Rosemary Altea (born Rosemary Edwards) is a British author who describes herself as a

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

and healer. She has appeared on various programs, including ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

'', ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

'', and featured in the series premiere of '' Penn & Teller: Bullshit!'' alongside

mentalist Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...

Mark Edward Mark Edward (born Mark Edward Wilson, May 19, 1951) is an American mentalist and author. He has written books on mentalism, séance theory and production, including '' Psychic Blues'' published in 2009, where he discusses working for the Ps ...

. She has written six books and claims to have a "healing foundation".

Early life

Altea was born Rosemary Edwards in Leicester, England to Lilian and William Edwards, and has two brothers and three sisters. Rosemary claims to have had psychic visions from a young age, causing parents to threaten to commit her to a mental asylum. Her formal education ended at the age of 16 when she left school and then got married when she was 19. She has one daughter born in 1970. She divorced and fell upon financial hardship at age 35.

Career

In November 1981, Rosemary claims to have had a vision at night, after which she felt open to the possibility of a spirit world. The same year, struggling to make ends meet and take care of her daughter, she began charging £3.50 per session for psychic reading and adopted the name Rosemary Altea. In 2001 Altea inherited a farm in

Dorset, Vermont Dorset is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 2,133 at the 2020 census. Dorset is famous for being the location of Cephas Kent's Inn, where four meetings of the Convention that signed the Dorset Accords led t ...

from Llewella Day, an elderly cancer victim. Ms. Day changed her will shortly before she died, thereby cutting her family out and leaving the $740,000 farm to Altea, with the desire it remain a working farm. Altea successfully fought Day's family's attempts to invalidate the will, and—against Ms. Day's wishes—demolished the farm house to make the farm into "a healing foundation". On 26 January 2007 Altea appeared on ''

'' with skeptic

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skepticism, scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific cla ...

. When asked on the show to take the

One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge was an offer by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to pay out one million U.S. dollars to anyone who could demonstrate a supernatural or paranormal ability under agreed-upon scientific testing ...

, she argued that she " oesn'tbelieve there's $1 million". In 2009, Altea learned that her bookkeeper, Denise M. Hall, had stolen $200,000 from her over a period of seven years, using four credit cards to obtain cash advances, forging cheques and giving herself unauthorised electronic paychecks all under Altea's name.

Reception

Altea was featured on '' Penn & Teller: Bullshit!'' in the show's premiere episode, " Talking to the Dead." Kevin Christopher of the ''

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in 2 ...

'' wrote that the segment on Altea "was a nice expose of Rosemary Altea during a taped reading arranged by Showtime. Viewers got a clear picture of how she worked the small group of people present for readings prior to the taping in order to glean information for later use. Skeptic and

replicated the cold reading tactics she used and showed how her publicist, Joni Evans, seeded the group with people whose biographies were already known to Altea in order to boost her on-camera success." Critics describe Altea as a clear example of

hot reading Hot reading is a technique used when giving a psychic reading in stage magic performances, or in other contexts. In hot reading, the reader uses information about the person receiving the reading (for example, from background research or overhe ...

. Investigator

Joe Nickell Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell is senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes regularly for their journal, ''Skeptical Inquirer''. He is also ...

believes modern day self-proclaimed mediums like Altea are avoiding the Victorian tradition of dark rooms, spirit handwriting and flying tambourines as these methods risk exposure. They instead use "mental mediumship" tactics like cold reading or gleaning information from sitters beforehand. Group readings also improve hits by making general statements with conviction, which will fit at least one person in the audience. Skeptic and author

Michael Shermer Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of ''Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientifi ...

concludes in ''

Why People Believe Weird Things ''Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time'' is a 1997 book by science writer Michael Shermer. The foreword was written by Stephen Jay Gould. Summary In the first section, Shermer discusses t ...

'' Altea learned cold reading by trial and error, and honestly misattributes her success to psychic ability rather than deliberate deception. However, Shermer also alleges that during his appearance alongside Altea on ''

'' in 1995, Altea used information obtained about a guest through an earlier discussion in a limo ride to the studio, an example of hot reading.

Bibliography

* Altea, Rosemary; Altea, Samantha Jane (2015) ''Angels in Training An Inspirational Guide for Everyday Life'' self-published through Lulu.com * Altea, Rosemary (2007). ''A Matter of Life and Death: Remarkable True Stories of Hope and Healing''. Jeremy P. Tarcher * Altea, Rosemary (2004). ''Soul Signs: An Elemental Guide to Your Spiritual Destiny''. Rodale Press * Altea, Rosemary (2004). ''Give the Gift of Healing: A Concise Guide to Spiritual Healing''. William Morrow & Company * Altea, Rosemary (2000). ''You Own the Power: Stories & Exercises To Inspire & Unleash The Force Within''. William Morrow * Altea, Rosemary (1997). ''Proud Spirit: Lessons, Insights and Healing Stories''. William Morrow * Altea, Rosemary (1995). ''The Eagle and The Rose: A Remarkable True Story''. Warner Books

References

External links

Rosemary Altea
– Official website * Transcripts

15 March 2000

(Altea verses