I'm surprised by the many positive/understanding comments on this thread. Personally I find this kind of behavior despicable. Giving people what they ask for do

I'm surprised by the many positive/understanding comments on this thread. Personally I find this kind of behavior despicable. Giving people what they ask for doesn't make it morally justifiable. Even if helps then in the short term. Astrologers, psychics, tarot readers and the likes are mis-educating people. Pushing the population back towards the dark ages. The real danger of this is specifically when it seems to work, in that it strengthens people's belief in "something" "beyond understanding" "magic" etc. Adults living in a fairy-tale world is dangerous. There is no moral dilemma. People who want their curse lifted should not have anyone to go to that isn't a doctor. Personally I also add "mentalists" and the likes to the list. I find Darren Brown, Lior Suchard and the such just as despicable as Uri Geller or any other con-man. The small yet crucial difference between a "mentalist" and a magician is the back story, and more importantly the effect of the back story on the viewer's world view: A magician leaves the viewer with the (very important) realization that they too can be fooled and they are not smart enough to understand and explain everything they experience. This is a very uncomfortable feeling for most people but honest magicians leave you with it. "Mentalists" ease your pain by throwing in an pseudo scientific "explanation": NLP, body reading, etc. But with that they rob the viewer of a valuable life lesson about their own shortcomings, and replace it with a wrong understanding of how the world works.