Real-Life X-Files: Investigating the Paranormal

17. Investigating Police Psychics

~ Chapter 17 I~vestigati~g Police Psy-ch.ics The subject is nothing if not controversial. On one television show an experienced detective insists that no psychic has ever helped his department solve a crime, while another broadcast features an equally experienced investigator who maintains that psychics are an occasionally valuable resource, citing examples from his own solved cases. Who is right? Is it a matter ofscience versus mysticism as some assert? Or is it an issue ofhaving an open mind as opposed to a closed one, as others claim? Let's look at the evidence. Psychic Claims In ancient times, those who sought missing persons or who attempted to uncover crimes could consult oracles or employ various other forms of divination, including astrology. After dowsing became popular in the sixteenth century, certain practitioners used divining rods to track down alleged culprits. Throughout the nineteenth century, certain "sensitive" persons received information regarding crimes in their dreams, while during the heyday ofspiritualism, some mediums claimed to solve crimes through information provided by spirits of the dead. Today virtually all of the old, supposedly discredited techniques are in vogue. Psychics like the late Dorothy Allison, regarded as America's most famous psychic sleuth, employ astrology at times, while Sylvia Browne receives information from her "spirit guides." Dutch psychic Marinus Dykshoorn and others have plied their dowsing rods and pendulums in the supposed service of crime detection. Noreen Renier employs still another old divination technique called psychometry, by which Investigating Police Psychics she purportedly gets psychic impressions from objects connected with a particular person. Some psychics claim to use clairvoyance ("clear-seeing ") whereby they supposedly "see" remote images and scenes as ifthey were viewed on a movie screen. Psychic Bill Ward even studies people's "auras" and reads the lines in their palms. At least on the face of it, this disparity of approach-in which one . technique seems to work about as well as another-does not seem to provide a credible basis for psychic sleuthing. Neither do specific tests. For example, the seventeenth-century French dowsing sleuth, Jacques Aymar, was extensively tested in Paris, with embarrassing results: he failed to detect the guilty and even accused those who were innocent, while inventing absurd excuses for his failures. In 1991, tests of British "police psychic" Nella Jones indicated that her ability to "psychometrize" possible murder weapons was nonexistent. Indeed, tests conducted by Los Angeles Police Department researchers, reported in the Journal ofPolice Science and Administration, showed that information generated by psychics was no better than chance would allow (Reiser et al. 1979). Psychic "Sting" Indeed, a cleverly conceived and strikingly effective psychic test was conducted in May 1995 by Philadelphia WCAU-TV's Herb Denenberg. A starting point for the investigation was Jody Himebaugh, whose elevenyear -old son Mark disappeared November 25, 1991.Although Himebaugh conceded that the likelihood of his son being found alive was very small, more than one hundred alleged psychics had contacted him with their visions. He said they typically saw a "dark car;'"the number 5," or similar "clues" that were never any help. Prompted in part by the Himebaugh case, Denenberg first consulted with me to devise a suitable strategy. Then he and other members of his "Newscenter 10" unit went undercover to test the alleged powers of"socalled psychics," some of whom, the investigative segment announced, "prey on the parents of missing children." As the focus of their test, Denenberg's team utilized a fifteen-year-old named Kate. Although film clips showed her playing softball in her front yard, various tarot card readers and "psychic advisors"-as well as certain 900-number clairvoyants -were told that the schoolgirl had been missing since January. In response, some psychics saw her experiencing "physical harm"; one col123 i'f\ 124 ~ Real-Life X-Files lected a fee of $50 for seeing her "confined against her will"; another charged $180 to report that the girl had run away and was "probably pregnant"; and while one psychic envisioned her only two miles from home, another saw her far away in Florida. Not one among the several psychics ever divined the truth about the teenager-that she was not missing-or about the true purpose of Channell0's investigation. When confronted with the evidence that their psychic powers were inoperative, the alleged clairvoyants chose not to appear on camera. However, a spokesman for "Miss Ruby, Psychic Reader and...