Psychic Detectives
If you believe in them, I can help you locate a valuable lost object: your head, which you'll find if you bend over in front of a mirror and look up your ass. Benjamin Radford points out in the Skeptical Inquirer:
Psychic detectives have a long and glaring track record of utter failure in criminal cases; from Elizabeth Smart to Laci Peterson to Chandra Levy, Jimmy Hoffa, and countless others, psychic information has been worthless in leading police to missing persons....Following the success of Court TV’s series Psychic Detectives, the network launched a new “reality TV” program titled Haunting Evidence. California “psychic profiler” Carla Baron and two other investigators spend 24 hours revisiting real-life cold case murders in the expectation that their powers will succeed where police have failed.
Oddly, the team doesn’t tackle obvious missing persons cases known to many Americans, such as the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, or Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance. Perhaps those cases are too high-profile, and might cause the public to wonder why America’s top psychic detectives hadn’t solved those long ago.
In a recent episode, the group went to Athens, Georgia, to look into the unsolved 2001 murder of college student Tara Baker.
The investigators visited the Baker family, camera crew in tow, and asked them to relive their daughter’s life and death. The psychics then launched into very graphic, detailed descriptions of how they imagine Baker was murdered (based entirely on “feelings,” guesses, and conjecture). They later headed to Baker’s grave, though it’s unclear why, other than for dramatic effect. Ghost hunters usually claim that people’s ghosts remain not at the spot they were buried, but where they died (hence haunted houses, not haunted cemeteries). Apparently the group was unaware of this, but in the end it didn’t matter, since no information came of it.
Ghost informant
One psychic stated confidently that the police already have the DNA evidence they need to find Baker’s murderer (which makes one wonder why the group was needed in the first place). The investigators also claimed that Baker knew her killer well, and that they had communicated with Baker’s ghost. If Baker knew her killer well, she would presumably know his name, address, and telephone number—exactly the sort of information that would be useful to police.
If Baker’s ghost confirmed to the psychics that she knew her killer, why would it refuse to just tell them who it was? Predictably, both psychics’ powers dimmed on that subject, and instead they provided only the usual ambiguous information that may (or may not) turn out to be true if and when the killer is found.
The program concluded with the team giving their information to police and suggesting that they had helped solve the crime, when nothing of the sort happened. The murderer has not been caught and the crime remains unsolved.
Shocking, simply shocking.
But, on a related note, who here reads their horoscope? Hmmm, you don't believe in that crap, do you? Maybe, if you have been believing in it, now's a great time to stop.
Have you seen that new show Psych? It's about a detective who has such a knack for details and deductive reasoning that he's convinced the police he's a psychic. Kind of funny.
Jim Treacher at July 21, 2006 10:12 AM
> Maybe, if you have been believing in it,
> now's a great time to stop.
Yes. Also, don't be afraid to tell people that you think it's horseshit... Not that they're horsehit, but that this stuff has no predictive power. In recent centuries, the people best able to see the future have worked on Wall Street, and that's that. Wouldn't you? Casinos are for wimps. Real men buy stock.
Sagan got some mileage out of this at a DC (NY?) Press Club luncheon at which he spoke several years ago, when he was still alive. He asked the room full of editors: "How many of you publish a daily horoscope?" 90% of hands went up. "How many of you have even a weekly science column?" Zero. "At these lunches, you talk endlessly about the importance of integrity. But this stuff is a fraud, and we've known it's a fraud for centuries."
People want what they want. Twenty years ago, I let busty women in bars read my palm and shit. It never got me laid, but we all try to get along. Maybe they were reading other elements of character while spinning their bullshit 'perceptions'... Who knows? Lots of people who have no faith in supreme beings go to church.
Crid at July 21, 2006 11:20 PM
I haven't seen Psych yet...but I've seen promos. Looks funny.
And I do tell people that the horoscope is bullshit. I love that Sagan said it to the DC press club.
Amy Alkon at July 22, 2006 2:15 AM
And thanks for reminding me that I should post a whole entry on that. Just did.
Amy Alkon at July 22, 2006 2:42 AM
There is a really nasty aspect to this "psychic" nonsense: police can use this to bend a pliable judge towards probable cause!
Radwaste at July 22, 2006 11:34 AM
Rad,
I'm curious now. How so?
Kimberly at July 22, 2006 5:05 PM
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