As you should already know, spiritualism, mediums and psychics are all bunk. Not a shred of solid evidence has been put forward to support the existence of ghosts/spirits or that there are people with the ability to speak with the dead and, as such, it is unreasonable to seriously contend either point. Anyone who claims any ability to speak with the dead or use "psychic powers" to heal others is at best deluding themselves, and at worst causing huge amounts of grief and false hope, as well as taking the money of gullible people. Having said all this, I have a somewhat mixed opinion of the government's new plans to crack down on mediums, psychics and healers who are unable to justify their claims (i.e all of them). These people are a grab-bag of idiots and charlatans who certainly deserve to be taken down a few pegs, but is simply prosecuting them the answer? Huge amounts of trading legislation hasn't managed to stop thousands of other fraudulent products- spiritual self-help books, homeopathy, magnetic healing bracelets, healing crystals, etc. There's always going to be a loophole that these liars will wriggle through, and outright banning these practices (the only logical step if one is going to ban any, as none of them have any real merit) would simply cause annoyance in those who actually believe this claptrap. A better idea would be for as many people as possible to explain to others why all of this spiritualism is a load of old shite. Encourage each other not to waste our money on it, and instead put our trust in reason and evidence. Not only do you not have to start locking people up, but the whole of society becomes a little bit more enlightened, and hopefully the charlatans will creep back into the woodwork a little more.


Oh, and I would totally volunteer for this.