GMTV featured self-professed psychic Derek Ogilvie on 25th May 2006. Ogilvie's psychic speciality is that he claims to be able to read babies' minds.
Viewer Tamra had responded to an article on GMTV's website as she was concerned about her (nearly) 3-year-old son Dane's speech delay and wanted to know what was going on in his mind. We saw an introductory film showing Tamra and Dane which stated her concerns about Dane's speech development and Tamra also was worried that she had done something wrong as a parent to cause Dane's delayed speech.
Derek Ogilvie was introduced to Tamra with the purpose of tuning into Dane and passing information over. This had obviously been done prior to the filming of the item and no footage of this meeting was shown. We only saw the item that was filmed on Tuesday 23rd May in the studio.
Lorraine Kelly asked Tamra why she was impressed with Derek and Tamra's answer was the same as most people's who have been impressed by a psychic reading: she claimed that Derek had told her things that he couldn't possibly have known. An example was that Derek had mentioned 'my chest hurts born born my chest hurts' and it turns out that Dane had had pneumonia when he was born.
This was followed by a relatively long section of Derek explaining how he has this ability and how it works (telepathy for example). All of it anecdotal and unverifiable of course.
The skeptic present, Mark Duwe, explained that such information is obtained via Cold Reading (a set of techniques which are used to make it appear that you are telling people things you couldn't possibly have known). Mark explained that questions are often veiled; they appear as statements but they are questions and the clients' responses are fed back to them. Tamra rejected this as she was certain that Derek had given information that he couldn't possibly have known (!)
Here's an example of how this works:
Psychic: I'm getting a feeling of pain in the chest area. Do you understand this?
Client: Yes, my son had pneumonia when he was born.
Psychic: That's right because I'm getting 'my chest hurts born born my chest hurts'.
Client: Yes that's absolutely right.
So what happens is that the statement "I'm getting a feeling of pain in the chest area. Do you understand this?" (which is really a veiled question) gets remembered by the client as the psychic revealing the information when in fact it was the client who really supplied it. As Mark explained on the programme: it's the psychic who supplies the words but it's the client who supplies the meaning to those words. This is a known psychological effect called: subjective validation.
Before this point could be expanded on Derek butted in and changed the subject back to his claimed ability citing the example from his pre-show demonstration of him drawing a picture of Tamra's back garden and the specific pinpointing of a plant which had been moved. Lorraine asked whether Derek had ever been to Tamra's house to which he replied 'no' and then changed the subject again to reveal that he had been to America to work with "Gary Schwartz at the University of Arizona. He's a Harvard professor; he's a clinical psychologist; he's an expert in cold reading..." Gary Schwartz is not exactly a reputable scientist (no wonder Derek is keen to work with him).
At this point the interview is ended.
What has been achieved here?
This was meant to be about Dane but he got little in the way of a mention. Was Tamra's concern over Dane's speech development addressed? No. Did Tamara find out what was going on in Dane's mind? No. It was a piece that served only one purpose: to promote Derek Ogilvie. So the actual stated purpose was never addressed. Psychics love to claim that they help people with their abilities; however, their demonstrations are usually done to benefit themselves. Derek got some free publicity out of this but what did Tamra or Dane get out of it?
One major problem with pieces like this is that what's broadcast is nothing like the full picture so it's difficult to separate fact from fiction or claim from reality. Fortunately Mark, the skeptic, is a member of UK-Skeptics and of course was present to see what went on in the pre-show phase.
The pre-show phase
Before the piece was recorded for broadcast, it had been decided that Derek would display his skill to Mark by doing a demonstration. In order to do this Tamra and Dane were brought to the studio to be given a reading by Derek for Mark's benefit.
To begin the reading, Derek asked Tamra to only answer 'yes' or 'no' to his questions. Of course the psychic is supposed to be passing information by reading the child's mind so why is he asking questions of its mother? Getting a 'yes' or 'no' is also receiving feedback: something that is of great assistance in a Cold Reading.
Here is a list of Derek's statements (supposedly read from the child's mind remember):
Derek Ogilvie: Dane has been acting up recently and has been demanding.
Tamra: Yes.
Derek Ogilvie: Dane was saying that Tamra had stomach pains over the weekend, specifically on Sunday night.
Tamra: [a hesitant] yes.
Derek Ogilvie: Dane was acting up about going to the toilet.
Tamra: Yes.
Derek Ogilvie: Tamra had had trouble with shoes that morning – some were too tight, some too small and she had tried on quite a few pairs.
Tamra: Yes.
Derek Ogilvie: The back of their house [Tamra's], in the garden, that they had been doing some work – the left side had been finished whilst the right side was still unfinished.
Tamra: Yes.
Derek Ogilvie: [Borrowing Mark's notepad] drew a rectangle which he divided down the middle and drew a circle which he indicated was a bush. He said that they had recently moved this bush from the right side of the garden to the left and that Tamra’s husband had wanted to get rid of it, but she wanted to keep it.
Tamra: Yes.
Derek Ogilvie: Dane was having pain in his teeth, on the lower jaw, two or three teeth out from the centre. [He said Mark could take Dane to a dentist and have him verify this].
Tamra: [gives a noncommittal response].
Derek Ogilvie: one of their neighbours regularly parked their car in front of their house, which had led to some disagreement. He specified that it was a neighbour on the same side of the road, about two or three houses down. [He guessed at the initials of the neighbour].
Tamra: States that she doesn't know the neighbour's name.
That's not clear whether Tamra agrees with Derek's statement (not unlikely to be true for London) but doesn't know the name of the neighbour or whether she's simply responding to the neighbour's initials claim.
Derek then made a statement about busses, specifically a Routemaster bus, which drew a total blank.
He than asked if it was possible that someone could take Dane into another room, to demonstrate how he could read his mind even though he wasn’t there. Tamra said that it wasn’t OK with her as Dane didn’t really trust strangers and she was worried that he might not be all right. Derek repeated this request several times both to Tamra and James, the producer, until it was firmly rejected by Tamra.
At this point Derek had to ask what Dane’s name was as he’d forgotten! (psychic baby mind reader?)
Derek now turned his attention to a production assistant who was heavily pregnant:
Mark: He then turned to the production assistant sat next to me, who was heavily pregnant and said she was suffering from pains in her neck or shoulders. This got a lot of thought before she replied "no".
He then went on about a computer she had – it appeared to him that the screen and the keyboard were mismatched, or had recently been repaired, or were new. This seemed unfamiliar to her, so he went on that there was a mirror or picture behind the screen. This was a “yes”, so he continued with the screen and keyboard, saying that her unborn child was telling him that there was something about the screen or keyboard. She told him she owned a laptop.
He moved quickly onto her shoes and said that she occasionally got pains or cramps in her calves. She told him she took her shoes off when she got home.
He took my notebook again and drew a picture of a room with a bed in it and indicated that on one wall that he specified, there was an unspecified problem and that the door to the bedroom didn’t close properly. She replied that the door to the room with the laptop in didn’t close properly. He was insistent about the screen or keyboard still, but he couldn’t “make sense” of it, as he said.
It's not quite obvious why an unborn baby should be concerned about whether its mother's computer screen and keyboard are mismatched (unlikely as it's a laptop). It looks more like the inane drivel that psychics come out with hoping for a 'hit' which is meant to confirm their ability.
With Tamra, however, Derek was much more accurate.
Explain that, skeptic!
Cold Reading can explain how psychic readings are done. They usually stand out a mile as they consist of psychics asking questions and then honing in on the answers that are positive. However, it seems that Derek was spot on here. There were a few statements that got instant hits. Is this a demonstration of psychic power after all?
No. Before filming, the people who are to be included in the broadcast are kept in what's known as the 'green room'. Derek, Tamra, Dane as well as Mark were in the green room before the filming took place and Dane's behaviour was quite apparent. Tamra had tried to take Dane to the toilet several times and he had refused to go, much to the amusement of the floor crew. It's so obvious where Derek got his 'information' from that it's surprising that he used it in his demonstration.
However, this does not explain how Derek was able to give accurate details of Tamra's house and garden. How could he actually draw the garden accurately and even state that a tree had been moved from one side to the other? This is the level of accuracy that is hard to explain with Cold Reading techniques.
Whilst Mark was preparing for the filming he was talking to the make-up girl. He mentioned that he thought that Derek had been suspiciously accurate with a few points he had come up with. The make-up girl then told Mark that Derek had visited Tamra and Dane at their house the previous week. Something Derek denied during filming.
Of course this is not new information to skeptics. Psychics often gather information prior to a reading and read it back in what's known as a 'Hot Reading' i.e. they are presenting information that they already know in the guise of psychic ability.
Conclusion
This television piece is typical of how these demonstrations are done for TV. They may look impressive when broadcast, but the viewer should be aware that such demonstrations are not done under controlled conditions and indeed everything is done to make sure that the demonstration works. The psychics are not kept away from people to make sure that they do not see them until a demonstration is done; they are allowed to meet with people, interact with them and read them without any controls imposed at all!
Of course, if a client doesn't think the psychic is real and is not impressed with the information they feed back to them then it will never be broadcast.
This should always be borne in mind whenever a demonstration is seen on TV.
Further reading:
See our commentary on Derek's series on Channel 5 here: The baby mind reader.
