Marietta Theunissen exploits the vulnerable

October 23, 2009 by Tim
Filed under: Pseudo-Science 

The last time I heard of clairvoyant Marietta Theunissen she was assisting the infamous Danie Krügel in the predictably futile hunt for the van Rooyen victims. In the Carte Blanche programme that brought them all together, she stated that she had communicated with the girls in the spirit world. Of course she had.

Marietta Theunissen

Marietta Theunissen

Their very public failure of course had no effect on their renown. She popped up on Radio 702 this morning promoting her latest psychic show. She then took a number of calls from listeners. I usually don’t listen to such garbage but I was interested to follow her technique. She pretty much models herself on Sylvia Brown, so beloved by Larry King and other US television talkshow hosts.

It’s classic cold reading – in a flood of words. A caller would ask a question, such as: “I need advice on whether I should move from Cape Town to Johannesburg”. Now it doesn’t take a seasoned pro to come up with a string of intelligent guesses of what her concerns might be. Why would she want to live in Johannesburg? Why would she want to stay in Cape Town? So she delivers a couple of “readings” that are open to confirmation and in no time at all can fairly confidently dish out advice.

The station was flooded with callers (all women, as it turns out), most of whom were clearly in pain and extremely vulnerable. And this is where the problem arises; her act is no longer just amusing entertainment: it moves into the dangerous area of giving uninformed, completely incorrect and possibly dangerous advice to gullible people.

One caller was concerned about the death of a relative. Theunissen immediately went down the suicide track – which is logical – and assured the caller that it wasn’t suicide. She weaselled out the caller’s fear that dead person had been poisoned – even though an autopsy had shown he had had a heart attack. No, declared Theunissen – she “saw” chemicals in the body and he probably had been poisoned.

How can this possibly help this distressed person? She is going to take this pronouncement from a scam artist – that can’t possibly know anything at all about the case – and carry it around with her for the rest of her life. And who knows how she will use it.

She strongly advised another caller to stop taking anti-depressants because they block the ability for spiritual feeling. She is giving serious medical advice to an anonymous voice on the other end of a phone line! This is a very malicious scheme.

But she not only exploits the vulnerable with the baseless nonsense she sprouts: she’s not shy in depleting their bank accounts either. Here are her rates taken from her website:

Half an hour Telephonic Consultations R 1300
Psychic Marathon (Face to Face consultations) R 1000… Special days only!! [Fully booked for 2009]
Want your own Private Group Session for your Family and Friends….? Marietta and Julia will come to your house…
R 750pp includes a Reading for each person and a BIORES treatment! (min 7 people)
Marietta also does special House Cleansing for people who have unwelcome energies…and want to attract luck, happiness and harmony!
R 1000 per house! [Only available in 2010]
15 Minute Face to face appointments R 750 pp for 15 minute sessions [fully booked for 2009]

Cold reading is not a particularly difficult skill to acquire. Just read Michael Shermer’s account of his highly successful novice cold readings. Just learn the basic technique and you’re good to go.

The cold reader’s bible is Ian Rowland’s The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading.

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Comments

13 Comments on Marietta Theunissen exploits the vulnerable

  1. Michael Meadon on Sat, 24th Oct 2009 9:52 am

    2. Disgusting and disturbing. Depression is a serious health issue – it is preposterously dangerous to give medical advice when you’re not trained and especially so when you’ve not even had an individual consultation with the person in question. This kind of thing should be illegal.

  2. Michael Meadon on Tue, 27th Oct 2009 1:25 pm

    3. It’s online too: http://www.pod702.co.za/podcast/bestofredi/20091023BESTREDIC.mp3

    Damn. Now I’ll have to force myself to listen to it and *maybe* blog about it to… :-(

  3. Carnival of the Africans #12 on Sat, 31st Oct 2009 6:07 pm

    4. [...] at Reason Check does a great job of taking on Marietta Theunissen, a notorious and frankly dangerous ‘psychic’ who was interviewed on South [...]

  4. Carnival of the Africans #12 | Synapses on Sat, 7th Nov 2009 12:40 pm

    5. [...] reasoning with regard to medicine and the immune system, Tim at Reason Check reminding us of how “psychics” and their ilk exploit the vulnerable for personal gain, and Dr. Spurt at Effortless Incitement on robophobia in music. But you may want to look at the [...]

  5. katty on Wed, 13th Jan 2010 11:07 am

    6. I’ve witnessed Mariette Theunissen do amazing things for people. I’ve witnessed open and honest doctors do amazing things for people. The criticisms here are incredibly negative and typically destructive of someone who does nothing more than help others with the amazing ability that she has. When I go to a doctor, they give me their ‘expert opinion’. She is giving hers as a psychic. It’s up to all of us as individuals to assess the relevance of these comments to our lives, and to choose whether or not to adopt them. Tim, I see you believe in Darwin’s thinking – he got ridiculed for his ideas. Maybe you should be mindful of ridiculing thinking that is outside your realm of comprehension.

  6. B on Fri, 15th Jan 2010 11:16 pm

    7. # katty I feel terribly sorry for people like who are so naive and gullible to believe what these con artists say, A person can only help him/herself, just go read the wiki link about Cold Reading here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading. People ( if there is even any ) will not use their abilities to make millions of rands. You just do not &*%$#@ with the spiritual world

  7. Liewe Lulu on Sat, 16th Jan 2010 9:00 am

    8. Hope she has lots of ice in her fridge, she will need it in the warm place.

  8. Nicky on Mon, 15th Feb 2010 11:17 am

    9. I have spoken to a psychic once and please do explain to me than how she got everything right to the point. I spoke about my husband grandmother – now why would she tell me that this lady was a big lady and was a proper grandmother. And she had a problem with her knee??? I never mentioned any prolems of the old lady!!! Than why would she all of a sudden talk about the loss of her daughter which was than 50 years ago???? And I never said anoything of this – there must be something to this! And with all my respect – if you want to have an open opinion and go and see for yourself before making asumptions!!!!

  9. Nicky on Mon, 15th Feb 2010 11:21 am

    10. Thank my husband cheated on me – and I called this women again – she confirmed everything I expected. She even got the DATE right as my husband later confessed all of this to me!!! – Please explain how this fits into Ian Rowland’s The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading? I might be to naive and gullible like you call it :)

  10. Mari on Tue, 2nd Mar 2010 10:31 am

    11. Any opinions on John Edward and Char Margolis?

  11. Angela on Mon, 8th Mar 2010 9:28 am

    12. There are a lot of fakes out there. I think almost 90% and maybe more of the
    people out there are fakes.

    But Marietta Theunissen are not a fake. It’s the people that can’t open their minds to what’s out there that’s saying there is no such thing. It’s people that has no idea who or what she is, that’s quick to judge. For those jumping so quickly on the band waggen, saying she’s gonna burn, it’s clear you haven’t watched a show of her’s yet, cause if you had, you would’ve seen in just one show that she’s a christen.

    She’s much more a christen than all you out there judging without even knowing her! So wake up and smell the coffee! You’re all looking at life with your eyes closed! Open them and you’ll be surprised as to what you’ll find!

  12. Let’s throw the Bones! Lies, damn lies and psychics. « The Skeptic Detective on Thu, 3rd Jun 2010 9:38 pm

    13. [...] the charge is Marietta Theunissen, a well known South African psychic, and no stranger to the local skeptical movement. Marietta’s claims to infamy include a disastrous attempt [...]

  13. Let's throw the Bones! Lies, damn lies and psychics. : Today Topics on Sat, 12th Jun 2010 4:43 pm

    14. [...] the charge is Marietta Theunissen, a well known South African psychic, and no stranger to the local skeptical movement. Marietta’s claims to infamy include a disastrous attempt [...]

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