Lisa Williams is apparently British, but she resides in Los
Angeles (nominally, at least – mostly she seems to reside far, far away from
anywhere in reality) and is hence arguably qualified. Williams claims to be a
psychic medium,
and is the granddaughter of celebrity fraud Frances Glazebrook. Accordingly,
Williams is mostly famous for her extensive use of cold readings,
which makes one wonder about the extent to which she even thinks she’s magical.
By giving a “reading” to a senior staff member of television
host Merv Griffin, Williams managed to initiate a substantial television career for herself with Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead
(2006–2007) and Lisa Williams: Voices
From the Other Side on the Lifetime network (“I am not a skeptic anymore [implying
that he ever was] because I have seen this woman do some of the most incredible
things,” said Griffin [demonstrating that he never was]). The shows followed
Williams around while she “communicated” with the dead, investigated haunted
houses, and engaged in similar nonsense. Presumably to keep her audiences
interested she claimed co to have spoken with the spirits of Bob Hope, Princess
Diana, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe and Ray Charles. Matt Lauer once received criticism for not calling Williams out when Williams claimed to see a ghost standing
behind him – after all, mediums scam people for significant sums of money every year, and
one would presume that Lauer had some journalistic duty to investigate
Williams’s assertions. Williams has also – but of course – appeared on Oprah to “diagnose” her studio.
Diagnosis: I suppose we are supposed to say that we suppose
that Williams at least believes that she has magic powers herself. We cannot
quite bring ourselves to pass that verdict, however, and choose to leave things
instead – diplomatically – a bit open. Those who listen to her definitely suffer
from severe critical thinking skill deficiencies, at least.
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