The psychic medium Moriah Rhame made an appearance on the TV show Hoarding: Buried Alive (which, FYI, many misidentify as Horders) Season 4, Episode 12 “This House Killed Her” and ended up writing about some criticism she received.
For example, a certain Tara Ariano wrote, “And oh my god, the cold-reading con job Moriah pulls on these poor, grieving people. Like, I don’t think you need to have psychic powers to come to a hoarded house and declare that you feel ‘the pain of the children.’” Moriah states, “I do not use cold reading techniques”1 but that “I submit proof of this on my website” followed by a generic citation of the URL to her entire site. Thus, she concludes that “The term cold reading implies and infers that I am a professional con artist and master manipulator” and this is part of why she wrote the article “Ad Hominem Humbug, Moriah the Medium, March 13, 2013 AD.
As part of her “proof” she references “the arguments I have to support my beliefs” and yet, she sates, “One of my all-time favorite quotes is by the Buddha, ‘Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.’” Well, for one the Buddha’s (if any such person ever even lived) statement is poppycock. Secondly, I do not believe Moriah Rhame despite her claims to proof, arguments, etc. since it does not agree with my own reason and my own common sense—plus the proof and arguments I am about to put forth.
In her article, she notes the following of the ad hominem logical fallacy, “It seems I live my life in this argument and especially so since I appeared on an Episode of Hoarders Buried Alive. An example of ad hominem is, ‘Anyone who believes in Moriah as medium is stupid and must be very uneducated.’ When you attack a person rather than dealing with the argument itself is an Ad hominem.” She also references “Poisoning the well” with an example being “‘Only idiots believe in what Moriah has to say. All mediums are fakes and con artists.’ It’s a boobytrap. You may start to think in your mind that indeed some mediums are fakes and con artists, and you don’t want to be an idiot or a victim so the statement must be true.”
Let us review this statement as it instructive on various levels. I do not believe that mediums are doing that which they think they are doing even if and when they consider themselves to be 100% genuine, honest, etc. Yet, it is not accurate to assert that “Only idiots believe in what Moriah has to say” since there are many qualifying circumstances for example, very intelligent people who are grief stricken and thus desperate. Also, all mediums need not be purposeful fakes even if that which they do turns out to be fake, although being a con artist would be intentionally malicious.
Now, let us come to the example of the Moriah Rhame appearance on the Hoarding: Buried Alive show. The situation is that three adult offspring of a hoarder are distraught because their hoarder mother passed away and on top of it they are going through her house which is in a deplorable state. They are physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually drained. Moriah Rhame is called in for one specific purpose. Now, let me pause here to note that I tuned into the show so as to watch a show about hoarding but I am then confronted with an infomercial for a psychic spirit channeling medium—by any other name.
She was brought in to communicate with the deceased woman so as to ask her where in that wretched clutter one specific document was: proof that she owned the home, paid it off, etc.
Well, Moriah Rhame gathers the offspring and assures them that their mother is right there in the room with them, Moriah is able to speak to her in the very same way that she is speaking to the living—it is live, vivid, face to face, etc.
She informs then that their mother can hear them as well, etc. and when they look up so as to speak to her (heavenwards, as it were) Moriah tells them that there is no need to look up as their mother is actually standing right next to them: all they have to do is turn their heads and speak to her directly. Well, this is all certainly good news: good ol’ mom lives on just fine, she is right there with them and hey, oh yeah, they can certainly ask her a direct question and get a direct answer so mom, just where is that document?
Well, Moriah Rhame assures them that it is in the house but for some unstated reason: all of a sudden the entire scenario changes and gears are shifted. No, even though mom now has access to multiple dimensions and such she cannot simply tell them where it is. Rather, Moriah Rhame tells them that they must engage in pendulum swinging. Indeed, mom was right there, she told Moriah that the document is there but apparently, mom’s the word on the exact location.
And so this leads to the offspring rummaging through the house—as, by the way, they were doing before Moriah showed up and the very reason for calling her in the first place is so that they would not have to rummage through the house—but now they are asking well, the air where the documents is and following the movement of the pendulum.
This alone is enough to prove conclusively that Moriah Rhame is a fake, fraud, hoaxer, manipulator, con artist or, as Ron Tebo of Scifake puts it when referring to Theresa Caputo a “grief vampire.” Too harsh? Well, Moriah Rhame claimed the ability to have a chat with mom, claimed that her offspring could do likewise, assured them that mom told her that the document is in the house but at the key moment of asking where exactly it is to be found suddenly she got no reply but told them to walk around with a pendulum to dig around in filth.
Worse yet, for Moriah Rhame: mom traversed the veil between death and life, between the living and the dead so as to assure them not only existed but was in the house but when Moriah Rhame was long gone those poor unsuspecting grieving people (who still believe in Moriah Rhame despite her utter failure) contacted the bank which was able to actually verify that the document never even existed.
Thus, this is all 100% proof that Moriah Rhame is either a deceiver herself, is being deceived by whatever spirit she speaks to or some of both.
One of the grieving women victimized by Moriah Rhame
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- 1. She explains that this is “where mediums use a line of questioning and use vague statements to get results. I don’t speak in vague statements, I don’t fill in information that isn’t pertinent and anyone who has ever had a session with me knows that I do not ask questions or use cold reading techniques”
Note Orson Wells’ elucidation of learning cold reading within this video: