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Apart from media work what do you do
I have managed to test various psychics (a couple of mediums, a mystic and someone who professed to dream the future) and once they were subjected to properly controlled conditions their abilities faded into nothing. Randi asked me to look at a claim from someone who said he was being visited by an alien intelligence in his backyard. The aliens were coveniently invisible and only contacted him by telepathy. The claimant sent me a film of the aliens he had managed to capture unsing an infra red camera. Rather less happily they turned out to be insects flying close to the camera lens. I also give lectures on thinking critically about paranormal claims.
Have you ever experienced anything you couldnt explain
I confess I am at a loss to explain the success of Living TV's 'Most Haunted Live'. I've never seen such unremitting drivel. However not in the sense often implied by terms such as "the unexplained". There are plenty of things claimed by people that are difficult to conclusively explain but this is often due to the lack of available facts. A fairly mundane event seems to become miraculous in the eyes of many witnesses.
What sort of things are you sceptical about
This is a long list but my main interest is in psychic claims such as those given by mediums. In this respect I have given such readings myself using basic trickery and have successfully passed myself off as psychic. This has never been done except as part of media experiments and not as a deliberate attempt to dupe or defraud people.
I can bend metal, read minds, perform psychic surgery and various other doubtful feats all by deception. As far as I can tell so-called psychic ability looks no different to conjuring.Here are some of the other things about which I have serious doubts;
Alternative medicines and other unlikely forms of healing (esp. homeopathy),
Astrology,
Bending metal with the mind,
Dowsing,
Ghosts,
Hypnosis (depending on your definition),
Miracles,
Reincarnation,
Talking to the dead,
Tarot and other psychic readings,
Telekinsesis (moving things with the mind),
Telepathy (including remote viewing),
UFOs.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but you get the idea. If anyone can prove any of the above I suggest they apply for the $1 Million Challenge on offer by The James Randi Educational Foundation in Florida, USA. The challenge is for anyone who can demonstrate psychic/supernatural ability under proper observing conditions. This challenge is extremely fair but rather than actually accept the challenge most psychics prefer to attack it as unreasonable.
I am also willing to look at anyone who can make some testable psychic claim. See here.
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