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Posted by Peter Barnett at 13:30 on 18 Apr 2008 Today Fortune-tellers, mediums and spiritual healers will march on Downing Street to protest against new laws they fear will lead to them being prosecuted under a new act which replaces the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951. The new act contains consumer protection rules, which will remove key legal protection for those mediums that claim to be genuine. There is concern that sceptics might bring malicious prosecutions that require spiritualists to prove in court that they can heal people, see into the future or talk to the dead. Psychics think that they may be required to give disclaimers describing their services as entertainment or as scientific experiments with unpredictable results. The changes expected to come into force next month and psychics say the new rules will shift the responsibility of proving they are not frauds from prosecutors and onto them. One is quoted as saying that, "By repealing the Act, the onus will go round the other way and we will have to prove we are genuine. No other religion has to do that." |