History Main / NotSoPhonyPsychic

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': Marjorie Potts, a.k.a. Madame Tracy, is an interesting example. Her "phoniness" seems somewhat intentional -- she holds séances, but has long realized that people don't really want too much of the supernatural in their sessions, just some reassurance that their loved ones are someplace nice and to generally have their expectations confirmed. (She's even taken most of the Major Arcana out of her Tarot deck because they're too scary.) One of her fake sessions is nevertheless interrupted when she's possessed by a disembodied angel. Then said angel puts through the ''actual'' ghost she's been pretending to contact, the deceased HenpeckedHusband of a rather unpleasant woman, who [[GrewASpine promptly takes the opportunity to tell his former wife to shut up]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E13CartmansIncredibleGift Cartman's Incredible Gift]]" has [[OnlySaneMan Kyle]] figure out the identity of a SerialKiller through real detective work, but the idiot police won't believe him while Cartman is obviously faking psychic powers and they're hanging on his every word. So Kyle makes them listen by imitating Cartman, giving himself a semi-serious head injury and claiming to have developed psychic powers when he wakes up at the hospital, except the visions Kyle makes up point to the culprit he identified with the evidence he found earlier. He tries to end the episode with AnAesop that psychics are fake, but all the other {{Phony Psychic}}s leave him so frustrated that he screams at them -- [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just as the lights suddenly flicker and things fall off of shelves]]. After a {{Beat}}, Kyle insists that there must be a logical explanation for that, and the episode ends.

* An inversion of sorts happens in an episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'' when main character and PhonyPsychic Shawn Spencer visits a traditional gypsy Fortuneteller named Miss Ivana [[spoiler:(who turns out to be faking the traditional part, including the accent)]] with Gus and the guest star of the week. Gus gets some good laughs out of presenting Shawn to the fortune teller as a fellow psychic (Gus and the audience knowing full well Shawn just has AwesomenessByAnalysis going for him), convinced that that the fortuneteller is also fake. However, certain things indicate that while the [[spoiler:accent]] is not real, the fortuneteller predicts [[spoiler:the guest star's character's death with tarot cards]] and is able to read the thoughts of the rather eccentric and pop-culture-obsessed Shawn. Notable that all supernatural phenomena had been debunked in the show at this point (usually by Shawn and Gus themselves, despite them [[AgentMulder usually wanting to believe otherwise]], DependingOnTheWriter), but in this case, they have no doubt that they're in the presence of a person with real psychic abilities.

** The first arc centers around a high-school girl who claims that she can see spirits and ghosts and the like... coinciding with some paranormal events in an old schoolhouse. Naru soon finds enough evidence to prove that she's just faking it in order to stand out and appear interesting - but then, with further investigation, realizes that she's a latent Psychic, and subconsciously CAUSING the paranormal events in order to prove her own stories. [[spoiler: Later events uncover a FridgeLogic alternate explanation - Mai is later revealed to have a powerful psychic potential, and all the paranormal events coincided with her idly musing that it would be 'more fun' if there was actually something spooky going on. And the final test Naru used could point to Mai as easily as the other girl... if that's the case, then it doesn't actually fit the trope, but the show never addresses that possibility.]]
** Ayako is another case, a {{Miko}} who never shows any sign of significant powers and whose efforts to exorcise or [[TurnUndead turn]] spirits are never effective, leading to her being TheLoad (although secondary in that status to Mai) for most of the series. However, a later arc reveals [[spoiler: her power depends on the presence of tree spirits, and all of the cases the team had taken thus far were in urban areas. When the protagonists are attacked by zombies in a grove, Ayako [[CurbStompBattle obliterates]] them.]]

* ''Literature/PsychicDetectiveYakumo'': Yakumo Saito really ''can'' see and communicate with ghosts, but he also has a mirror conveniently placed above the door of the club room he's appropriated as an office in order to fake clairvoyance and scam his fellow students with cheap card tricks.

-->'''Nobuko:''' I do see and hear things sometimes. But there are days when I don't see anything at all. I just made up some nonsense about guardian angels and it became a big hit. ''(distressed)'' I actually hate the occult! It's all in my imagination! It's not real!

* PlayedWith by Comicbook/DoctorStrange. Strange ''certainly'' knows what he's doing, but most of the world at large assumes he's a phony, and he's ''fine'' with that since it gives him privacy that makes his job easier.
* Robert James Lees in ''ComicBook/FromHell''. [[spoiler: "I made it all up, and it all came true anyway. That's the funny part."]]

* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': [[Literature/HarryPotter Professor Trelawney]], as it is implied in canon, sees rather more than even she realizes even outside of her prophecies. Most people assume that she's a hack, and not without reason, but she does have real talent. As Draco Malfoy observes, she just has an unfortunate tendency to try and force her gift. [[LadyDrunk Or pickle it]]. Aside from that, she also has a constant urge towards high drama which leads to misinterpretations. However, at least one of her predictions, a tarot reading, is taken very seriously as the protagonists start noticing that all of it is coming true - and that it is incredibly significant.

* ''Film/EyeOfTheNeedle''. The German spy played by Creator/DonaldSutherland is told that Hitler's astrologer has predicted the Allies will land at Normandy instead of Calais, so Der Fuhrer wants him to investigate. He scoffs at the idea, but finds the Calais invasion army is made of mock-ups, setting off the plot as he races to relay this information to Berlin.

* ''Film/PuppetMaster'': The film features several different psychics with legitimate powers. One of them, Dana, nevertheless makes her living giving obviously phony fortunes to tourists that she just makes up as she goes along.
* ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice'': This is {{implied}} with Sarah -- throughout the movie, she "senses" things that are either obvious or turn out to be wrong, but later is able to influence [[BigBad Kim Jong-Il]]'s "panthers" to spare them and attack the [[FunWithAcronyms Film Actors Guild]] instead.

* ''Dead Eye: Pennies For The Ferryman'': The main character gets a cornea transplant from one of these. The person has the main host of a bad Website/YouTube ''Series/GhostHunters'' knock-off that would claim to see ghosts at each place... However, one time he actually does start to see ghosts and is killed as he would be a wild card in the GambitPileup that is the book's Ghost World.
* ''Literature/DirkGently'': In the BackStory, the titular Dirk pretended to be a psychic but everything he predicted came true. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome He was so accurate he was branded as a fake because psychics are never that accurate,]] and had to be smuggled out of town. He's at it again at the start of the second novel, deliberately making up nonsense. And when they ''continue'' to come true, he takes to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens standing on his roof yelling "Stop it!" at the sky]]. He desperately ''wants'' to be a fraud; it's so much simpler.

* ''[[Literature/RepairmanJack The Haunted Air]]'': PhonyPsychic Lyle Kenton has a run-in with a genuine ghost, and ends up developing real powers of foresight and acquiring a genuine spirit-guide in [[spoiler: his brother Charlie]].
* ''Literature/LandOfOz'': PlayedWith in [[LoveableRogue the Wizard]]. The Wizard [[ItWasHisSled of course]], turns out to be a fraud at first, but in later volumes is actually taught magic by [[BigGood Glinda]].
* ''Literature/TalesOfTheJokka'': In the short story "Fire in the Void", Keshul is a fortune-teller who does not believe a bit of it, but then the stones thrown by one of his clients turn out to be shockingly accurate, three times in a row. More of these prophecies occur in the novel ''Pearl in the Void'' and at one point [[spoiler: he is stabbed and left in the waste for dead, only to mysteriously recover with bleached white skin and hair]] making him believe that he's the avatar of the god whose existence he previously denied.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E152MrGarrityAndTheGraves Mr. Garrity and the Graves]]", a traveling conman comes to a town with a violent past and through various cons convinces the people there that he can raise all of the dead on Boot Hill, while eventually tricking the entire townsfolk, who each have certain people in mind that they do not want to come back, to pay him to not raise anybody. While he's riding away with his partner-in-crime and laughing at the town for believing that he can actually do the things he claimed, the dead start coming out of their graves with one commenting that the peddler underestimates his own ability.

* In ''Series/Charmed1998'', Phoebe is a witch who can get visions of the past or future. In one episode, she's a juror in the trial of a man accused of murdering his ex-wife, since he was able to lead police to her body--which he claims to have known through a magical vision. Phoebe, in an odd case of ArbitrarySkepticism, assumes this is malarkey until ''she'' has a vision of the actual murder, realizes the guy is innocent, and has to convince the other jurors that no, the suspect really is psychic.

* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'': In "Touch Move," Joan's father Will reluctantly allows Charlotte Bloom, who claims to be a psychic, to help with a kidnapping case. Charlotte explains that she began getting visions after a NearDeathExperience, but many of her predictions about the kidnapping prove rather vague, and when the missing child is found via old-fashioned detective work, Will thinks it was all a sham. However, when Charlotte first meets Joan, she immediately tells her that she has a "special connection to the universe"--given that Joan is able to communicate God and do Their will, Charlotte was right on the money with that one. It's deliberately unclear just how real Charlotte's powers are, given the magical realism of the show.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Trance", Leonard Randall is a con artist who claims to be able to channel the spirit of Delos, a warrior who lived in {{Atlantis}} 10,000 years ago, by placing himself into a trance. Delos is nothing more than the invention of Leonard and his business partner Don, who have made a small fortune by taking advantage of gullible people. It soon becomes clear that Leonard's powers are actually real as he manages to channel an extremely wise and benevolent being who [[EnslavedTongue speaks through him without his knowledge]]. This strange voice exposes Leonard's claims about Delos as fraudulent during his first TV appearance on Daphne Blake's talk show and later tells Leonard that it will spend the two or three decades teaching him the wisdom of the universe.
* An inversion of sorts happens in an episode of ''Series/{{Psych}}'', where main character and PhonyPsychic Shawn Spencer visits a traditional gypsy fortuneteller named Miss Ivana [[spoiler:(who turns out to be faking the traditional part, including the accent)]] with Gus and the guest star of the week. Gus gets some good laughs out of presenting Shawn to the fortuneteller as a fellow psychic (Gus and the audience knowing full well Shawn just has AwesomenessByAnalysis going for him), convinced that that the fortuneteller is also fake. However, certain things indicate that while the [[spoiler:accent]] is not real, the fortuneteller predicts [[spoiler: the guest star's character's death with tarot cards]] and is able to read the thoughts of the rather eccentric and pop-culture-obsessed Shawn. Notable that all supernatural phenomenon had been debunked in the show at this point (usually by Shawn and Gus themselves, despite them [[AgentMulder usually wanting to believe otherwise]], DependingOnTheWriter) but in this case, they have no doubt that they're in the presence of a person with real psychic abilities.
-->'''Miss Ivana:''' You are thinking... whether Ted Knight... and Jim J. Bullock had anything to talk about on the set of... ''Series/TooCloseForComfort''?
-->'''Shawn:''' [[SincerityMode Holy crap, she's the real deal!]]
* In a [[Recap/SupernaturalS07E07TheMentalists Season 7 episode]] of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', the brothers visit Lily Dale, a town filled with Phony Psychics. In one scene, the viewer sees a museum curator claiming to have a modest family history of psychic power. After speaking to the brothers, he grabs Dean's arm.
-->'''Curator:''' I’m sorry, I don't normally do this during business hours, but do you know an Eleanor... or an [[Recap/SupernaturalS05E10AbandonAllHope Ellen]]? She seems quite concerned about you. She wants to tell you -– pardon me -– if you don't tell someone how bad it really is, she'll kick your ass from beyond. You have to trust someone again eventually.
* ''Series/TheXFiles'': The Stupendous Yappi from "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E04ClydeBruckmansFinalRepose Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose]]". Celebrity status? Check. Ripping people off? Check. Mulder and Scully meeting him at work? Check. Yappi is so over the top that even [[AgentMulder Mulder]] doesn't believe in his abilities. Other agents and detectives do, however, and they follow his super vague leads. What makes him fit this trope is that some of his visions actually bore similarities with Mr. Bruckman's statements, and he was [[{{Seers}} the real deal psychic]]. He also appears to pick up on an incredibly rude insult that Mulder is thinking very hard at him:
-->'''Yappi:''' [[{{Irony}} Skeptics like you make me sick!]]\\
'''Mulder:''' Mr. Yappi. Can you pick up on ''this'' thought?\\
''[Mulder's bland expression doesn't change, but Yappi suddenly jolts like he's been stung]''\\
'''Yappi:''' [[YourMom So's your old man!]] ''[storms off]''

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': While [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane the veracity of Yasuhiro's psychic abilities is left in the air]], one of the predictions he makes in-game ''will'' be right, depending on how the player approaches the fifth trial. At one point he'll say that his and Makoto's children will share a mother- this is true in the Bad Ending, where [[spoiler: Kyoko is framed by the Mastermind, leaving the remaining students with no way to escape, and all three boys end up having kids with Aoi]]. Later, after the third trial, he'll say there will be no more murders. This is true in the canon Good Ending, where [[spoiler: Makoto takes the fall for Kyoko, as unlike her Alter Ego saves him in the nick of time. The fourth case is a suicide, the fifth case is a fake with the corpse of a student who died earlier, and the final victim is the Mastermind, who also commits suicide.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' supposed psychic [[EnfantTerrible Li'l Gideon]] uses obvious tricks in his shows, but actually does have telekinetic powers thanks to his magic amulet, and more occult knowledge from [[spoiler:the second journal]].

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has [[OnlySaneMan Kyle]] figure out the identity of a SerialKiller through real detective work, but the idiot police won't believe him while Cartman is obviously faking psychic powers and they're hanging on his every word. So Kyle makes them listen by imitating Cartman, giving himself a semi-serious head injury and claiming to have developed psychic powers when he wakes up at the hospital, except the visions Kyle makes up point to the culprit he identified with the evidence he found earlier. He tries to end the episode with AnAesop that psychics are fake, but all the other {{Phony Psychic}}s leave him so frustrated that he screams at them -- [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just as the lights suddenly flicker and things fall off of shelves]]. After a {{Beat}} Kyle insists there must be a logical explanation for that, and the episode ends.

* ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'': In "Touch Move," Joan's father Will reluctantly allows Charlotte Bloom, who claims to be a psychic, to help with a kidnapping case. Charlotte explains that she began getting visions after a NearDeathExperience, but many of her predictions about the kidnapping prove rather vague, and when the missing child is found via old-fashioned detective work, Will thinks it was all a sham. However, when Charlotte first meets Joan, she immediately tells her that she has a "special connection to the universe"--given that Joan is able to communicate God and do Their will, Charlotte was right on the money with that one. It's deliberately unclear just how much of Charlotte's powers are real, given the magical realism of the show.

* ''Literature/LandOfOz'': PlayedWith in the [[LoveableRogue the Wizard]]. The Wizard [[ItWasHisSled of course]], turns out to be a fraud at first, but in later volumes is actually taught magic by [[BigGood Glinda]].

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': Marjorie Potts, a.k.a. Madame Tracy, is an interesting example. Her "phoniness" seems somewhat intentional -- she holds séances, but has long realized that people don't really want too much of the supernatural in their sessions, just some reassurance that their loved ones are someplace nice and to generally have their expectations confirmed. (She's even taken most of the Major Arcana out of her Tarot deck because they're too scary.) One of her fake sessions is nevertheless interrupted when she's possessed by a disembodied angel. Then said angel puts through the ''actual'' ghost she's been pretending to contact, the deceased HenpeckedHusband of a rather unpleasant woman, who [[GrewASpine promptly takes the opportunity to tell his former wife to shut up]].

* Don Kan'Onji from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has a show on TV where he "exorcises" ghosts. He really does have partial [[ISeeDeadPeople awareness of the supernatural]] and minor spiritual power but is actually making things worse. Ichigo sets him straight, and he pops up from time to time throughout the rest of the series.

** Ayako is another case, a {{Miko}} who never shows any sign of significant powers and whose efforts to exorcise or [[TurnUndead turn]] spirits are never effective, leading to her being TheLoad (although secondary in that status to Mai) for most of the series. However, a later arc reveals [[spoiler: her power depends on the presence of tree spirits, and all of the cases the team had taken thus far were in urban areas. When the protagonists are attacked by zombies in a grove, Ayako [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] them.]]
* ''Manga/MierukoChan'''s Mitsue Takeda has genuine powers, but this doesn't stop her from looking, acting, and even ''thinking'' like a typical scammer. Her protege, Shindou Romm, posts videos of his exorcisms on Youtube, but most of his audience thinks he's a fraud since most people can't see spirits. The fact that he keeps telling them to subscribe and buy overpriced exorcism gear doesn't help. The few people who ''can'' see the spirits he exorcises know he's the real deal.
* In ''Manga/MythicalDetectiveLokiRagnarok'', Mayura's dad is a man hired to exorcise things. ''He'' thinks he's just ripping off a bunch of superstitious people, but he does turn out to have genuine ESP, he's just completely ignorant of this until the first time he meets Loki and gets a glimpse of his true form.
* Yakumo Saito in ''Literature/PsychicDetectiveYakumo'' really ''can'' see and communicate with ghosts, but he also has a mirror conveniently placed above the door of the club room he's appropriated as an office in order to fake clairvoyance and scam his fellow students with cheap card tricks.
* Nobuko Saeki of ''Manga/ShugoChara'' is a famous TV show psychic who first introduces the topic of guardian spirits to Amu. In the second volume of the manga, she states that she just made up her talk about guardian spirits and it became popular with people. However, she presumably doesn't believe it's all nonsense because she is able to see Guardian Characters, who can only be seen by people who believe in them.

* PlayedWith by Comicbook/DoctorStrange. Strange ''certainly'' knows what he's doing, but most of the world at large assumes he's a phony, and he's ''fine'' with that since it gives him privacy that makes his job easier.

[[folder:Fanworks]]
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has Professor Trelawney who, as it is implied in canon, sees rather more than even she realises even outside of her prophecies. Most people assume that she's a hack, and not without reason, but she does have real talent. As Draco Malfoy observes, she just has an unfortunate tendency to try and force her gift. [[LadyDrunk Or pickle it]]. Aside from that, she also has a constant urge towards high drama which leads to misinterpretations. However, at least one of her predictions, a tarot reading, is taken very seriously as the protagonists start noticing that all of it is coming true - and that it is incredibly significant.
* While Bruno in ''Fanfic/WhereTheDandylionsPlay'' actually ''can'' see the future, he avoids actually using his gift and uses more "conventional" forms of divination ([[TarotMotifs Tarot Cards]], {{Crystal Ball}}s, etc.) to make his living. This is explained that Bruno is able to charm his audience with drama and people prefer familiar ideas of what a FortuneTeller does rather than the very real implications of his power.

* Oda Mae Brown in ''Film/Ghost1990'' is a fake medium that comes from a line of ''real'' mediums on her mother's side, but always thought that she didn't have "the gift" herself... until Sam comes calling.
* Frank Bannister from ''Film/TheFrighteners'' can [[ISeeDeadPeople see dead people]], and uses this ability to con people by hiring ghosts to haunt houses and then "exorcise" them for money.
* ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks'' has Emelius Browne, a street magician who discovered a tattered old book of spells and used it to found his "[[WizardingSchool Correspondence College of Witchcraft]]." He is shocked when he meets the film's protagonist, Ms. Price, a witch who has actually learned magic from his lessons.
* In ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice,'' this is {{implied}} with Sarah--throughout the movie she "senses" things that are either obvious or turn out to be wrong, but later is able to influence [[BigBad Kim Jong-Il]]'s "panthers" to spare them and attack the [[FunWithAcronyms Film Actors Guild]] instead.
* ''Film/PuppetMaster'' features several different psychics with legitimate powers. One of them, Dana, nevertheless makes her living giving obviously phony fortunes to tourists that she just makes up as she goes along.
* In ''Film/Malevolent2018'', Angela has been pretending to be a medium for the scam that she and her brother are perpetuating. Unfortunately for her, she starts seeing real ghosts, and they start noticing her.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'': Lawrence initially dismisses Dr. Facilier as a con-man and a scam artist, but, while Facilier definitely is both those things, his magical abilities are ''very'' far from fake.
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/DirkGently''. In the BackStory, he pretended to be a psychic but everything he predicted came true. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome He was so accurate he was branded as a fake because psychics are never that accurate,]] and had to be smuggled out of town. He's at it again at the start of the second novel, deliberately making up nonsense. And when they ''continue'' to come true, he takes to [[RageAgainstTheHeavens standing on his roof yelling "Stop it!" at the sky]]. He desperately ''wants'' to be a fraud; it's so much simpler.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':
** Sybill Trelawney, on a good day. She actually ''can'' produce full and true prophesies, but only when in a trance that she cannot remember, and so far as we know it only happened to her twice in her life. Most of the time she relies on tarot cards, crystal balls, and omens, and her readings of them are always wrong and treated as a joke. Except that, in fact, fans have noticed that these tend to be accurate foreshadowing and it's her ''interpretation'' that's completely off... [[TheCassandra except the one tragic time she was completely correct, was taking it seriously, and was trying to warn others.]] She was ignored because of her [[CryingWolf awful track record]] and [[DrowningMySorrows drinking habit]].
** Fans also noted that anything Ron says as a joke tends to come true.

** A stronger case in [[RecurringExtra minor but recurring character]] Mortimer Lindquist. Mortimer is a minor magical talent and naturally only has access to the "ectomancy" discipline of magic. As a magic talent, it's [[CripplingOverspecialization narrow]], but he's [[WeakButSkilled amazingly adept within his field of expertise]]. As an ectomancer, he makes for a good necromancer [[DeadPersonConversation in the classical sense of the term]], making him a good medium and being able to conjure, communicate with, and manipulate the dead in limited capacities. (More traditional {{necromancer}}s reanimate and enslave the dead, whereas ectomancers like Mortimer can be seen as custodians and caretakers of the dead, particularly their spirits.) When Mortimer first appeared, due to misuse of his powers and drinking, his powers atrophied to nearly nothing, making his living as a medium by conning his clients rather than genuine medium work. Harry, though, persuades him to take the job seriously again. By his third appearance in ''{{Literature/Ghost Story}}'', Mortimer's shaped up and, while still only able to use ectomancy, he has just as much power as a middle-ranking member of the White Council - to the point where Harry explicitly notes that in his field, Mort is every bit as strong as Dresden himself, who's consistently in the top 50 Wizards in the world for raw power.

* In ''[[Literature/RepairmanJack The Haunted Air]]'', PhonyPsychic Lyle Kenton has a run-in with a genuine ghost, and ends up developing real powers of foresight and acquiring a genuine spirit-guide in [[spoiler: his brother Charlie]].
* Marjorie Potts, a.k.a. Madame Tracy, in ''Literature/GoodOmens''. Interestingly, her "phoniness" seems somewhat intentional -- she holds séances, but has long realized that people don't really want too much of the supernatural in their sessions, just some reassurance that their loved ones are someplace nice and to generally have their expectations confirmed. (She's even taken most of the Major Arcana out of her Tarot deck because they're too scary.) One of her fake sessions is nevertheless interrupted when she's possessed by a disembodied angel. Then said angel puts through the ''actual'' ghost she's been pretending to contact, the deceased HenpeckedHusband of a rather unpleasant woman, who promptly takes the opportunity to tell his former wife to shut up.
* PlayedWith in the Literature/LandOfOz books: [[LoveableRogue the Wizard]], [[ItWasHisSled of course]], turns out to be a fraud at first, but in later volumes is actually taught magic by [[BigGood Glinda]].
* In Creator/MCAHogarth's short story ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheJokka Fire in the Void]]'' Keshul is a fortune-teller who does not believe a bit of it, but then the stones thrown by one of his clients turn out to be shockingly accurate, three times in a row. More of these prophecies occur in the novel ''Pearl in the Void'' and at one point [[spoiler: he is stabbed and left in the waste for dead, only to mysteriously recover with bleached white skin and hair]] making him believe that he's the avatar of the god whose existence he previously denied.
* In ''Dead Eye: Pennies For The Ferryman'', the main character gets a cornea transplant from one of these. The person has the main host of a bad Website/YouTube ''Series/GhostHunters'' knock-off that would claim to see ghosts at each place... However, one time he actually does start to see ghosts and is killed as he would be a wild card in the GambitPileup that is the book's Ghost World.
* In Creator/RobertHeinlein's ''Literature/TimeForTheStars'', the high-school twins think they are fooling the people testing them for mental communication, by secretly talking in a barely audible whisper. Turns out they really were communicating mentally; their code whisper was incomprehensible.

In a world with TheMasquerade, especially of the UrbanFantasy genre, people can be divided mainly as follows: Those who know what's going on, those who don't know what's going on, and those who think they know what's going on. Now, add some power and some involvement to the latter two kinds of people and you may get several results.

One of them is the Not-So-Phony-Psychic. The Not-So-Phony-Psychic is a person who thinks they know what's going on and/or thinks they know what to do about it. They don't. And they somehow have the power to make the mistakes that ensue. Sometimes they make money off their "talents" -- by screwing up, and badly, on national television, or at the very least by screwing up in private while thinking they're a great hero, or that they're cheating people (by screwing up for money).

Mind, the Not-So-Phony-Psychic isn't usually a quack (though sometimes they THINK that they are). They usually think that they're doing it right, but don't know better. Alternatively, the Not-So-Phony-Psychic may well think they're cheating people of their money when they actually do dabble in the occult (and screw up). The [[UnexpectedlyRealMagic "Holy crap, it was REAL?"]] look on the clients' faces is usually priceless.

Compare MagiciansAreWizards, or PhonyPsychic. See also TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

In a world with TheMasquerade, especially of the UrbanFantasy genre, people can be divided mainly as follows: Those that know what's going on, those that don't know what's going on, and those that think they know what's going on. Now, add some power and some involvement to the latter two kinds of people and you may get several results.

One of them is the Not-So-Phony-Psychic. The Not-So-Phony-Psychic is a person that thinks they know what's going on and/or thinks they know what to do about it. They don't. And they somehow have the power to make the mistakes that ensue. Sometimes they make money off their "talents" -- by screwing up, and badly, on national television, or at the very least by screwing up in private while thinking they're a great hero, or that they're cheating people (by screwing up for money).

Mind, the Not-So-Phony-Psychic isn't usually a quack (though sometimes they THINK that they are). They usually think that they're doing it right, but don't know it better. Alternatively, the Not-So-Phony-Psychic may well think they're cheating people of their money when they actually do dabble in the occult (and screw up). The [[UnexpectedlyRealMagic "Holy crap, it was REAL?"]] look on the clients' faces is usually priceless.

The usual formula for a Not-So-Phony-Psychic intro episode is as follows: The heroes meet them due to their celebrity status or by coincidence. They find out that the psychic is doing it wrong on national T.V. or by accident when they see them "at work". The crew joins them and fixes their screw-ups, sometimes explaining how and why. And the Not-So-Phony-Psychic is enlightened -- usually meaning they'll still make money, but won't screw up anymore. The Not-So-Phony-Psychic will sometimes remain in the show, sometimes aiding the heroes for what little it usually is worth. Sometimes it is worth way more, though, specifically when they use their fame or resources to help the heroes.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Mr. Garrity and the Graves", a traveling conman came to a town with a violent past and through various cons convinced the people there that he can raise all of the dead on boot hill, while eventually tricking the entire townsfolk, who each had certain people in mind that they did not want to come back, to pay him to not raise anybody. While he was riding away with his partner in crime and laughing at the town for believing that he can actually do the things he claimed, the dead started coming out of their graves with one commenting that the peddler underestimates his own ability.

* In ''Series/Charmed1998,'' Phoebe is a witch who can get visions of the past or future. In one episode, she's a juror in the trial of a man accused of murdering his ex-wife, since he was able to lead police to her body--which he claims to have known through a magical vision. Phoebe, in an odd case of ArbitrarySkepticism, assumes this is malarkey until ''she'' has a vision of the actual murder, realizes the guy is innocent, and has to convince the other jurors that no, the suspect really is psychic.

Compare MagiciansAreWizards, or PhonyPsychic.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has [[OnlySaneMan Kyle]] figure out the identity of a SerialKiller through real detective work, but the idiot police won't believe him while Cartman is obviously faking psychic powers and they're hanging on his every word. So Kyle makes them listen by imitating Cartman, giving himself a semi-serious head injury and claiming to have developed psychic powers when he wakes up at the hospital, except the visions Kyle makes up point to the culprit he identified with the evidence he found earlier. He tries to end the episode with AnAesop that psychics are fake, but all the other {{Phony Psychic}}s leave him so frustrated that he screams at them -- [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just as the lights suddenly flicker and things fall off of shelves]]. After a {{Beat}} Kyle insists there must be a logical explanation for that, and the episode ends.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'' has a character who claims he used to have the gift, but lost it and let someone who knew future goings-on be his informant to keep up the charade. He later seemingly uses his talents to find the school's missing lobster mascot, focusing his powers whenever he reaches a potential crossroads. However, careful watching shows that most of his choices on where to go are in fact also common sense picks if thought about, such as the lobster being under the wet dock instead of the dry dock, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane calling to question whether it was precognition or just his subconscious picking up the details]].
* ComicBook/MadameXanadu appears in the opening scene of the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' Season 1 episode "Denial", where she's a fake psychic who gets exposed by [[ComicBook/DoctorFate Kent Nelson]], who adds that it's a shame she's not doing it for real because she's got "the perfect aura for the work". Since in Franchise/TheDCU, she's a powerful seeress and sorceress, he's presumably correct. She later appears in Season 4 as a real psychic.

A subtrope of FakeUltimateHero.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "Planet of the Spiders", the Doctor identifies a mentalist stage performer who has started to develop genuine ESP, yet represses it because he's afraid of going insane.
* On ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}},'' Phoebe is a witch who can get visions of the past or future. In one episode, she's a juror in the trial of a man accused of murdering his ex-wife, since he was able to lead police to her body--which he claims to have known through a magical vision. Phoebe, in an odd case of ArbitrarySkepticism, assumes this is malarkey until ''she'' has a vision of the actual murder, realizes the guy is innocent, and has to convince the other jurors that no, the suspect really is psychic.

-->I mean, if I could do what you do, I'd let the whole world know it...
-->{{Beat}}
-->Hell, I can't do what you do and I ''still'' let the whole world know it!

* ''Series/TheXFiles'', episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose": The Stupendous Yappi. Celebrity status? Check. Ripping people off? Check. Mulder and Scully meeting him at work? Check. Yappi is so over the top that even [[AgentMulder Mulder]] doesn't believe in his abilities. Other agents and detectives do, however, and they follow his super vague leads. What makes him fit this trope is that some of his visions actually bore similarities with Mr. Bruckman's statements, and he was [[{{Seers}} the real deal psychic]]. He also appears to pick up on an incredibly rude insult that Mulder is thinking very hard at him:

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Nobuko Saeki of ''Manga/ShugoChara'' is a famous TV show psychic. In the second volume of the manga, she states that she just made up some crap about guardian spirits and it became popular with people. However, she presumably doesn't fully believe it's all "nonsense", because she is able to see Guardian Characters (who are InvisibleToNormals).