Psychic zapped after complaint

- 1 November 1987

It’s thumbs up for Sunday News in a long running battle with self proclaimed psychic Colin Amery.

Sunday News this week won against Mr Amery at the Press Council after he had made a number of complaints against the newspaper.

And significantly, the Press Council upheld our right to describe Mr Amery as a self-proclaimed psychic in the absence of scientific proof that he possessed special powers.

Here are the council’s findings:

In April, Sanday News published an interview given by Mr Amery from his hospital bed to a reporter after he had been the victim of a stabbing attack. The article, headed Dream Of Death, quoted Mr Amery as saying that, before he was attacked, he had received a string of death warnings. He also had a dream in which death visited him, and on the day of the attack had premonitions of death. The report began by saying: “The psychic victim of a crazed attack believes wizardry saved his life.” Mr Amery said he gave the interview “to clear up all the inaccuracies that had appeared in the media coverage of the attack upon me”.

While be did not complain of the accuracy of the report of the interview, Mir Amery did complain that he was given no hint of an accompanying report of an interview with Dr David Marks, a psychologist at Otago University and chairman of the New Zealand Skeptics Society, to whom Mr Amery’s claims were referred. Dr Marks dismissed these claims as “absolute piffle”. Mr Amery said the report of the interview with him was correct and objective, but had he known it would be referred to another person for comment he would not have given the interview.

In his second complaint, Mr Amery objected to a Sunday News article on August 10, in which he dismissed previously published reports that he was a criminal lawyer, because he said the report clearly implied that he had never worked in London as an articled clerk.

Mr Amery also complained that in the August 10 report the newspaper described him as “a self-proclaimed psychic”.

The council, in its adjudication, said that although it had prolific correspondence from Mr Amery it was unable to uphold his complaints. The council considered the editor of Sunday News had exercised acceptable discretion, in its April 13 issue, in seeking to balance Mr Amery’s unusual claims by obtaining the views of Dr Marks, a specialist in the field who had on an earlier occasion actually tested Mr Amery’s psychic claims under scientific conditions and rejected them. There was no responsibility on Sunday News to tell Mr Amery it was seeking comment from Dr Marks.

On the question of Mr Amery’s legal background, the newspaper had made inquiries in London and was able in its August 17 issue to publish that his credentials as “a lawyer’s apprentice” were valid. It reported under a five-line single column beading that its inquiries showed he was employed as an articled clerk by a London law firm from September 2, 1963 until June 25, 1965. In the council’s view, this was an adequate answer to Mr Amery’s complaint on this question.

On the third point, the council agreed with the editor that it was permissible to describe Mr Amery as a self-proclaimed psychic in the absence of scientific proof that he possessed special powers. No such proof had emerged, although tests by Mr Amery had been carried out with his co-operation.

The council dismissed all the complaints.

Letters

Sir, — We have been bombarded with publicity about Dr David Marks and the Skeptics Society, both in the press and on TV, and one wonders whether we are living in the twentieth century or the Dark Ages

Of course there are people who have been ripped off by some psychics, and of course there are cases where so called faith healing has not worked. But are there not charlatans in every walk of life? Every force and practice can be used for good or ill depending on the nature of the practitioner, and as long as there are gullible people prepared to throw common sense out the window, then there are those who will take advantage of them.

A lot of scientific testing was done on mediums producing physical phenomena in the 1930s and 1940s in Britain, and found genuine. The existence of auras has been proved by Kirlian photography. Most genuine mediumship today is of a spiritual nature and concerns communication from spirit to spirit, one without and one within a physical body. No one is asked to take notice of a communication of this nature if it offends their reason or does not ‘feel’ right. Moreover, spiritual happenings cannot be tested by physical means; they need to be judged by a spiritual yardstick, so it comes down to a question of personal integrity on the one hand and common sense on the other.

Mankind has always been aware of a further dimension outside of his five senses. Many of those demonstrating this extra dimension have been tortured and hounded. But what is true and part of our nature cannot be got rid of. Our society is slowly becoming more discerning and will make up its own mind about what is right for it.

Doreen Haslam.

[Abridged. — Ed.]

Sir, — I too was interested in Dr Marks’ Skeptic’s Society, and wonder how much research was done, and over what period of time. I have been associated with the Spiritualist Church (emphasis on church) for more than 30 years, and have seen many mediums at work within the church. Genuine mediums do pot “perform” for money ever, or come forward for a cash offer. To do so means the loss of their developed power. Hence “‘showbiz”’ people usually resort to fakery

I wonder if Dr Marks knows of the Highland folk in Scotland who have “‘the gift of the second sight”? Hopefully one day he may have a meaningful spiritual experience that will make him a fuller, richer (spiritually) person. The world is full of surprises.

Granny MacSpook.

[ Dr Marks is now living in England. The chairman, New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Dr D. Dutton, replies “Research into spirit mediums goes back more than a century. In 100 years, mediumship has increasingly shown itself to be a depressing morass of fakery and self-delusion. It is not something which we view as inspiring to spiritual persons eager to know the truth. Nevertheless, hope is eternal, which is why we have assembled an enormous cash offer for anyone who can demonstrate clairvoyant abilities. Nothing crass in this: by all means, the money can go to the clairvoyant’s favourite charity or church. If there are any sincere, legitimate spirit mediums in New Zealand, surely they could overcome their shyness long enough to benefit a worthy charity. Why not? Why has not a single spirit medium in this country come forward to be tested?” — Ed.]

Sir, — The N.Z. Skeptics Society has never set out to debunk genuine psychics or verifiable demonstrations of paranormal events. What may have been described as ”scientific testing” in the 1930s and 1940s may well not pass as such now. Since then there have been no cases that have been recognised, by proper testing, to have displayed unexplained psychic powers other than could be duplicated by trickery or chance. Unless, of course, Doreen Haslam could produce evidence of such events.

Demonstration of kirlian auras is no proof that psychic powers exist and spiritual happenings have to be accepted as such before discussion can take place about them being physically tested. If one or more people actually believe that a spiritual event has taken place then indeed it has, for them, but this miracle of faith is not necessarily sufficient evidence for it to have any tangible scientific reality. When such a case does achieve scientific proof then someone can claim the $240,000 David Marks has offered.

What the N.Z. Skeptics Society is keen to demonstrate is that if indeed mankind has always been aware of a further dimension outside his or her five senses then there have been plenty of ratbags, charlatans, ”cold readers” and self-proclaimed psychics using various gimmicks like crystal balls and tarot cards to take advantage of the fact to stuff their bank accounts full of the money of desperate and gullible people who ought to know better.

T.E. Reeves.

Sir, — A recent letter by D Haslam (23.8.86) criticised the work of the N.Z. Skeptics and claimed that Kirlian photography “proved” the existence of auras. Kirlian photography does result in a fuzzy “aura” on a photograph surrounding the object photographed (e.g. &

human finger), but I say this has nothing to do with the human “aura” or psychological state. Rather it is a normal physical reaction occurring around the object photographed because of the high voltages used in Kirlian photography. Thus the “aura” also occurs for inanimate objects subjected to this technique, e.g. coins. The photographic ”aura” tells us as much about the human psychological state as it does about the psychological state of coins

— absolutely nothing.

Kirlian photography has been exposed as nothing paranormal for years, yet pseudo-scientific claims and misinformation about it continue. Groups such as the N.Z. Skeptics have an important role in countering such claims. Readers wanting more detailed information on Kirlian photography (and many other paranormal claims) can find it in vol. 10 No. 3 of the Skeptical Inquirer, the journal of the U.S. Skeptics, available in the Dunedin Public Library.

Charles Sullivan.