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WA Attempts on the $A100,000 Prize
None have been successful
The following account draws on reports in POST Newspapers, 5-6 September 1990, page 9, and the Skeptic 27(2), 15, 2007.
Contenders for the Australian Skeptics $100,000 prize for proof of paranormal ability rarely raise their heads in Western Australia. The first serious challenger was a young psychic called Gwen (not her real name). Gwen contacted the WA Skeptics to say she was willing to have her psychic skills tested. We made it clear that our test would be only a pre-test, which if successful would lead to a test by the national body for the $100,000 prize. She was then asked to provide two testimonials from people who had witnessed her powers and to put in writing what she claimed to be able to do. Once she had done this, we worked together to draw up test conditions that both Gwen and WA Skeptics were happy with.
Gwen is a well-known psychic with very satisfied clients. She said in her letter that she regularly read auras (supposedly some sort of light energy emitted by people). She said she was like a radio or TV receiver sensitive to the energy coming from people. She said she was able to tell people facts about themselves with great accuracy. Accordingly our pre-test would measure her accuracy. If it was significantly higher than could be explained by chance, she would proceed to a full test by Australian Skeptics for the $100,000 prize.
The WA pre-test
The test subjects were two people provided by us who were unknown to the
psychic. Gwen spent an hour with each one, giving each a reading that
was videotaped by two cameras. We told the subjects not to speak,
display any body language or to communicate by facial expressions, nods
or hand movements. For her readings Gwen used two packs of cards,
including tarot cards. All the statements made by Gwen were subsequently
transcribed and reduced to a series of statements that were checked for
accuracy by the subjects.
July 1998. Gwen (back to camera) making a reading. The background is plain to help her see auras. Only Gwen and the subject occupy the room. There are no observers. The subject is sitting on her hands to minimise cues from body language.
Both subjects said Gwen showed warmth, empathy, friendliness and a willingness to talk. And both said that, with training, she would make an excellent psychologist or counsellor. But Gwen was not happy with the lack of response from the subjects. She accepted that it was a necessary part of the test, but in her everyday work her clients were much more responsive. She was not used to working in silence.
Results
Of the 59 specific statements Gwen made about the first subject, 3 were
correct. The score for the second subject was 8 out of 62. Altogether
there were 121 testable statements, of which 11 were correct or
partially correct. Which, to everyone's disappointment, was clearly not
enough for testing to proceed further. Gwen had failed the pre-test and
was therefore not eligible for an attempt on the $100,000 prize. But the
results were not unexpected.
Results agree with Dutch test
The biggest known test of psychics was a remarkable five-year study by
the Dutch parapsychologist Hendricus Boerenkamp published in 1988. He
monitored a total of more than 130 readings by twelve of the
Netherland's top psychics, and then rated their accuracy against matched
groups of non-psychics who were given the same task as the psychics.
Typically each reading involved 60-90 statements spread over
personality, occupation, relationships, and health, ie the normal topics
of a psychic reading. Nearly 10,000 statements were obtained, of which
10% were sufficiently specific to be tested, of which 14% turned out to
be correct (vs 9% in Gwen's case); that is, only 1.4% of all statements
were both specific and correct, and for every such statement there were
six that were both specific and incorrect. Unknown to the psychics, the
same person was sometimes the target in two successive readings, but no
psychic noticed it, and the second reading was often in conflict with
the first. Furthermore there was no appreciable difference in hit rate
between psychics and non-psychics, which would seem to deny that psychic
ability (or at least claimed psychic ability) could play a role in such
readings. Boerenkamp concluded that the accuracy of psychics was no
better than that of non-psychics, but their sensitivity to human ills
and their huge experience (their own lives were often traumatic) made
them useful counsellors.
Other WA challengers for the $100,000 prize
In 1999 WA skeptics made contact with a lady who claimed her telepathic
powers could move objects like dishes and tarot cards. She appeared most
enthusiastic about challenging for the $100,000 prize, so we sent her
the details. To date she has not responded.
All remained quiet until August 2006 when we were approached by Matt McGillon and Sharee Briggs who live 45 km south of Perth. They claimed to be in continuous telepathic contact, so a series of words given to one would be reproduced by the other. A test procedure was agreed to, as was a date (9 March 2007) and place (our usual meeting room). We then went to much trouble to book the room, devise test material, prepare forms for signing, arrange video recording equipment, and enlist helpers. It had been agreed that if the telepaths got 15 or more words correct out of 20 (a quite staggering feat, but they insisted it was merely routine), we would recommend a test by the national body for the $100,000 prize.
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The day before the test the telepaths told us they would definitely be there. But on the test day they failed to show up. They also failed to answer calls to their mobile. The following day we received an email to say Sharee had not felt like it. No hint of an apology for wasting our time. We emailed back our disappointment in no uncertain terms, to which McGillon responded by saying they might challenge again sometime in the future. Again, no hint of an apology. How can they expect anyone to take them seriously? Picture shows WA skeptics with video camera waiting patiently for the telepaths to not show up. |
Enter bloggers
But the story does not end there. Unknown to us at the time was the
interest McGillon had aroused by posting his claims on the JREF blog
site. Bloggers had duly asked McGillon for some kind of formal statement
attesting to his powers, but he had refused. The bloggers were not
impressed. One commented (25 February 2007) that although: "[McGillon]
has had ample opportunity to provide information, he chose to keep
mostly quiet or provide wild unsubstantiated claims paired with
misinformation".
Another added that the statement he was hoping McGillon would make was something like: "I have tested my ability by having my friend make a list of 20 words and telepathically send them to me. I wrote the words down and after the transmission, we compared the lists and counted the number of correct words".To which McGillon replied, not with an appropriate statement, but with a description of what it was like to be telepathic: "Yes, with the [i.e. our] setup the result is 100% everytime. We're able to talk to each other exactly like normal spoken word but by mental telepathy. As I write this, my friend [Sharee] is about 50 km away and we're talking continuously". Amazing if true.
By 12 March 2007 the bloggers had heard how the telepaths had chickened out. One commented: "Give them some slack. When is the last time you tried to negotiate city traffic while telepathically linked to another driver on a different road? They are probably both laid up in hospital". To which another responded: "Not in Perth, Western Australia. It's a VERY quiet town. They hardly have enough cars to cause a traffic jam."
But all that mental traffic! It seems that this time the WA Skeptics were taken for a ride. But we live in hope. Maybe the next contender will show us something amazing.
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