PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP DELILAH SAXENA

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What is Psychic Mediumship Mediumship is a practice where the medium acts as an intermediate between and physical and spiritual world. People who go to them are usually people who have recently lost someone they love. It is possible that people who are grieving are particularly prone to believe in psychic mediumship because it can offer them some comfort to think their loved ones are still thinking of them and watching over them. People who are vulnerable may be less able to use their reasoning skills. There are two general subtypes  Physical mediums- physical phenomena are demonstrated at séances, viewable to those sitting with the medium  Mental mediums- mental phenomena are demonstrated through the mind of the medium

Explanations Sensitivity to cues There are many clues that can help a talented medium produce accurate information: E.g. cold reading (ability to gain information about someone without that person realizing that they are actually giving up the information themselves). These mediums can pick up sitter’s tone of voice and the sitter’s replies to previous statements

The Barnum Effect Is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate. For example, a cold reader would start with some general statements that could apply (e.g. ‘I see a recent loss of life’). From this it would elicit responses from the sitter, and these responses can be used later in the conversation to convince listeners of the psychic’s abilities. The willingness of sitters to elaborate on limited information helps the medium appear to have special powers.

O'Keeffe and Wiseman (2005).  Used 5 psychic mediums and 5 sitters. Each medium made a reading for each sitter. 5 x 5 = 25 readings in all. Each sitter rated each of the 25 readings. They rated the readings that were supposed to be about them as the lowest. Findings: this showed that the mediums were producing readings that were very GENERAL, and could be applied to ANYBODY. Therefore nobody preferred the reading that was meant for them. Conclusion: readings are full of BARNUM STATEMENTS. Psychic mediums do not have psychic powers.

Research into cold reading  Schwartz et al used undergraduates to determine a bassline for the accuracy of cold readings. Each undergraduate considered how accurately each statement reflected their own feelings. Each undergraduate considered how accurate each statement reflected their own feelings. Since the statements were written to apply to older women who had experienced deaths in recent years, it is likely that the undergraduates would find the statements low in accuracy.

Fraud As spiritualisation is a big business people resort to complex and convincing strategies. For example, a medium might hire an accomplice to visit a regular sitter. During the visit, the accomplice may ask to use the sitters toilet. From this they are able to steal a treasured possession. Later the medium will ask if the person has lost something treasured and tells her where it can be found.

Research into Psychic Mediumship Bieshel and Schwarz(2007) Primary purpose of this triple-blind study was to acquire evidence concerning the possibility that accurate information about a sitter’s deceased loved ones could be reliably obtained from researchers mediums under highly controlled experimental conditions. 8 established mediums were used with 8 Arizona students, who were served as sitters. 4 had lost a parent and 4 had lost a peer. Medium was blind to identification of the sitters and the deceased. Each medium ‘read’ two sitters. Each sitter then read 2 itemised transcripts, one intended for themselves and the other for a paired control. Significantly higher findings were obtained for intended versus control reading, suggesting mediums could actually retrieve some information from the deceased

Evaluation The triple-blind design successfully eliminated all known potential sources of conventional sensory cues and conventional bias. For example, the mediums were not provided with any sensory cues from the absent sitters and were blind to information about the sitters or the discarnates (beyond the discarnate’s first name. The experimental design also eliminates the possibility of fraud to the same extent as any study involving human subjects. For example, the mediums and sitters never interacted in any way. Also, the mediums were never in the laboratory. The sitters were in the laboratory under supervision and only during scoring, the experimenter who trained the sitters just prior to scoring was blind to the origin of the readings.

 Also, there was another piece of research carried out by Schwartz, who arranged for 5 mediums to interview a women who had experienced 6 significant losses in the last decade. The women only answered yes or no to questions in order to cut down the chance of the mediums using initiative reasoning. The mediums performed at an accuracy level of 83%, compared to 36% for control interviewing. This suggests a psychic effect.

 Russek and Schwartz (2001) found that highly skilled mediums can give accurate readings about people of whom they know nothing, revealing information so personal that the chances of guessing the details goes well beyond chance.

 Research has overall shown that with experienced psychic mediums the accuracy rate is high. However, even the most controlled studies cannot rule out other variables including cheating.  Like most areas of anomalistic psychology, psychic mediumship is difficult to study scientifically, especially the effect that belief on those that are influenced by the medium’s comments.

Overall evaluation on Psychic Mediumship  Research into psychic mediumship raises ethical concerns, as those involved may be grieving for loves ones; therefore, procedures should be applied to eliminate possibilities of harm  The evidence for psychic mediumship is similar to other areas of paranormal experiences, with positive results gained from believers but not from non-believers. This suggests that results cannot be accepted until replicated by independent observers.  Roe (1996) reports that many sitters are aware that mediums are just using general statements but nevertheless remain convinced. This is supported by the mock séance study (Wiseman et al, 2003). Even though participants knew the séance was fake, believers had a tendency to be taken in by events

Theresa Caputo 