An honest liar

Speaking of magicians, our old friend James Randi, magician and debunker extraordinaire, is the subject-to-be of a new film project. The film is still very much a work in progress, and indeed the film-makers are looking for investors. So if you have a few quid to spare, you can donate here. In the meantime, here's the trailer.

An Honest Liar - Work-in-Progress trailer from Justin Weinstein on Vimeo.

The Magic of Blackpool

Just the idea of Blackpool on a February Sunday sends a shiver down my spine. But not for the reason you might think. Blackpool out of season for most people would be a rather bleak prospect. Not for me. I have very fond memories from my awkward teens, back in the 80's, when I would go to Blackpool for the Magic Convention in February, and spend the day wandering around the multitude of magic dealers to see what I could spend my pocket money on. Perhaps a magic book or some lecture notes or, more often than not, the latest gizmo that might allow me to perform the latest mind-boggling effect that was flavour of the month amongst my fellow nerds (or, should I say, young magicians).

A few years ago, some 20 or so years after my childhood excursions to the Magic Convention, I dragged Rachel along to the Winter Gardens to experience the spectacle. It was an eye-opener... I got to see many of the same magic dealers, now with more grey hairs and expanded waistlines, performing and selling much the same tricks to a whole new generation of young magicians (or, should I say, nerds). And Rachel got to see me regressing back to my awkward teens as I tried to pluck up the courage to speak to anyone.

The highlight of the day? Well that was actually down the other end of the town at the Pleasure Beach, riding the Pepsi Max Big One. Enough to send shivers down your spine.

CubeStormer

This just in from David Blaine (you gotta love twitter!). I can't tell if this is genuine or not, but I've long been a fan of the Rubik's Cube since I was first bought one as a teenager, and again when I was bought one by my sister just 3 or 4 years ago. I just love the way the cube looks, moves, sounds and feels. So pleased they seem to be re-launching it to today's kids.

Derren Brown: The Experiments

More from DB a week on Friday (21st Oct) as Channel 4 begins showing his new 4 part series 'Derren Brown: The Experiments'. You just know these are going to be good. Here's the trailer:

You'll all be doing it tomorrow!

Back so soon?

And so another 5 months have just passed by, and not once have I been bothered to post anything on this blog! Oh dear. Perhaps this blogging lark wasn't such a good idea after all? That said, when I look back at some of the posts from the past few years, I do remember actually enjoying it from time to time.

So, here I go again. I'm sure I have lost the one or two followers that used to regularly take a look at these pages so we start afresh, but there's plenty in the archives to have a root through if you so wish! I'll be playing around with a few new looks over the coming weeks, so do feel free to post a comment or two with your feedback (be nice!).

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Monday night, BBC2 at 9pm. New Adam Curtis series. Here's the trailer:

Time waster

In one of my earliest posts, on what was then the Diary of a Spiritual Junkie (don't ask), I might have mentioned that I used to be deeply impressed by 'magic-eye' pictures. I still am. Despite its message, I even like the one below, which arrived yesterday via twitter (from @andynyman). You may need to click on it to make it full size, and then do the usual 'staring through' the image for a while to see it.

Jedache

Oh dear. I just discovered that Saturday night will be Eurovision night. As if that wasn't enough of a shock to the system, I then discovered that Jedward will be representing Ireland! Meanwhile, The UK is to be represented by Blue. Oh, as I say, dear.

For some reason, Ireland have to compete first in a Semi-Final (tonight) while the UK is one of a handful of countries that seem to automatically qualify for the Final on Saturday. As you'll see from the video below (if you dare to click on it and subject yourself to the mind-numbing, but terrifyingly catchy, tune), the brothers are particularly talented in the way they move to the music. I would have used the word 'dance', but I fear that is too strong a word.

Drive Safely for Fun and Profit

Read me

I don't think I'd ever be able to write a novel, but if I were to have a go, I'd love to be able to knock out something like The Understudy by David Nicholls. Just finished it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you Mr Nicholls. (And Rachel for buying it!)

For what it's worth, I can also highly recommend his other books, Starter for Ten and One Day.

To flow or not to flow?

I was just getting used to the idea of 'going with the flow'. I had started to become quite comfortable with the notion that these four words actually carried with them a quite profound philosophy of how to go about one's daily life. Going with the flow meant accepting those things in life that were outside of my control. It meant learning not to resist change, and it meant allowing events to unfold naturally rather than trying to exert unnecessary control over them. At first, this was sometimes a difficult approach to take, as we all like to do what we can to gain as much control as possible in an attempt to handle life's uncertainties.

And then I go and flick through The Rules of Life by Richard Templar. Rule 10: Only dead fish swim with the stream. He seems to suggest that, in fact, 'going with the flow' isn't all it is cracked up to be, and we shouldn't let ourselves be 'swept away', but instead that life is supposed to be a struggle.

So which is it? To flow or not to flow? That is the question.

The Placebo Effect

This is a great little film about the placebo effect and the power of belief from Professor Funk (probably not his real name):

Praise the Lord!

Derren Brown's latest televisual feast, Miracles for Sale, shown last night on Channel 4, was an attempt to expose the methods employed by faith healers. He achieved this by training someone in the techniques and style of preaching typically adopted by these faith healers, with the aim of passing him off as the genuine article. His student was Nathan (pictured right), a scuba-diving instructor, who was only told about the nature of the planned project once he had already been picked from the hundreds of hopefuls who had applied to be 'a star of their own show'.

Nathan was an interesting choice as, apparently, he was himself a believer in God, and so DB was eager to point out that the project was not an attack on faith or religion itself. It was aimed specifically at the multi-million dollar industry that surrounds faith healing, showing how these so-called 'healers' draw upon various scams to encourage people to give large sums of money to their 'ministries' in the belief that such giving will show the strength of their faith in the Lord, and will be repaid many times over.

I'm a big fan of Mr Brown, but the real star of this show was Nathan, aka 'Pastor James Collins'. He really was thrown in at the deep end, and he seemed genuinely ill at ease with the idea of deceiving people. Some of the best bits of the programme were when he stood up to Brown and the production crew after he felt they had sprung yet another change of plan on him. It's a shame his 'revival' meeting at the end of the show drew only a small crowd.

The full show can still be watched on 4OD (at least until 25 May 2011). You might also want to check out Pastor James Collins' fictitious Gifts of the Ministry website.

Svengali

When I tell folks about the 'Million Dollar Psychic' project, one person's name often gets mentioned. "You're learning to become psychic? Oh, you mean like that Derren Brown chap...?" Now, I'm not sure if this is because the people I'm speaking to think that I am wanting to learn to appear psychic. To these people, I clarify that the aim of the project is to see if I can actually discover 'genuine' psychic ability (if such a thing exists).

Alternatively, of course, it may be that they believe that Derren Brown achieves his impressive feats by using his own psychic abilities! This would be surprising, indeed, as Mr Brown is quite scathing about psychics and mediums and often presents his work as a demonstration of how a range of techniques can be used to create the effect of genuine mind-reading and so on.

It would be a touch ironic if many of his fans actually believed he might be genuinely psychic!

Did you miss me?

Welcome, welcome, welcome (all three of you) to my new home on the web! It is now April and I realise that this is my first blog post of 2011... did you miss me? (You're allowed to lie at this point.)

I figured it was about time I returned to the blogosphere, with a new blog that combines "the diary of a spiritual junkie" blog with the "million dollar psychic" blog, which explains why you might have been forwarded from either of those.

So welcome back to old friends. And hello to new friends. Please feel free to have a browse around the new place. Just be sure to wipe your feet. We don't want to muddy the nice new carpets, do we?

Up, up and away*

We finally made it into the skies with Virgin Balloons! Rachel had originally bought this as a present for Valentine's Day in 2008, and this was our fifth attempt. We were to due to take off yesterday evening but, despite it being a glorious afternoon, the winds were still a little on the strong side and so the decision was made to reschedule for early this morning. The weather held and we met at 7am to unpack the balloon.

Of course, a beautiful clear morning at this time of year is likely to be preceded by a very cold night. Something we discovered during our overnight stay in the tent we had brought with us! But it was worth it to finally experience drifitng above the treetops at sunrise. It was an amazing experience.

Thank you for a wonderful present Rachie! Happy Valentine's Day! x

*Oh come on, it's a blog post about a balloon ride. What else was I going to call it?

Fifth time lucky?

The last time we tried for a trip in a hot air balloon, it didn't happen. That was our fourth attempt. It didn't matter too much as we had a great weekend anyway, but it would be nice to finally see what it feels like to drift over the countryside in a big red balloon.

Today will be our fifth attempt. At least the weather's looking good.

A-Z of Strange Experiences

One of my last tasks before leaving my academic post at Liverpool Hope University was to edit a collection of essays on anomalous experiences. The title of this collection is, quite cleverly, Anomalous Experiences (you see what I did there?). As is often the case with academic texts, there is also a subtitle: Essays from Parapsychological and Psychological Perspectives. This is because the essays are, indeed, from both a parapsychological as well as a psychological perspective. (If there is one thing I can do it is to give something an honest title.)

The contributions are from a one day conference held a few years ago at Liverpool Hope and cover such varied topics as psychic phenomena (like telepathy and precognition), hauntings and apparitions, hypnosis, and out-of-body experiences. There are also chapters on alien abduction experiences and the kinds of experiences people report in seances.

Contributors include Daryl Bem, Etzel Cardena, Jezz Fox, Chris French, Craig Murray, Ciaran O'Keeffe, Chris Roe, Simon Sherwood, Christine Simmonds-Moore, Paul Stevens, Caroline Watt, Richard Wiseman and Robin Wooffitt. 

As the editor, it would be unfair to pick out a favourite chapter, but I think it has to be said that we saved the best till last. Yes, the index is, quite frankly, superb. Not only is it in alphabetical order (as all good indexes should be), but it also gives you a flavour of the range of fascinating topics covered in this scholarly tome. Just take a look at these tantalising excerpts:

"apothenia  192...
animal magnetism  93...
Carroll, Lewis  5...
crisis telepathy  65...
Crosby, Bing  146...
daydreaming  39, 42...
EMF see electromagnetic fields...
Fayad, Dodi  149...
hypomania  183, 186...
kundalini  200...
mediumship  178...
nightmares  100, 191...
pink noise  34...
QiGong  187...
reincarnation  178...
sacred sites  76...
shamans  200..."

I could go on. Anyway, you can read a brief review of the book here (although it does not mention the index even once!). If you want to buy the book and see the index in its full glory (along with the essays themselves), it is published by McFarland, and is available from Amazon.

Am I going GaGa?

That is the question I have been asking myself ever since receiving an email from the man who runs a website called BadPsychics*.

As its name suggests, BadPsychics is largely dedicated to exposing ‘psychics’ and ‘mediums’ as nothing more than frauds and conmen (or conwomen); or at the very least as individuals who are deluded into thinking they might have paranormal abilities. The website also hosts a collection of forums on which members debate (or perhaps debunk) the latest psychic to grace our television screens.

The email was to inform me that someone had posted to one of the forums asking if Dr Matthew Smith had gone gaga as they had read that I had been quoted as describing a particular medium as ‘one of the most impressive mediums I have seen’.

You might wonder why anyone would care if I had gone gaga. Well it all stemmed from the fact that the good folks at BadPsychics knew me as a voice for the ‘sceptical community’ through my involvement on a TV show called Most Haunted. My role, as a psychologist and parapsychologist, was to put forward alternative explanations for apparently paranormal occurrences that took place during an investigation of an allegedly haunted location. As far as this programme was concerned, I was the ‘voice of reason’ who did not believe in ghosts and was there to ensure that the rational explanation for any apparently ghostly phenomena was heard.

So to be quoted as describing a medium as one of the most impressive I’d seen clearly raised a few eyebrows. But being sceptical doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, rule out being open to apparently paranormal phenomena. It is more to do with having a questioning approach to unusual and extraordinary claims.

Mediums claim to communicate with spirits of the dead. By anyone’s account, this is quite a remarkable claim and so it is reasonable to be sceptical. But I am also intrigued. Many mediums give messages that are rather vague and likely to apply to quite a few people, and so they do not provide compelling evidence that they really are receiving messages from the dead.

However, on the several occasions I’ve seen this particular medium perform, he has given messages that seem to contain both accurate and specific details such as names (first and last), dates, even addresses. He has even been known to provide such information under conditions that seem to rule out some of the more obvious non-paranormal explanations like cold-reading. So, yes, I am happy to be quoted as regarding this medium as one of the most impressive mediums I have seen.

The question I am now asking myself is, how does he do it? Is he really communicating with spirits of the dead? Is he drawing upon some other as yet unexplained power of the mind like telepathy? Or is there some other non-paranormal explanation for his apparent abilities?

These are the really interesting questions to ask. And sceptics should ask questions – they should seek to find answers – not make assumptions.

*The BadPsychics website has since closed down. 

This article originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Paranormal Magazine. You can view it in its original format using the widget below!