a report by Robert C. Nasir
Yes, it was an exciting episode of Sally' as a family of young women claimed to be "victims of evil spirits possessing their house."
This is not the kind of show I'd normally tune in for, but I had received a press notice from TRC subscriber Robert Ian, magician, hypnotist and lecturer. He was to appear on the Salley Jessy Raphael TV Show March 24th, 1993. The postcard read,
The topic: ghosts and psychics. The debate: lively and heated. Robert's message: Think objectively and learn to separate entertainment from reality.
So I planned to watch the show with some anticipation. And was not disappointed.
The show's first twenty minutes or so focused on the family's description of the "ghosts," which took several forms, the girls claiming to have been molested, scratched, squeezed and pinched, and generally scared out of their wits.
This was followed by a segment introducing "psychic and spiritualist" Peter James, who "validated" their claim (pretty much just by stating that he'd been to the house and seen manifestations of "an entity" himself). Mr. James also showed a videotape which he claimed was the "first ever captured on video footage, the voice of a child entity," on the ship The Queen Mary. His validation: "This has been witnessed and documented by the ship's manager and their marketing department." Obviously a scientific analysis, and certainly no vested interests there, eh?
While cheers from the audience for the family at several times indicated a lot of support, several members of the audience were surprisingly rational in their comments and questions, one lady suggesting consideration of grief, flashbacks, nightmares, and "body memories," another gentleman referring to the delusions brought about by sleep deprivation...
The next segment featured Arthur Harris, president of the N. Y. Skeptics Society. While Mr. Harris had a few good references to make, to the Salem witch trials, and the incubi and succubae of old (and their source in the need for "virgin" nuns to explain pregnancies, and priests sexual knowledge and experience), he undercut his presentation by throwing such accusations to the family as, "You are having wet dreams," and "How much money are you making from this venture?" While these accusations may have been true, in this context they were essentially arbitrary and pointless.
Next came Mr. Robert Ian. He opened his remarks by making a metaphor relating the suspension of disbelief we engage in viewing movies in theatres to the willingness to do the same by people who do not want to face some aspect of reality. He made the point several times throughout that psychics and magic and such are all very fine when we understand that they are imagination, but dangerous when we consider them real. He went on to state plainly that, "ghosts do not exist. Psychics do not exist."
At a point where Mr. James, Mr. Harris, Sally and a questioner were all talking pretty much at the same time, Mr. Ian broke in and offered to conjure up a ghost, on the stage, with Sally Jessy Raphael as willing participant. He criticized the "negative sense of life" which was responsible for the family's bad ghosts, and asked Sally to stand on stage, so he might manifest a nicer spirit, Sally with one hand held out, palm up, as he took her photograph with a Polaroid camera.
After a commercial break, the photo had developed. The TV camera zoomed in to show the picture Mr. Robert Ian had taken of Sally Jessy Raphael standing on stage, with a translucent ghost floating above her hand... of a teddy bear. He then explained what his trick made clear; his point that such things were (and necessarily had to be) tricks, and that the videotaped "ghost" was undoubtedly the same kind of trick.
Though Mr. Ian had already made the point that the problem with the case of the "believers" was that you cannot disprove a negative, a girl in the audience made some foolish remarks supporting the family's "belief" that their house was possessed, ending with the powerful logic, "[Mr. Ian] says you can't prove there are ghosts, but you can't prove there aren't."
Mr. Ian replied, "it's The Argument From Nothing." (A phrase offered in an article of the same name by Jeff Haber in the March, 1992 issue of The Reality Check.)
When a police officer claimed that there were indeed cases in which psychics had help solve murder mysteries, Sally impressed me by saying, "If you ever find any, we have done about 10 shows and never had one turn up, one in which a psychic in any way led to the solving of a murder, never once, and we've been doing this for ten years."
At this point, time was about out, but Mr. Ian got in the last word, asking the officer, "do you ever convict people without evidence?" Of course the officer replied, "no," to which Mr. Ian said, "Good. I rest my case."
And I think he won it, too.
Copyright 1993 The Reality Check. All rights reserved.