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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Dr. Gary Schwartz:
scientifically testing the authenticity of psychic-mediums
Return to Afterlife main-page
Dr. Schwartz's official website
A long time ago, in a college class, I recall Art Mokarow's bold statement that "80% in any field are incompetent."
At the time, as a young man, I judged this assessment as too harsh. Today, however, at age 70+, I think he was being too generous. It is extremely difficult to find a truly skilled "master of a trade" in any life-endeavor.
The field of psychic-mediums is no different. I've interacted with quite a few, and I would say that most have no business promoting themselves as such. That said, there are a few who are so good that they will knock your proverbial socks off with what they know; that is, what they've been given to know by invisible Spirit Guides.
In his book, The Afterlife Experiments, Dr. Gary Schwartz investigated, under controlled laboratory conditions, the abilities of psychic-mediums. As an extra filtering precaution, he employed not just "double blind" rigor, but "triple blind."
For example, double-blind experiments are often used to test new medicinal drugs. In these tests, some of the pills will be placebos; that is, without medicinal properties - just a sugar pill. The test would be termed "double-blind" if neither the patient nor the administering doctor had knowledge concerning the nature of the pills; i.e., authentic or placebo.
Concerning psychic-mediums, a common criticism is that of the "cold reading." It is alleged that the medium gathers information about and from the sitter via body-language, questions asked, comments made, facial expressions, subtle cues, and the like, to create a "message."
In an effort to circumvent any such charges, Dr. Schwartz designed an experiment whereby "cold reading" would be impossible.
To that end, and to ensure a high degree of credible result, Dr. Schwartz decided upon "triple-blind" testing procedure; that is:
- the sitter is "blind" - not present when a reading is given, and would not even see the psychic-medium or have any information;
- the psychic-medium is "blind" - would not see the sitter or have any information;
- the experimenter, the one coordinating the test, is "blind" - in that, he or she is not given definitive knowledge regarding the participants.
Knowing even this much about the experiment, we already sense the effectiveness of, the difficulty imposed by, these restrictions; however, in actual practice, it was even a little more complicated.
For a complete survey of the details, I would direct you to Dr. Schwartz's book, The Afterlife Experiments; also, his several Youtube lectures on this subject.
The conclusion?
Some of the mediums failed the test; some were so-so; but a few of them, such as John Edward, succeeded amazingly and brilliantly! - with probability of "pure chance" orchestrating results in the realm of billions to one! - leaving little doubt, for the rational, objective seeker-of-truth, that there are, in fact, scientifically authenticated psychic-mediums.
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Dr. Susan B. Barnes is an international medium, communications professor, radio commentator, and Spirit Artist. She is the owner of the Spirit Art Gallery in Cassadaga, NY where she regularly teaches art classes. See her website: www.spiritartgallery.net
Susan is a certified medium trained in the United States, England, and Canada. She is a member of the Spiritualist National Union and teaches on the SNUi. She has passed her CSNU in demonstrating and continues to work on SNU credentials. Her work has been featured in the Psychic Observer, and she's written eight books including Visual Communication: From Cave Art to Second Life and Spiritualist Basics.
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Editor’s note: It’s difficult to find a competent psychic-medium. You might have to try a few. While not every reading can be successful even with a gifted sensitive - you often need to have a few readings to obtain something meaningful - occasionally, with a gifted psychic, one might receive communication to rock your world, of stunning evidential authenticity. I'd like to recommend Sue Barnes. She’s among the best I’ve encountered in the last 25 years; additionally, Sue is easy to talk to, down-to-earth, the kind of person you’d like to have as a friend. Give her a call to schedule a phone-reading: (585) 314-9362
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Richard Ireland, one of the most gifted psychics ever - see this astonishing demonstration:
Richard Ireland on the Steve Allen Show (1969)
See the Youtube interview
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Michelle Whitedove, Lifetime TV's "America's #1 Psychic"
Michelle's official website
Michelle immediately led officials to a body in a car-trunk in a car-lot of hundreds of cars! further, she needed no instruction as to the challenge, but already knew what would be asked of her!
Further, she was able to find a body buried in a desert, immediately going to where the body was located!
See the Youtube video
Editor's note: Michelle explains that her Spirit Guides inform her concerning what needs to be done.
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the difference between a medium and a psychic
It’s been said that all mediums are psychics, but not all psychics are mediums.
- A medium serves as conduit, a bridge midway between two entities, or acts with agency of another.
- A psychic enjoys abilities derived from the powers of the mind, the psyche.
It’s also a truism that one might be a good psychic-medium but not necessarily a good person. This is so because these abilities, as Dr. Barrett said, have an external source. Here, “external” means “not of the soul”. This being the case, it would be very difficult to express the higher, mystical, soul-based gifts without also being a good person; at least, a good person under steady construction.
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