Paranormal/Pseudoscience Assignment 2: Psychic Detectives by Joshua Rubinger

Post #1: Psychic Detectives

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 12:21:18 UTC

Made by Joshua Rubinger, working individually.

Post #2 Video

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 12:22:20 UTC

Description:
This is a documentary about Psychic Detectives called "The Psychic Detective". In this video, detective Keith Charles, an ex police officer is now a psychic detective. He investigates crimes with his "psychic powers". Keith Charles performs in front of audiences in attempts to wow them with his powers. He claims that using his powers he can solve crimes that he's known nothing about.

Connection:
This whole incident and video can be connected to the pseudoscience red flag "red herring" because he is clearly trying to distract people from the real question, by using general guesses and irrelevant information. This does not actually answer the question of whether or not he has psychic powers.
This video can also be connected to the reason for belief "simplicity", because it is a simple explanation that he must be psychic, even though the predictions he makes are almost guaranteed due to the law of numbers.
At one point during this video, Keith (the psychic detective) is speaking to an elderly woman in the audience. He makes statements to her like "you spend a lot of time in the kitchen", "you drink a lot of tea", "you're always looking out your kitchen window". These are extremely general statements that could easily be guessed that an elderly woman in England likely does. Nothing he has done has proven at all that he has psychic abilities. He merely guesses things that he thinks will likely be correct, he's basically fishing for a bite. I am very skeptical to believe that this man has helped in any way.

Post #5 Article

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 18:44:26 UTC

Description:
This article by vice is about a psychic detective they interviewed named Troy Griffin. They ask Troy a series of questions about his job as a psychic. Troy prefers to be called an intuitive. Troy is asked questions about when he discovered his abilities, whether he's made an actual difference, whether he's worked with police departments, and whether he would like to use his "powers" for other
things. Troy explains that he is not a typical psychic, and he makes predictions based on his intuition. He also claims that police departments will not admit to working with him out of fear of backlash.

Connection:

I think this article connects with the reason for belief "unexplained" because Troy uses unexplained things to make people believe he is psychic, and since people have no other explanation to his predictions, they will assume he is psychic because it is a simple and easy explanation, which is also connecting to the pseudoscience red flag "simplicity". When applying critical thinking to this article, I look at the questions that were asked by the interviewers, and the responses given by the psychic detective. I recognize that I may personally be biased because I have always assumed psychics do not exist and cannot be real, but after analyzing the evidence and responses, I think it is safe to conclude that there is no actual proof that Troy has any psychic powers, he also will not disclose or provide any proof about any of the cases he has helped solved, claiming that the police will face too much backlash and they are afraid to admit working with him. This situation can also possibly connect to the Pseudoscience red flag "suppression by authorities"

Post #6 Website

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:14:16 UTC

Description:
This is a website containing a group of different articles about psychic detective Noreen Renier. Some of these articles are from the late 1970's from actual news papers at the time. This website also contains services offered, special events, and testimonials from former clients. One testimonial claims that she helped solve a murder in Africa over the telephone without stepping foot in Africa by leading the authorities to the crime scene.

Connection:
This website can be connected to the reason for belief unexplained and simplicity. The reason for belief unexplained applies here because it remains unexplained how she was able to give any details about these mysteries, and that people will tend to believe that it must have been a psychic power because there is simply no other logical explanation for it. Even though there are usually many other logical explanations like the law of large numbers.
This website can also connect to the pseudoscience red flag mystical energy because Noreen claims that using a mystical energy that she can feel inside herself, she is able to solve mysteries and crimes. There is no way to prove whether or not this mystical energy actually exists, and there is no way to measure this energy. Another red flag present on this website is proof by verbosity, with many testimonials from people she has apparently helped. These multiple testimonials are not actually proof of anything and this is a flaw that is present in this website.

Post #9 Picture

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:16:34 UTC

Description:
This is a photo of a book called Clues From Beyond written by author Debbie Malone. This book is about Australia's number one psychic, Debbie Malone, and how she has helped solve real crimes working with detectives. This psychic claims to be a spirit medium, and she can communicate with spirits that have passed on. This book is a sequel up to another book titled "Never Alone" that was also written by her.

Connection:
This photo and book can connect to the reason for belief Agenticity, because Debbie claims that she uses spirits as an agent to help her solve crimes, and she can speak with the dead. This involves a higher being and an invisible thing that can not be confirmed. I believe a flaw in this book, and the photo of the cover, is that it uses words like "true crime stories" and, "shocking and very real", likely to mislead people into believing that the psychic abilities were very real by using real crimes and tragedies that have occurred.
Applying the critical thinking process, I recognize that Debbie Malone is likely trying to make money by claiming she is psychic, and she has a direct financial reason to be lying or making things up. There is no actual proof or evidence that Debbie Malone has spoken with spirits or gotten any clues from beyond the grave, it is simply just her biased stories and possibly lucky general predictions.

Post #8 Picture

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:18:08 UTC

Description:
This is a photo of the cover of a video game called Psychic Detective that was released in 1995 by Electronic Arts. In this video game, you can play as a psychic detective and solve mysteries using your own psychic powers. The psychic uses telepathy to see into the minds of his subjects. The cover features a man who looks like a detective on the left half, and a screaming face on the other half.

Connection:

This could be connected to the pseudoscience red flag Mystical Energy because the Psychic Detective claims to have an ability to use Telepathy and feel the energy of suspects and victims. There is no way to measure this energy. A reason for belief that is present would be unexplained, because an easy explanation for making accurate predictions would be to say someone has telepathic powers or they are psychic. A flaw that is present with this video game is that it is not very intricate and according to google it only takes 45 minutes to complete. This game just trying to make money off of the popularity of psychic detectives in the 80s and 90s.

Post #10 Picture

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:20:00 UTC

Description:

This is a photo of “psychic” Sylvia Browne. Sylvia Browne is famous for allegedly having psychic powers. There was an incident involving a young girl named Amanda Berry, who was kidnapped. Sylvia Browne predicted that the girl was no longer alive, but it was later found that the girl was alive, along with 2 other girls. Many people were outraged and called her a fake as a result of her role as a psychic detective. Sylvia Browne may look like a harmless old lady, but she is really a business woman who is interested in making money.

Connection:
This photo of psychic Sylvia Browne can be connected to the pseudoscience red flag "Confirmation bias" because Sylvia attempts to say things that coincides with an already present belief, and even though she can make many predictions, people only tend to remember the correct ones.
Sylvia Browne made comments to Amanda Berry's mother such as "She's not alive, honey." She also mentioned that Amanda was "in water", and she saw Amanda's jacket in the garbage with "DNA on it". The girl's mother died two years after Sylvia Browne made these comments and she had believed that her daughter had been killed. However, it was discovered in 2013 that the girl was alive and she had been held captive. Many people were outraged at Sylvia's involvement in this incident and called her a fake and a fraud. I personally have always been skeptical to believe that Sylvia Browne has any psychic powers, and after critically analyzing all evidence of her being psychic, it is safe to conclude that she likely is not.

Post #4 Video

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:21:25 UTC

Description:
This is a video by Inside Edition about psychic detectives. In this video they say that psychic detectives may be selling false hope to parents. The parents in this video are completely in shock and stricken with grief when their children go missing. This video explains that psychic detectives are simply in fact playing off the emotions of grieving parents. A father who's daughter was killed over 20 years ago now warns families about psychic detectives, and said they "show up like vultures" when a kid goes missing. Psychic detectives can sometimes do more harm than good and can mislead police during a missing persons investigation.

Connection:
This situation and video connects with the reason for belief "emotional connection" because the parents who have their children go missing are so desperate for answers and so overwhelmed with emotion that they will turn to supernatural things like psychic detectives merely to protect their own sanity or help themselves in some way. The parents simply want to believe that the psychic can somehow provide them answers or contact their loved one because they are grieving and have nowhere else to turn. Psychic detectives can take advantage of this emotional connection. After critically analyzing this video, I am skeptical to believe that the psychic detectives are able to communicate with missing persons or locate them. Using critical thinking, it appears that there is no evidence suggesting that these people actually have any psychic ability. A flaw in this video is that It may be slightly biased towards people who claim to be psychic.

Post #3 Video

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:21:31 UTC

Description:
This is a clip from the TV show Psychic Detectives: Close to Home. This TV show aired beginning in 2004, and it is a dramatic reenactment of crimes and stories told by police officers, and it explains how psychics may have helped solve these crimes, whether or not they actually have helped is up for debate though.

Connection:
This TV show connects to the reason for belief "simplicity" and the pseudoscience red flag appeal to authority. It connects with the red flag appeal to authority because they use people like police officers and lawyers to tell the story, making the viewer more persueded to believe it is true.
The psychic in this video has been used multiple times and has apparently assisted police in finding missing persons. The psychic says things like "I hear water and cars going by". These are fair guesses though for anyone, and not necessarily an indication of any psychic powers. I believe that it was a mere coincidence that the psychic had any help pointing the officers in the right direction. The police officers said themselves that there were so many different areas that were consistent with exactly what she said. After speaking to the missing boys parents, she found that the dad's girlfriend likely killed the boy and was lying about his disappearance. A flaw in this video is that it is extremely dramatized and I think simply for entertainment purposes. There is no actual footage of any of these events, merely a district attorney telling a story.

Post #7 Website

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:21:34 UTC

Description:
This is a website from the psychic detective Nancy Myer. It contains information about Nancy Myer. Under the tab titled "Nancy's work", they claim that Nancy is one of the top psychic detectives in the world, she has appeared on multiple tv shows and she works as detective with police and as a private psychic. She charges $200 per hour or $100 per half hour for psychic readings, and she can be paid via pay-pal. She even does readings over the phone or over email.

Connection:
A flaw in this website is that it is very old looking and a 90's style website, and I do not know when it was last updated. There is no way to confirm any of the information on this website. There are so many obvious red flags about Nancy Myer and the website. Some of the pseudoscience red flags include appeal to authority, because they use the TV shows and celebrity status to add credibility to Nancy's work. Other red flags include confirmation bias, red herring, proof by verbosity and mystical energy. I believe it connects with these red flags because on the website there are a lot of distractions and red herrings. If you read along the website, she begins to talk about the winter and her family, this has nothing to do with anything and is irrelevant, she is just trying to make herself more likeable.

Post #11 - Reflective Responses

joshua_rubinger — 2019-04-07 19:21:37 UTC

1.
I learned a lot about the topic of psychic detectives. What I learned that I found most interesting and surprising is that many psychic detectives and police officers claim to have actually solved crimes using this technique. There really is no explanation about some of the predictions, other than pure luck or the law of inevitability.

2.
This topic is interesting and relevant to me and real life because people actually go missing all the time, and investigators have actually used psychic detectives to assist solving crimes before. This is concerning because I believe it could really distract detectives from doing their job properly. It is interesting that even law enforcement will turn to such silly things though when desperate for answers.

3.
The research that I found most interesting was the video about the parents of missing children. I found this interesting because this video directly spoke about whether or not they think psychic detectives are simply using the parents emotions to sell them false hope. This could be damaging and destructive to grieving parents, and will not actually address any problems that are happening. I find the psychology around extremely stressful events such as a child going missing to be interesting because it is a very serious time and possibly the worst thing a parent could imagine.

I am most likely to remember the seriousness of missing persons, and the emotional connection that grieving parents have when they don't know what else to do. Often these types of crimes that psychic detectives are called upon to assist with are very serious in nature. I will remember the reasons why people choose to turn to psychic detectives.

I believe the most harmful reason for belief is emotional connection. It is the most harmful because people with emotional connections are the most vulnerable, and can easily be taken advantage of. This reason for belief can be very damaging to people when they are dealing with a negative situation and can cause them to make bad decisions out of fear.

6.
If I could pass on my knowledge of this topic to a family member, I think the most important thing to pass on would be the critical thinking process, and I would tell them to properly analyze each situation, recognize their own biases, analyze the evidence, apply it to the facts in question and make a decision based on reason and logic. I would tell them to watch out for the pseudoscience red flags and would explain why people believe in things sometimes even though it may not make sense. It is most important to not let your judgement be clouded by bias or confusion.