There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity. |
Fighting pseudoscience isn't free. We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with ![]() ![]() |
Rosemary Altea
Putting the psycho in Parapsychology |
![]() |
Men who stare at goats |
By the powers of tinfoil |
Rosemary Altea (1938–) is yet another crap merchant who claims to be able to talk to the dead and have some sort of healing powers. She appeared on Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, proving once more the credulity of prime-time TV viewers.
She was featured in an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! where mentalist Mark Edward
tore her a new one explained how she cheated by using hot reading: she talked to audience members beforehand, who gave out information, and audience members were referred by her agent. She's also shown using cold reading, or rather, trying to, as she gets it absolutely wrong. One genuinely-impressed audience member who "contacted" his mother and was quite literally crying later sent a letter to the show explaining that he'd had a think about it, and realized everything she said was pretty generic[note 1] and probably not that impressive after all. Good for him.[1]
James Randi challenged her to the $1 million prize, which she chickened out of, saying that she didn't believe there was $1 million.[2]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Like, "she wants you to move on with your life." Geez, what a shock.
References[edit]
- ↑ Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, episode 1.01, Talking to the Dead
- ↑ James Randi on Larry King Live 1/26/07 Pt 1