage in prayer, or other religious rituals this part of brain activates.This is indicative of a connection to the supernatural.
If the supernatural didn't exist, and humans truly were animals why would they have need for a 'god-spot'? Not to mention there are millions of tales about experiences people just can't explain and all of them involve similar phenomena
-strange beings of light, or shadowy figures who don't look quite human
-objects moving without explanation
-moving lights in the sky
-supernatural powers
-Portals.
-Throughout the bible there are numerous passages of God interacting with man, and every culture in general has stories of otherwordly beings coming down and interacting with them.
This indicates that people may very well have the ability to access to the supernatural, most likely through the god-spot, which could exist to serve as a gate-way to some otherwordly force.
It's easy to dismiss the idea of the supernatural as mere heresy that died with the medieval ages, and laugh tales of the unexplained but, there are just too many accounts of supernatural experiences for me to dismiss the possibility that there's something going on. Something we don't understand.
I don't doubt that some stories are hoaxes, however that doesn't mean every single spiel of a supernatural experience should be dismissed as made up. Some people genuinely believe in what they witnessed.
All of this taken together, I believe it could be possible that some mediums actually have access to something beyond human understanding and comprehension.

I guess what I'm wondering is this: if a psychic medium's lies were to console people who are in desperate need of consolation, is that wrong? Sure, it's unethical to profit off lies and to target vulnerable, grieving people, but is it immoral to tell a suffering person an untruth that they want/need to hear?

Lies, even if their consoling, aren't healthy. Deception ruins relationships, and ultimately ruins the deceiver.
Telling someone what they want to hear isn't immoral precisely, but it is damaging and manipulative.
The fact is, people ultimately for themselves, even if they believe it's to protect another party.
However this logic would only apply if I believed that all psychics are liars.
And I don't.
As previously mentioned my primary believe is that not all psychics are fakes, and some may actually have a connection to a supernatural force.
In this case it's not the validity of a medium that I question but the validity of whatever force or being they came into contact with.
Psychics are merely a medium through which some other force delivers a message.
It's possible that some mediums are contact with malicious beings, who aren't interested in telling the truth hence why some psychics may be wrong at times.
But that's for another debate.