Chch man leads 'psychic' sleuths

A Christchurch expert on the Shroud of Turin, Dr Denis Dutton, was yesterday elected chairman of the New Zealand Skeptics Society, which investigates psychic claims.

The society, which held its first annual convention at Otago University at. the week-end, chose two other Canterbury skeptics to lead the group.

A senior lecturer in history, Dr Chris Connolly, was voted secretary, and a barrister, Mr Errol Higgins, elected to the governing board.

About 50 skeptics attended the two-day convention, and were entertained with a variety of mock "psychic" performances. These included the coaxing of a cigarette across a tabletop and the mysterious straightening of a bent metal spoon without touching.

But the tricks were all explained by the five invited speakers, who included Dr Dutton, a lecturer in fine arts at the University of Canterbury.

Dr Dutton, who is writing a book debunking the Shroud of Turin, succeeded a Dunedin psychologist, Dr David Marks, as chairman of the Skeptics.

Dr Marks founded the group in February after 10 years of testing such psychics as Uri Geller. He will leave on Friday to teach in Britain.

Dr Marks played videotapes to the convention showing tarot card readings by a self-proclaimed Auckland psychic, Colin Amery. Mr Amery is so far the only psychic who has agreed to sit the Skeptics' rigorous tests for paranormal powers.

Earlier this year he tried to prove his telepathic powers, but according to Dr Marks, Mr Amery did worse than if he had guessed blindly.

Two other prominent New Zealand psychics have declined to be tested and others have yet to come forward. But Dr Marks believes that the Skeptics' latest offer of $232,000 for proof of communication with spirits will be a strong incentive.

He told the convention that he was personally putting up $25,000 for anyone who could prove a psychic ability under controlled conditions, He wilt pay the money to anyone who can transmit by telepathy 10 randomly chosen numbers between one and 100, and get at least half right over two trials.

"If they could do that twice, I would give them $25,000 without a shadow of doubt," said Dr Marks.

Such a performance, under controlled conditions, would convince the hardiest sceptic and win a $160,000 prize for proof of E.S.P., clairvoyance or divination, he said.

The convention also featured tape-recordings of radio talkback performances by Mrs Mary Fry, a self-proclaimed medium.

Dr Dutton spent weeks analysing the tapes, and concluded that Mrs Fry's apparent supernatural ability had an ordinary explanation. She succeeded by "cold readings," where likely and often flattering guesses were pursued according to how the subject responded.

He also found some unusual features itn Mrs Fry's performances. "One of the things I have noticed is a tremendous tendency for the dead to give out baking tips," he said.

After Dr Dutton advised Radio New Zealand of his research and his concerns about the type of advice that Mrs Fry was giving, officials decided not to renew her contract.

The Skeptics were not trying to tell people what they should believe, or stop them having fun, said Dr Dutton. The group's concern was where unsupported and often dangerous psychic claims were asserted as fact.

The gathering also featured an address and psychic tricks by an Australian lawyer, Mr Mark Plummer, who founded a Skeptics group in Australia.

Mr Plummer said that international mediums visiting New Zealand often claimed psychic successes in Australia, which did not "check out."

He said his group would help the New Zealand Skeptics to check the extraordinary claims by some "psychics" on their Australasian stop-over.

The Skeptics had planned for a genuine psychic to address the convention, but none of those approached accepted the offer.

Dr Marks said the reluctance of psychics to cooperate with the group was one of the main problems that it faced. Ironically, Dr Marks was once inundated with volunteers for his experiments — between 1971 and 1977 he was testing the clinical effects of cannabis.

"We had hundreds of volunteers. Now we can only get one a year," he said. :

Some psychics claim that their powers disappear in a sterile laboratory, including Mr Amery, even though he was confident that Dr Marks' ES.P. tests were going well at the time.

But while the Skeptics scoffed at these excuses, even Dr Marks once wondered if the spirit world was finally having its revenge.

He was on the telephone talking about spirit mediums when an eerie female voice suddenly broke through the conversation.

The woman introduced herself and added, "I'm sorry you can't reach me."

The voice turned out to be his colleague testing her new telephone answering machine on his extension.