Having read some of the preview material that preceded the episode, I felt a bit compelled to watch the programme. And it was pure Channel Five material – based around one man’s ability to telepathically connect with very young children and subsequently help the family dynamic and relationships. That man is Derek Ogilvie.
I jotted some stuff down as I watched last night, partly because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Ogilvie seemed to be able discern things within minutes that someone meeting that mother and daughter for the first time - a 19 year old single parent and a two year old, and later the grandmother too - couldn’t possibly know. For instance, he said that the two year old was aware that her mother had been raped at the age of 14 (before she was even born), and that the grandmother had previously miscarried a son.
My slight shock that he would say this out loud to these people, whilst being filmed for a national television programme, was compounded by the fact that after he asked her to confirm the rape, he told the mother that this was out of his area of expertise and that he’s leave her alone for a few minutes. I seriously hope that the producers had someone on hand behind the camera to help her at that moment…
But I felt that his advice in response to the reading, about how the mother and daughter should interact to stop the two year olds tantrums, was so generic that I could have been watching any recent parenting show:
1 – talk to someone about your past and try to be healed and move on from it
2 – be positive – children pick up on negativity from parents
3 – make dietary changes to include fruit and veg instead of sweets and processed foods
4 – have more fun – for instance buy a trampoline and a fairy dress
Of course if believing in Ogilvie’s methods and advice, him having gained their trust, meant that relationships were repaired and harmony restored then it’s no bad thing. For me, the programme was a bit of “Derren Brown’s House of Tiny Tearaways” if that makes any sense! I’m genuinely not sure what to make of it, and I’ll be intrigued to see another episode of it and see how it pans out.
3 comments:
That kind of stuff could be gained from research - something like the rape of a 14 year old could well be in the local papers, or he could have found it out from a friend/relative.
http://badpsychics.com/thefraudfiles/modules/news/article.php?storyid=86
Yeah I've read that article in the course of my own reading after the programme went out. There's also some stuff at http://skepchick.org/blog/?p=125 which draws on the badpsychics article.
My natural inclination is to be a unbeliever/ sceptic about all of this, but undoubtedly for whatever reasons, it does connect with people and speak to them. And for that reason if nothing else, I still think that there's something fascinating in there...
Certainly, the way people connect with such stuff is fascinating (similarly watching the reactions of the women in 'Convent' last week). People are desparately searching for answers and meaning in their lives...
OTOH when someone uses that to pretend to speak 'telepathically' to babies and bring up painful rape memories just to get a cheap thrill for TV it goes *way* over the line for me.
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