How not to test mediums : critiquing The Afterlife Experiments - 1

When I was a sophomore, majoring in journalism, a well-known mentalist and trusted friend persuaded me to try an experiment in which I would deliberately read a client's hand opposite to what the signs in her hand indicated. I was shocked to discover that this client insisted that this was the most accurate reading she had ever experienced. As a result, I carried out more experiments with the same outcome. It dawned on me that something important was going on. Whatever it was, it had nothing to do with the lines in the hand. I changed my major from journalism to psychology so that I could learn why not only other people, but also I, could be so badly led astray. My subsequent career has focused on the reasons why cold readings can appear to be so compelling and seemingly specific.

Psychologists have uncovered a number of factors that can make an ambiguous reading seem highly specific, unique, and uncannily accurate. And once the observer or client has been struck with the apparent accuracy of the reading, it becomes virtually impossible to dislodge the belief in the uniqueness and specificity of the reading. Research from many areas demonstrates this finding. The principles go under such names as the fallacy of personal validation, subjective validation, confirmation bias, belief perseverance, the illusion of invulnerability, compliance, demand characteristics, false uniqueness effect, foot-in-the-door phenomenon, illusory correlation, integrative agreements, self- reference effect, the principle of individuation, and many, many others. Much of this is facilitated by the illusion of specificity that surrounds language. All language is inherently ambiguous and depends much more than we realize upon the context and nonlinguistic cues to fix its meaning in a given situation.

Again and again, Schwartz argues that the readings given by his star mediums differ greatly from cold readings. He provides samples of readings throughout the book. Although these samples were obviously selected because, in his opinion, they represent mediumship at its best, every one of them strikes me as no different in kind from those of any run-of-the-mill psychic reader and as completely consistent with cold readings. In August 2001, Schwartz assembled a panel of seven experts on cold reading, including me, to instruct him on the topic. We were shown videotapes of Suzane Northrup and John Edward giving readings in his laboratory. Most members of the panel were openly sympathetic to Schwartz's goals and program. Yet we all agreed that what we saw Northrup and Edward doing was no different from what we would expect from any cold reader.

I am sure that Professor Schwartz will strongly disagree with my observation that the readings he presents as strong evidence for his case very much resemble the sorts of readings we would expect from psychic readers in general and cold readers in particular.

This disagreement between us, however, relies on subjective assessment. That is why we have widely accepted scientific methods to setde the issue. That is why it is important, especially for the sort of revolutionary claims that Schwartz wants to make, that it be backed up by competent scientific evidence. Throughout his 2002 book The Afterlife Experiments, Schwartz implies that he has already provided such evidence.