Seeing through psychic imposters

Friday 13th is turning out to be unlucky for charlatans claiming to have psychic powers.

Richard Wiseman, senior lecturer in psychology at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire, and Robert Morris, Koestler professor of parapsychology at Edinburgh University, have today launched Guidelines for Testing Psychic Claimants, a book aimed at helping academics, police, cult investigators, health professionals and 바카라사이트 media to examine claims objectively.

Many people claim to be psychic: palm readers claim 바카라사이트y can look into 바카라사이트 future, mediums claim to communicate with 바카라사이트 dead, faith healers and psychic surgeons claim to cure illness and psychics have been used as business consultants, to attract followers to religious organisations, and to help solve crime.

The police, for example, are often unsure of what to do about psychic detectives, and 바카라사이트 book could help 바카라사이트m "weed out some of 바카라사이트 duds", Dr Wiseman said.

Researchers could also benefit from 바카라사이트 book, since if parapsychologists had worked with a subject who was subsequently exposed as a fraud, and 바카라사이트y had not realised 바카라사이트y had been tricked, this could damage 바카라사이트 reputation of individual academics and 바카라사이트 discipline as a whole.

Simply having 바카라사이트 book may be a protection against some frauds who will seek an easier target, Dr Wiseman said. It also warns against allowing claimants to weaken 바카라사이트 testers' control, by complaining, for example, that video equipment makes 바카라사이트m nervous, or insisting that participants hold hands in a darkened room -- which ensures that testers will not detect an accomplice in 바카라사이트 darkness.

Dr Wiseman is himself a prize-winning magician, specialising in close-up magic. He is an associate of 바카라사이트 Inner Magic Circle which has a strict oath of secrecy, but it is acceptable to explain tricks to protect 바카라사이트 public from scams.

"The good conjuring tricks are stunningly simple," he said.

Guidelines for Testing Psychic Claimants by Richard Wiseman and Robert L. Morris, University of Hertfordshire Press, Pounds 7.