Lisa Williams
Putting the psycho in Parapsychology |
Men who stare at goats |
By the powers of tinfoil |
Lisa Williams is a magical English woman living from California who lays claim to being a psychic medium. Williams is the granddaughter of Frances Glazebrook, who also claimed to be a medium. She has been widely discredited due to her reliance on "cold reading."
Television[edit]
Williams has starred in two television shows. In 2004, Williams gave a "reading" to a senior staff member of television host Merv Griffin. As a result, Griffin worked with her to create a show of her own. Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead aired for two seasons (2006-2007) on the Lifetime television network. The following year, she began to host Lisa Williams: Voices From the Other Side five nights a week on the same network. Her shows were also broadcast in the United Kingdom. The shows followed Williams on a typical day, as she "communicated" with the dead, investigated haunted houses, and conducted other spirit-seeking activities. She claims to have spoken with the spirits of Bob Hope, Princess Diana, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe and Ray Charles.[note 1]
The ethical standards of journalist and television anchorman Matt Lauer were questioned when he allowed Lisa Williams to state that a ghost was standing beside him. Mediums, psychics and similar practitioners scam Americans out of millions of dollars yearly and Lauer "(...) didn’t challenge or investigate a likely instance of public deception; instead, he endorsed and participated in it." [1][note 2]