Derek Ogilvie, who starred in the Channel 5 series The Baby Mind Reader, is a self-proclaimed psychic whose speciality is that he can connect telepathically with children up until the age where they begin to talk. Ogilvie claims that most children lose their telepathic ability once they acquire speech.

Derek claims that he's keen to work with scientists as validating his psychic ability is very important to him. Derek has stated publicly that he aims to take James Randi's $1,000,000 challenge and he also stated that he looked forward to working with us at UK-Skeptics whilst he was appearing on GMTV; although our offers to take him up on that have been met with silence.

Testing psychics can be difficult as their claims are often nebulous and the results of their tests (such as those of psychic mediums connecting to 'spirit') are normally subjectively interpreted. This means that success or failure of these tests depends on the biases of the researchers and participants as much as it does on statistical results. i.e. researchers who believe in such psychic abilities get positive results and those who don't believe get negative results.

It is far better to have a testing protocol that relies entirely on statistical results as this removes the need for subjective interpretation; which means that, with a properly controlled test, personal beliefs and biases do not affect the outcome.

Fortunately, Derek Ogilvie makes the claim that once his telepathic connection to the child has been established, it remains intact even if the child is moved to another room. This claim, which is Derek's own (it is vital that tests are designed to test only that which the claimant claims to be able to do), allows for the design of a testing protocol which can be measured statistically.

It is often assumed that Derek's baby mind reading claims cannot be tested because as the babies can't talk they cannot verify or refute any information he comes up with. That is only true if such a requirement is a part of the test. Fortunately it's not needed. Babies and young children understand basic language before they can use it verbally and have no trouble distinguishing between colours, shapes, objects and indeed people, such as family members. It is this ability of young children that allows a test to be designed that does not rely on children being able to speak.

If Derek really can connect to children telepathically and maintain that connection to a child who's in another room as he claims, he should be able to describe the properties of an object that the child is holding; be it the colour, shape, etc., of the object.

A possible test protocol.

This is an outline for a preliminary test protocol (a full protocol would have to be worked out in conjunction with Derek Ogilvie and/or his representatives) which explains in principle the aims of the test and how it could be carried out:

1. Allow Derek to choose one from several young children that he claims to be able to telepathically communicate with to ensure that he is certain of making a good connection;
2. Six, for example, objects (the target pool) will be used that the children are known to be able to distinguish between as targets - based on their colour, shape, etc.;
3. Derek will 'tune in' to the child who will then be taken in to a separate, isolated room;
4. Objects that the child recognises will be given to him/her one at a time after being chosen randomly;
5. Derek will make his choice of target that the child is currently observing;
6. The target is returned to the target pool for possible re-selection (this ensures that each trial is independent);
7. Records of the target chosen and Derek's choices will be kept and scored after the test.

This type of test can be scored using the binomial distribution (Derek can only be right or wrong with each choice he makes) and the odds of success by chance can be worked out precisely. We normally set the odds of success in such tests at greater than 1000:1. This is high enough to ensure that a successful outcome is unlikely to arise by chance. It does assume that the paranormal ability under test will have a large size effect; however, this is not unreasonable considering that Derek can seemingly psychically connect to children at will without test conditions imposed.

Example:

If six objects were used (say six differently coloured balls) and sixteen trials (attempts at discerning the target) were done then a score of 9 or more successes out of sixteen attempts would be considered as passing the test as the odds of gaining this score purely by chance guessing are 1 in 2,729.

Passing a simple preliminary test like this would not prove psychic ability of course, but it would be an important first step towards more serious in-depth research.

If Derek Ogilvie is really serious about proving his psychic ability scientifically then he should volunteer himself for a test such as the one outlined here.

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NEWS

It is rumoured that Derek Ogilvie, in conjunction with Channel 5 TV, is going to apply to take the JREF $1,000,000 challenge although to date (Feb. 2007) no application has been received by the JREF.

2^nd April 2007

The deadline for applying for the JREF $1,000,000 challenge has now passed and no application has been received from either Channel5 or Derek Ogilvie. So it looks like Derek, who always says "I look forward to working with you in the future" to skeptics, is not as good as his word.

Self-professed psychics tend to shun scientific testing for 2 main reasons:

1. They can't actually do what they claim and are aware that testing would reveal this; and
2. There are enough people who are willing to believe without evidence anyway, so why jeopardise that?

Perhaps Derek thought that by making claims of wanting to be tested scientifically that he would be taken more seriously. Unfortunately, to be taken seriously he would actually have to follow through with his claim. All he's achieved in doing is demonstrating that he's talking hot air - even his followers will be wondering why he's making these claims and continuously backing out of them.

24^th August 2007

It seems as if Derek Ogilvie actually did undergo some testing with the JREF (See: http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-08/082407newton.html#i1)

No details have emerged as yet stating what the tests were or how well Derek scored, but as the JREF is still in possession of its $1,000,000 prize, and the company who filmed the tests have not publicised this test, it's a fairly safe conclusion to draw that Derek did not pass.

It will be interesting to see how the failure is explained away by Derek.

23^rd November 2007

As the TV company are not showing the programme of Derek's test until next year and that the JREF $1,000,000 is still there James Randi has decided to officially reveal that Derek Ogilvie did not win the JREF challenge. See: http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/131/27/#i1

An obvious conclusion to such a failure is that Derek is not psychic and can't really communicate telepathically with babies but psychics are notorious for coming up with post-hoc rationalisations for their failure in tests. With this in mind, Randi takes great care to make sure that psychics are perfectly happy with the conditions under which they are being tested.

Randi:

You should know that – as agreed to in advance by both parties – Derek Ogilvie travelled to Fort Lauderdale accompanied by an entourage, a TV crew, and complete confidence. He completed the required forms, so we have the conclusive, signed-and-witnessed statements from him in which he agreed that all the conditions for his comprehensive test with the JREF were fair, binding, and acceptable, in every respect. He offered no objections, made no complaints, and expressed no doubt about his ability to perform his wonders at that time, in that place, in those weather conditions, in his then-state of health, and in all and every way – he said – it was 100% satisfactory. Optimum. Ideal.

It's not explained exactly how the test was done but the protocol would be along similar lines to the one posted above. We'll see it, eventually, when it ends up on TV. That's if we get to see it at all of course!

The results:

The results: It was abysmal, a disaster, a fiasco, and an excellent example of the proof of the laws of chance, and of permutations and combinations. Derek Ogilvie got exactly one out of twenty correct, precisely what chance – without any of his mystical powers at work – would have called for.

At the time Derek offered no excuse for his failure but later went on to remark that the test "can't be scientific, because Randi is an illusionist." Of course a test is either scientifically robust or it isn't. The occupation of the tester has no bearing on the validity of the test.

To be honest, I was expecting a much better excuse for failure. Too much sunspot activity, negative energies from skeptics, conjunctivitis in his third eye....

So, yet again, as soon as test conditions are imposed on a psychic claimant, it's shown that they can't really do what they claim they can do.

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Further reading

Derek Ogilvie on Extraordinary People

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