The spectre of reason

Graham Readfearn
March 10, 2008 11:00pm

ONE claimed she could make people urinate with the power of her mind while another confidently predicted an asteroid would destroy Bowen, in far north Queensland.

The long list of failed challengers for James Randi's $US1 million prize is as entertaining as it is bizarre.

Do you believe in the paranormal?
Since the early 1980s, the former magician has offered cash to anyone who can prove, under test conditions, the existence of the paranormal, supernatural or the occult.

Needless to say, his prize, which started out at $10,000 more than 25 years ago, goes unclaimed.

Despite the absence of any credible evidence of ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night (and this can include anything from tooth fairies to messages from the spirit world), large swathes of society continue to accept them.

In January, some 4500 people paid $90 each to hear the world-famous medium John Edward speak at the Crocoseum at Australia Zoo.

Edward, who presumably is not short of a dollar or two, then had a private meeting with the zoo's owner, Terri Irwin, whose husband Steve died from a stingray attack in 2006. "There was no doubt that Steve was with us," said the late Crocodile Hunter's father, Bob, according to one report.

Jayson Cooke, president of Griffith University's Society for Skeptics and Freethinkers, who was in the audience, was impressed by Edward – at least at the speed at which he could talk.

"I think that's his secret. He suggests so many things in the space of 30 seconds that at least one of them has to be right," says Cooke.

"Anyone who has had even a cursory look at cold-reading techniques would have been able to see what he was doing. I was surprised, as he was not that good at it."

Edward has refused to be tested by the likes of James Randi and even refuses to "read" journalists, "because they are always too objective".

Just how much Edward earns is not known, but there are enough of these shows around to put a shiver up any sceptic's spine.

Saturday nights on Foxtel's W Channel is something of a seance for this kind of stuff, with Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead, John Edward Cross Country, Britain's Psychic Challenge and Most Haunted among the offerings.

"Belief in the paranormal still runs at about 80 per cent in Australia," says Dr Martin Bridgstock, from Griffith University. "But debunking these fallacies does not seem to have made the slightest bit of difference."

Bridgstock points out that many people have died after putting their faith in alternative remedies or faith healing, when conventional medicine could have saved them.

After being shocked at finding 60 per cent of his science students held some kind of paranormal belief, Bridgstock introduced an elective course five years ago called Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal.

A senior lecturer in the School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences Bridgstock says the course doesn't tell students what to believe and doesn't set out to debunk the paranormal.

"It just gives them the intellectual skills to assess the evidence," he says.

"People should be aware that questions can and should be asked, and if they don't ask them then there may be dangers involved. For example, they may accept homeopathic medicine for something which normal medicine may cure easily."

What is it about the human psyche that enables us to suspend our disbelief?

"There is evidence that it is wishful thinking – it is a basic motivator of human credulity," says Associate Professor William Grey, a reader in philosophy at The University of Queensland with an interest in the relationship between belief and evidence – known as epistemology.

He stands beside other notable sceptics and atheists who say there are links between belief in the paranormal and religious belief.

Both, says Grey, share a "desire for there to be something after death".

Barry Williams, editor of Australian magazine The Skeptic, puts it more simply. "It's easy to sell something to people that want to believe it. We are selling reason – and that just doesn't stand up to hope."