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Allegations Against 'Psychic' Sally Generate SI Jan Feb 2012 NEW_SI new design masters 11/14/11 12:12 PM Page 5 [ NEWS AND COMMENT Allegations against ‘Psychic’ Sally Generate Storm of Bad Publicity for British Psychics CHRISTOPHER C. FRENCH Ironically, British psychics didn’t see it coming. They have recently been on the receiving end of a veritable storm of negative publicity following allegations that Sally Morgan, who describes her- self on her website as “Britain’s best- loved psychic,” may have been caught using a fraudulent technique to con- vince her audiences of her mediumistic ability. The allegations began September 12, 2011, when a caller named Sue phoned into the Liveline show on RTÉ Radio 1, an Irish radio station. Sue reported that the previous evening she had been to see Morgan in action at the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin. She had been seated at the back of the theater on the fourth floor and had initially been im- pressed by the psychic’s performance. However, as the second half of the show started, Sue became aware of a man’s voice coming from an open window just behind her, from a small room (“like a projection room”). She realized that m o c whatever the male voice said, Morgan s w e N / repeated on stage about ten seconds t o h s later. An usher at the theater realized o t o h P what was happening and quietly closed / I F L / the window. The voice was not heard e n i a w again. Other callers supported Sue’s ac- S f o e count (visit http://bit.ly/qDlcuJ to listen G to the radio show). Sue believed that the mystery voice plying Morgan with information. Sally month. Following his exposure, Popoff was feeding information to Morgan via Morgan Enterprises also denied that went bankrupt in 1987—but he is now a hidden earpiece attached to her mi- the medium was being fed information back, earning even more than he was in crophone headset. She further specu- during the show. the 1980s. lated that this information may well Most readers of this magazine will The allegations relating to Sally Mor- have been gathered from audience immediately spot the similarity be tween gan initially received very little coverage. members by accomplices of Morgan en- these allegations and the case of Peter The Irish Independent ran the story on gaging people in conversation as they Popoff, the fraudulent faith healer ex- September 13 (see http://bit.ly/mPoi5x), queued up before the show began. posed by James Randi back in 1986. but it looked like that would be the only Given that this is a standard technique Popoff claimed that he was receiving in- coverage the story would get and most of used by fraudulent mediums, this is not formation about members of his audi- Morgan’s fans would probably never even an unreasonable speculation. ence directly from God. In fact, his wife hear about the allegations. I thought that The theater’s general manager was relaying the information to him via the story merited wider exposure, so I claimed that the voice heard by Sue and his “hearing aid.” At the time, Popoff contacted Ian Sample of the Guardian to other audience members belonged to was fleecing his poor, sick followers to see if he would like me to write the story two theater employees and was not sup- the tune of around $4 million per for the Guardian’s online science pages. Skeptical Inquirer | January / February 2 012 5 SI Jan Feb 2012 NEW_SI new design masters 11/14/11 12:12 PM Page 6 Ini tially, he wasn’t keen on the grounds none other than Uri Geller to put his tion that the announcement was in- that he didn’t want to give free publicity powers to the test in our laboratory in tended as a scare tactic to try to stem to psychics. I persuaded Ian by pointing order to win Randi’s Million Dollar Prize the outpouring of bad publicity that has out that I thought it was a good idea to (http://bbc.in/npV4MB). Uri’s response? been directed against British psychics in give psychics as much bad publicity as we (Sit down, dear reader—this may come general and Morgan herself in particu- could. My article, posted on September as a shock!) He refused. lar. If that was the intention, the tactic 20, 2011, generated more comments than appears to have failed. For example, any other piece I’ve written for the it was subsequently reported that a Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk/science/ video on Morgan’s own website clearly 2011/sep/20/psychic-sally-morgan- shows her removing an earpiece as she hears-voices). comes off stage after one of her shows I do not have psychic powers, so I Most readers of (http://bit.ly/qXAke6). make no apology for not foreseeing this magazine will Simon Singh has published a piece what would happen next. I tweeted immediately spot the about my article and a few dozen people in the Guardian explicitly inviting Mor- retweeted it. Others also tweeted about similarity be tween these gan to resolve the controversy by prov- it, including Simon Singh, Richard allegations and the case ing her claims of psychic ability under Wiseman, and James Randi. The media of Peter Popoff, properly controlled conditions (see http://bit.ly/nUENUg). He is collabo- picked up on the story and within four the fraudulent faith days several British newspapers had rating with Merseyside Skeptics (www. already run articles strongly critical of healer exposed by James merseysideskeptics.org.uk) and my own psychics in general and Sally Morgan Randi back in 1986. Anomalistic Psychology Re search Unit in particular, including the Telegraph (www.gold.ac.uk/apru) to design a suit- (http://tgr.ph/opcWIg), Ex press (http:// able test of Morgan’s claims. Alterna- bit.ly/rpVUyc), and the Daily Mail tively, Morgan can work with us to de- (http://bit.ly/reTW3s). There is a cer- vise a suitably well-controlled protocol tain irony here, as such newspapers that suits her. So far, she has not replied often run stories that are little more On Friday, October 7, 2011, it was to our invitation. You don’t need psychic than gushing endorsements for the lat- announced that Sally Morgan had in- powers to foresee that the negative pub- est psychic superstar. structed Atkins Thomson, a London licity for “possibly-not-so-psychic Sally” There has also been a great deal of dis- law firm experienced in matters of will continue for quite a while! n cussion regarding this case and fraudulent media law, to “commence libel action in psychics in general on local and national relation [to] various articles in the Christopher C. French is the head of the Anom- radio. I have personally done several in- press.” As of the time of this writing alistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths terviews on the topic, as has science (October 23, 2011), it remains unclear College, University of London. He is a fellow of writer Simon Singh. I think my favorite against whom any such action would be the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and editor moment was listening to Singh challenge directed. Indeed, there is some specula- of The Skeptic (United Kingdom). First Case of Spontaneous Human Combustion? JOE NICKELL As reported by BBC News Online (Sep tember 23, 2011), an Irish coroner has officially declared a seventy-six-year-old man to have died of “spontaneous combustion.” The body of Michael Faherty of Ballybane, Galway, Ireland, was discovered severely destroyed on Decem ber 22, 2010. Faherty’s remains were found lying “with his head closest to an open fire- place”—yet, without ex plaining themselves, firefighters con- cluded that that obvious source of ignition was not involved. Galway coroner Ciaran McLough lin then concluded, apparently using the process of elimination, that the death must have been caused by spontaneous human combustion (SHC) “for which,” he says, “there is no adequate explanation.” In fact, the coroner’s ar- 6 Volume 36 Issue 1 | Skeptical Inquirer SI Jan Feb 2012 NEW_SI new design masters 11/14/11 12:12 PM Page 7 [ NEWS AND COMMENT Russians Confirm Existence of Yeti—But for How Long? Benjamin Radford Russian researchers participating in a and news reporters suggested that a Yeti conference looking for the Yeti—the had finally been captured alive, though Asian version of the North American the proclamation turned out to be pre- Bigfoot—claimed to have found “in - mature: embarrassed officials eventually disputable proof ” of the long-sought admitted it was nothing more than a mystery beast in October. The Yeti is said mangy civet—a small, cat-like animal to be muscular and covered with dark native to the region. grayish or reddish-brown hair and is be- So what is this new, indisputable lieved to weigh between 200 and 400 proof? Apparently some gray hairs found pounds. The Yeti is supposedly relatively in a clump of moss in a Russian cave. Ac- short compared to Bigfoot’s ten to twelve cording to a spokesman for the Ke- feet, averaging only about six or seven feet merovo region in western Siberia, “Dur- m o in height. Despite dozens of expeditions ing the expedition to the Azas skaya cave, c s w e N into the remote mountain regions of conference participants gathered indis- / A P E / Russia, China, and Nepal, the Yeti’s exis- putable proof that the Shoria mountains A H T S tence remains unproven.
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