Have you been "read" by a stage medium?

Just wondering whether anyone else has been read by a stage medium and what did they think of the information they got?
Did you feel like it was truly a mediumistic connection or just a piece of theatre?
I was done by Derek Acorah a few years ago and he linked to my gran.
The main facts that he got were:

1. She fell down the stairs but did not pass straight away- true as she had a aneurism that caused her fall but she only died 6 months later although she was in a coma
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2. She had her husband William and father Tom with her - Quite true
   

The family has a hip disorder which is not immediately visible but which runs through several generations - We all have Perthes syndrome

• That she had a hearing problem - accurate as she had only hearing in one ear and I have many memories of her asking me to stand on her "good side" otherwise she was stone deaf and had been since her 30s

I haven't, not sure I'd want to be!  

Being ultra-cynical ........ I am always suspicious that if you book tickets for these things in advance, on the Net, over the phone or whatever, then they already have information about you. If they have your name and address, it can be a fairly easy process to find other members of your family, alive or otherwise. (I know this from years and years of genealogy!)

Of course, that doesn't explain acquiring information about your medical history ......!

I've been to a few stage ones of famous and not so famous. The not so famous ones Ive had messages from and by George frighteningly accurate too! One started by saying my name followed by my aunt and ex husband. She started saying how similar my marriage was to hers and she was spot on. The rest of the message was stunning to stay the least.

Mercury I'm not sure they can get much information via the internet (they certainly couldn't on me)and if they could would they seriously have the time to delve into it? No-one can give them personal thoughts and private information from the past and I can say with my hand on my heart that there is nowhere they could have found the information I've been given over the years.  

I'm certain there are totally genuine mediums out there, but my natural inclination to disbelief was fed by a telly programme I saw years ago where a retired stage "medium", admitted how he had conned people.

All he needed from ticket bookings was a name (a slightly unusual name - avoided the Smiths of this world!) and a town, preferably a small town. This worked better if the booking was for an older person who were less likely to have moved home recently. Then he checked relevant obituaries (bearing in mind apparently 70% of people who attend these events have been bereaved within the past year) and/or graveyards. This was in the days when you could go to Somerset House and browse registration documents, and when most advance payments were by cheque.

When he had a "possible" or two, he used information from the obituary, or employment information from a death cert to send an accomplice out to snoop around. A few innocent and carefully-worded questions in the deceased local pub ............... the shop where he/she worked .... if he was lucky, he could get virtually an entire life history in a hour.

As far as his show went, it didn't matter if he got a lot of stuff wrong, provided he got one totally and (as far as the audience were concerned) unbelievably correct! He made a fortune ....!

On the other hand .......... I saw another programme where the medium would take no advance bookings and would only take cash on the door, so no-one could suspect him of this type of practice, and he was breath-takingly good!

Oh yes I'm sure there are a few dodgy ones but they must spend so much time just researching. I can guarantee they'd find bugger all about me unless they spent a lot of years trying

I've had private readings where I can tell they are just fishing and I've come out thinking we'll that just wasted half an hour of my life but I've had other readings which have literally blown me away. There was no way they could have known some of the private stuff that I've never told anyone.

I went to one reading with a friend. When my friend finished I went in and she gently told me about the support I'd need to give to a friend who was going to have a hard time with an illness. She said the fight would be hard and the outcome would be good but it would last 5 years.
The very next day the friend I went with had a call from her mother saying she had just been told she had lymphoma. Her mum struggled with the treatment over many months then got the all clear. 5 years later she died when it returned
I saw that clairvoyant many times over the years and every time she got it spot on and then some... I wish I was still able to see her!

In our reading the person that came through to us was not linked with our current (or even our previous) address.  My partner also heard from HIS father - well our relationship was only a few months in duration by that time and his name was not given at the time of booking - I simply booked two seats  but no mention of his name (the more unusual of the two surnames) was made.
I admit that there is some info about my grandparents on teh internet as I am researching family history - but nothing about how gran died and precious little about her under her married name (which is necessary to link to me).  I HAVE heard that this medium is doubted by some but quite frankly if what we heard was a trick it was such an elaborate one and such a time consuming one to set up that the manpower it would need in each venue for sold out theatres would be very difficult to justify in terms of how much money they would spend out in researchers or private investigators as a proportion of what they could get in.
I'm in touch with TWO very gifted mediums as personal friends and they have involved themselves in things that genuinely couldn't have come to them any way known of in this world but neither of these two take money for what they do.  I guess I would more readily believe these people than I would a theatre show simply because there is no reason of personal gain for them to say or do anything - unlike a theatre medium who is reliant on getting big audiences.  I know by my own work how expensive it is to hire a theatre night after night.

Maybe it's different for some of the TV shows where they state 'this is for entertainment purposes only' They have to have a show worth airing and as dramatic as possible but having said that even some of the big names I believe to be genuine. There are one or two I expect that slip through the net but on the whole I don't believe they'd actually make a living from it if they were paying for information.

Turbotabby? Your own work??

Yes that makes me angry. At the start of the show they say it is for entertainment only and at the end they put on the screen that no information was given to the medium before the show.
Are they saying he's a fraud or aren't they? It can't be both. Either they are fed information to make a dramatic show or they are genuinely divining details via mediumship.