There is no question that the history of mediumship is a deeply tarnished one. We would be hard pressed to find a field where so much deceit, trickery and chicanery have been found.

It is therefore no wonder that few people in academia have been interested in testing mediums. Not only is there precious little to work from, the mediums themselves are not helpful either.

However, a professor at the University of Arizona, Gary Schwartz, not only succeeded in persuading a handful of mediums to undergo scientific testing in 2001, he also found what he presented as compelling evidence of an afterlife: At least some psychics have actually been able to communicate with the dead.

This is a critique of that experiment.

This is the second of two commentaries on papers published by T.J. Robertson (TJR) and Archie E. Roy (AER) in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

The Psychic Rabbit can read your mind. Sure, it can.

The winner of “Britain”s Psychic Challenge”, psychic Diane Lazarus claimed to have solved the murder cases of Mark Green and Muriel Drinkwater. This article delves into what turns out to be completely false claims and numerous fabrications.

The psychic, who claimed to talk to John Lennon, also claims to be “UK’s finest psychic medium profiler … renowned for his involvement in helping police solve high profile crimes”. It turns out that his claims ring somewhat hollow, when investigated.

An investigation of psychic Nancy Myer’s claim to have “helped” the police in the Kimberly Forbes case.

Terry Evans is mainly known in Sweden for his participation as a medium in the programs “A Sense of Murder”. This is a transcript of one of his seances. There is absolutely no evidence of spirit communication. There is, however, ample evidence of cold reading techniques.

Continuing examination of techniques possibly used by “psychic mediums” in their performances, this time of some of Sylvia Browne’s “readings” done on the “Larry King Live” show.

…and in six months, I could make anyone a nationally-known psychic… You will not believe who said this.

Does politeness and a desire not to offend lead to a defacto defense of the most illogical and downright silly of claims?

Graham Bishop is a self-proclaimed “spiritual teacher, trance medium, trance healer and medium”. He is also one lousy cold reader.

One of the most frequent arguments heard from believers in psychic medium John Edward is that he is real because he gets those “special hits”: A lot of precise information, seemingly from out of the blue, which he did not get from the cold-reading techniques he usually employs.

This illustrates with wondrous clarity the many contradictions that John Edward manages to contain within his “message”.

A method for getting a basic mediumistic reading using only a simple random number generator (a die) and a fixed script.

The story of how psychic John Edward runs a very tight operation, where skepticism is suppressed and only blind belief is allowed.

Sylvia Browne is a modern-day preacher and founder of her own religion, replete with ordained ministers in robes, a “portable philosophy” and a 24-hour crisis line.

John Edward is a supposed psychic who has written best selling books and has a syndicated TV show of his own: Crossing Over with John Edward. An analysis of his readings show that he is using cold reading techniques.

A collection of some of the greatest hits and spectacular misses of this television psychic.

Analysis of Transcript Excerpts of James Van Praagh (JVP) “readings” done on the “Larry King Live” show.

One of the most touted readings by John Edward is the “Feather at Niagara Falls”. It is pulled out whenever John Edward-believers want to prove that John Edward is a real genuine medium. It turns out that the evidence is not so convincing after all.