quote:Originally posted by Chuckling Duck:
I'm sure there's a summary of the Larry King encounter on Randi's site too, if you want to see his perspective.
Randi's critique:
http://www.randi.org/jr/06-15-01.html
quote:On the 5th of this month, I was on the Larry King Live TV show, which is seen all over the world, and in repeats as well. The appearance brought me masses of e-mail responses, as I'd suspected it would. It involved yet another "psychic" who claims to speak to dead folks. Many who saw the show commented on the accuracy of her readings, and since the performance hadn't sounded all that great to me, I decided to look back at the video tape to see what had been so impressive.
Now, host Larry King did just what we might expect: he singled out the "hits" and ignored the misses that the "psychic" came up with. As we know, this is a guessing game, with names, initials, words, ideas, notions, all being mumbled and "tried on" for fit by the victims. And remember that those who called in to the program were chosen for on-air participation based on their "need" for a reading. Such people are very accepting , of course, and will follow the instructions of the "psychic" to hunt around for any connection they can find, when nothing seems to fit immediately.
The "psychic" on the Larry King show began each reading with a disclaimer, saying that she "had" a spirit in sight, but didn't know if it was the correct one. She pointed out that she might be hearing some other entity, perhaps one not even connected with the person inquiring. This way, any and all failures can be explained away, of course. This, and the requirement that the victim search for a connection, makes it impossible for the "psychic" to fail.
What we saw on the video met our expectations, not varying at all from the usual run of such "cold readings" with which we're very familiar. Adding up the guesses, noting the analysis, and one can see just how "accurate" this reading was. It's always a surprise.
Reader Steve Zinski, among many others, had very constructive and perceptive comments on the show and my participation in it. I will leave it to this independent observer to show you how well an amateur analyst can see through the methods:
I saw you on Larry King Live last night . . . and I must say that I believe the "psychic" had the upper hand. She seemed very likeable and it didn't help much when her first two readings were "hits." You did very well too, but I think you needed to more specifically address certain points of her "reading." Let me explain.
She "read" a woman's mother by saying that she died of cancer, then made some statements about a new renovated house. You correctly pointed out that lots of people die of cancer. Also, you correctly pointed out that lots of people buy new houses. But you failed to point out that the psychic was reading her dead mother and not her brother, who is the one who recently bought the new house. Why would a dead mother talk about the woman's living brother's new house? Again, it's like you said: they make the situation fit.
And I'd like to point out something about the "ask a relative" trick. When a psychic says that they must be right and to consult a relative about the reading, think about this. It works like a pyramid scheme or chain letter. The subject asks mother and father about a girl who got killed on a bicycle by a car. So now there's two possible chances they'll know of someone who matches this scenario. Then mother/father ask their brothers/sisters/mothers/fathers, etc., and now there are even more people looking for a fit. Then they ask their friends/relatives, etc., and the odds grow exponentially until someone makes the vague story fit. And then it's considered a "hit." You need to point this out to people.
I really enjoyed seeing you on the show. I only wish you hadn't let the "psychic" get the upper hand. She even had Larry on her side by the end of the show, or at least that's what she was trying to make the audience think.
Okay, Steve. Part of my problem was that I was distant from the site of the broadcast. I had a very bad audio connection, which eventually broke down completely, and I had no data about what happened during the commercial breaks. From previous experience of this show, I can tell you that the "psychic" was able to listen in on the phone calls coming in, and was likely given a choice of accepting or rejecting which ones would be used. That has been my experience of the show, when I've been in the studio. The psychic had previously "read" for Larry King — a fact unknown to me — and he had declared that he was convinced she'd contacted his dead mother. Unarguably, that has to somewhat bias him in favor of her powers. Furthermore, it is just not possible to educate the viewing audience on statistics, or on what is needed for a proper examination of a claim. In the time provided, that is. Note that this psychic not only would not answer my question on what she could do, and with what accuracy, but she also refused to be tested. Friend of Sylvia Browne, perhaps?
In more detail, in this reading, the psychic guessed at: grandmother, or connected with someone in the studio, a lady (not described in any way), died of cancer, very sick before she died, a hospital, her end was "sort of quick, it was a blessing when it happened, talk about a house, a new house, a move, renovations to part of the house, something about the roof, a roof collapsing. 14 guesses.
The response: cancer: yes. The caller, not the psychic, identified this as her mother. When this data is added to the observations made by Steve, above, is this reading now taking on a different complexion? But when Larry asked the caller, "Everything she said was on the mark?" the caller answered, "Yes"!
FACTS: the woman was not grandmother, was not connected with anyone in the studio, was never identified by the psychic, and thus could have been the mother, daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother, friend, neighbor, etc., and any of those would have been acceptable. She died of cancer, one of the two most common causes of death in this country. The type of cancer was not specified, and "hospital," "very sick," "blessing," must apply, and were applied, once the psychic found out (not from the spirit world, but from the caller) what the relationship was. Not one detail was given about the appearance of the spirit, who the psychic said was standing there, plainly visible to her. The "talk about a house" had nothing to do with this person, and could have been anyone's house, past, present, or future. There was no roof problem, and nothing collapsed — but had that been a "hit," you can depend on it that much would have been made of it. This is the sort of high-risk guess that is occasionally thrown in, on the chance that it might succeed.
Later, the psychic referred to someone wearing "a uniform." Wow! Think for a moment: that could be army, navy, air force, marines, postal worker, Sear's delivery person, hospital worker, sanitation person, police officer, fireman, taxi or limo or bus driver, restaurant employee, airline employee, you name your own. At some point in time, almost everyone has a relative who was in uniform. The psychic smoothly changed a guess about a beret into a cowboy hat, and her last reading was a complete flop, and not extolled by King or by anyone else. In that one, there were guesses about a teenage girl who died in a bike accident, then when that brought no reaction, the direction changed toward a "plump" lady. Still no hits. When asked by King for verification, the caller actually said, "No, I cannot find anything." Asked if a guess about a mother dying of a heart problem was correct, the caller said simply, "No." Concerning the total failure of the dramatic guesses about a teenage girl killed in a bike accident, the psychic launched into a fervent appeal to the caller:
What I would... what I would say to this lady, and I know this, I know it's happened on this show, you know, we tell people something, and, and I would say to you, please go home and check with your family about this young girl, because somehow she's connecting to you, and sees you as a connection to someone in your family.
I received several inquiries about how the psychic came up with a reference to "two rosebushes." I don’t find that remarkable, at all. That caller had said her father was planting a rosebush when he died, and the psychic suggested that there were two. The caller agreed there actually were two plantings, one on a former occasion, but never mentioned if there were more than two. Where's the psychic revelation here? Mind you, if the caller had denied there were two, the psychic has the perfect "out" by saying that she's speaking of another occasion, another planting. And the caller, of course, would grant her that guess.
If you have a videotape of this show, and you believe that this psychic was even moderately successful in her guessing game, go back to it and see what others have seen. I rest my case.
Now here's the transcript of the entire event:
http://www6.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0106/05/lkl.00.html
Read it, make up your mind, post your opinion here. |
