Herald Column: There's the "Psychics" - Where's the Skepticism?

This week's Calgary Herald column from yours truly looks at the failure on the part of "psychics" to contribute anything useful to the Tori Stafford investigation - part of a much broader track record of failure:

 

...Like many tragedies, there are many lesson to be learned here -- among them is the need for a great deal more skepticism toward self-professed "psychics" and "clairvoyants."

 

More than a week after Tori went missing, family members consulted a "clairvoyant"-- hardly surprising or discreditable that the family would exhaust every last conceivable avenue, as incredulous as some of them might seem. The motives are much less clear with regard to the other half of this equation. Without possessing any actual knowledge or information about Tori's whereabouts, a reasonable person would tell the family-- with a heavy heart, no doubt--that he or she has no idea where the child is.

 

That's not the case here. It's difficult to ascertain whether this "clairvoyant" actually believes she possesses such abilities or is merely a shameless fraud, but the evidence would indicate that it is one or the other. This "clairvoyant," after holding Tori's teddy bear, confidently told the family that the young girl was alive.

 

We know now, however, that Tori was not alive when those words were uttered. Police say the girl was murdered within 24 hours of her abduction. That no supernatural vision was able to provide any-- let alone all--of the details of this case to us is a revealing and indisputable fact.

 

Rather than providing comfort to the family, it could be said that all this "clairvoyant" delivered was false hope. But even if one concedes that it is at worst harmless for a worried or grieving family to seek out "psychics," there is clearly a downside to law enforcement doing so.

 

The evidence tells us that listening to such claims are a distraction, if not a counterproductive waste of police resources.

 

American author and researcher Joe Nickell has detailed many examples of police sent on wild goose chases after following such tips. Even worse, Nickell finds, are instances where "psychics" have wrongfully accused innocent people of committing crimes.

 

The totality of the evidence is overwhelming, a simple fact easily discerned from the mere existence of so many unsolved cases. Moreover, both the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children maintain that "psychics" have never helped solve a missing person case.

 

This topic was addressed previously at this blog here and here. Further background reading here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Watch this, too: