Marietta Theunissen exploits the vulnerable

October 23, 2009 by · 14 Comments
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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