SI DIGEST 2-27-98
SkeptInq (SkeptInq@aol.com)
Fri, 27 Feb 1998 13:59:39 EST
SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
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February 27, 1998
SI Electronic Digest is the weekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
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In this week's SI DIGEST:
-- SPECIAL REPORT: Psychic Hotlines Profit on Gullibility.
-- MEDIA ALERT: James Van Praagh's Best Selling Fantasy "Talking to Heaven."
-- Heaven's Gate Death Tally Reaches 41 with Follow-up Suicide.
-- Dutch Govt. Official Admits Belief in Gnomes, Dwarves and Elves.
SPECIAL REPORT: PSYCHIC HOTLINES PROFIT ON GULLIBILITY
Matt Nisbet
It appears the powers of thousands of alleged psychics failed to predict
misfortune and financial ruin at the nation's first psychic phone network. On
February 2, Inphomation Inc, the company that operates Psychic Friends Network
(PFN), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, based in
Baltimore, Maryland, listed liabilities of $26 million and assets of $1.2
million.
Launched in 1990, Inphomation pioneered the use of '900' phone lines,
spawning ubiquitous late night and Saturday afternoon infomercials. The
30-minute infomercials were hosted by singer Dionne Warwick, and were
supported by a network of 2000 psychics. Estimated revenue for the company in
the early 90's totaled close to $125 million, but in recent years competition
and mismanagement combined to put Inphomation into debt.
Despite the recent bankruptcy of PFN, the psychic network industry is
booming. Analysts predict the industry to rake in annual revenues from $1.4
billion to 2 billion by the end of the century, a dramatic increase from $620
million in 1994. Networks like Psychic Readers(PRN), Psychic Believers
Network(PBN) and Psychic Encounters charge upwards of $4.99 a minute,
potentially turning a 30-minute call into a $150.00 bill.
The rapid growth in psychic networks can be attributed to the merger of
traditional belief in psychic power with the explosion of the mass media. It
began in 1984, when the FCC deregulated the amount of broadcast time stations
could allocate advertisements. With the average American watching four hours
of television a day, entrepreneurs recognized a captive audience, and the
infomercial was born.
Gallup polls indicate that American's overall belief in the power of the mind
to predict the future has remained at about 26% since 1990. But with
television bringing celebrities into America's living rooms to tout the power
of psychics, network infomercials have made the impulse to act on credulous
belief just a seductive phone number away.
The marketing potential for psychic networks is almost unlimited. On most
networks, at the beginning of each call, psychics take the names and addresses
of callers to be added to mailing lists, and to be used as leads for a variety
of products. Along with hotline numbers and personal testimonials, psychic
network infomercials tout psychic accessories ranging from tarot cards to
fortune-telling eight balls. The World Wide Web is the next frontier for
psychic marketing, with
websites charging $25 and up for e-mail readings.
It may be a bull market for psychic network revenue, but there appears to be
a growing undercurrent of discontent. Callers are frequently frustrated by
per-minute charges that include time charged for network introductions and
delays caused by recorded profiles, menus of psychics, and signups for free
newspapers. Customers, enticed by promises of ten free minutes of calls, often
receive their bills with the application of the incentive a mystery.
The most troubling charges levied against the psychic networks are that they
market to minorities and individuals with lower levels of income. It seems
odd that networks prefer to use almost exclusively African-American
celebrities like Billy Dee Williams, Phillip Michael Thomas, Dionne Warwick,
LaToya Jackson, and Nell Carter as hosts. Masquerading as a phone psychic,
writer Stephen Glass published a first-hand account of his experience with a
psychic network in the February issue of Harper's Magazine. According to
Glass' tabulations, over 74% of his callers were African-Americans and close
to 85% said they were having money troubles.
In a twist of irony, the psychics who man the phone lines are starting to
rebel against the corporatization of their "ancient art." An August 1997
Miami Herald investigative report revealed that psychics' wages at PRN from
June '96 to May '97 fell from $19.20 an hour to $15.00 an hour. Stephen Glass
in his Harper's article wrote that some psychics were upset over the networks'
marketing to minorities and lower income individuals. Other psychics complain
that the networks are hiring "phony" psychics. As one self-proclaimed
mindreader told the Miami Herald "I feel they're hiring people just to get
money and the vast majority are not psychic at all and are making things up
just to keep people on the line. It gives us a bad name.
It makes me ashamed of what I have to do."
The psychic's complaint begs the question: is psychic ability real?
According to company policy, Psychic Readers Network will "to the best of its
ability hire only qualified psychics who have been tested and interviewed by
PRN, not 'chat' operators." However, contrary to whatever testing methods PRN
uses, numerous carefully designed and conducted tests by prominent scientists
have failed to validate psychic ability. In addition, attempts to use
psychics for practical purposes such as earthquake prediction, government
espionage and crime solving have all proved unsuccessful. With evidence
lacking in support of psychic ability, networks appear to be marketing a
service that does not exist.
Most infomercials skirt the issue of psychic validity with screen disclaimers
that announce "for entertainment purposes only." Unfortunately, most callers
are very serious about being told their future. Many psychics report that
callers beset by personal or financial problems are not interested in
information leading to counseling or professional services, but are
desperately seeking the outcome of their tarot card reading or horoscope
prediction. In 1993, PRN briefly ran a Professional Advisors Network with
psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists replacing psychics.
According to PRN, no one called, and the service was shut down.
Since primitive man, there has been a human willingness to believe in the
magical. The claim of psychic ability offers the reassuring and assuaging
hope of controlling our lives by anticipating the future. The temptation to
believe in the extraordinary exists in part because criticism and evidence
contrary to paranormal phenomena are seldom heard. In this, the media is
duplicitous. Across several investigative reports of psychic networks,
including a 1993 ABC Primetime Live feature and the 1997 Miami Herald
investigation, the media has ignored the question of the validity of psychic
power. Until the mass media confronts claims of psychic ability and
claims of the paranormal with scientific and critical evaluations, public
ignorance and credulousness will persist.
MEDIA ALERT: JAMES VAN PRAAGH'S "TALKING TO HEAVEN."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matthew Nisbet 716-636-1425
COUNCIL FOR MEDIA INTEGRITY ALERT: JAMES VAN PRAAGH'S
"TALKING TO HEAVEN"
Mental Medium's Fantasy Turns Into Non-Fiction Best-Seller
AMHERST, NY---Feb. 28 James Van Praagh is a self-described "mental medium."
He claims to mix psychic ability with the power to communicate with the
beyond. According to Van Praagh's website he is "able to interface between
the slower vibrations of the physical world and the much faster ones of the
spirit world."
Van Praagh records his "unique experiences of the last thirteen years" in his
first book, TALKING TO HEAVEN. The book fascinates credulous readers and has
achieved best- seller status, resting firmly in the top five on the major non-
fiction best-seller lists. "This book is another way to share my gift and the
message that our personalities do indeed survive death" says Van Praagh.
Attached to this release is a review of TALKING TO HEAVEN by CSICOP senior
research fellow Joe Nickell. He is investigative columnist for SKEPTICAL
INQUIRER magazine and the author of fifteen books including ENTITIES and
SECRETS OF THE SUPERNATURAL (Prometheus Books.) Permission is given to
reprint Nickell's review.
—30—
The Council for Media Integrity is a network of prominent scientists,
academics and
members of the media concerned with the balanced portrayal of science in the
media. It was launched at the 1996 World Skeptics Congress and is sponsored
by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
(CSICOP.) For more information, contact Matt Nisbet at 716-636-1425 or
SINISBET@aol.com.
________________________________________________________________
REVIEW: James Van Praagh's TALKING TO HEAVEN.
Joe Nickell
Enjoying current best-seller status — second place on the Wall Street
Journal’s booklist — James Van Praagh’s TALKING TO HEAVEN revives an old
claim. Van Praagh believes he and certain other “spiritualists” can
communicate with the dead. Unfortunately, the author neglects to mention that
the history of modern spiritualism has been a history of deception.
Indeed, its very founding in 1848 was a fraud. Spiritualism sprang to life in
upstate New York with the rappings and alleged spirit contacts of two teenage
girls known as the Fox sisters. Soon the young girls' performances captured
international attention, prompting similar claims by mediums across the world.
Only forty years later, with her sister Katie looking on, did Margaret Fox
publicly demonstrate the tricks the schoolgirls had used in pretending to
communicate with a ghost.
Despite a colorful history replete with hoaxes and trickery, Van Praagh
endorses the genuineness of such phenomena as spirit photography, “apports”
(magically appearing items), "ectoplasm" (a substance allegedly exuded from a
medium’s bodily orifices), and even
luminescent “materializations” of spirit entities. Alas, one must look
elsewhere to find evidence of the double-exposed pictures and other tricks,
the hiding places where apports were stashed until needed, the evidence that
ectoplasm’s “gauzelike” quality (as Van Praagh characterizes it) was due to
phony mediums using cheesecloth for the purpose, and the reports of those who
embraced the “spirits” and discovered them to be living persons in ghostly
guise.
The record of such trickery, if not the actual risk of exposure, has caused
many spiritualists to avoid physical phenomena. Despite his endorsement of
their authenticity, when it comes to his own practice, Van Praagh is strictly
a “mental medium,” one who uses “psychic ability” that includes alleged
clairvoyance (or inner sight) and clairsentience (extrasensory feelings).
Such an approach makes it difficult for an investigator to distinguish
between two possible types of deception: that involving the deliberate
hoodwinking of the sitter and that in which the medium and sitter essentially
fool themselves. Although many may believe in psychic ability and spirit
contact, scientific evidence fails to support such claims. Many mediums, Van
Praagh among them, exhibit traits that are associated with “fantasy
proneness.”
Psychologists know, for example, that the “voices” allegedly heard by mediums
are invariably their own internal thoughts, that they glean information —
innocently or shrewdly — by familiar means. These include reading body
language (to sense when one is factually on or off track), providing data in
question form (which may, if correct, be considered a “hit,” but otherwise
will seem an innocent query), and inviting the sitter to interpret the vague
statements offered. (Van Praagh often asks, “Do you understand this,” or “Do
you know what this means,” or similar questions, inviting the sitter to
provide the meaning. If the sitter does not
comprehend, the medium will try another tack.)
Van Praagh manages to cast discredited spiritualism in a new light: He
utilizes popular belief in every type of alleged ghostly activity (flickering
lights, dreams, ‘meaningful’ coincidences, and the like), not just séance
phenomena. He takes advantage of New Age popularity to include “chakras”
(purported “energy centers”), meditation, psychic phenomena, and so on, but
presenting everything in a religious rather than occult context. For example,
he equates the old mediumistic “spirit guides” (supposed go-betweens with the
“other world”) with “guardian angels,” thereby tapping into the currently
faddish interest in angels.
His major ploy is the book’s title, TALKING TO HEAVEN, which suggests that
spirits of the dead exist not in some ethereal dimension, as earlier
spiritualism implied, but in a traditional religious domain. Everyone, Van
Praagh would say, can talk to Heaven. But one is reminded of the exchange in
Shakespeare’s King Henry IV between Glendower and Hotspur. When the former
boasts, “I can call spirits from the vasty deep,” the other replies, “Why so
can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?”
HEAVEN'S GATE DEATH TOLL REACHES 41 WITH FOLLOW-UP SUICIDE
EHRENBURG, Ariz. Feb. 21---- The Associated Press reported that a former
Heaven's Gate cult member killed himself in a follow-up to the 39 cult members
who took their lives in San Diego last spring. Charles E. Humphrey's head was
wrapped in plastic with tubes running to a car's exhaust pipe and a tank
marked "carbon dioxide" when his body was found Tuesday of last week.
His body was found in a tent in the desert near the town of Ehrenburg. Next
to the body was a note that read "DO NOT REVIVE." Authorities had been
alerted by Humphrey's daughter who had been left a note that read " I'm
returning to my 'mothership,' and all that stuff we had with Heaven's Gate."
DUTCH OFFICIAL ADMITS BELIEF IN GNOMES, ELVES AND DWARVES
NETHERLANDS-- The February issue of Harper's magazine includes excerpts from
an interview with Dutch deputy director-general for the environment, Kees
Zoeteman.
In a tale reminiscent of Tolkien's Middle Earth, Zoeteman admits a belief in
elves, gnomes and dwarves. "There are countless beings around us that we
cannot see, but we can feel them" says Zoetman. "...It is good to call
attention to this side of reality. If you open yourself up to this world,
it's not crazy; it's enriching. We live in this technical world, in concrete
buildings where you have to focus your energy inward in order to endure. The
dimension of the supernatural has been lost."
Zoetman's comments are reprinted in Harper's magazine from a November 19,
1997 interview in the Dutch newspaper Het Patool.
--30--