In spite of the quality international line-up of scientists and science communicators at September's annual NZ Skeptics Conference in Wellington, it's probably not surprising that most of the media attention on the event focused on the presence of medium Sue Nicholson (see NZ Skeptic 93). Many in the audience seemed bemused to see her there, and Nicholson, for her part, didn't seem to have much idea of what the Skeptics were about. "My Dad was as sceptical as anybody," she said. "He had no time for black people."
The event was all very civilised, and Nicholson received a polite hearing, but it did provide a rare opportunity to pose questions to the Sensing Murder star. One, repeated on TV3's news coverage ('TV psychic tries to convince sceptics') asked her why, after 32 episodes, Sensing Murder was unable to generate any fresh information on the cases Nicholson and her fellow mediums had investigated. Nicholson responded that they had in fact solved one case, that of "Sara Neish".
While it wasn't possible to challenge this at the time, the comments on the TV3 website in response to the news item have been very illuminating. These included input from a son and a friend of the victim, whose name was actually Sara Niethe. They were adamant that Sensing Murder had done nothing to help solve the case. Sara's former boyfriend, Mark Pakenham, was sentenced in August for her manslaughter, although Nicholson and fellow medium Deb Webber had claimed on the show that she had left Pakenham's house after an argument on the night of her death, and then been murdered by another man. At the time, according to the Stuff website, inquiry head Detective Sergeant Glenn Tinsley of Waihi police said no leads had come from the show, and police did not put much faith in psychics.
Nicholson also claimed in her presentation that the Sensing Murder mediums received no feedback on the comments they made while recording the show, implying that any information they imparted must have come from the spirit world, rather than simply being reflected back from the subject as happens in a cold reading session. But the show's host, Rebecca Gibney, says in the preamble to each episode that "only correct statements are confirmed during the readings". That's all a skilled cold reader would need - if a statement is incorrect it doesn't elicit a response and the medium changes tack until s/he gets a confirmation. Further evidence, if any were needed, that Nicholson is not a reliable source of information on matters pertaining either to this world or the next.