Fieldsite Study

I nervously walk into Psychic Readings by Amanda, with the foolish mindset that television has influenced greatly, thinking that when I walk in I will hear someone say "I've been expecting you". As I step foot in the door and take a look around the first thing I notice is a prayer session taking place. Both the psychic and the client are down on both knees next to the "reading" table, with the spiritual advisor leading the prayer. So as not to disturb the session, I remain quiet and inconspicuous while I observe the environment. There are lots of celestial pictures decorating the four walls and the aroma permeating the air smells of aromatic candles. I observe a lot of pictures of single eyeballs that are blended in with other images, it can be described as being analogous to the hidden image games placed on the back of cereal boxes where they ask you to see how many of a particular image you can find. There are a few shelves that contain different types of candles and also things for sale that are supposedly to rid clients of their bad luck or evil spirits. I also see tarot cards and different types of crystal balls which are props that are used to read people's pasts and futures. By this time the spiritual advisor is now aware of my presence and proceeds to head over in my direction. She asks me if I would like a reading done, and I tell her that I am just there to do an assignment for my college English class. At this point, she displays a look of disinterest and is clearly apathetic about my needs to complete my assignment. She then tells me she is not interested, and I walk out very slowly and reluctantly just to irritate her as much as she had just irritated me. As I walked back to my car, head hanging low ashamed for some reason from my rejection, I searched my thoughts for an explanation. The only thing I could come up with was that she must have been a fraud, a scam artist, a preyer. And as I thought of these reasons for why I was rejected, I made sure I yelled every explanation that I had come up with aloud to her at the top of my lungs before I proceeded to get in my car. Then I realized that she had actually helped me find another focus for my paper...PSYCHIC SCAMS!

Act V

1.) What makes this a good fieldsite?

The actors are playing the role of a man who is "pondering a violent crime and its consequences" when they are actual violent criminals themselves who are living out those consequences.

2.) What observations does the author make about the subculture to give us a better understanding of it?

The background information about the prison actors, pre-performance rituals,

3.) What interviewing techniques does the author use to help us understand this subculture?

He asks the inmates how their prison surroundings influence how they play their parts in the play and also to compare the character they play to life in prison.

4.) What are the norms and values of this subculture?

Understanding the character that they play and what the lines actually mean.

Psychics

1.) Dziobek, I., Rogers, K., Fleck, S. In search of "master mindreaders":
Are psychics superior in the language of reading the eyes?
Brain and Cognition 58, p. 240-244, July 2005.

2.) Maxwell, L.F. Small Mediums at Large: The true tale of a family of psychics. Library Journal 129, p. 95, 1 Nov. 2004.

3.) Evans, RD., Forsyth, CJ., Foreman, RA. Psychics accounts: Self- legitimation and the management of a spoiled identity. Sociological Spectrum 23, pp. 359-375, Jul. 2003.

4.) Josephson, BD. Scientists and psychics. Scientific American 288, p. 15, Jun 2003.

5.) Schwartz, SA. Lives of the psychics: The shared worlds of science and mysticism. Journal of Parapsychology 65, pp. 421-424, Dec 2001.



The psychic culture to me seems like it would be a really interesting phenomenon to research. It is something that I really have no knowledge of and that I think would be beneficial to learn some things about the culture and also the people that the culture is comprised of. I enjoyed reading a little bit of Psychic accounts: self legitimation and the management of a spoiled identity, because it talked about the real experiences of real psychics. They discuss how they got into this occupation and discuss what it's like to be psychic. My interest in this subject partly comes from being able to research and discover whether or not this is real or not. Before having to do this assignment, I was skeptical about whether or not people could really predict things that would occur in the future. Now that I am researching the topic, I will be able to find the answer to my question.