The Science of Scams

Magician and sceptic, Derren Brown has recently taken part in an online project about the ways that apparently paranormal feats can be reproduced in believable looking ways. In each of the seven episodes of The Science of Scams, a different paranormal skill is demonstrated and then explained in terms of the scientific principals behind it. The topics discussed include ghost sightings, telekinesis and psychic readings among others. All the videos are well put together and are certainly worth watching.

The first video in the series is below:

Michael Jackson Late Interview

The naive belief I hold that humanity as generally decent has tripped me up again. I should have known Michael Jackson wouldn't even be in the ground before "psychic" scavengers would be all over him like some sort of disgusting, odious tumour.

James Van Praagh, one of the least competent or convincing "psychics" currently on the TV circuit, will go on Oprah soon to give the results of an interview he has conducted with Jackson posthumously.

Doctors and police needn't worry themselves about the details of Jackson's death, Van Praagh has already found the answers. When asked if foul play was involved, Jackson apparently told him, "I felt sick that day, very sick. My doctor Conrad told me to rest, but I had to practice moves for my upcoming concert. I was tired, very tired, then I collapsed".

Asked where he is now, Van Praagh was told, "I am surrounded by happiness. I never felt more happier."

Not to be left out, consistent barrel-scraper, Sylvia Brown is going on Montell Williams to talk about her recent conversations with Jackson's spirit. "He is doing well. Very well. He does not miss this physical world."

I hope I'm not the only person who finds this abhorrent and disgusting.

Why is it OK for these "psychics" to piss all over someone's memory by putting words into his dead mouth?

It shouldn't have surprised me that these people are speaking for Michael Jackson, because this is what they do all the time. This is how "psychics" make their living. People pay for them to rape the precious memories they have of their dearest loved-ones by tackily sticking on their own hastily conceived addenda.

When someone we love has gone, all we have left are our memories. The images that come to us when we think about them and the joy or wisdom or happiness they gave us is what lives on. These are what exist of them now. Memories of a loved one are their most important legacy. To the godless, it is the only way that they carry on past their mortal end.

Yet many people seem to think nothing of allowing certain self-appointed strangers the liberty to add to or subtract from those memories at will. Indeed they are glad for them to make up meretricious pleasantries to appease the applauding masses while holding no remorse for the genuinely special legacy they are shitting on.

James Van Praagh, Sylvia Brown, John Edwards, Derek Acorah, Colin Fry and the many others are, in my opinion, making their money in one of the most cynically dishonest and outright disgusting ways imaginable.

Kreed Kafer, please

So what has Derek Acorah been up to since his retirement from Most Haunted in the aftermath the Kreed Kafer incident? Well, it turns out he has a new self titled talking-to-the-dead show on one of the more obscure Sky channels.

It really is worth watching. For anyone who has only seen him shouting incoherently in dramatic night-vision and getting violent towards Yvette Fielding while "possessed", it will be a revelation to see him in a totally pink studio trying to work out why someone's pet rabbit is restless by talking over his shoulder to his invisible friend, Sam.

However, despite his woefully underwhelming cold reading and his hot reading, easily distinguishable by it's relative level of detail, the thing that really gets to me the most about his act is his merciless butchery of the English language.

The extent of this can not merely be described, so I have transcribed, word for word, an example from an episode that was on the other day. The following is said while addressing the owner of a pendant he is holding:

"Can I say to you, please, you would have knowledge of certain knowledge, but can I say to you, please, would I be correct, please, in my feelings of a person that would have been in - uh uh - connection with this at some time, would have come over to the world of spirit very fast?"

Did you get that?

Deal or No Deal's Psychic Test

The Australian version of Deal or No Deal has shown a special edition of the show where all the contestants are psychics (I don't know when it was aired, I just found it on Youtube).

It's a pretty brilliant idea to have psychics on this show. Contestants are asked to make definitely falisifiable predictions and those predictions are checked then and there to see whether they were right or not, so there's no room to make wooly predictions or wriggle out of misses.

The australian version of the show has an extra element that the British version lacks: every time a box is selected, the person holding that box is given the opportunity to guess what's in it, with a chance of winning $1000 if they're right. That means there are that many more falsifiable predictions to be tested.

There's a lot of padding on this show, but it's worth watching all the way through the above video and the other 4 parts on youtube to see how many of the predictions turn out to be true (spoiler: not very many).