Last Wednesday (26^th Nov, 2008), UK-Skeptics were contacted by Shannonside Northern Sound Radio in Longford, Ireland to see if we could supply a skeptic to take part in a live debate about psychics and Cold Reading: the techniques psychics use to convince people they are passing messages from the dead or that they are telling them things they couldn’t possibly know and such like.

We don’t normally take part in these ’skeptics versus believer’ debates as they usually turn out to be of little value – skeptics often being included simply to provide some token opposition. UKS forum member Richard Sutherland decided that he would, however, represent the skeptics’ side of the debate; and this conversation turned out to quite different to the usual: (more…)

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John Jackson © 2008

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This is a report of the programme broadcast by Channel 5 in the UK on 25^th September 2008. The programme featured self-proclaimed psychic Derek Ogilvie, ‘The Baby Mind Reader’, undergoing formal testing of his claimed ability; notably for the JREF $1,000,000 paranormal challenge. This is an overview of the programme commenting mainly on the tests done, why they were done as they were, and what they actually mean. (more…)