Certainly both entertainers and illusionists but prophets ?

@Moravian How do you think prophets work then? A hotline to God? They work by planting seeds of hope amongst people that can bring about the prophecy. It is all psychological. Mostly 'hidden suggestions' and if you can get it to work you are very clever and knowledgable of people's hopes, fears and vulnerabilities.

@Mcflewster that's probably an accurate description of how a "prophet" operates but as far as I am aware neither Yuri Geller or Derren Brown claim to be prophets.

So called prophets are usually attached to some type of church and are preaching to the converted so it is difficult to have any sympathy for them.

@Moravian Cannot you see that 'Prophet' could be applied to anyone who claims to see into the future? Seeing into the future is impossible even into the next few minutes. I am trying to show people how these people work. The usually do it to hoodwink people or defraud them of money and we must call them out everywhere we see them not just those in the Bible.

I know what a prophet is I was only saying that neither Brown nor Geller claim to be prophets. These days prophets are usually nutters who foretell the end of the world and may attract a few followers but are fairly harmless. The biblical prophets are much more harmful and if you have any capacity for logical thinking surely the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem "to fulfil prophecy" would make you smell a rat.

More harmful today are the so called spiritual mediums such as Dennis Acorah who prey on gullible and grieving people and con them out of money.

@Moravian I am not really disagreeing with you but if you wanted to sell tickets for your own show would you call yourself a Prophet?. Yes it does hold religious overtones but in the end it means that you can fool people into your way of thinking. Because we have a greater chance of understanding religion we must protect our populations from scams. Scams have big element of predicting what is about to happen in the near future e.g "you need to (will) transfer money from your account to another one. Together with predicting, a good deal of false information e.g" I am your bank manager" is involved.
Yuri does not care about the truth and co-incidence helps him make a living.

@Mcflewster Very true. Yuri in his spoon bending pomp a few years ago tried to convince people that he had special powers which of course he did not so he was a con man. As far as I am aware Derren Brown always said that he was an illusionist.

I remember a few years ago there was a guy who lived near me who claimed to have the second sight and all that nonsense. Seventh son of a seventh son and spiritual powers. He attracted people looking for answers to their problems. mainly women for some reason who paid him for the privelage of a "reading"

I remember speaking to a female friend who had gone to him and she said "he knew a lot of stuff about me that amazed me, how could he have known that". I tried to explain "cold reading" to her but no she was convinced. All I could think of was "you paid someone to tell you stuff you already knew ?" makes sense !

@Moravian Believer Beware!

He has sent her an open letter warning her of his actions so it is all over now.

@Moravian Good. Someone taking charge. Just what is needed in a time of crisis. I hope Jeremy doesn’t mind.