The Austalian-New Zealand stop-over for International Psychics

I would like to thank Dr David Marks and the Committee of the N.Z. Skeptics for inviting me over and to Dr Dennis Dutton and Ricky Farr for their hospitality. I am glad to be at the first convention of the New Zealand Skeptics. Having organised the first two conventions in Australia, I know how much work is involved and am glad someone else, Dr David Marks, is organising this one.

I arrived in New Zealand a week ago. This gave me time to become acclimatised to the colder weather and to tune my ear to English as it should be spoken. It has also given me a chance to read about the latest developments in alternative medicine here, I refer to the lead story in last week's Truth— Sex romp with healers. I look forward to a full investigation by the N.Z. Skeptics. Before landing in Christchurch, I read in my guide book about a man who arrived almost one hundred years ago; one Arthur Bently Worthington. He claimed to be the reincarnation of the God Osiris. He convinced many that he had "the Truth" and built a hall to seat 1600. Like many claimants to the paranormal, he had a fascinating love life, having bigamously married eight times. When life became too hot for him in New Zealand, he departed for Melbourne. There he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for swindling a widow. He ended his days in New York. Since his stop-over in Australia and New Zealand many people claiming to have the "Truth" and/or paranormal powers have come to the antipodes to convince Aussies and Kiwis of their claims. These days, modern communications means claimants of paranormal powers can be seen and heard by millions around the world. Yet they are at their most persuasive in the same format as Arthur Bently Worthington - the large hall filled by believers or face-to-face contact with a customer. Consequently, we find these International Psychics flying in from the US and UK. They aim to get local media coverage to publicise their public meetings and private sittings. In the six years since the formation of the Australian Skeptics, we have noticed many International psychics who visit Australia and New Zealand.

We have collected material on these and today I will concentrate on some of the most interesting, starting with the Doris twins, Doris Collins and Doris Stokes. Both are English mediums. Mediumship has been around since the 1840s, right from the start, women dominated the field. It offered them an opportunity to break out of their home bound existence in a socially acceptable manner. They come in all shapes and sizes, but the most famous have the image of a trusted aunty or grandmother. They are not considered to be intellectual, but their advice comes from years of experience. They can be trusted like an old fashioned remedy for colds or a recipe for scones. The two Dorises have proved to be the most popular. Each has been preceded by wonderful publicity as to their paranormal powers, thus ensuring large audiences in halls in middle class suburbs, Both are in their late sixties, have similar large figures which they both wrap in large flowing gowns. Both have been mediums since their teens and both have written books about their successes. Both appear to be humble, down-' to-earth working class women. They introduce themselves as ordinary mothers or grandmothers and refer to the audience as 'my dear', 'darling' etc. Any mistakes they make are forgivable as they continually talk, covering them up with loveable comments. They both have a good sense of humour and are quite entertaining to watch, skeptic or not.

Britain's most famous medium, Doris Stokes, who says she gets over 2 000 letters each week, says she owes her success to the publicity she received on her visits to Australia. In her own words, 'she never had two pennies to rub together until she came to Australia in the late 70s'. She was a big hit on Television and returned to Britain with glowing press reports. On television and stage, this white haired lady rests comfortably in her chair and relays messages from spirits to their loved ones. She makes calculated guesses and follows the rules of cold reading. According to Stokes, sometimes the spirits are clearer than at other times. She says working as a medium is similar to working on a telephone exchange. When pressed to explain some obvious mistakes, she retorted "Have you ever tried working on five telephone lines at once.", She has been attacked in the newspapers over her claims to have helped British Police solve four murders by using her psychic powers. The police have categorically denied her claims. She has also made false claims to have helped in the Mona Blades murder enquiry.

Let's turn to Doris Collins. She claims to heal everything from cancer to hepatitis. She claims to assist police in solving murder cases and to contact dead people. She says she can levitate and has travelled in a flying saucer. When she came to Australia, she played to packed houses. Her show is in two parts, cold reading followed by healing. She bounces cheerfully on to the stage looking like the happy, comfortable housewife she is. She stands still for a moment, rubs her eyes and points to an eager recipient. She usually contacts 4 or 5 spirits who have relatives in the audience. Her faithful followers assist with cries of 'ooh' and 'aah'. They ignore her mistakes and accept her cover ups. In Perth, she even had the gall to say to a member of the audience " I believe him" ( the supposed spirit) more than I believe you". In the second part of the show, she calls up those sick people with obvious afflictions. Her performance consists of manipulation, handling and moving limbs, she persuades patients to say they feel better. When the healing is not obvious, she says " I think I have started something off". She tells her patients to think of her each evening at a certain time. Australian Skeptics arranged for James Randi to confront her on a television talk show. After this, she was somewhat rattled and spent a lot of time attacking skeptics. At one Perth show, she became so upset that a skeptic was taking notes in the front row that she moved down into the audience, stood over him and poked him in the chest before asking him to leave. In her book, 'Woman of Spirit' she mentions her early life. She first married a drunk and gambler. Next she married a man who was mentally ill, Most of the famous people she talks about are now dead. She claims that Peter Sellers was an intimate friend and often took her advice. Yet she is not mentioned in any biography of Sellers despite his known interest in psychics. She also claims to have helped the police in Bath, England to solve a murder. She says they contacted her after she had described the murderer and the victim. The Bath police say that they made no approach to her, in fact, she came to them. She said the murder was committed with a hammer and hatchet. In fact, the victim died of knife wounds. She says too that she was instrumental in getting the Arthur Thomas case reopened. The official inquiry made no mention of her. It was David Yallop who caused further ballistics tests to be made and which made way for the release of Thomas. Australian Skeptics have investigated many more of the claims of Stokes and Collins and found them all to be false.

We can now move to the British medium, Albert Best. His publicity quoted extensive testing by Professor Roy of Glasgow University. In fact, these were of no scientific value,being merely examples of cold reading of no great success. Albert Best arrived in March 1984. Four days later the Melbourne Sun repeated the false claim that Best had been tested at Glasgow University, under scientific conditions. | wrote to Best and received a reply from Mrs Joan King, who described herself as the organiser of the tour. She asked that we establish our credentials. Albert Best finally replied stating that, "I have made no claims of any kind" and "have already sat a test, sitting in Hobart on television", In my next letter I noted that while he had not made any claims, ethers had certainly made remarkable claims about him in promoting his tour. I stated that | felt certain that he would be able to find time to be tested by the Skeptics. He refused to be tested and asserted that he could no longer afford to answer letters without a stamped addressed envelope. As the tour grossed an estimated $30 000-$40 000 it appears that the organisers must have been awfully tight with their purse strings. Meanwhile back in New Zealand the 'Psychic Gazette' was hinting at dark clouds over the Best tour, The May 1984 issue stated, While the tour has done the public image of what we stand for a great service, many spiritualists found a disappointing shortfall between their expectations and what they experienced. Surely with so many clairvoyants at their disposal, they should have known what was going to happen. The June issue tacked down even further. First, they printed a letter from James Randi which corrected the false publicity about Best. The editor, Ron Gibbs, apologised to his readers for any misleading statements about Albert's testing. Yet, the same issue of the Gazette published an advertisement for video tapes of Best, stating (!) ‘If you were one of the lucky ones to have a reunion with some of your loved ones, relive that moment again by watching it on your own video! Price $70'. To prevent a repetition of the embarrassment caused by the bad publicity, Australian Skeptics extended this offer to Mr Best "The next time he comes to Australia, he should allocate his first three days for rigorous scientific tests by scientists using the most modern equipment available. If he passed, Australian Skeptics undertook to do their utmost to obtain the sort of favourable publicity that will ensure a highly profitable tour."

The talk concluded with questions and discussion. The whole was most enthralling and was greatly appreciated.