Located in Downtown San Jose, California, this incredible Gothic Victorian mansion is an oddity, surrounded by freeways, fast food outlets, and the high rises of Silicon Valley. In the bygone days, when Santa Clara County was known for its orchards, the eccentric Winchester Rifle heiress, Sarah Winchester, designed and built this legendary house. This is another of the “Most Haunted Houses in America,” but this isn’t so much a paranormal story as one about a woman whose life was reputedly ruled and ruined by belief in the paranormal.

Sarah Lockwood Pardee was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1839. In 1862, during the height of the American Civil War, Sarah married William Winchester, the sole child of Oliver Winchester, owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The couple only had one child, Annie, who died in infancy of tuberculosis. Oliver died in 1880 and was quickly followed by William, who died in 1881. Her husband, like her child, died of tuberculosis and Sarah became a major benefactor to pulmonary research, donating $2 million during her lifetime to this cause. As the last Winchester, Sarah became an independently wealthy woman. Her husband bequeathed to her fifty percent of the Winchester Company and the substantial income of $1,000 per day, tax free as it was then.

Sarah slipped into a deep depression following the deaths of her family members. But do the facts end here? Sarah, now alone and vulnerable, was reputedly convinced her family members were victims of a curse. Allegedly, she travelled to Boston to consult with psychic medium Adam Coons (also reported as “Coombs”), who confirmed the wealthy widow’s fears that the Winchester family was cursed. He explained that the spirits of those people and animals who had died at the hands of a Winchester rifle, “the gun that won the West,” were avenging their deaths by claiming the lives of her husband, child, and father-in-law. Sarah was next.

Coons had a peculiar solution. The only way Sarah could appease the spirits was to build them a house in which they could live. Others claim she was told to build a house to confuse the spirits. He advised that his client move west and build this home. As long as the house was being built, the spirits would not harm Sarah. Utterly convinced by Coons and desperate to remove this “curse,” Sarah relocated to San Jose and purchased an eight-room farmhouse. Coons’s cruel counsel commenced Sarah’s mission to create a house that became a constant thirty-eight-year work in progress leading to an astonishing labyrinthian mansion. On what was once a hundred-sixty-acre estate, the contemporary building boasts some staggering statistics: one-hundred-sixty rooms and four stories (in its prime the house had seven stories), with six kitchens, forty bedrooms, nineteen chimneys, forty staircases, forty-seven fireplaces, fifty-two skylights, nine-hundred-fifty doors, three elevators, two ballrooms, and ten thousand windows!

It’s said that Sarah had builders working twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, over the four decades of construction. In total, the mansion was remodelled over six hundred times at a cost of five and a half million dollars. However, there were only ever two sets of formal blueprints, for the elevators and the boiler. All other plans were sketched onto scraps of paper, napkins, or even tablecloths and were destroyed upon implementation. The construction began in 1884 and ended on the day of Sarah’s death on the fifth of September, 1922. Apparently, Sarah’s goal was to never complete the remodelling, lest the spirits exact their revenge upon the last living Winchester.

I attended the complete Estate Tour of the house, including a guided tour of the mansion and the estate grounds. Sadly, none of the original furnishings adorn what must have once been an opulently decorated home. Upon Sarah’s death, her sole relative, niece Frances Marriot, auctioned off most of the furnishings. The tour guide informed us that it took eight weeks to remove all of the furniture from the premises, at six truckloads per day! Only twenty-four of the rooms are now furnished sparsely with donations, all genuine period furniture but not the original household décor. Aside from the fireplaces, elevators, a chandelier, an organ, and some original marble and tiling, all that remains now is the house.

One of the first rooms we visited was the “Séance Room,” built deep inside the house. The room has three exits but only one entrance. One door leads to a sink while another door opens to a ten-foot drop to the kitchen! According to our guide, this is where Sarah held nightly séances between the hours of midnight and 2 AM. At midnight the bells in the bell tower would ring to summon the spirits to the séance. When the séance was completed, the bells would toll to signal that it was time for the spirits to depart. Conflicting stories state that Sarah’s construction efforts were guided by the spirit of her husband, while the guide asserted that Sarah’s séances were an attempt to contact the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles, to seek their advice and instructions on how the following day’s construction should proceed. Of course, this runs contrary to the claim that she wanted to conceal her plans from the spirits.

If we believe the stories, when Sarah began her quest to placate the “spirits,” her life became inextricably bound to the paranormal, with superstition and fear influencing every part of her life. Sarah Winchester was, by all accounts, an educated woman of her time. She had attended school, was fluent in four languages, and was an accomplished musician. So why did she succumb to the occult? Why did she believe Coons’s superstitious theory and illogical solution, and to such an obsessive extent? It appears that Sarah suffered a powerful combination of grief, a natural predisposition to depression, and considerable guilt at her family’s bloodthirsty trade and subsequent affluence. Apparently, Sarah often referred to her family’s wealth as “blood money” derived from misfortune. Furthermore, this was still the zenith of Spiritualism. Perhaps these factors led to Sarah’s superstitions, her substantial wealth allowing for the indulgence of her eccentricity.

The Winchester mansion has many peculiar and redundant features. This is a house that could have been the brainchild of M.C. Escher. The house itself looks like an elaborate, colourful Victorian mansion, albeit with many add-ons; turrets, cupolas, and cornices. We started the tour in the stagecoach entrance and as we entered the house itself, we were directed to peer around a corner at a stairwell. This infamous stairwell leads straight to the ceiling!

This house is as eccentric as its owner and designer. The legend asserts that Sarah built the maze-like mansion to confuse and disorient any lurking spirits. However, the design truly succeeded in confusing her staff given the large and complicated nature of the premises coupled with the fact that Sarah didn’t ever want anyone to know her exact whereabouts—servants were summoned to a wing rather than a room. The house is a web of corridors, stairwells, and rooms within rooms within rooms. There are many doors high enough to only accommodate Sarah’s diminutive four-foot-ten-inch frame. There is a tiny, superfluous balcony. One room has a window built into the floor. Countless closets, doors, and windows open out onto blank walls. A “door to nowhere” opens outward to an eight-foot drop! A blind chimney stops short of the ceiling. There are numerous trapdoors and double-back hallways. There are security bars on internal windows. There is a “Room of Fires,” a sauna-like room with seven sources of heat, built to “ease Mrs. Winchester’s arthritis.” Most rooms have strange, awkwardly shaped alcoves of varying height and depth that aren’t large enough to house anything at all.

All of the bathrooms have glass doors and spy holes, while the kitchen was designed so that Sarah could overhear the gossip of her staff. Apparently, if anyone ever proposed building plans, or discussed her plans or her, they were fired on the spot. For their loyalty and silence, her staff was paid $3 per day, triple the standard rate of the time. Throughout the house, curious, winding stairwells climb only a few feet and are raised only two inches high. While the tour guide initially explained this as another architectural attempt to “confuse the spirits,” the alternate theory was far more skeptical and realistic: that Sarah designed these “easy riser” stairwells with her chronic arthritis in mind.

During the 1906 earthquake, in the early hours of the morning, Sarah became trapped in a room in the front section of the house. The walls shifted and the door became jammed shut. She had been in the habit of sleeping in a different room each night, purportedly to “confuse” the spirits as to her whereabouts. Again, this only confused her staff when they couldn’t find her. Eventually, after a full hour of searching, she was located. The marks still exist on the door where a crowbar was employed to wedge it open.

The earthquake damage to the house was extensive. The entire top three floors collapsed into the garden and were never rebuilt. We were told that the incident convinced Sarah that the “spirits” were displeased with the progression of her handiwork as it appeared that she was nearing completion of the home. She promptly sealed off the front section of the house, thirty rooms in total, and they were never again used during her lifetime. Supposedly this was to ensure that the house was perpetually “under construction.” To this day they remain as they were, partially remodelled and with broken plaster and damaged walls as evidence of the quake. This episode also persuaded Sarah to select a permanent bedroom (with easy access to her séance room) and it was here that she died in her sleep at the age of eighty-three.

Today, the Winchester Mystery House is regarded as the safest house in California as far as earthquakes are concerned, as the mansion is built on floating foundations. This is a feature implemented by Sarah’s builders and not of her own design. Sarah’s builders were ahead of their time for environmental design—an upstairs green house was designed to conserve water. This feature was also built into her kitchens and bathrooms. The house has many modern conveniences that were seldom found at the time of its construction, including steam and forced-air heating, indoor toilets and plumbing, button controlled gas lights, a hot water shower, and the three elevators, one model of which is unique to the house. Sarah had yet another strange feature built into her home. A Victorian superstition of the time dictated that one column in every home must be installed upside down for good luck. As usual, Sarah took this notion to the extreme. She reversed the tradition and had every column placed upside down, bar one!

Despite her many guest rooms, parlors, and ballrooms, obviously named for convention, Sarah never had any guests, aside from one famous gentleman who never made it past the front door. One day, U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt made an unannounced visit to the Winchester home. A particular rifle had been named after him, a limited-edition commemorative weapon. When Roosevelt appeared on the doorstep of the home, the staff member who greeted him, obviously unaccustomed to visitors, reprimanded the startled president for daring to try to enter through the front door. Obviously mistaken for a disruptive job applicant, Roosevelt was advised, “You’ll enter the house through the back entrance, like the rest of the servants!” Roosevelt was so highly offended that he left the grounds and never returned. In a more likely but less dramatic account, Roosevelt had requested a visit with Sarah but he was flatly refused. Another account claims that Harry Houdini once made an impromptu visit to the house. Houdini was graciously welcomed and even attended a midnight séance. However, the tour guide confirmed that this event took place in 1924, two years after Sarah’s death.

If we believe the stories, Sarah must have led a lonely and tortured life. Despite her painfully arthritic hands, she would often play the ballroom organ with great energy, “for the spirit guests.” Every night, the lady of the house would sit down to a lavish dinner alone—or so it would seem. The elaborately decorated table was always set for thirteen: Sarah, and her twelve spirit guests. Sarah was no Friggatriskaidekaphobe; she had an obsession with the number thirteen that was reflected throughout the house. This is a reoccurring theme, from the thirteen windows in most rooms to the thirteen steps for each stairwell and the thirteen drains in every sink. In the séance room, there are thirteen clothes hooks for the thirteen coats she supposedly used in her nightly ceremonies. Sarah was a preferred customer of the Tiffany Company in New York and the house still contains many fine examples of leadlight windows. The most prized example contains hundreds of crystals and cost $15,000. She was once invited to design her own leadlight window and created a piece that is a swirl of colours and stars (thirteen stars, of course).

One of the last rooms we visited was the ballroom, an elegant room that cost $9,000 to build. A door in the centre of the room was locked at all times during Sarah’s lifetime and only she had the key. Upon her death, her staff eagerly seized the keys and unlocked the door. Inside, they found a vault. Inside, they found another vault, and yet another within that. After unlocking a total of five vaults, they came to the treasure: not money or jewellery, as they had expected, but a lock of her husband’s hair, a lock of her daughter’s hair, and their obituaries. If Sarah was truly superstitious, perhaps she so carefully stored these precious keepsakes to hide them from those who would use them against her in a spell or a curse.

San Jose wasn’t always known as Silicon Valley. The region was previously known as the “Valley of the Heart’s Delight” as it was renowned for the Winchester orchards and local farms. The 160-acre Winchester estate was mostly farmland where plums, apricots, almonds, and walnuts were grown, dried, and sold at markets under Sarah Winchester’s own packing label. Only a few trees still exist on the grounds. The estate also contains a Firearms museum. But the Winchester Company didn’t only produce guns; they made silverware, flashlights, fishing tackle, roller skates, and electric irons. They were also the country’s largest producer of hardware, including farm and garden tools.

But are there any ghost stories surrounding the Winchester Mystery House? It must be noted that the tours are marketed as historical rather than ghost tours. I questioned the guide and while she didn’t have any personal experiences, she had heard stories from visitors. As always, these are stock ghost stories: footsteps down the halls, cold spots, orbs captured in photographs, the sound of doorknobs turning and doors banging, and sightings of Sarah. Various books and websites repeat these same stories about the mansion, including other tales of phantom organ playing, disembodied voices and screams, strange lights, strange smells, and even sightings of ectoplasm! Of course, various psychics have toured the house and capitalized on its reputation, including Sylvia Browne, who confirmed the “curse” and reported she witnessed the spirits of Sarah and fallen soldiers from the Civil War. Most surprising of all, there aren’t any reports of phantom hammering and construction. These people just don’t know how to invent a plausible ghost story! It seems that the stories come from the visitors, not the staff.

We should be skeptical about the stories surrounding the Winchester Mystery House. There are no primary documents attesting to the stories; in fact, they are all anecdotal and usually conflicting. Sarah was extremely reclusive and didn’t leave behind any diaries or letters revealing her beliefs. Books about the house and owner all provide second-hand information; one popular book was written by the grandson of a former gardener. The stories have likely been embellished over time. After all, Sarah was the subject of much gossip and rumour during her lifetime and beyond.

Did Sarah really visit a psychic? Even if she did, what took place during the sitting? Did she receive other advice that influenced her actions? She probably wasn’t instructed to move west; she had relatives in California and thus a reason to move. But what motivated her to build the house? Was she profoundly superstitious, or was this all-consuming project a hobby for the eccentric Sarah—a distraction from her loneliness and sorrow? The woman behind the Winchester Mystery House really is a mystery.

But the house’s strange design features are artifacts of previous renovations and designed for special needs. The winding double-back steps were designed with a pragmatic purpose—Sarah’s mobility. The barred windows in internal rooms were once external and the bars served a valid security purpose. The chimney that stops short of the ceiling is located where a roof once stood. The windows in floors were once skylights in roofs, and the doors that open onto walls are simply examples of rooms added on to other rooms.

It is said that when Sarah died the news of her demise spread quickly throughout the estate. Her servants and builders immediately laid down their tools; half-hammered nails can be found throughout the mansion, the work halted mid-task. However, the existing house and six acres of the estate necessitate constant maintenance: there are gardens to care for, rooms to paint, and constant cleaning and repairs. In a way, Sarah’s project continues to this day.

The shameless tourist to San Francisco buys and even wears the “Psycho Ward” or “Alcatraz Triathlon” T-shirts, boasting that they “escaped Alcatraz.” Through suicide, murder, emancipation, or freedom, did anyone somehow not escape from Alcatraz? Forty-three years after the last prisoners were relocated to other institutions, has anyone—or anything—remained?

Robert Stroud

Yet another claimant to the title of America’s “most haunted” place, Alcatraz certainly reigns as one of the world’s most notorious jails. During its nearly three decades of operation, Alcatraz was the Hollywood of prisons with an infamous cast of high-profile villains, starring tax cheat gang lord Al “Scarface” Capone; murderer Robert Stroud, the “Birdman of Alcatraz”; gang member Alvin “Creepy” Karpis; bank robber and kidnapper George “Machine Gun” Kelly; and Floyd Hamilton, Bonnie and Clyde’s moll and one of the prison’s escape artists.

Now, as an abandoned prison with a colorful history, Alcatraz has become not only the subject of numerous movies but also of numerous myths. Gross inaccuracies and melodramatic accounts are reproduced in books, movies, documentaries, and online. Enshrouded in fog, and in mystery, what is fact and what is fiction about Alcatraz?

An island in the San Francisco Bay, “The Rock” lies less than two miles from the mainland. Isolated, rocky, and whipped by salt-laden cold winds, lore claims that the indigenous people avoided the area and considered it evil and cursed. In contrast, the island probably began its career as a fishing and hunting ground for the Ohlone and Miwok Native American people. While the island is sparse in vegetation, it is a haven for birds. For this reason, when Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala sailed into the area in 1775, he bestowed the island with its full name, which translates to “Island of the Pelicans.” (Today, there are no pelicans, but the island is home to hawks, ravens, geese, finches, hummingbirds, and seagulls). For the next seventy-five years, the island was noted on maps but otherwise deserted.

This solitude ended when California was annexed by the United States during the Mexican–American war of 1846–1848. However, following the war, the area was bought by the United States as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Northern California was now in the midst of the Gold Rush, and the Bay Area’s population exploded from a sleepy settlement of 300 to a city of over 20,000 people. This spurred the development of Alcatraz as a fortress, all in good time for the Civil War that broke out in 1861 when the city and port became targets for the Confederates. Over time, and with advances in military technology, the island’s defenses became obsolete, and in 1907 the army formally decommissioned Alcatraz as a fortification. So, what do you do with a retired fort on a remote island, complete with a guardhouse, barracks, and other disused infrastructure?

Before Alcatraz became a civilian prison, it was a military prison. During the Civil War era, soldiers were imprisoned for crimes of desertion, theft, assault, rape, and murder. The jail once housed the entire crew of a Confederate ship. The island was further enlisted as a prison for indigenous people captured during the various Indian wars of the mid to late nineteenth century and for military convicts during the 1898 Spanish–American War. Conscientious objectors were jailed during World War I. Undergoing hard labor, such as breaking rocks and performing construction work, these early prisoners built the prison to house themselves. This haphazard history came to an end after the Great Depression. The island was transferred from the War Department to the Department of Justice. This began a new chapter in the chronicle of the island.

From 1934 until 1963, Alcatraz served as a civilian prison. This was the end of the road in the federal penitentiary system for America’s most hardened criminals. The Institution Rules and Regulations stated: “You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else that you get is a privilege.”

While it is true that this was a maximum security prison for “incorrigible” prisoners, it’s a myth that it was a cruel and brutal Papillon-like jail. Various sources, and especially the Internet, are replete with dramatic depictions of torture, deprivation, and disease. Inaccurate stories have flourished, claiming that the inmates suffered appalling conditions and inhumane treatment: Their cells were overcrowded. They slept on the floor. They lived without heating, light, windows, or water. They ate bread and water. Others were starved altogether. They were denied healthcare in the face of constant sickness. They were routinely harassed, beaten, and forced into hard labor. Speaking was forbidden, and showers were weekly events only. Due to these conditions, these inaccurate stories claim, the prison was known as “Hellcatraz.”

Alcatraz was no holiday resort—after all, this was a prison—but the rumors are greatly exaggerated. This was a place of discipline and rehabilitation; it wasn’t a barbaric dungeon. In contrast, the inmate’s 5’ × 9’ cells were private, unlike the shared cells of other institutions. These cells were sparsely furnished, but each contained a bed, access to running water, a toilet, shelves, and lighting. Although the cell house is naturally cold, in the past it had central heating, and its windows allow in light and sun. Alcatraz was not overcrowded; the prison was comparatively small, and the 336 cells were never filled to capacity. The prison fare was surprisingly good, with high-quality food and even a menu allowing for choice. This practice was reputedly to avert the riots that were commonly started in other prisons because of poor prison food. Rather than denying medical care to the inmates, the prison had its own hospital. In the event that a condition was serious, inmates were sent to the mainland for specialized care; this was the case for Al Capone, who was relocated from the island following his diagnosis of syphilis.

In the early years, Alcatraz did have a silence policy, although it was not a rigorous rule and was later relaxed even further. Typically, the inmates had good relations with the wardens, who knew each man by name. Prisoners were more at risk from other prisoners, and brawls were common. Work was neither demanding nor enforced; rather, it was considered a privilege that offered inmates relief from the monotony of their sentences. Inmates could work in the kitchen, the laundry, the garden, or the library. Except for in the kitchen, where contraband moonshine was made furtively, the work was paid, albeit meagerly. All in all, rather than being poor, the conditions were comparatively good. In fact, former inmate Willie Radkay considered his time at Alcatraz to be “better than at any other penitentiary.”¹

According to records, 1,545 prisoners “did time” within Alcatraz’s walls. The prisoners were all male because females weren’t deemed to be “incorrigible” until 1969. The average stay was eight to ten years, although “Creepy” Karpis served twenty-five years in total, the longest stretch on the Island. These prisoners were long-term trouble makers. No man was directly sent to Alcatraz, and only two were ever paroled from there. Many had continued their life of crime behind bars and were therefore deemed violent and uncontrollable.

Some prisoners had indulged in corruption while previously incarcerated at minimum security jails. At Leavenworth in Kansas Robert Stroud had murdered a warden, yet over time he enjoyed astonishing privileges; he was allowed to breed and study birds and to maintain a lab inside two additional cells. Stroud also enjoyed frequent contact with other fanciers and even used his laboratory equipment to distill alcohol. Al Capone virtually had the wardens working for him during his time at Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, enjoying a flood of visitors and a comparatively opulent cell. (His friends and family kept residence in a nearby hotel.) Initially, Capone had repeatedly attempted to also gain special privileges in Alcatraz, such as more flashy facilities and more regular visits, which were only allowed monthly. All of his bribery attempts were unsuccessful, prompting the true Godfather’s resigned remark, “It looks like Alcatraz has me licked.”²

The cell house is the apex of the island. There are four cellblocks in total, each separated by hallways, known in prison jargon as Broadway, Times Square, Park Avenue, and Michigan Avenue. The “Sunset Strip,” the walkway in front of D Block, was the “Segregation” or “Treatment” unit. Author Mike Marinacci claims that “Rule infractions meant confinement in the ‘Hole,’ one of four tiny, lightless cells furnished only with straw mattresses; there naked, starving inmates were regularly beaten. Some men went insane or died after months-long stays in the Hole.”³

The only factual statement there is that D Block was indeed known to the inmates as “The Hole.” Rather than being “tiny,” these cells are larger than the regular cells. There are thirty-six segregation cells, and six (not four) solitary confinement cells. The latter cells were lightless, although all cells contained beds. Prisoners in the Hole were not deprived of food or clothing, nor were they beaten. So, you may ask, what was the punishment? Being sent to the D Block meant a loss of privileges—the opportunity to work, exercise, and socialize. Stroud occupied a segregation cell for six years of his stay on the island (and then he spent eleven years in a hospital cell). Some inmates were probably insane to begin with, but none went insane or died simply from being housed in D Block.

So, just how many deaths were there on Alcatraz? There were no executions on the Island, although there were five suicides and eight murders. Most of these murders took place during what is known as the 1946 Battle of Alcatraz, conspired by six inmates. This was the most violent and deadly escape attempt, a three day uprising that ended in the deaths of three inmates and two guards, while fourteen guards and one inmate were left injured. The Marine Corps was eventually called in to end the clash with a bombardment of gunfire, mortar, and teargas. Curiously, Stroud even played a part in attempting to end the hostilities and protect his fellow inmates from the conflict that ensued. Of the three conspirers who survived the uprising, two were then executed at the nearby San Quentin Jail. The final nineteen-year-old surviving inmate had an additional life sentence tacked on to sentence.

Alcatraz was the Titanic of prisons; it was an inescapable prison from which prisoners escaped. In the days of the military prison, escapes were common and usually successful. With the advent of the civilian jail with its high warden to prisoner ratio, improved security features, and deliberately planted rumors of “man-eating sharks,” escape attempts were far less common. The main deterrents and obstacles were the cold water, the strong currents, and the long distance to the shore. The civilian penitentiary never recorded any attempts as “successful.” For some quick statistics, thirty-seven men were involved in fourteen separate attempts; twenty-three were recaptured, seven were shot and killed, two drowned, and five were declared missing and are presumed to have drowned in the icy Bay waters.

Decoy head from Frank Morris's cell

The real mystery of Alcatraz is the escape attempt popularized by the movie Escape from Alcatraz. Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers, Clarence and John, devised an elaborate escape attempt in 1962 with decoy bodies, fake walls, and homemade drills. (Allen West helped with the planning, but he was unable to escape his cell when the time came.) The men were never found, and no one has ever claimed their identities. Did they drown? Subsequent tests by the US Army Corp of Engineers and the team from the television show MythBusters have demonstrated that escape from Alcatraz, and even survival, would have indeed been possible.⁴

Following this incident, the prison came under scrutiny for the deteriorating condition of the facilities and their increasing maintenance and operating costs. (Although prisoner numbers were small, 300 civilians lived on the island at any given time.) Budget cuts had resulted in diminished security measures, and restoration was estimated to cost five million dollars. In 1963, after twenty-nine years of operation, Alcatraz was closed by US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The remaining prisoners were transferred to other jails, and Alcatraz was left to the care of a lone custodian.

After a period of theme park proposals and Native American occupation, Alcatraz Island is now administered by the US National Park Service and is visited by over one million people each year. There are ferry services operated daily from Fisherman’s Wharf, and these are combined with both guided and audio tours of the island. The island is listed as a National Historic Landmark; not because it was a prison but because the 1857 guardhouse is a heritage building.

With Alcatraz’s mythical pedigree, stories of the unnatural have naturally followed. Staff and visitors report a wide array of paranormal phenomena on the island. But with a little commonsense and logic, many Alcatraz stories debunk themselves. For example, tales of the metallic sound of “jingling cell keys” that echo through the chambers neglect to reveal that the cell doors were lockless and operated by levers. The Hole is another target for ghost stories; one site states: “In the Hole, especially cells 12 and 14 house the most intense feelings of panic. The moment you walk in, you can feel it almost choking you with fear, hate and palpable tension.”⁵ This wasn’t the reaction that I had, nor did the tens of visitors streaming through these cells at the same time seem to have it. There are also many accounts of “cold spots” in the cell house, but anyone who has ever been there at night knows that the entire island is one big cold spot!

Cell 14D was apparently the scene of a puzzling murder. It is rumored that during the days of the military prison an inmate was locked into this cell, whereupon he began screaming that something with glowing red eyes was locked in with him. According to legend, the terrified prisoner screamed uncontrollably for hours, until an eerie silence befell the cell. Strangely, the wardens never checked in on him until morning, when he was discovered dead. An autopsy revealed strangulation marks around the victim’s neck, but this was no suicide. In a paranormal postscript, the murdered prisoner still appeared in the line-up for the next morning’s call before disappearing into thin air.⁶ No prison records of this incident exist, but the following fact is recorded: No autopsies were ever performed in the prison morgue. The morgue is a fertile ground for stories of the resurrection of murdered prisoners and vengeful ghosts.

Then there are the haunted sounds of Alcatraz; visitors and staff claim to hear inexplicable crying, disembodied voices, laughing, and bloodcurdling screams. The audio guide refers to sounds traveling in from the mainland, especially the revelers at New Year’s Eve. Moreover, there are the sounds made by thousands of daily visitors to Alcatraz, the audio tours and tour guides, and a continuously screening documentary; any or all of these could be one of these “baffling” sounds. There is also the story of the strains of Al Capone’s banjo playing, haunting the cell believed to once have been his. However, it is not known precisely which cell was Capone’s, and this story conflicts with the silence theory—and the prison rules. It is true that Capone played banjo in the prison band, but he was not allowed to do so in the cell house.

Another source claims that Alcatraz is “a portal to another dimension” that is “filled with the energy of those who came to the Rock and seemingly never left.”⁷ There are stories of phantom footsteps (other visitors?), gun and cannon shots (the documentary shown during the tour?), the clanging and echoes of cell doors being slammed shut (the live demonstrations?), malodorous smells (the Bay?), a sense of being watched and the sight of Civil War soldiers (overactive imaginations?). Alcatraz has attracted Sylvia Brown and a host of other psychic mediums who have held séances onsite and reported lost souls and lingering spirits.

Why is the history of Alcatraz distorted and sensationalized? The National Park Service visitor guide proposes an answer: “For security purposes, visits to the island were restricted; this apparent secrecy and the remoteness of the prison may have fueled these rumors.” The true history of Alcatraz is further obscured by its fictional portrayals in movies, stylistic stories in books, and fabrications of urban lore online.

Alcatraz doesn’t need the myths to present a tragic tale. This is a true story of crimes and punishment, of segregation and dehumanization. During the tour I listened to the sobering interviews of former prisoners. They repeatedly speak of the real, psychological punishment of Alcatraz. Some of these men were never socialized properly; they had lived in the prison system for so long that relationships, careers, and the everyday activities that we take for granted were alien to them. Staring out through the barred windows, the inmates had majestic views of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, the headlands, and the beaches; constant reminders of the life they couldn’t have.

References

1. Alcatraz History. www.alcatrazhistory.com Accessed October 6, 2011.

2. Johnston, James. 1949. Alcatraz Island Prison: And the Men who Live There. C. Scribner’s Sons.

3. Marinacci, M. 1988. Mysterious California: Strange Places and Eerie Phenomena in the Golden State. Panpipes Press, p.38.

4. Wikipedia. MythBusters (2003 season). Escape from Alcatraz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_%282003­_season%29#Episode_8_.E2.80.93_.22­Escape_From_Alcatraz.2C_Duck_­Quack.2C_Stud_Finder.22 Accessed 11/18/2011

5. Haunted Dog House. www.haunteddoghouse.com Accessed March 10, 2006.

6. Ibid.

7. Legends of America. www.legendsofamerica.com Accessed November 18, 2011.

The 2008 television show The One: the Search for Australia’s Most Gifted Psychic was like an American Idol for psychics, in which five contestants gave readings and underwent a series of psychic obstacle tests to discover the supposed “best of the best.”

The tests included matching luggage to owners, locating the remains of infamous outlaw Ned Kelly (these were recently discovered, but not by psychics¹), and finding the body of a missing British tourist—an experiment in bad taste that earned public derision. The results were less accurate than chance. Of the five tests, only two of seven contestants succeeded in passing the first one, to find a “missing” boy lost in the bush, although their success was in searching rather than psychic navigation. Contestants were voted off the show after each test, but the remaining psychics failed all four subsequent tests.

These failures didn’t sway viewers, who were persuaded by the demonstrations of cold reading and convincing editing. Charmaine Wilson was voted the most “gifted” (i.e., the most popular). The psychic who won was the psychic who failed the least.

A new series of the show is currently being recorded.

Not the One

So, who is Ezio de Angelis? He was “the one”—one of the losing contestants, that is. In his own words:

Ezio de Angelis is one of Australia’s best Psychic Mediums and was recently featured in the country’s top three psychics on Channel 7’s TV series The One, the search for Australia’s most gifted psychic. He is often described as “the kind of medium that spirits love to talk to” and his vibrant live presentations of spirit communication have astounded and comforted audiences across the nation.²

His wife Michelle de Angelis also claims to be a psychic medium and they bill themselves as “Australia’s Leading Husband and Wife Team.”

I attended Communicating with Spirit, a live performance by De Angelis, unaided by editing. This article features a commentary of selected readings from this show.

De Angelis and “Marcus”

There were two people on stage, though we only saw one. There was De Angelis and there was Marcus, his spirit guide. “I’m like John Edward. I connect to spirit guides and am the link between the spirit realms,” De Angelis explained. This is also like Sylvia Browne and her spirit guide Francine. “This is a three-way connection. I am the platform, then there is the spirit realm, and the audience.”

“Spiritual mediumship is the gift of receiving messages from family and friends that have passed over into the spirit world. Some of you are here to connect with loved ones,” he said. Then came a caveat: “If you’re expecting Mom or Dad, don’t be disappointed if Uncle Fred comes through instead.” “Fred” might be his closest guess.

All psychics have a warm-up, to set the mood for the expectant audience. Some meditate or recite a prayer or blessing for “protection” from evil spirits. De Angelis conducted a “unity ritual,” to “open the door to the spirit world.” Everyone was instructed to stand up, greet each other, shake hands, and “bond” with the people at their table and surrounding tables. This seemed like a rip-off of the Holy Kiss following the Lord’s Prayer in the Catholic Church.

“Now the link between the worlds is fortified. Let’s experience something beautiful together,” De Angelis gushed. Everyone clapped enthusiastically, and it suddenly felt like we were in a televangelist game show.

“Who is Tony, please?” he began, to the audience’s silence. So he tried to encourage (or rebuke) us. “C’mon everyone, a fast game is a good game!” A good game for a medium is so fast-moving that one will notice the many errors in the confusing bombardment of names, illnesses, objects, and hobbies. “Who is Tony, please?” He asked again. The “ask a question with an answer” format was like a game of Jeopardy. The medium asks the active and specific “Who is Tony?” rather than the passive and non-specific observation “I see a Tony.” This presupposes the person existed, personifies the “spirit,” and involves the audience.

“Tony could be my Uncle,” replied a middle-aged man nearby. But there’s no tense marker in the reply to reveal if Uncle Tony is living or dead.

“Is Tony in the living world, or the spirit world?” De Angelis asked; but shouldn’t he, or Marcus, know the answer to this question?

“He’s deceased.”

De Angelis didn’t know if Uncle Tony was alive or dead, but now he suddenly knew his interests. “Why am I seeing greyhounds?” His modus operandi was to control the reading by asking questions, rather than providing explicit information (which could be inaccurate). This gave him the chance to reframe an error. The subject frowned a tacit “no,” so De Angelis broadened the guess. “This person liked a gamble. He liked a punt of some kind.” This was a safe guess, as we were in a club that allows gambling.

“Yes. He liked the pokies.” (“Pokies” are slot machines.)

“Yes. He likes it here tonight!” De Angelis joked, revealing his relief. He needed to end on this positive note, so he closed by conveying a “personal” message with spiritual undertones. “He misses you. He watches and protects you from the spirit world. God bless!”

(Em) Pathetic

Some mediums claim to be medical intuitives or empathetic; that is, able to feel the physical pain and symptoms of a subject’s illness, enabling diagnosis, or identification of the cause of death. De Angelis explained, “I pick up on their symptoms because these are their last earthly connections.” During the course of the show, De Angelis suffered from many conditions, including bladder problems and breast cancer. “I experience the pain until someone takes it away from me by telling me I’m right!” This was an appeal for audience sympathy, urging people to make connections. He also used this as an excuse for his mistakes; when one woman revealed that her father suffered from dementia, De Angelis claimed this was why he couldn’t perceive specific details of her father’s life.

De Angelis took a chance on a statistically high cause of death. “I feel tight in the chest area. Who died of a heart attack?”

“My Grandfather had a heart attack once,” answered a man nearby.

“Good,” De Angelis betrayed his relief. However, this was only a partial hit.

“But he died of cirrhosis of the liver.”

This “hit” wasn’t so amazing; we didn’t even get a name, so the message was short. “Your grandfather sends his love. Who is Jack, please?” The subject paused, then found a tenuous association.

“He was a friend of the family.”

“Was”; now De Angelis knows he’s dead. “He’s with your Grandfather. He says ‘G’day!’” The spirits speak Australian English! For the audience, slang seemed to validate the message.

“Who is Peter, please?” Unfortunately, Peter was someone else’s brother at the same table. “We have a “spirit tailgater!” De Angelis remarked, explaining that this is a spirit associated with someone nearby who takes advantage of the connection and interrupts the reading. “Has Peter passed over?” De Angelis needed to ask. Peter was still alive, so De Angelis asked, “Who is Mary, please?”

“I don’t know a Mary,” the subject replied adamantly.

The medium deferred blame to the subject for his miss. “Don’t get psychic amnesia,” De Angelis reproached. “You’ve just forgotten the names of relatives and friends. Take it away with you, ask your family. You’ll see I’m right.” He is “right,” in that people invent connections after the fact, or by the time they realize he’s wrong De Angelis is long gone!

Then he attempted to receive a message from the subject’s grandfather. He stumbled, so he used an ingenious defense. “The problem here is that your grandfather wouldn’t have talked with a psychic like me in his lifetime. He didn’t believe in psychics, and he doesn’t believe in me now!”

Wanted Dead or Alive

“Who is Greg, please?” There was no reply. “I see a Greg, or a Chris, or Craig; and a Richard, or Robert.” At this parade of names, hands shot up across the room. Uttering multiple names gives the impression that the psychic medium is narrowing the reading to address a specific subject; meanwhile he’s afforded additional guesses.

“Robert was my husband. Craig was his colleague,” answered a woman. Now De Angelis knew the subject’s husband was deceased.

“Your husband tried to be a good man,” De Angelis asserted, at which the lady nodded. Who would deny this compliment? It also serves as a hedge, if he were a “bad” man. “He wants you to remember him like that. And is Mom still with us?” De Angelis had to ask.

“Yes, but she has diabetes,” the lady offered.

“Yes, I know,” De Angelis said, despite not knowing if the woman was alive or dead.

Mediums often claim the messages they receive include sights, sounds, and even smells. This frames the spirit world in a way we can understand, as an extension of the natural world. “I can smell a Labrador, a smelly dog,” De Angelis said incongruously. The woman tried to make sense of the message. “Umm...We had a fish that died.” The dog-fish connection was good enough for De Angelis, so he continued.

“Who was Pat, please?”

“I don’t know.”

There’s safety in numbers, and vague advice. “Well, you have lots of spirits around you. You have lots of help and support. Keep close to the people who are close to you,” he said cryptically.

Prematurely, De Angelis attempted a specific hit. “Who was Belle, please?”

“I don’t know,” the lady frowned. De Angelis amazed himself with his quick rationalization, “That’s what Belle said! She said, ‘She doesn’t know me, but I’m a distant relative!’” Then he made the woman feel guilty that she couldn’t remember this fictitious character. “In fact, Belle tells me she’s the one who’s helping you the most!”

Are You Talking to Me?

“Who is Martha, please? And who is John, please?” Martha was my great-grandmother’s name, and is my middle name, while John is my father’s name. I put up my hand as hands went up across the room. In this impersonal context, we perceive familiar names as a personal message directed to us. This is part recognition of a known name, and part egotistical excitement that we’re “chosen” for a reading.

So many responses meant De Angelis had to narrow the reading. “This is what I call ‘Me Toos’,” he explained. “I need to be careful that my message is for the right person. Who is Bill, please? Who is Margaret?” Hands went down, until he had a profound vision. “I see a garden, and a tree.”

“My great aunt Margaret liked to garden,” a lady replied.

De Angelis had a personal message for her. “The baby’s alright. Does this make sense to you?” She shook her head, but he dismissed her denial. “This will fit elsewhere for you. Think about it.”

The audience did make the readings fit, even if they had to completely restructure the message. At one point De Angelis asked, “Who is Jan, please?” No one replied, until a lady offered a supportive interpretation: “I was born in January!” With a willing subject, De Angelis invoked a common social dilemma. “Do you have legal problems?” The lady nodded. “Don’t worry. It will all work out for you,” he told her what she wanted to hear. Then he told her something she didn’t want to hear. “Do you have heart problems?”

“No,” she said nervously.

De Angelis turned his miss into an ominous warning. “Well, take that on board.”

Mixing Spirits

The sprits seemed to cover the room in a proportionate way. De Angelis darted about like a chat show host, to increase his chances for a hit. To divert attention from pauses he continued to bark, “It keeps the energy raised if we’re fast!”

“Who is Eric, please?” There was silence, so he morphed the name. “Who is Rick? He’s Irish by birth. Maybe that’s Mick?” he asked a room full of third- or fourth-generation Australians, many of Irish or British descent. A woman acknowledged “Mick” as an in-law. De Angelis appealed to a stereotype: “Mick liked a laugh, and he liked a beer,” at which the woman nodded.

Mick was a charmer, even from beyond the grave. “He likes your hairdo. Did you do something to your hair?” De Angelis asked the woman, who had obvious blond highlights.

“Yes, I did!” she marvelled, fluffing up her hair.

“He says ‘sorry’, and that you’ll understand. Do you know what that means?”

“I think so,” she replied with uncertainty, but still affording him a hit. This sounds like a private message, but most of us recall (or could easily forget) an occasion that warranted an apology we never received.

The woman had an English accent. “You’re not from here originally,” De Angelis observed, and the lady nodded. “But you try to go home as often as possible.”

“Yes. When I can,” she confirmed.

“Who is Anne?”

“Anne’s a cousin.”

“Anne sends her regards,” De Angelis relayed, as if it was a telephone conversation. “Who is Willy, please?”

“I don’t know,” the lady replied, dumbfounded. De Angelis refused to be wrong, leaving her to connect the dots. “You need to double-check this with your relatives, someone who knows your family tree.” Since he had relegated this to obscurity, he boldly added some detail. “Think Queensland.” Many Australians have a connection to the state of Queensland: vacations, relatives, or friends.

“Did Mum get very ill before she passed?”

“She’s still alive!” the lady cried out in wide-eyed shock.

“No wonder I can’t see her then!” De Angelis quipped to the audience’s laughter.

Trying to appear specific, De Angelis asked, “Who has a jumping castle?” (This is a large inflatable castle for children to bounce on like a trampoline.)

“I do,” a lady responded. “Well, I know someone who does,” she added, demoting the hit.

“This is where the skeptics nail me,” De Angelis whined. “They’d say, ‘It isn’t at her house!’” (This isn’t the only technique for which we can nail him.)

“Are you on a health kick?” he asked the woman, who was wearing gym clothes.

“Yes!” she answered in surprise.

“The spirits suggest you try carrot juice,” De Angelis suggested.

She gave an unconvinced “Umm... okay.”

De Angelis cut short the reading with a “God bless!” and moved on quickly.

“Is your grandmother on the other side, sweetie?” De Angelis asked an elderly lady—a safe bet. Her mother might feasibly be alive, but her mother’s mother wouldn’t be. The lady nodded sadly.

“Tell me, who is Frazer?” She didn’t know, but De Angelis insisted that this was a long-lost relative. “Talk to others for proof of what I say.” De Angelis tried to salvage the reading by saying that the unknown “Frazer” didn’t even know that he had died. “I just had to tell him he’s passed over. You see, the dead are skeptical of me tonight!” They weren’t the only ones.

Finally, a hit?

Then De Angelis stumbled across the hit of the night. “Who is Audrey, please?”

“Me!” squeaked a lady nearby, as the room erupted into so much applause that most people didn’t hear her add, “It’s one of my middle names but I never use it. No one ever calls me that.”

“You have a nice energy about you,” De Angelis said pointlessly. “You also have a sorrow about you.” Indeed, most people in the room were grieving.

“My husband died of cancer,” the lady revealed.

“Don’t be sad. The grief can stop the communication flow from happening,” De Angelis scolded her. “Who is Dennis? Do you remember Dennis?” If she didn’t know, De Angelis could position this as her not “remembering” Dennis.

“No,” she answered.

“You say ‘no.’ Dennis says ‘yes.’ I trust them more than you. Who is Arthur?” She didn’t know Arthur either. “But he’s standing right next to me!’ De Angelis claimed. “It’s disrespectful to them when you say ‘no.’” De Angelis doesn’t have the compassionate bedside (graveside) manner that mediums typically adopt.

He tried for a hit with another common condition. “I’m getting a pain in the breast area. Did anyone have breast cancer?”

“No,” she replied firmly.

De Angelis reinterpreted this with a metaphorical meaning, “The chest pain is love; the spirits’ love for you in their hearts.”

(In) Sensitive

“Are there any suicides in the room?” Sadly, there were many in the room, including two at one table alone. De Angelis scurried over there, where he could increase his chances for a hit. “I see a rope.” This was a good guess; guns are outlawed in Australia.

“Yes, my son” whispered a lady. Now he knew the subject’s gender. Demonstrating apparent sensitivity, but quitting while he was ahead, De Angelis said, “I won’t go into any more detail about his death, for your privacy.” Then he used a classic cold reading technique. “You have mementos of him. I see a silver photo frame.”

“Yes. I have heaps of photos in frames.”

“Was he a surfer, or liked windsurfing? Or someone near him?” De Angelis was asking a woman who lives on Sydney’s northern beaches if she knows someone who enjoys beach activities.

“Yes. He used to surf at Freshwater Beach every morning.”

De Angelis offered a stock comforting message. “He is always with you. He says, ‘Mom, I am being looked after, don’t worry about me. Everyone’s here. God bless.” De Angelis didn’t even need to guess the man’s name.

Losing It

In the last reading of the evening, De Angelis amazed the audience by guessing that one lady’s husband suffered from emphysema. The amazement didn’t last long. “He’s in the spirit world,” he added, but the lady snapped, “He’s not dead yet! Although he’s so sick, he probably should be!” De Angelis was saved by a ripple of nervous laughter.

“I am just about out now. I’m losing it,” De Angelis said weakly. He explained he felt a tingling sensation, indicating that he was losing his connection to the spirit world. This was good timing, as his show was almost at an end. In closing, he attempted to allay any disappointment. “Don’t be sad if your loved one didn’t appear tonight. Some spirits are louder than others. Sometimes, your loved ones will stand aside for those who need it most.” Evidently, the cousins, uncles, great aunts, in-laws, forgotten family friends, and unknown distant relatives needed the inaccurate guesses and impersonal messages the most.

De Angelis left the stage accompanied by applause. In a medium’s encore, he reappeared with a final spirit message. “Colin says ‘hi!’”

The “Romper Room Effect”

One of the main cold reading techniques of mediums is to list numerous names to increase the chance for a perceived hit.³ De Angelis is no exception. During his performance he mentioned these names (a partial list):

Adam, Adams, Tony, Mary, Jack, Peter, Peachy, Greg, Richard, Craig, Chris, Robert, Bell, Matthew, John, Bill, Margaret, Johnny, Eric, Mick, Leo, Leonard, Anne, Willy, Pat, Patrick, Barry, Bill, Frazer, Paul, Shane, Sarah, Audrey, Dennis, Denise, Arthur, Jimmy, Bertie, Anthony, Joan, Dave, George, Eddie, Sam, William, Mike, Harry, Jase, Jay, Jason, Kylie, Karen, Katherine, Elizabeth, Melanie, Michelle, Michael, Dickie, Jan, Wayne, Wendy, Lynne, Max, David, Rocky, and Colin.

As usual, there were nearly more dead people in the room than living! Given his audience of over two hundred, these common names were bound to resonate with many people. There were even some were old-fashioned names—Dorothy, Gwen, Polly, Beatrice—to appeal to the older demographic. As Ian Rowland, author of The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading, once said to me, “The hard part would be to be find a name that wouldn’t work.”

I call this listing of names the “Magic Mirror Effect,” after the former children’s television show Romper Room. At the end of each episode the host pretended that she could see the viewers through her “Magic Mirror.” She would recite a list of random names, to give the impression that her farewell is personalized. After a few episodes, even kids realize that the host can’t actually “see” them. This stage act works on adults too, if our vulnerability and grief allows us to believe.

Conclusion

De Angelis uses cold reading to give the illusion that he can talk to the dead. He appeals to generalizations and stereotypes; he searches for clues and makes observations and assumptions about his subjects. De Angelis wriggles out of his misses with manipulative excuses: “He’s shy, I can’t read him”; “The connection is faint. I’ve lost her”; and “I’m right. Think outside of the box.” Alternatively, he ordered the subject to defer judgement, e.g., “Don’t say no. I’m not wrong. You need to think about what I said more.” He told one woman she was seeking employment, but she disagreed, “No. I want to stay at home with the kids.” De Angelis boomed, “You’re not allowed to say no! Don’t make me look bad! When I’m wrong I’m really right, you’ll see...” De Angelis is a mean-spirited medium.

However, there’s no evidence that De Angelis cheated by used hot reading techniques. He simply wasn’t very good! Nevertheless, it is telling that he is considered one of the “best of the best.”

References

1. Australia Identifies Bones of Storied Criminal Ned Kelly. Fox News. Accessed 09/26/2011. Available online at www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/01/australia-identifies-bones-storied-criminal-ned-kelly/.

2. Ezio de Angelis. Accessed 10/17/2011. Available online at www.eziodeangelis.com.au.

3. Stollznow, Karen. 2011. Running Hot and Cold: “Psychic Medium” Rebecca Rosen. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry web column. Accessed 10/18/2011. Available online at http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/running_hot_and_cold_psychic_medium­_rebecca_rosen/.

The segment “Cooking, Cleaning and Communicating with The Dead” featured “Psychic Moms” Allison DuBois and Rebecca Rosen, who gave a reading to reporter David Wright. Amazingly, both psychics mentioned “Deanna,” the name of Wright’s deceased mother. Wright marveled that this information simply doesn’t “pop up on Google.” However, after the show, Banachek discovered an online biography of Wright in which he reveals his daughter’s name, Deanna.² His daughter was obviously named after his mother, so this was a bonus for the psychics.

It seems the psychics engaged in hot reading; that is, acquiring information about the sitter prior to the reading.

Rosen communicates with her spirits.

Hit and Miss

ABC reporter John Donvan wrote about the filming of Rebecca Rosen’s segment. She gave readings to the film crew, and while he initially construed some common experiences as “hits,” he ultimately wasn’t impressed with her readings.

Then a reporter had a one-on-one session. There were more hits—and some pretty clean ones at that.

“Did you used to work as a pizza boy?”

“Yes.”

“Did you have trouble with the lights in a hotel room recently?”

“Yes.” (A weird question, but we did have exactly that happen a few week back) [sic].

But to be honest, through most of the rest of the conversation—during which Rosen said I was talking with my dad and grandfather—the psychic said a good amount that really didn’t fit terribly well. And then her style was to start exploring. We saw that happen many other times during the week.

“This [is] about your wife’s side of the family as well,” she told one man, David.

“I need to clarify something in terms of wife, I'm not married,” he replied.

“You’re not married. But you have an ex-wife...”

“No,” said David.

To Jennifer: “By any chance is your daughter named after Margaret?” The answer: No.

To Carrie: “I have to start over here, I’m pretty sure this is for you. I have two males that are popping in very strongly, your Dad has passed, correct?” (Carrie: “My Dad, no.”)

To Pamela: “Who’s the rocky road? Like loves Rocky Road? Chocolate? ... Did somebody just give you a box of chocolates?” To which Pamela just shakes her head.³

In the reader comments below the reader “mtgb0809” shares a personal experience of a reading with Rosen.

She is a fraud. The things she "knew” about me could be found out online. The things that she should have known she got completely wrong, like my mom being alive (she is not alive, she is dead, which is why I hired Rebecca in the first place). I would never recommend anyone give her a dime for her services.⁴

A funny thing happened on the way to the psychic reading…

Rosen charges $275 for a thirty-minute reading and $500 for a sixty-minute reading. She claims, “The wait for a private reading is now approximately three years.”⁵ She also offers “priority” or “charity” readings that are in no way charitable; these are last-minute cancellations which Rosen resells for $500 for a thirty-minute reading and $1000 for a sixty-minute reading.⁶ Sitters can bring a friend to participate for an extra $100.⁷ Public performances cost $50, and I attended a show in Denver, Colorado.

Rosen began with a story. Earlier that day, she decided to have a haircut before her show. On her way there she stopped by a gift shop. This was supposed to be a simple trip to purchase a greeting card, but she felt the compulsion to collect a number of irrelevant items, including a crucifix, a birthday card for “Mom,” and a sticker that read “99.” She suddenly snapped out of her reverie, put down her unnecessary load of items, and left the shop.

Rosen then arrived at the hairdressing salon and her strange shopping adventure was explained! She met her stylist’s mother, who was celebrating her birthday but also mourning her mother’s passing a few days ago. Her mother had been ninety-nine years of age, and was buried with a crucifix placed in her casket. Rosen’s hairdresser was in the audience to verify the story.

Of course, this story was only an anecdote. The hairdresser may have been involved in a stunt, or Rosen might have constructed the story upon meeting her hairdresser’s mother. To the audience, this was a convincing up-front display of her abilities. But it seemed like a dramatic ice breaker; a psychic’s version of the old comedian’s cliché, “A funny thing happened to me on the way to the studio.”

Rosen reads her list of names.

A Book of Baby’s Names

Rosen said that the spirits had been “showing up all day long. They were in single file out the door.” She had written a list of the names of some of these “spirits”:

“Joe, Robert or Bob, Dan, Jerry, Nick, Chris, Ben, Jesse, Corey, Katherine, Jim, Betty, David, Bill, Dale, Kevin, Julie, Carol, Seymour, Tyler, Taylor, Sherri, Rose, Abe, Ozzy, Joan, Doris, Dorothy, Shirley, Helen, Bernie, Pete, Don, Tom, Ed, John, Al, Scott, and Pauline.”

These were not the only names Rosen mentioned that night; throughout the show she also referred to: Alice, Jeffrey, Sam, Max, Ruby, Ryan, Josephine, Joanne, Laurie, Ron, Randy, Lilly, Beth, Thomas, Michael, Charles, Rebecca, Tony, Anthony, George, Anne, Annie, Ian, Barb, Bella, Henry, Mary, Richard, Rusty, Ross, Jim, James, and Jonathan. If it is possible that none of these names resonated with individual members of the audience, “Mom,” “Dad,” “Grandma,” and “Grandpa” probably did. Everyone at a reading has alive and deceased relatives and friends, and everyone has or has had parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, unless, aunts, and friends.

Rosen absolved herself of disappointing the audience by saying we wouldn’t all “hear” from our deceased loved ones. “There are a few thousand spirits trying to get through, but I read who needs to be read.” Those who didn’t receive readings probably felt they had still been addressed personally by way of the numerous common names Rosen mentioned.

Hot Readings?

Rosen started her reading by saying, “The spirits brought you here, and the spirits sat you where you needed to sit.” No doubt the ticketing agency sat us where we sat, but did Rosen take advantage of the personal information provided at the time of purchase?

“The spirits told me to start here,” she began, and then proceeded to give readings to people at two tables conveniently located in the front row. The readings were non-specific, but she had some minor hits with names and hobbies. She even presented a gift to one of these people; a novelty poster for a recently deceased golf fan; to “put on his grave.” Like the hairdresser anecdote above, this was a clever gimmick that further earned her the audience’s confidence.

But was Rosen giving hot readings? Tickets were purchased online and the names of all attendees were provided.⁸ Attendees could pick their own seats or select from the “best available”; wherever they sat, the seats were assigned a number. Therefore, Rosen likely had access to the name of every attendee, and where they sat in the room.

Like the possible googling of “Deanna,” had Rosen conducted online searches of her audience members? At one point, she mentioned a celebrity photograph. When this didn’t elicit a response she named actor Richard Gere. A woman at the table directly in front of her cried out, “I have a photo of me and Cindy Crawford! I just posted it on Facebook the other day!”

The ready availability and prevalence of personal blogs, photo albums, public records, background check tools, obituary pages, and networking sites allow us all to become amateur online detectives, and could allow psychics to gather information about their audiences.

Moreover, in addition to a microphone wrapped around her jaw, Rosen wore an earpiece (see enlarged photograph). Was Rosen being fed real-time information about her audience members, á là Peter Popoff?

Cold Readings

Following are some of the techniques Rosen used in her reading, and some of her “hits” and misses. Rosen had some peculiar theories; she claimed a fly traveled in her car all afternoon, and that it was the spirit of someone’s father trying to “get through.” Another woman’s father was now a grasshopper living in her garden, and other people had spirits of loved ones who hide car keys and smash windows to get their attention.

Naming is the major component of her readings. Like other public psychic mediums, Rosen lists a plethora of popular names in an attempt to get a “hit” with the audience. There were 320 people in the room; this was an audience large enough for each name to be construed as “correct.” If a name wasn’t acknowledged, Rosen had some additional tricks. In one example, Joe, a male, became Jo, a female, and failing that, became Joanne and then Josephine to achieve a strike. Because people were desperate to contact their loved ones, the connections they made were often tenuous. In one instance, the initials “GR” became George, and were then reinterpreted as “Grandpa” by one audience member. Unlike Rosen, who may have had access to the full names of the audience members, the “spirits” could only provide first names, parts of first names, or first initials.

To broaden the playing field, these names or part names could apparently refer to either living or dead people. For someone who claims to communicate with the dead, Rosen never seemed to know if the names she mentioned referred to someone alive or deceased, and she had to ask questions to elicit that information. These included, “Has she passed?” (She had passed); “Is your brother living?” (No, he wasn’t); “She’s up there?” (No, she wasn’t); and “Was she buried?” (No, she was cremated). The audience would fill in the blanks, and often make the fails fit; for example, “Your husband died?” was responded to with, “No, but he almost died!” She wouldn’t have been as successful if the audience hadn’t been so willing to assist her.

At one stage Rosen said, “I’m getting the number eleven,” and a woman nearby kept trying to make the reading fit. She blurted out a story: “It was my eleventh wedding anniversary just before my second husband died. I’d been with my first husband for ten years and my second husband said, ‘Well, I guess I’ve got him beat. We’ll be together forever.’ Then he passed away.” In deep grief she started sobbing.

Rosen searches for a hit.

Rosen reworked misses into “hits,” and acquired additional information this way. “Do you have a daughter?” was taken as a hit and expanded upon with “I have two daughters,” and “You have two kids?” was taken as a partial hit with the answer, “Just one girl.” Grammatical tense provided further information: “He was your Dad?” became, “No, he is my husband.” Misses were even turned into comedy, e.g., “Are you pregnant?” was answered with “I sure hope not!” and followed by audience laughter.

Generality was also taken as a “hit.” For example, asking about a pet was construed as a strike, even if the species was named inaccurately: “Do you have a cat?” “No, I have a dog.” “Okay, then this message is for you.” Similarly, “Do you have a son?” was answered with “No, I have a daughter,” and Rosen followed with “Then this is for you.”

To “verify” that she was in contact with the relevant spirit, Rosen would reference trigger terms in connection with the name. These included a range of common, everyday objects and hobbies: sports, music, balloons, motorcycle, cars, wedding rings and other jewelry, shoebox, perfume, men’s cologne, travel, children’s toys, books, religion, smoking, gambling, drinking, cooking, and hunting.

Ian Rowland’s The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading relies on “Stat Facts,” demographics and statistical information, to produce convincing cold readings.⁹ Similarly, Rosen listed common names, common deaths and common experiences. She mentioned the common causes of death, including cancer and heart disease, and some specific-sounding fatalities such as car accidents and suicide. She told one woman whose mother had suffered from breast cancer and survived, “You will have a cancer scare.” The woman panicked and Rosen realized she’d touched a raw nerve, assuring her, “You will be okay! You won’t die of it, not that your Mom did!”

To give the illusion of accuracy, Rosen would mention non-specific items that gave the appearance of specificity. She mentioned a number of objects and occurrences that could apply to most people: a ring with a reset stone, a necklace with a broken clasp, a broken zipper, trouble with someone’s toilet (similar to the ABC reporter’s trouble with hotel lights), a rainbow (also mentioned in the ABC reporter’s reading) a broken microwave, a broken phone, carrying spare change, and seeing a bear, coyote or deer in someone’s backyard or garage (Not uncommon in Colorado). However, some bold attempts went amusingly wrong: “She’s saying something about nude photographs?” received an offended “No!” Rosen reinterpreted her “vision” as “family photographs.”

When Rosen established that she’d “contacted” a spirit via common triggers, the messages were simplistic rather than profound. For example, “It’s beautiful over there”; “Your dad is extremely proud of you”; “They are looking out for you”; “He says ‘I love you, I’m happy”; and “She loves flowers and heaven is like a garden.”

When Rosen was blatantly inaccurate, she had a number of stock “outs.” She would dismiss the audience member’s denial with “look into it,” or reprimand them into making it fit with, “Make the connection”; “You have to own it”; and “You have to honor what’s coming through.”

If Rosen hit a complete dead end she wouldn’t acknowledge she was wrong. Instead she would move on. She darted across the room, constantly keeping up a fast pace. But she had lots of misses; thinking people were dead when they were alive and alive when they were dead. I had a notebook full of guesses and crosses.

Hot and Cold Flashes

Evidently, Rosen is trying to set herself up to become a noted psychic. Like James van Praagh, John Edward, Sylvia Browne, and many others before her, Rebecca Rosen has her own techniques for cold reading, and possibly hot reading. However, Rosen’s skills are far less impressive than those of cold reading experts Ray Hyman, Ian Rowland, and Lynne Kelly. As usual, the skeptics are more skilled at cold reading, but skeptics perform without the deception or delusion of psychics.

References

1. Primetime Nightline: Beyond Belief explores the realm of the extra-sensory, the spiritual, and the experiences many call “beyond belief.” Available online at http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/beyondbelief/. Accessed 08/28/2011.

2. David Wright. ABC News. Available online at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=127805. Accessed 08/28/2011.

3. John Donvan and Danielle Atkin. Mommy Psychic Raises Kids, Communes With Dead. Available online at http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/psychic-mom-communes-dead/story?id=9720848&page=3.

4. Ibid.

5. Rebecca Rosen. Readings. Available online at http://www.rebeccarosen.com/readings.html. Accessed 08/31/2011.

6. Rebecca Rosen. Priority Appointment Request. Available online at http://www.jotform.com/form/81534713925. Accessed 08/31/2011.

7. Rebecca Rosen. Private Readings. Available online at http://rebeccarosen.com/private_readings.html. Accessed 08/31/2011.

8. Vendini. Available online at http://www.vendini.com/. Accessed 09/01/2011.

9. Rowland, Ian. 2008. The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading: A Comprehensive Guide to the Most Persuasive Psychological Manipulation Technique in the World. 4th Revised Edition. Full Facts Books.

Past-life regression therapy was popularized in 1952 in Pueblo, Colorado, when Virginia Tighe was hypnotized by Morey Bernstein. In a trance, she revealed that she had experienced a former life as Bridey Murphy, a nineteenth-century Irishwoman. Under hypnosis, Tighe/Murphy sang Irish songs, told stories, and provided a remarkably detailed account about her childhood in Cork, her parents Duncan and Kathleen, her marriage to Sean Brian McCarthy, her move to Belfast, the accident that caused her death, and witnessing her own funeral.¹

Here was seemingly amazing proof of the existence of past lives; Tighe revealed startlingly vivid information about her former life although she’d never been to Ireland. But one woman had—Bridie Murphy Corkell, an Irish immigrant who lived across the street from Tighe’s childhood home. Tighe was recounting someone else’s memories, embellished by her own imagination.

Fast forward sixty years, and past-life regression is still practiced—but is generally reduced to psychic fair readings where everyone was Marie Antoinette in a former life. However, there are still people who practice past-life regression as a form of therapy.

A Day in the Life

I attended “Past Life Recall,” a presentation by “certified” past-life regression therapists Greg McHugh and Paula Robbins.

Have you ever wondered why you have deep-seated fears or strong feelings about periods in history, cultures, individual relationships, events or places to visit with no rational explanation whatsoever? Immobilizing fear of heights, sharp objects, closed in places, being alone or fire are common irrational fears that many deal with. Have you ever considered why you might have a powerful connection with an era, or certain historic objects? It’s possible these inexplicable and powerful phobias, addictions or attachments do have an explanation. Could it be you have a deep subconscious embedding of an experience of another life in another time or lifetimes? Deep within our DNA or cellular make-up it is likely we have a complete soul history and possibly embedding of all cosmic history.²

McHugh is a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist practicing in Denver, Colorado. He is the author of The New Regression Therapy: Healing the Wounds and Trauma of This Life and Past Lives with the Presence and Light of the Divine. McHugh teaches classes through his Golden Portal Institute, “created for the purpose of service to God and humankind and the teaching [of] the ancient mysteries through direct experience, healing, initiation, and teaching the tools of inner healing to ministers, teachers, healers and other healthcare practitioners.”³ His New Regression Therapy involves:

Facilitating regression to the causes of dysfunction patterns and reflected experience patterns in this and past lives.

Application of Divine Resources and Light to trauma events to return perception to that which is in accord with the Self or the True Being within.

Spirit Releasement: identification and use of protocols for the clearing of attached deceased human spirits and energies of other types of spirits.⁴

Robbins is certified through McHugh’s Golden Portal Institute. She operates Sunrise Hypnotherapy in Denver where she uses Cellular Release Therapy, Regression Work, Spiritual Guidance, Etheric Plane Communication and Energy Clearing. A believer in the law of attraction, she has produced a number of self-hypnosis/affirmation CDs with vague claims to “recharge your spirit” and “open your entire energy system and vibration to one of receiving and abundance.”⁵

The event was a conversation between the speakers and audience. McHugh and Robbins shared anecdotes about their experiences and patients but didn’t discuss any supportive research for their theories.

Entranced

McHugh began by sharing his first experience of past-life regression. Placed in a trance, he suddenly heard drumming and somehow knew he was in Papua New Guinea. At the very same time, he was involved in an Apache Indian initiation ceremony. These experiences were “more vivid than regular perception.” Then he saw a future life, with a different family. Yet he was still in the present, and he realized these were his different lives being lived concurrently, “even my friends saw the Aborigines.” Robbins also claims she has had many past lives, including one in which she’d been burned at the stake for witchcraft.

In contradiction, McHugh and Robbins also spoke about the “interlife,” the life between our lives. They believe we have lives between our lives but yet all of our lives are lived concurrently; “Time is not linear. Lives are parallel. It all happens in the soul at the same time.” Robbins promotes hypnotherapy as a way to find one’s “path of true purpose” and to learn about the “soul’s history” and how the “soul’s history factors into today.”

McHugh and Robbins’s theories seem to incorporate religious elements, including beliefs from Buddhism and Hinduism, and there was also a lot of New Age speak and talk of god, angels, near death experiences, spirit guides, and an “oversoul.” There were even elements of Scientology in the belief that traumatic experiences (known as “engrams” in Dianetics) are somehow embedded in the psyche. The pair claimed that their past-life regression techniques take patients back to the cause of the dysfunction to heal the trauma.

By their theory, experiences in one life are carried into other lives. For example, “If you have musical talent in one life that impression goes onto the soul.” McHugh spoke of a client who is a mechanical engineer and wondered why he was so passionate about his profession. “I regressed him back to a life in the 1800s and showed him the buildings he had designed.” They claim that our past lives explain the careers, passions, and dislikes of our current lives; “If someone doesn’t like something about their lives, we can find out the cause.”

Similarly, traumas leave “impressions.” If not healed, these traumas remain as destructive elements until they are healed in another life. For example, Robbins shared the story of a seven-year-old girl who would panic when her mother traveled on frequent business trips. During her first hypnotherapy session, it was uncovered that in a previous life the girl’s parents had died in an automobile accident. She was now harboring anxiety from this previous experience. Without explaining her curative techniques, Robbins claimed she “healed” the girl through hypnosis. When the mother announced her next trip, her daughter replied calmly, “Have a nice time, Mommy.”

McHugh and Robbins believe their therapy can treat a range of disorders and states through both face-to-face therapy and remote or “surrogate” healing. The conditions they claim to heal include anxiety and depression, although McHugh and Robbins seemed to deny the existence of mental illnesses, referring to these as “emotional disturbances” that are a product of negative experiences and “dark beings” from former lives.

Instead of recommending that such a patient seek a mental healthcare practitioner, they advocated regression to previous lives to address the core issue: “Only addressing this life will not create healing. It’s like pulling weeds; you need to get them from the roots.” They claim that when an issue is resolved in one life, it is resolved in every life. “Say you lived in the 1400s and you were healed now; you would be healed of everything between the 1400s up to now.”

Choose Your Own Adventure

According to McHugh and Robbins, our souls “choose our lives.” We choose our lives to learn, evolve, and heal the wounds of our past lives before we move into the next life. We also choose our parents, and our friends and family feature in our other lives. “My daughters in this life were my daughters in many of my other lives.” The therapists were asked, “How many lives do we have?” McHugh cited an example of a person who had lived 600 different lives; “I have a client who in ninety sessions has had ninety past lives. He keeps coming back to hear about his other lives.”

The past-life sessions I have had were more psychic readings than therapy; the practitioner entered into a trance and recounted my former lives. These included a life as a convict brought to Australia from England on the First Fleet and a life as an Australian Aboriginal who lived in the outback (compare with McHugh’s claim that he was an indigenous American). In contrast, past-life regressions involve the hypnosis of patients who retell stories from their imagination. Like the Bridey Murphy case, these are usually based on the second-hand experiences of the patient.

McHugh and Robbins proudly told tales of their own “former lives,” but they denied that the details and stories of the regressions are important; “only the feelings are important.” However, clients take away from their sessions the fantasies they relay to their therapists: stories of being burned at the stake, tribal ritual rites, or being Marie Antoinette in a former life.

Past-life regression is all about suggestion but when asked about it, the therapists rejected the need to guard against memory implantation. They denied using leading questions or suggestion with clients. Robbins stated that she instead asks “yes” or “no” questions, for example, “Did Uncle Harold molest you when you were five?” Of course, this is still the same thing. As human memory expert Elizabeth Loftus reports, “Individuals are being imprisoned on the ‘evidence’ provided by memories that come back in dreams and flashbacks—memories that did not exist until a person wandered into therapy and was asked point-blank, “Were you ever sexually abused as a child?”⁶

The Way We Weren’t

Past-life regression therapy, repressed memory therapy, hypnosis, guided visualization; trance writing, dream work, and other related pseudoscientific therapies are dangerous for their tendencies to create false memories. As demonstrated by Elizabeth Loftus and colleagues, repressed memory therapy has lead to the creation of false memories and confabulations of sexual molestation, satanic ritual abuse, and alien abductions.

Furthermore, past-life regression therapy fails to diagnose and treat real physical and psychological conditions. In one case, a woman was estranged from her abusive father.⁷ Under hypnosis, this patient relayed the story that she had formerly lived in medieval Britain. In that life, she was allegedly a falsely accused criminal and her father was a law enforcement officer who had slain her. This fantasy was presented as an explanation for her relationship difficulties with her father, completely dismissing the fact that she had grown up a victim of physical and sexual abuse. This experience intensified her anger and resentment toward her father to the point that she reported feelings of violence and a desire to seek revenge for her alleged “murder.” If past-life regression was a legitimate therapy, this would have been a case of malpractice.

There are many different modalities and schools of thought in hypnotherapy. In the end, past-life regression therapy comes down to the individual beliefs of the practitioner. McHugh, Robbins, and other past-life regression therapists are teaching their own personal beliefs, and their clients are being diagnosed and “treated” by their own fantasies.

References

1. Carroll, Robert. T. 2010. Bridey Murphy. The Skeptic’s Dictionary. Available at http://skepdic.com/bridey.html; accessed August 21, 2011.

2. Paranormal Research Forum. Available at www.paranormalresearchforum.com/#aaa; accessed August 20, 2011.

3.McHugh, Greg. Golden Portal Institute. Available at http://gregmchugh.com/goldenportalinstitute.html; accessed August 19, 2011.

4. McHugh, Greg. 2011. The New Regression Therapy (handout).

5. Robbins, Paula. 2011. Sunrise Hypnotherapy brochure.

6. Loftus, Elizabeth. 1995. Remembering dangerously. Skeptical Inquirer 19(2). Available at www.csicop.org/si/show/remembering_dangerously/; accessed August 21, 2011.

7. Personal spoken correspondence on August 22, 2011.

Skin cancer presents some frightening statistics. Today, it is the most common form of cancer in the United States with more than 3.5 million cases diagnosed in more than 2 million people annually.¹ One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of his or her lifetime,² and every hour one American dies from skin cancer.³

There are three main types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and melanomas. Although melanomas also have a genetic component, skin cancers are caused by repeated unprotected sun exposure, sunburn, and tanning. These factors cause DNA damage that triggers skin cells to mutate. Over time, these mutations turn into skin cancers.

Fortunately, skin cancer is recognizable, and most cases are curable if caught early enough. Moreover, skin cancer is preventable. Our best protection against skin cancer is sunscreen, but this important defense is often demonized by pseudoscientific sources. Similar to the anti-vaccination movement, there is an anti-sunscreen movement, and its inaccurate, conflicting, and misleading claims about sunscreen can be fatal.

This article aims to investigate some claims about skin cancer, sunscreen, and the sun, sorting the facts from the myths and misconceptions.

Is Sunscreen Toxic?

Many online sources purport to reveal the “truth” about sunscreen. These include claims that sunscreen doesn’t work, that sunscreen is poisonous, and that sunscreen actually causes cancer. The underlying premise seems to be that the chemicals used in sunscreens are more harmful than the sun’s rays.

About to release her own line of beauty products, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen said about sunscreen, “I cannot put this poison on my skin. I do not use anything synthetic.”⁴ She has since claimed that her comments were misconstrued, but the spurious sound bite “sunscreen is poison” was already public.

Despite what Bundchen believes, natural doesn’t necessarily equal “good,” and synthetic doesn’t necessarily equal “bad.” Like other skin care products we use every day, sunscreens contain chemicals, but these products are tested for safety before they become available to the public. Formulations containing titanium oxide and zinc oxide are gentle enough for babies, children, and people suffering from sensitive or rosacea-affected skin. These chemicals are so safe that zinc oxide is a food additive that appears in many breakfast cereals, and titanium dioxide is used in food coloring, medicine, and toothpaste.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health explains that sunscreens are nontoxic when used as directed, and “sunscreen poisoning…occurs [only] when someone accidentally or intentionally swallows sunscreen.”⁵ Not when we slather it on our skin. Despite this fact, it is not unusual to come across quotes like the following: “Sadly, ‘sunscreen’ and ‘sunblock’ has all been a scam. They do not protect us from the Sun. But they do disrupt our hormones (feminizing men and disrupting female physiology and body chemistry).”⁶ This belief is based on a small body of research indicating that the ingredient oxybenzone, which is found in some sunscreens, may mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. This occurred in rats that were fed high doses of the chemical. However, an independent report examined all the evidence and concluded that the animal studies relied on unrealistically high doses of oxybenzone. They found that only small doses of the chemical are absorbed through normal sunscreen use (chemical absorption is a common occurrence with skin care products) and that there was no evidence of toxicity or that the chemical set off hormonal changes in humans.⁷

“Did you know that most sunscreen products may actually help promote cancer rather than prevent it? That being the case, you should think twice before you marinate yourself in all those chemicals that can be found in any commercially made sunscreen products.”⁸ Statements such as these raise questions about the safety of sunscreens containing nanoparticles, a form of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide that reduces the white color of these chemicals on the skin. The fear is that nanoparticles of these chemicals can be absorbed into the skin and will interact with sunlight to increase the risk of damage to these cells. Scare-mongering sources claim that sunscreens containing nanoparticles cause cancer. However, studies suggest that these nanoparticles don’t penetrate the skin:

There is evidence from isolated cell experiments that zinc oxide and titanium dioxide can induce free radical formation in the presence of light and that this may damage these cells (photo-mutagenicity with zinc oxide). However, this would only be of concern in people using sunscreens if the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide penetrated into viable skin cells. The weight of current evidence is that they remain on the surface of the skin and in the outer dead layer (stratum corneum) of the skin.⁹

Are Tanning Beds a Safe Way to Tan?

Gone are the days of the “healthy tan” where the emphasis was on sun tanning rather than sun protection. The message we’ve heard again and again is that there is no such thing as a safe sun tan. We’ve also heard that the only safe tan is a fake tan, referring to self-tanners and bronzing powders. Unfortunately, some assume “sunless tanning” also refers to tanning beds and sun lamps, and that these are safe alternatives to tanning in the sun. This is dangerously untrue; ultraviolet radiation is not healthy, whether it comes from a tanning bed or from the sun.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services has declared ultraviolet radiation from artificial sources, such as tanning beds and sun lamps, as a known carcinogen.¹⁰ People who use these devices have significantly higher rates of skin cancer.¹¹ Ultraviolet rays are the primary cause of skin cancer; they can also lead to eye cancers and other ocular conditions and weaken the immune system.

From a cosmetic perspective, tanning is actually a sign of skin damage. Tans are created by the production of the pigment melanin, revealing skin cells that have been damaged by ultraviolet radiation. Rather than providing a sun-kissed look, tanning beds provide that prematurely aged look: wrinkles, skin discolorations, dull-looking skin, and a loss of skin elasticity. Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.¹² Of all the miraculous claims of the cosmetic industry, there is no better beauty product than simple sunscreen.

Some beauty salons promote false health benefits of tanning beds, claiming that they increase the body’s production of vitamin D. Tanning beds are positioned as the safe alternative to natural sun tanning, and by this bad logic it is claimed they “prevent cancer.” However, although UVB rays help the body produce vitamin D, tanning beds emit predominately UVA rays, the rays that cause skin cancer.¹³

Make Vitamin D While the Sun Shines

Speaking of vitamin D, many new age sources claim that sunscreen causes osteoporosis, rickets, and other similar conditions. These concerns are probably borne from the knowledge that vitamin D is produced in the body via the sun, and some studies suggest that sunscreen inhibits the body’s ability to create vitamin D.

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for the body; it ensures bone health and protects us from immune diseases and some forms of cancer. Vitamin D deficiency is dangerous, and low blood levels of the vitamin have been associated with cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, and cancer. Vitamin D is produced via the sun, but it can also be acquired from foods containing the vitamin, including salmon and tuna, from fortified products such as breakfast cereals and orange juice, and through supplements. Many physicians recommend patients have their vitamin D levels checked to determine their individual state of health and requirements.¹⁴

Various sources recommend ten, twenty, or even thirty minutes of unprotected sun exposure daily to produce vitamin D, but this advice is unhelpful given the variances of sunlight across geographic locations. Moreover, unprotected sun exposure is not worth the risk. Again, the message is don’t give up your sunscreen.

Interestingly, one study suggests that we still produce vitamin D even if we use sunscreen:

In theory, correct usage of sunscreens should significantly reduce vitamin D levels. However, this is not the case in practice. In fact, several studies have demonstrated that sunscreens are rarely applied correctly, in the right dosages and with appropriate frequency. Therefore, under real-world conditions it is likely that the improper use of sunscreen and/or increased exposure time, result in production of vitamin D among sunscreen users.¹⁵

Are You What You Eat?

Various new age sites claim that a diet rich in tomato paste, spinach, soybeans, dark chocolate, cold-water fish, goji berries, green tea, and broccoli juice affords better sun protection than sunscreen. There is a little science behind this sensationalism. For example, tomatoes contain lycopene, a carotenoid that contains antioxidants and antiproliferative properties. Studies show it has been associated with reduced incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and macular degeneration. Studies also suggest that leafy green foods might lower the risk of squamous cell carcinoma.¹⁶ These foods may afford some additional benefits, but they are no substitute for sunscreen.

Various sources offer the bad advice that we should eschew sunscreen and chew certain foods instead. One site promotes “going Primal,” a lifestyle advocating diet, supplements, and sun exposure to “bolster our natural sunblock”:¹⁷

As summer descends upon the world, a young Primal eater’s fancy turns to playful frolicking in the sunshine. And when you’re frolicking, the last thing you want to do is slather a bunch of horrible-smelling, greasy, overpriced sunblock all over your body. It makes you slippery and imbues your countenance with a deathly pallor that is very unbecoming. If you could, you’d love to avoid the nasty practice altogether. You’d love to use more alternative methods. Methods that may not have the support of the medical community, but for which supportive research does exist.

It is disturbing to read the ignorant testimonials on this site; especially those revealing irresponsible parental behavior:

Very interesting post. My wife and I have stopped using sunscreen this year, as my son reacts to every type we’ve ever used on him. We use ourselves as a barometer to know when to cover both him and ourselves up.

My three have great tans too! It is so interesting to see the difference with the diet shift. I often forget to bring sunscreen places like the beach because we rarely need it so it doesn’t cross my mind anymore!

west central florida. plenty of sun, no problem no sun screen. just right eating

Seafood salad with tomatoes – sounds so much tastier than sunblock! Thanks!

I too had several horrific sunburns as a child and your complexion sounds pretty similar to my own. In my case, living primally provided total sun protection. At age 35 my skin is healthier than ever before, despite my blasting it with UV at every opportunity.

I have to say that my body’s natural skin protection has been one of the most surprising affects of going Primal. Both in my husband, myself and the kids. We are very fair skin folk and all our lives we have been caking on the sun screen and still getting the two or three time a year peeling skin sunburns…..since going Primal….not one sunburn for any of us!! And we don’t us sunscreen, not even on the kids. We play outside a lot and we all have nice light tans going and have yet to get sunburn, even on the 4th of July when we spent the whole day out in the sun…not one oz of sunscreen used!! Ditch the sunscreen and go Primal!!

It is inconclusive whether or not diet can prevent skin cancer, but it is conclusive that sunscreen prevents skin cancer.

Sun Factor Facts

Bigger is not always better. Most of us assume that when it comes to sunscreen, the higher the Sun Protection Factor (SPF), the better the protection. However, the SPF represents time, not quality. The number determines how long someone can stay in the sun without burning. The longer a person will be exposed to the sun (either outside or through windows), the higher the SPF that person should use.

Most sources recommend using a sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher but not too high. Sunscreens that contain a SPF of 70+ are overkill for skin. These products contain sensitizing preservatives that can irritate skin. Moreover, the marketing confuses consumers into thinking that the higher the number, the better the protection:

Consider that someone with fair skin whose skin turns pink after 20 minutes of unprotected sun exposure would be protected from sunburn for 10 hours if they applied a sunscreen rated SPF 30 (30 x 20 = 600 minutes or 10 hours). With SPF 110, the protection would be 110 x 20, or about 36 hours of protection, and there just aren’t that many hours of daylight in any part of the world.¹⁸

A very important consideration when choosing a sunscreen is finding one that protects against both UVA and UVB radiation, as not all products do. Furthermore, sunscreen should be applied liberally fifteen to twenty minutes before exposure to the sun. It should be reapplied every few hours and after perspiring or swimming. To be potent, sunscreen should be replaced every year. Of course, sunscreen should be used in conjunction with protective clothing and sunglasses. Finally, it is vital that we monitor ourselves for new (and any changes to existing) moles, marks, bumps, and lesions on the skin and that we are monitored by a medical professional.

Save Your Skin

When it comes to skin cancer, prevention is the best cure and sunscreen is the best prevention. The anti-sunscreen movement is strong, and there is an abundance of unreliable and potentially hazardous advice online. For trustworthy advice, visit the Skin Cancer Foundation¹⁹ and the Food and Drug Administration,²⁰ which has recently created a set of sunscreen guidelines for consumers.

Acknowledgement

For Scott.

References

1. Rogers, H.W., M.A. Weinstock, A.R. Harris, et al. 2010. Incidence estimate of nonmelanoma skin cancer in the United States, 2006. Archives of Dermatology 146(3): 283–87.

2. Robinson, J.K. 2005. Sun exposure, sun protection, and vitamin D. Journal of the American Medical Association 294: 1541–43.

3. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2010. Available at www.cancer.org/research/cancerfactsfigures/cancerfactsfigures/cancer-facts-and-figures-2010; accessed January 24, 2011.

4. It’s poison: Gisele Bundchen angers cancer experts by saying people shouldn’t wear sun lotion. Daily Mail. Available at www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1353581/Gisele-Bundchen-angers-cancer-experts-saying-sun-cream-poison.html; accessed July 21, 2011.

5. U.S. National Institutes of Health. Swallowing sunscreen. Available at www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002718.htm; accessed July 24, 2011.

6. Wells, Ashley, and Amber Dorrian. 2011. Sunscreen is toxic! Protect skin with food (blog post). Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal. Available at http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.com/2011/06/sunscreen-is-toxic-protect-skin-with.html; accessed July 21, 2011.

7. Mark E. Burnett and Steven Q. Wang. 2011.Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review. Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine 27(2). Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0781.2011.00557.x/full; accessed July 21, 2011.

8. Sunscreen may cause cancer. HealingDeva.com. Available at http://healingdeva.com/sunscreen_cancer.htm; accessed July 21, 2011.

9. Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia. TGA Fact Sheet: Sunscreen. Available at www.tga.gov.au/safety/alerts-medicine-sunscreens-051202.htm; accessed July 21, 2011.

10. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program. Report on Carcinogens, Eleventh Edition (Ultraviolet Radiation Related Exposures).

11. Tanning salons promote wrinkling and skin cancer. The Cosmetics Cop. Available at www.cosmeticscop.com/tanning-skin-cancer-tanning-salons-bed.aspx; accessed July 22, 2011.

12. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Health effects of overexposure to the sun. Available at www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvandhealth.html; accessed July 21, 2011.

13. Vitamin D. The Cosmetics Cop. Available at www.cosmeticscop.com/skin-care-facts-vitamin-d-supplement-sunscreen-use.aspx; accessed July 21, 2011.

14. Vitamin D: As a supplement and sunscreen use. The Cosmetics Cop. Available at www.cosmeticscop.com/skin-care-facts-vitamin-d-supplement-sunscreen-use.aspx; accessed July 22, 2011.

15. Mark E. Burnett and Steven Q. Wang. 2011.Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review. Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine 27(2): 58–67. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0781.2011.00557.x/full; accessed July 21, 2011.

16. Hughes, Maria C., Jolieke C. van der Pols, Geoffrey C. Marks, and Adèle C. Green. 2006. Food intake and risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin in a community: The Nambour skin cancer cohort study. International Journal of Cancer 119(8): 1953–60.

17. 8 natural ways to prevent a sunburn (and sunscreen’s not one of them). Mark’s Daily Apple. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/8-natural-ways-to-prevent-a-sunburn-and-sunscreens-not-one-of-them/; accessed July 21, 2011.

18. Beautypedia. Available at www.beautypedia.com/; accessed July 21, 2011.

19. Skin Cancer Foundation (www.skincancer.org; accessed July 20, 2011).

20. Food and Drug Administration. Sunscreen. Available at www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/UnderstandingOver-the-CounterMedicines/ucm239463.htm; accessed July 21, 2011.

Psychic medium Nancy Bradley is “one of the foremost leaders in the world of the paranormal today,” “the top psychic, healer and empowerment coach in the world,” and the “Celebrities Psychic” [sic]…if she does say so herself.¹

Quite like John Edward, Nancy began her career as a dancer, but soon realized that her true calling was to become a professional psychic. Nowadays, Nancy reports that she is booked three months in advance and has a crew of loyal clients. Her testimonials are impressive; here's what Jane G. says about Nancy:

Chuck had a reading with the Dalai Lama who went to his hotel room. After the reading he took what he had heard with a grain of salt. He said, “I take more credence in what Nancy tells me.”²

Jennifer B. says that Nancy is:

better than any therapist, doctor, shrink, or confidant I've ever seen.

Nancy's motto is “Murder, Mayhem, Ghosts and Live TV. All in a day's work!” She is the author of several vanity press books, including Truth in Healing, Be a Ghost Buster and The World According to Nancy Bradley. She is a star of local television and radio, but not of Ghost Girls, her ghost hunting show that never made it to air.

Psychic Development at the Truth Center

Every Friday, Nancy teaches “psychic development” classes at her home in Placerville, California. This is the “Truth Center…where only truth in psychic work is accepted.” The courses treat a broad range of paranormal topics, including “Nancy Talks to Deceased Celebrities,” “Bringing your Valentine to You,” and “Monsters Among Us—Real Creatures That Still Walk the Earth.”

Years ago, I attended a lesson on how to become a psychic detective: “Communicating with Murder Victims—Help Soothe and Find their Bodies.” Nancy claims that four million people receive her newsletters about these courses, but only about twenty fans attended this class. I was in a room full of psychics, from novices to seasoned psychics, all in various stages of their spiritual growth. But these courses are for everyone; Nancy assured us that “everyone has psychic abilities!”

“How many of you think you're ready for communicating with those who've been murdered?” she asked. Only five people raised their hands. “Yes, it is a tough job,” Nancy murmured sagely. “Not everyone wants to do this painful work, but we are all capable of learning how to do it.”

Nancy implored us to be patient in acquiring the necessary skills: “You need to trust the self, to trust your instincts and learn the work in baby steps. This is a long-term goal and you need to develop the tools for this gift.” However, “until you're an expert, don't bother the police.” Learners should experiment first by monitoring current cases and testing their abilities to predict clues and the location of the subject. Consistency is vital. One must be 100 percent accurate in solving eight separate cases before one has achieved “expert status,” like Nancy, who claims to have performed psychic detective work for NASA, the FBI, the CIA, and the Coast Guard.

You must be able to prove to your psychic teacher, and to yourself, that you are capable of this work before you ever approach the authorities to offer your services. “DO NOT force it to happen!” Nancy said. “Put yourself in the shoes of the family—don't offer false hope and faulty leads.”

Nancy will only work for the police if she is invited to do so. Sometimes the deceased won't wait and come to her, such as the man who was killed in a car accident outside Nancy's home and proceeded to walk straight into her office! However, Nancy refuses to participate in cases where other psychics have previously worked. They have left their psychic scent behind, and this “muddies the waters, leading to dead ends.” Furthermore, Nancy won't provide her psychic services to family and friends because they become “too emotional and this is harder to read.” Presumably, murder victims are less emotional.

Nancy never charges for finding the murdered; this is her “gift of love.” However, a reading is no gift: $175 for a scheduled telephone reading and $250 for urgent readings. For those on a budget, a one-question mini-reading comes at a mere $75. An Amazing Energy Healing session costs $125 and a Quick Energy Healing costs $35 for a fifteen- minute session. A one-on-one psychic development class costs $850, while her group classes cost $35 per session.

Nancy reports that the police are bombarded with bogus leads from “phony psychics. The government estimates that for every one true psychic there are 50 000 shonky psychics.” Nancy's Truth Center “legitimizes psychic work,” because “currently, anyone can put out a shingle and call themselves a psychic.” But surely there can't be any phony psychics, when, by Nancy's own admission, we are all psychic? As Nancy's brochure contradicts, “Does your PSYCHIC insist they were BORN PSYCHIC? Real Psychics know that EVERYONE is born Psychic.”³

“How to Communicate with Murder Victims”

Nancy told us that when we begin to contact a murder victim, we first need to establish whether the individual is indeed deceased, or merely missing. Putting her hand to her chest, Nancy explained that we know if the person is dead or alive, “by the way your heart feels.” Is there a heartbeat or not? If there is a heartbeat there is some urgency to the task, as “most murders occur within five hours of the kidnapping.” The victim's life is in jeopardy; he or she could be “held for ransom, or the victim of a sexual crime or torture.”

How do we detect the subject's heartbeat (or lack thereof)? Acquire a photo of the person. Look into his or her eyes. Connect with the person's heartbeat. You will feel a “pulling energy” and your heart will start to race. Then, “get rid of your heartbeat.” This is achieved by calming your heartbeat, and then aligning your chakras. Nancy demonstrated this act, curling her hands into fists, placing one fist on her head and then raising it in a straight line before repeating the act with the other hand. It looked as though she was pulling an invisible rope out of her head. After aligning your head chakra, stretch your arms above your head and in a graceful motion of vertical breaststroke, sweep your arms downwards into a crucifixion-like pose. With your palms splayed outwards, you have aligned your heart chakra. “Can you feel that? No heartbeat!” Nancy enthused, as awed gasps filled the room.

You have now “lost your heartbeat.” When you lower your hands, you can then tune into the body of the victim. Check yourself for a pulse. If you have a pulse, you have picked up the heartbeat of the person, and they are still alive! If it is slow, the person may be drugged. “If there is no heartbeat you can assume the person is dead.”

If you don't have a photograph, rely on information such as the appearance, gender or age of the person, or the last place the person was seen. “Don't go off what they were wearing; they might be naked now, or have changed clothes.” Psychometry, reading a personal object owned by the subject, “is a great tool for beginners.” Nancy claims she once located a murdered child after reading a “dirty diaper.”

When you start the reading, you will enter into a trance, a “state of suspended animation. It's like absent-mindedness or being on auto-pilot.” Now you have tuned into the victim. “Hug them. Reach out for them and take their hand. This puts them at ease and creates an energy cord. You have touched them because, astrally, you are there.” Comfort the person and tell them, “It's okay. Nothing more bad can happen to you now.” Then, most victims will ask the heart-wrenching question, “Am I dead?” Often they won't know that they have passed. “Don't lie to the dead!” urged Nancy. “Always tell them the truth. Tell them they're dead!”

The energy cord feels “like a spider web. It's all gooey and warm and comes out of your fingers.” Don't let go of it! “Once I held the cord for three days. Showering, driving, sleeping, I never let go.” To ensure her grip is tight, Nancy often wraps the cord around her neck, or her waist.

Now, “take yourself astrally to the person.” This is when your “etheric body” travels to a desired location, Nancy explained, “on a plane, train, through the woods…whatever it takes. I astral travel all the time. I astrally visit my cousin in New York and he cries 'Get outta here!'” It is a safe process for you to travel to the victim astrally. “Your soul won't stay if you are in danger,” explained Nancy; “the cord will shrivel up. You are a vessel for God, and God won't hurt his vessel.”

Follow the cord to the victim. Chat with him or her as you go along. Ask for information; a name, age, details of the murder. Knowledge thickens the cord and strengthens your connection to the victim. Occasionally, the cord will wobble and waver. Beware. This is “black energy, the negative energy of a perpetrator.” Perhaps the perpetrator has returned to “view his handiwork.” Nancy once worked on the case of a murdered female child and felt strong waves through the cord: “the murderer kept bringing his classmates along to see the body.” If you can, maintain your grip on the cord, “but if it gets too much for you, just drop the cord.”

Nancy says that working with children is easier than with adults. “Kids know the other side. They are closer to the other side than to Earth. Until a child is 7-8 years of age they are still connected to the etheric and anxious to go home.” In contrast, adults are angry, bitter and vengeful. “As soon as they see me they start to whine and shout. All they want is revenge for their death.” Working with children may be easier, but it requires tact, and patience. “Go to the child. Smile, so that the child knows you're good. Talk softly, gently, evenly. Sit next to them. Allow them to talk, to cry, but don't push them. Their memories will be painful, and difficult for them to understand. Cuddle them and don't leave them alone.” Sometimes a child will ask, “Can I see Mommy?” Tell them that they need to travel over to the other side to “prepare a special place so that Mommy can be with them too one day.” Also a pet psychic, Nancy admitted that animal murders caused her the most pain. “Animals are more pure than humans,” she explained.

The dead body is a perfect one. “At the minute of death the body is made whole again. If the person was beheaded, they will have their head back again. If they are born without an arm, they will have an arm upon death.” They will also have a “fairy dust appearance. They'll be all sparkly. This is because they are changing from breathing to the etheric. They don't need to breathe anymore.”

Soon a deceased loved one will appear to take the person on a journey to the other side. “For children, Grandma or Grandpa usually appears. There is nearly always someone, a guide, waiting to collect you on the other side. Only in the rare case of a few homeless people have I not seen a relative or friend waiting for the deceased.”

Guides are eager to see their loved ones and often impatient to escort them to the other side. “But don't let them transition until you have all of the information you need. Your job is to put the perpetrator behind bars.” Explain to the anxious guides that you are there to solve the murder, and that this is a gift for the family. Tell them to “back off” until you've gathered the details of the murder.

The victim should not be “released from life” until they have responded to the following survey:

• Who did this to you?
• What is his/her name?
• What is his/her age?
• Can you describe the appearance of this person?
• What did this person say to you?
• Where did this person take you?
• Where is this person now?
• What events led to your abduction?

Then ask the victim for a special word or image to be repeated to their loved ones still on Earth. “You don't know how comforting and emotional it is for the family to receive a message from the victim. It gives them peace of mind and proof that someone has spoken to them.” The psychic will receive all kinds of verbal, visual and cognitive messages during the communication. Remember, “Thought travels faster than sound or light.”

“You might 'see' the crime scene, or colors surrounding the deceased. Blue indicates that the body is in water. Brown indicates that the body is on land, so does green. Turquoise or aquamarine tells us that the body is near water, or on the water's edge.” Tip: if the scene is bloody with no body it's a good bet that the scene was staged. Sometimes the victim isn't really dead at all, but doesn't want to be found for personal or financial reasons. Sometimes the deceased don't want to be found either, if they've been involved in something sinister or shameful. “One young girl was involved in porn and didn't want her family to know the circumstances surrounding her death.”

During this turbulent time between Earth and the Other Side, between life and death itself, the deceased will be in limbo. “The life cord doesn't leave for three to five days,” Nancy explained. “Notice that when someone dies it doesn't hit us for the first few days? We start to grieve properly when the life cord disappears.” The life cord is part of the chakra system. It grows from our navel to the center of the Earth, connecting us to this plane until death. For this reason, never cremate the deceased for at least three to five days after death. “Cremation before this time doesn't hurt but it will cause the person to jolt because they are still connected to the Earth,” Nancy shivered to demonstrate the deceased's reaction to premature cremation.

Death is generally predestined, including murder. Murders are planned. They are purposeful. Sad, yet meant to be. In a circular argument Nancy claims that “such a tragedy leads the family to start up a support group, or set up a charity in the name of the victim.” However, suicides are unplanned. “If you suicide your soul group isn't prepared. You've taken yourself out prematurely.”

Most of us will be recognised by a soul group when we die. The murdered will be welcomed, but not the murderer. “Murderers have no souls. As a result, they have no soul group.”

In the world according to Nancy, this is how psychics can “find missing murder victims, soothe their distress and help their transition to the afterlife.”

A Current Case

To test our psychic skills, Nancy led a reading of a current case. She wasn't involved in this one, “as only phony psychics talk about their cases and reveal information to the media. [But she can brag about supposedly working for NASA, the FBI, the CIA and the Coast Guard!] Psychic detective work is an act of love, not to be abused.” If it is abused, it is lost. Apparently, psychic Alison DuBois has “squelched her gift by exploiting it. It's a God-given trust.” Ironically, Nancy's “Phony Psychics” handout announces:

Does your Psychic badmouth other Psychics, ESPECIALLY accomplished, famous or well-known PROVEN PSYCHICS? Beware of the jealousy factor. This is a serious giveaway for a phony Psychic, a charlatan, and a scammer. These “so called” Psychics are envious of the real thing and are running scared because their limited or non-existent gift cannot compete with REAL PSYCHICS…RUN!!!!!

Nancy raised the case of missing person Stacy Peterson. With reference to the 2002 Laci Peterson murder case she said, “If my name was Peterson, I'd be changing it! First Laci, then Stacy!” Nancy's knowledge about the case was inaccurate. “Stacy disappeared in Minnesota….” (This was incorrect; she disappeared in Illinois.) “Stacy's 23 years of age.” (Wrong again; she was 22 at the time.) “She's been missing since early November.” (Wrong yet again, she was last seen on October 28, 2007.)

“So…is Stacy alive or dead? Who thinks she's dead?” Nancy asked flippantly. Most hands were raised. “Who thinks she's alive?” A few hands went up gingerly for dissenting. I was conspicuous for not responding to the questions, and Nancy zoomed in on me. “What do you think, honey? Go by your intuition and you'll never be wrong.” I paused. “I just don't know enough about the case to guess,” I replied. “Oh. You don't know the details of the case. Okay then.” This seemed like an admission that psychic detective work is merely guesswork, influenced by media coverage of a case. “For those who said she's dead, you're correct,” praised Nancy.

Throughout the discussion, the group's superficial analyses were based in stereotyping and bias, and centered on the victim's 53-year-old husband, former police officer Drew Peterson. Drew was the main suspect, especially in the trial by media. The psychics' comments included: “Her husband looks like a bully”; “He's a misogynist”; “He's a wife beater”; “He is cold and unfeeling”; “He was jealous of her youth and accused her of cheating”; “He did away with his previous wife too”; “He's overpowering her”; and “She's crying for help and he loves the sense of control he has over her.” Led by Nancy, the group mutually concluded that Stacy's body would be found near water within ten days to two weeks.

This class was conducted on 29th November, 2007. Sadly, Stacy is still missing and her body has not been found.⁴

School's Out

Nancy teaches her own esoteric beliefs that are not testable, but her psychic detective readings can be examined for hits and misses; although these are “confidential.” Refusing to reveal her alleged police work affords her protection from any failures. However, if her conclusions about the Stacy Peterson case are an indication, her psychic abilities are unconvincing.

This article has been in Nancy's own words; so, to finish in her own words:

DON'T DEGRADE YOURSELF IF YOU HAVE BEEN TAKEN IN BY A PHONY PSYCHIC. THESE PEOPLE ARE SLICK CON ARTISTS.⁵

References

1. Nancy Bradley. http://www.nancybradley.org/ Accessed 06/07/2011. ↑

2. Nancy Bradley — Celebrity Psychic. Handout. ↑

3. Nancy Bradley. Phony Psychics. Handout. ↑

4. Find Stacy Peterson. http://findstacypeterson.net/ Accessed 06/09/2011. ↑

5. Nancy Bradley. Phony Psychics. Handout. ↑

From the same network that brought us Ghost Hunters, Mary Knows Best, Destination Truth and other unreality reality television, SyFy hosts the show Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files.

Billed as the “Mythbusters of the Paranormal,” a title coveted (but undeserved) by every paranormal show, Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files supposedly “revolutionizes paranormal programming by investigating the evidence witnesses post on the Internet every day. Have you ever seen a photo or video online and wondered, ‘Is this real?’ This is the show that will answer that question.”¹

But does the show answer that question correctly, and truthfully? And is the very question honest?

The show examines paranormal claims found online, to determine whether the phenomena captured are, of course, “fact or faked”. As we will see, it seems that the show’s cast and producers may be the ones doing the faking.

The “Crack Team”

The investigative team consists of “experts” who claim to have a background in paranormal research. There is Ben, the former FBI agent; Jael, the journalist; Austin, the “stunt expert”; Chi-Lin, the “photography expert”; Devin, the “tech specialist”; and Bill, the “lead scientist.”

For all of their supposed expertise, the team members’ research methods are dubious. Their initial approach is to recreate anomalous phenomena, quite correctly, but then they proceed to recreate the phenomena badly, or they recreate irrelevant phenomena. They mistake scientific tools for the scientific method. They aren’t familiar with basic principles of skepticism, such as Occam’s razor and the axiom that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. In their conclusions the unexplained becomes the “inexplicable” and they appeal to supernatural explanations over natural ones.

But determining whether footage is “fact or faked” still doesn’t determine whether it’s paranormal or not. Even if the phenomenon and filming is legitimate and not staged, that doesn’t presuppose that what is captured is paranormal.

Over the course of two seasons, the team has investigated claims of a “ghost car,” a “haunted playground swing,” UFOs, lake monsters, spirit writing, an anti-gravity spot, cattle mutilation, ectoplasm, Bigfoot and an alleged chupacabra. They use a wide range of cutting-edge paranormal reality TV equipment, including pocket radar, electromagnetic (EMF) meters, bionic ears and, most important, a “scientific kit” containing:

Safety eyewear, black Sharpies, black ink pens, reclosable bags, evidence envelopes, swab boxes, polypropylene screw cap evidence collection tubes, sterile cotton tip swabs, transfer pipettes, sterile water ampule, tongue depressors, evidence slide boxes, plastic disposable tweezers, and disposable blades.²

In one episode, the team visits Fishers, Indiana, to investigate a phenomenon they’ve already decided is a “cemetery phantom.” The “evidence” features footage of a bright light they call an “orb,” examples of Electronic Voice Phenomena (recordings of alleged spirits), and increased EMF activity near the tombstone of a civil war soldier. The team devises some experiments to reproduce the effects, and because they can’t reproduce the phenomena exactly, they theorize that the original video shows evidence of paranormal activity. They conclude that the film has captured either the “ghost of a civil war soldier” or a “ghost train” because the cemetery is located near a former railroad crossing.

What takes them thirty minutes to prove incorrectly takes one scientific paranormal investigator three minutes to disprove. Doctor Atlantis, aka Blake Smith, of the Monster Talk podcast (http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/) examined the footage and the theories and produced his own video analysis.³ For all of the Fact or Faked team’s elaborate tests and elaborate theories, they never once reviewed the clip in slow motion. In doing so as a first step, Smith revealed that the unearthly “train” was an earthly spider on a web. “Oh what a tangled web we weave…when we run around in the dark with video cameras,” he concludes.

On the show’s online forums hundreds of viewers deduced that the footage captured a spider.

But this article discusses an episode that never even made it to air.

A Paranormal Publicity Stunt

On YouTube there is a video called Ouija Board: Planchette moves on its own! ⁴ This has become a “viral video” and has enjoyed over 173,000 views. In the clip, two people are playing with a homemade Ouija board when the planchette spells out the name “Lisa.” Suddenly, the planchette darts across the board, seemingly of its own accord, to rest on the letter X. The participants jerk their hands off the planchette in fear. They attempt the reading one last time, and again the planchette moves by itself. The frightened participants end the session. They jokingly accuse each other of “pushing” the planchette, as does a third, unseen camera person in the background, but they all deny staunchly that any trickery was involved. To demonstrate that there are no magnets or wires involved the camera person films above and below the Ouija board.

This video was actually created by skeptics.

Produced by the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society http://rockymountainparanormal.com/, this was part of a promotional video for a TV project called Colorado X. This is the significance of the planchette moving back to the X symbol. But the planchette wasn’t moved by spirits, demons or even the ideomotor effect; it was moved by string.

To achieve the movement, fishing wire was fed through a hole in the center of the X on the board, and attached to the front leg of the planchette. A fourth unseen participant was sitting to the right side of the board holding the string. At the appropriate time, the string was tugged and the planchette zipped across the board, landing on the X as though this were a message from beyond.

A reading of the viewer comments indicates that the video has attracted a wide range of paranormal theories to explain the incident. Many believed without question and warned of the dangers of trafficking with the occult. Here are some of the remarks:

people shoudn’t mess with ouija tables it’s not safe ! lonewolf12345671

Ive seen some fake ones but IDK about this one. Normally people move it with fishing line. But this one moved to fast and stopped to suddenly for that GodsmackFTW

I don't know about fake, I just know when my roommate and I tried this in college, we both felt this eerie feeling first before it started moving on it's own, but we both let go of it right away cause it was too weird! We were like 'forget this!' lol nsgutube

They are obviously not pushing it because the thing moved on it's own really smoothly, and if they pushed it it wouldn't go in a straight way.. I beleive in this. But i want to know who created it? Donkeytricks

i have only use the weegi board ones and ever since it is real if u dont belivie it do it for yourself this is real and somtimes the spirts dont go away bellybuchelli

Only a few viewers figured out that the planchette was moved by string. Other skeptical observers hypothesized that ball bearings and magnets were used, that there was sleight of hand, or that the ideomotor effect was in play.

Could the planchette move a little bit more dramatically?

The producer of Fact or Faked was asking the group to modify the video.

The group decided to correspond with Maas, to investigate the show’s ethics and see if they would figure out the explanation. But it was clear they were only interested in fabricating the video further. In an email, the producer gave directions for a re-filming.

What the Supervising Producer is looking for:

1) Ask them if they can lift up the planchette at end to show there is no magnet...

2) Could the planchette move a little bit more dramatically?⁵

Maas was asking the group to show that there was no trickery involved, but also asking them to alter the video to make it more sensational. He wanted them to reshoot the video ostensibly to trick the team, and the audience, into believing that this was, or could be, real paranormal activity. Maas was asking the group to fix the footage, thereby biasing the results and the research.

The group complied and reshot the scene, submitting it to Maas. However, it still wasn’t theatrical enough. Maas replied:

Great! I'll show the supervising producer - really good, though I'm sure she's going to ask to see the planchette move a bit more towards the end...hate to ask you again when you went back and got all that footage, but let me know if there is a shot of the planchette really zooming around...(don't even need all those dudes there again, just a really dramatic planchette zoom)⁶

Maas contacted his supervising producer and sure enough, she wanted a more dramatic movement of the planchette. The planchette zooming across the board at the end of the scene was the paranormal money shot, and it was worth it to the producers to sweeten the deal.

Hello! It's Jon Maas - so the Supervising Producer wants the clip, but a little bit different. If the footage is good enough for a case and it comes in 48 hours, we can pay a license fee of $1500...

Don't need necessarily everyone like the first video - ie you don't need to round up the posse but...the story of the place is good enough...

The supervising producer has requested the clip be:

* Less staged (more like the first video)
* A bit more freakout like the first video
* Planchette moves a bit more dramatically
* Once again show the "no magnets" thing

If it gets approved by the network, $1500 license fee. Let me know either way!⁷

$1500 is a cruel offer with which to tempt starving skeptical paranormal investigators, but this would have been a pact with the devil. It would have been interesting to follow through with the project and then expose the producers, but there would be problems with that approach. Then the group would be closely involved in the filming and fabrication of the episode; they would lose the rights to the video and to the way in which they would be portrayed. A one-off fee would damage their reputation for all time.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Fact or Faked is the paranormal equivalent of wrestling shows. The “evidence” isn’t proof of the paranormal, but proof that some shows are fixed. The fact is that Fact or Faked wanted to “enhance” the video, to falsify the evidence and the results. There is no proof that the producers intended to present the footage as factual or as paranormal evidence, but they did warn that they would use the video and portray the group in any way they liked. The producers never once asked if the footage was faked, but they did ask that the footage be altered; it is tacit that they knew the video was faked. The request to move the planchette more dramatically reveals the dishonesty and the lack of legitimacy of the show.

In this instance, Fact or Faked would have been “faked”—in an inside job.

References

1. SYFY: Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. Accessed 05/20/2011.

http://www.syfy.com/factorfaked/about.php

2. Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files: “Backpack.” Accessed 05/22/2011.

http://www.syfy.com/factorfaked/tools/arrowhead_scientific_evidence_kit

3. Doctor Atlantis – Fact or Faked: Cemetery Phantom Analysis. YouTube, accessed

05/20/2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl2WQyFHTHY&sns=tw

4. Ouija Board: Planchette Moves on its own! YouTube, accessed 05/20/2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzJ_9ji73MU

5. Personal correspondence. Email dated 08/13/2010.

6. Personal correspondence. Email dated 08/25/2010.

7. Personal correspondence. Email dated 08/25/2010.

There’s a new pseudoscience out there that doesn’t involve devices, dogma, or even claims—so they claim.

Braco (pronounced Braht-zoh) is a “gazer.” He is a spiritual healer with a difference: there is no consultation, no cold reading, no contact and no paraphernalia; his performance involves standing on a podium and simply gazing at his audience. Moreover, he doesn’t claim to be a healer. (But his advertising does.)

Hundreds of thousands in Europe have already experienced Braco’s silent gaze in the last 15 years. He doesn’t call himself a healer, but up to 10,000 people a day who come seeking his gifts happily say otherwise.

Braco doesn’t call himself a healer because he doesn’t make any claims directly; his claims are made by his staff and devotees. Furthermore, he doesn’t make any claims because he doesn’t speak in public.

It’s all very difficult to explain – that’s why Braco stopped speaking in public 8 years ago - leaving it up to the people to decide for themselves what it was about.

And with the help of his publicity machine, the people have decided that Braco heals with his gaze.

The Non-Healing Healer

Braco’s biography 21 Days with Braco describes him as a “Super Healer” and claims he has “a gift of healing that defies scientific understanding and human comprehension at this time.”¹ Nevertheless, Braco’s team has found a few medical practitioners to attest to his “invisible powers.”

Many medical doctors have shared their opinion that Braco’s healing abilities are extraordinary, but cannot explain his work though the conventional scientific process.

However, these doctors dabble in the metaphysical. They include Professor Alex Schneider, President of the Parapsychological Association of Switzerland and founder of the World Healing Congress, and Dr. Wiesendanger, “one of the top experts on healers and healing” and founder of the International Agency for Outstanding Healers.

They all confirm, that those impressive reports from Braco´s visitors proove [sic] his successes and that they show that something flows through Braco, which can change the lives of thousands of people and solve even fundamental problems in health like cancer, epilepsy and psychological problems.²

But these “impressive reports” are anecdotal and Braco’s alleged healing abilities have never been “prooved” under test conditions.

Journalists and scientists who have studied Braco and his energy have been impressed by him and by the impact of his work, which has resulted in an incredible number of documented cases of physical healings and life transformations taking place in those who attend his gazing sessions.³

These “documented cases” are testimonials featured on Braco’s website. Apocryphally, he performs miracles, bringing healing and good luck to those who view his gaze. He has allegedly “cured” countless people of countless chronic conditions: anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, thyroid conditions, asthma, brain tumors and cancer of various kinds. He allegedly restored someone’s sight, healed a paraplegic woman, and even cleared someone’s blocked nostrils.⁴

He’s a modern-day Messiah, but he’s not affiliated with any religion.

Braco does not relate his successes to any form of religion or to a specific methodology, and he has changed his working-methods over time. He tries to develop his methods further and further to enable as many people as possible all over the world to feel this energy and consciousness.

However, it seems his one and only method is standing in front of a crowd and looking at people. There seems to be a lot about Braco that no one can explain.

The healings are unexplainable, yet undeniable. Reams of documentation recount stories of countless souls remarkably and often spontaneously transformed by standing before Braco’s silent gaze -- and not just physical healings, but emotional, spiritual, mental, and interpersonal healings, too.⁵

Braco makes many claims for someone who claims to not make any claims.

The Eyes Have It

Braco was born Josip Jelavic in 1967 in Zagreb, Croatia. In 1993 he became a student of the Serbian prophet and healer Ivica Prokic, who bestowed the spiritual name Braco, “Little Brother,” upon his talented protégé. Prokic died in 1995, and now Braco continues his work.

The experts are also impressed that Braco is able to have such a strong impact on his visitors, and began his work at the extraordinarily young age of 26. Braco has reached a level of consciousness now in his fourties, which even the most famous masters did not reach before they were sixty, seventy or eighty years old.

Braco’s gazing sessions usually last five to ten minutes, and during that time he only makes fleeting eye contact with each member of the audience. His powers are so potent that people only need look at his likeness to reap the benefits, but to avoid being “overburdened,” YouTube videos and DVDs of his gazing carry a warning.

Braco has been given firm guidelines from Spirit that no gazing in any DVDs or online can be longer than seven seconds.

It is further advised that people under 18 years of age and pregnant women beyond their first trimester should not view Braco’s gaze, for their own safety.

The energy could overburden children, so the sessions are not open for visitors under the age of 18, or to pregnant women after their third month. For your children and for other people who are not able to attend a session, it is recommended that you bring a photo of that person to a session instead. The power of Braco’s gaze can equally reach people through photos, and the same level of healing and transformation occur through this method.⁶

Braco also offers a line of Sunce (sun) jewelry that displays his mentor’s symbol: a golden sun with 13 rays. The price of the jewelry ranges from $190 for a pair of earrings to $2395 for a diamond pendant. Website testimonials claim these talismans bring good luck to the wearer.

The Gazing

Braco’s fame has stretched beyond Europe and he is currently on a tour of the U.S.

Braco does not take any money for his help, he does not accept donations and the sessions are always free at his Center in Zagreb. There is only a small fee at international events, when he visits other countries on tour, to cover the event facilities rental and organizational costs.⁷

Aside from his moneymaking books, DVDs and jewelry, the “small fee” is $8 to attend each session, but he conducts multiple sessions daily and hundreds of sessions annually, with hundreds of thousands of attendees. I attended a session in Denver, and was informed that 3,500 tickets were sold for that day alone.

The room was filled beyond capacity, with people lining the walls. Reminiscent of a Benny Hinn performance, there were many hoping to be healed, including people in wheelchairs. Everyone filed into the hall to the tune of singing glasses and a female vocalist warbling a mesmerizing song.

The female host appeared and conditioned the crowd for Braco, the “healer who doesn’t call himself a healer.” We were told to “take this time to frame your intentions. Everyone’s experience will be different,” but we were to expect healings and miracles. She assured us that after seeing Braco “skeptics become believers.”

There were some “bliss piggies” in the audience—people who had attended Braco’s sessions all day long. This was the final session for the day and we would be rewarded with some “extra gazing.” But Braco would not address us. “He doesn’t speak in public anymore,” the host explained. “He made a promise eight years ago. It’s not important what he says, but what people see.” However, she claimed that “The Voice” is healing.

New Age music began and all those who were able were asked to stand as Braco emerged and climbed the stairs of the podium. He stood before the room awkwardly at first, and then his pose grew majestic, like he was standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon. Everyone watched him expectantly.

Then Braco gazed at the audience. For ten minutes.

He was expressionless, but his eyes scanned the room intensely. His head barely moved but he seemed to make eye contact, like one of those paintings where the eyes appear to follow you. As we all stared back we were looking at Braco for longer than the “safe” seven-second period.

As Braco “gazed,” some meditated or prayed, some rocked back and forth gently, and some were crying. Some held photos of sick or deceased loved ones to their chests. We’d also been told that if we had photos of people in our phones, Braco would heal them too.

Then it was all over.

Braco ceased gazing across the room and then appeared to go slightly cross-eyed. He took a step backwards, tripping slightly as he did so, then he stepped down from the podium and left the room. As he exited an audience member screamed, “Thank you, Braco!”

The After Gaze

Braco’s security guards, known as “guardians,” ran around the room with boxes of tissues for those overcome with tears. Then the host asked that we stand again to listen to “The Voice.” They proceeded to play a pre-recorded speech by Braco—in his native Croatian. Amazingly, some people claimed they could understand Braco! Braco-info.com claims:

It was very amazing to see, that even in Germany or other countries, where people cannot understand what Braco is speaking, the reactions of the visitors during the session with his voice are exactly the same as with those people who understand Braco’s words.

There are several possible explanations for these claims. In this context, people may simply guess the spiritual-related themes of Braco’s speech. As for claiming to “understand” Croatian, people may hear cognates: Croatian words that sound familiar because they are historically related to words in English. Also, like Electronic Voice Phenomena and other audio pareidolia, people search for recognizable patterns and perceive sounds they construe as familiar words.

Then the host asked the audience for testimonials. One woman claimed Braco fixed her car before she’d even seen him, so she could attend the gazing. A man who had recently suffered a stroke claimed Braco’s gaze left him with tingling, healing sensations. Others also reported tingling and other non-specific feelings; perhaps they were numb from standing for so long?

It seemed that Braco and his crew practiced a form of stage hypnosis on the audience, given the long periods of standing, the repetitive music, the suggestions of what we “would” experience, the testimonials and the disorienting speech read in a foreign language.

One source reports the following experiences during a session with Braco.

During my first session, people reported seeing Braco’s white and golden aura all around him. Braco submerged in gold; there were vibrant violet colors all around the ballroom. The same violet color was swirling like a whirlpool on the back of the audience. People heard sounds of the universe, comparing it to the ocean and wind. People saw wings behind Braco, and large white wings spread open on the stage. One gentleman saw angels in the ceiling dancing and looking down on the audience. People saw bubbles, light balls touching people one by one and white aura surrounded the audience, everyone seem to be glowing. There was a light emanating from Braco reflecting onto others. People felt electricity, warmth all over their bodies, warmth on their hands, trembling, shaking, moving, skull moving, energy pushing back, blissful feeling, euphoria, tears, a healthier deeper connection, emotional, loving, hot heat, and felt the flow of energy enter their body. Braco’s pupils turned into golden suns, his face morphing and shifting as if he was becoming another being. Everyone felt born again and found a true home for their hearts and souls. Everyone was healed.⁸

In one of his Youtube videos a viewer also claims Braco “shapeshifts” during his gazing sessions. This is a lot to live up to, so the host made some vague promises instead: “You will experience shifts, transformations and healings.” Like a psychic that encourages clients to connect the dots in hindsight, she said, “But it doesn’t always happen here in the room; it may happen later on when you’ve left.” Finally, she warned us, “There is lots of extra energy about, so be careful tonight!”

Those who arrived in wheelchairs left in their wheelchairs. No one in our large contingent of skeptics reported any healing, miracles or good luck during or after the event. We did have a 17-year-old in our party, but fortunately, he was not “overburdened” by Braco’s gaze.

Navel Gazing

Gazing is best classified as a type of spiritual healing, due to the claim that its major benefit is therapeutic, in conjunction with other ambiguous alleged benefits such as bringing good luck, “shifts and transformations,” and miracles.

Gazing for healing is popular for its simplicity and as a novelty, but it’s unlikely to become as common as other paranormal and pseudoscientific practices. But it’s not new. Will Johnson’s Rumi: Gazing at the Beloved: The Radical Practice of Beholding the Divine describes the “ancient mystical practice” of “intentional gazing” for the purposes of healing. However, this method is different from Braco’s. As seminar leader William Record puts it, eye gazing “involves 2 individuals coming together for the purpose of mutual healing. There is no healer/client distinction.”⁹

Johnson explains how eye gazing works.

When eye contact between two people is initiated and maintained, an invisible energetic circuit is established between the participants, dissolving the barriers that ordinarily separate them from each other, drawing them ever closer into a shared sense of union.¹⁰

Eye gazing is not only used for healing. Eye Gazing parties are events where people sit across from a partner and gaze at them to assess potential compatibility.¹¹ Eye gazing is also a tantric sex technique, whereby couples use gazing to increase intimacy and bonding.¹²

There is no evidence that Braco’s kind of gazing has any benefits at all, but he takes credit for any perceived successes, and absolves himself of failure by claiming he makes no claims. However, the “no claim” claim is disingenuous; whether the claims come from the public or his crew, the claims are promoted by and therefore made by Braco.

References

1. Whitecliff, Angelika. 2009. 21 Days with Braco. Awakening Within. [Publisher?-JB]

2. Braco. Description of an invisible power. Accessed 03/30/2011. Available online at http://www.braco-info.com/dcms/what-does-braco-give/description-of-an-invisible-power?lang=en.

3. Braco.net. About Braco. Accessed 03/30/2011. Available online at http://www.braco.net/?page_id=152.

4. Braco America. Testimonials from the American road. Accessed 04/04/2011. Available online at https://bracoamerica.com/Braco_America/Testimonials.html.

5. Braco America. Accessed 04/04/2011. Available online at http://www.bracoamerica.com/Braco_America/Welcome.html.

6. Awakening Within. About Braco. Accessed 04/04/2011. Available online at http://awakeningwithin.us/about.htm.

7. Braco Pendant. About Braco. Accessed 04/04/2011. Available online at http://myjazzydays.blogspot.com/2010/07/braco-silent-gaze.html.

8. ibid.

9. Healing Through Eye Gazing. Accessed 04/15/2011. Available online at http://www.eye-gaze.co.uk/essay.php.

10. Johnson, Will. 2003. Rumi Gazing at the Beloved – The Radical Practice of beholding the Divine. Vermont USA. Inner Traditions.

11. Eye Gazing Parties. Accessed 04/15/2011. Available online at http://www.eyegazingparties.com/.

12. Tantra: Gateway to Ecstasy. “The Science behind Tantric Eye Gazing.” Accessed 04/15/2011. Available online at http://tantraecstasy.blogspot.com/2008/02/science-behind-tantric-eye-gazing.html.

For some time, purveyors of pseudoscience have been name-dropping scientific terms such as quantum, energy, and vibration in an attempt to lend legitimacy to their products. It is akin to, many ghost hunters claiming to use the “scientific method”—one group even claims to “employ rigorous investigative protocols, and submit our case reports to fellow researchers for peer review.” Not to be left out, nowadays the Denver Metaphysical Fair is less metaphysical and more pseudoscientific.

Moreover, marketing for these items is changing. Crystals are repackaged as having “the combination of far infrared light, negative ions and amethyst quartz [which] opens the channels for intelligent cellular communication leading to DNA repair and total body wellness.” Elixirs, potions, and tonics are rebranded as the “Wonder nutrient of the century-cellular liquid-food liquid minerals-healthy chocolate a complete RX Defense pack for your Physical-Emotional-Mental-Spiritual Body!”

Trying to suggest a semblance of science, paranormal purveyors have swapped their capes for lab coats. Today’s paranormal practitioners often have scientific and scholarly backgrounds; there is a Feng Shui practitioner with an MBA, an “Oracle” with a master’s degree in psychology, a Shaman with a PhD, a psychic with a degree in psychology who works with the police (and Archangel Gabriel), and a teacher with advanced degrees in chemistry who “developed The Path of the Holistic Warrior, a system which focuses on balancing inner and outer self-sufficient realities.”

There were fewer vendors at the Denver Metaphysical Fair offering candles and incense and more pushing pseudoscientific devices: computerized chakra reports, Network Spinal Analysis, Orgone products “for help with EMFs,” Bio-Energetic medicine, and a “device that can clear cellular memory patterns using voice recognition.”

Bad Vibrations

There was also a so-new-it’s-unnamed product; yet another device “invented by Tesla” that Tesla didn’t seem to know about. According to the salesperson, the device uses “electromagnetic radio wave vibration energy. It’s basically a Chi device. It breaks down blockages in the meridians. It centers you and lets your body heal itself.” A member of our party merely pointed at the flashing, humming machine and received an electric shock. “Careful, it bites” the salesperson chuckled, although there weren’t any warning signs about this danger.

Talking about “breaking down blockages” and “healing” hadn’t enlightened us about what the machine does any further, so we asked if the device could cure cancer. “To be perfectly honest, I don’t use the word cure, but all my clients are cancer free; including me. I had extremely aggressive skin cancer and a series of strokes. I was also diagnosed with Crohn’s disease but now I’m completely free of any diseases,” the salesperson told us. So, he didn’t use the word cure, but he did use the phrases “cancer free” and “completely free of any diseases.” The vendor was very cagey when talking about the product, and for good reason: we recognized it as a remake of the Vibrational Integrated Bio-photonic Energizer (VIBE) Machine, a device that was recalled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008.

The VIBE Machine was created by Gene Koonce, an electronics repairman. He began manufacturing and distributing the device in 2002, claiming that it could treat or cure cancer, depression, infection, and pain. By 2008 there were nearly 900 machines in existence and Koonce was selling them for $17,000–20,000 apiece, mostly to practitioners who would charge patients for five-minute sessions with the machine.

According to anecdotes, the machine has been used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including pancreatic cancer, intestinal parasites, anxiety, depression, digestive problems, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, snoring, and speech impediments. Some even believe it cures the soul: “Some practitioners are using the V.I.B.E. strictly to help people with illnesses. Others believe the physical healing is just a byproduct—that the V.I.B.E. has a much broader metaphysical purpose. Some suggest the machine is helping to raise the vibrational rate of the planet.”

How does the machine supposedly work? According to one source:

The VIBE Machine works on five different levels by using a medium electromagnetic field. In this field, a high voltage pulse is added along with ozone. The charge is placed at a negative voltage which is being transmitted to an antenna designed to twist the magnetic field. It is then routed through noble and inert gases. These gases are in a plasma state, varying in frequencies which relate to human cellular frequencies. Plasma is found between the protons and electrons of all cells in the human body. By oscillating this plasma state, the cells are energized by the VIBE Machine. Disease is a state found in non-vibrating, non-charged, or non-energized cells. The VIBE Machine brings the vibrational level of your body back to its natural state of being. It is a technological breakthrough in enhancing the human body by helping it reach optimum vibration and energy.

The FDA recalled the VIBE Machine for making unsubstantiated medical claims, and the company was also cited for substantial deviations from good manufacturing practices. The recall was classified as a “Class 1 recall,” meaning “there is a reasonable probability that the use of a device will cause adverse health consequences or death.” This move was prompted by the death of a thirty-two-year-old Washington man who had relied on the device rather than seeking orthodox treatment for his testicular cancer. The practitioners involved in this case were charged for operating without a medical license and attempting to treat seriously ill patients. As often happens with these devices, someone had to die for it to be recalled.

The FDA press release stated, “The manufacturers, VIBE Technologies of Greeley, Colo. … claimed their devices treated conditions ranging from cancer to migraines. The FDA is concerned that based upon the original health claims made by the company, patients may forgo approved therapies, and that this could result in more severe illness or death.” The company was directed to send a certified letter to each customer who had purchased the device, ordering them to stop using the product and to cease making medical claims and promoting the product as a medical device. Yet the VIBE Machine has resurfaced again, much like televangelist Peter Popoff’s comeback after he was exposed by James Randi.

The Metaphysical Fair vendor offered sessions with the device at the SweetLeaf Compassion Center, a medical marijuana dispensary (which seems to be new place for these things to covertly flourish). Here is the advertisement for the product, which is replete with medical claims.

NEW TO SWEETLEAF: ELECTROMAGNETIC THERAPY!

Detoxify the body with 10-minute sessions using a device originally invented by Nicola Tesla:

REMOVE: Heavy Metals, Petra Chemicals, Pesticides, Processed Food Chemicals from your body. Reharmonize the body using electromagnetic radio wave energy to counter the effects of Electromagnetic- Pollution caused by: Cell Phones, Big screen TV’s, Microwave Towers, Communication Towers, Computer Screens.

Our therapy department is independent from the dispensary and is set to offer you the latest cutting edge technology, bringing everyone into harmonic balance, giving you the best quality of life possible by alleviating pain, nausea and inflammation.

A VIBE Machine, By Any Other Name

In fact, the VIBE Machine never really went away. When the FDA began cracking down on the business, Koonce rebranded his VIBE Machine as the QuantumPulse by VIBE Technologies, still in operation today. The device has even morphed into several variant forms, including the Rife Machine, Detox Box, and the Global Wellness Machine. Of course, the original is the best.

On the current website, gone are the claims that the machine was “invented by Tesla.” Now, “The QuantumPulse is based on proven technologies and theories pioneered by scientists.” The site maintains a practitioner directory so clients can locate a machine. (A second-hand device was found on eBay being sold for $13,000).

As per the clauses outlined in the recall, Koonce removed all of the explicit medical claims and has replaced them with ambiguous Law of Attraction-style promises:

What can it do for me?

What we are finding is that it depends on your state of mind, and most importantly, your intent. “Intent” is defined as “a conscious plan”. Therefore, whatever you put into your time spent with this machine… whatever your conscious plan is at the time… will be what you ultimately experience. It could range from inner peace and profound enlightenment to merely a non-destructive energy. It’s for you to decide… to create your own plan. Each individual is unique; their needs are unique as well. What is suitable for one person may not be appropriate for another. What is important is for each of us to find the tools we require and to take advantage of them.

Like the “for entertainment purposes only” caveat favored by television psychics, the QuantumPulse site features an important postscript: “Nothing on this website is intended to diagnose, treat or cure any physical or medical conditions. If you have a physical or medical condition, you should seek the advice of your medical professional immediately.” And it’s still not FDA approved. “The QuantumPulse is not a medical device and is not intended to be used in a medical situation of any kind; therefore, it is not FDA cleared.”

The website’s promise that “the QuantumPulse can promote and support general well-being” is still a medical claim, albeit a vague one. But as long as the advertising favors language that complies with FDA law, the device can continue to be marketed and used commercially. However, some sites are still making explicit medical claims about the device. “[The VIBE Machine] is used to treat conditions as diverse as cancer, diabetes and depression, all with great success!”

The FDA has been alerted that the device has re-emerged and that medical claims continue to be made about the product. The bottom line is that by any name, the VIBE Machine/QuantumPulse does not work and needs to be banned from sale and use. Truthful marketing of the machine would indicate that it’s an expensive, dangerous, ugly ornament.

Acknowledgments

With thanks to Matthew Baxter and Bryan Bonner for their research assistance.