Did you see that Channel 4 programme last summer
with Victorian mediums faking ectoplasm and magicians showing how they
could duplicate the kind of psychic feats that Uri Geller is known for?
If not you missed a treat, but not to worry,
for now you may be able to see Secrets of the Psychics again. And
why? Because Geller has had his complaint against the programme rejected.
After the programme, Geller complained of unfair
treatment to the Broadcasting Standards Commission and I, along with a
team from Channel 4, went to give evidence. It’s been a long wait,
but the Commission has just announced its complete rejection of Geller’s
complaint. So it wasn’t unfair to have magicians showing how they
could duplicate those "psychic feats", and experts saying there
is no reliable scientific evidence for his psychic powers whatsoever.
If I’m sounding jubilant about this little
victory it is not because I personally have anything against Uri Geller.
He has always been charming and kind to me, invited me and my children
to tea at his flashy mansion on the banks of the Thames (I liked the toilet
completely surrounded by mirrors), showed us his boat (aptly named Paranormal),
and let us swim in his pool. No - it is because this is a matter of scientific
truth, and freedom.
Although millions of people believe in extra-sensory
perception, ghosts, UFOs, crystal powers, and the tenets of astrology
- the evidence for ESP is controversial (at best), and the claims of astrology
demonstrably false. However, people don't want to see endless meticulous
experiments with nothing but negative results. Viewers, and the producers
who are their slaves, seem to prefer conspiracy theories, beings from
outer space, scientists who cover up the truth about our mental powers,
and Russians with strong accents who can move trains with their teeth
or bamboozle ageing but famous TV presenters with children’s party
tricks.
There was a classic, if mild, example of this
genre last week. In The Secrets of Sleep, we saw an experiment
from the 1970s in which US psychologist Charlie Tart tested a young woman
who had out-of-body experiences during sleep. On just one occasion she
correctly reported a five-digit number on a shelf above her bed. We were
not told that the woman was a mental patient who disappeared right after
the tests and could not be retested, nor that the EEG record showed possible
mains interference at the time of her success (as though she were trying
to get out of the bed and have a look), nor that another claimant was
tested by Tart and failed. The impression given was that this wonderful
experiment has been ignored for decades by closed-minded scientists who
want to suppress the truth about the psychic powers of our sleeping minds.
This is ridiculous. The truth (and how that word is abused when psychic
issues are at stake) is that many other scientists tried to repeat Tart’s
finding, and failed. I know. I was one of them.
Why should we scientists ignore such a potentially
exciting discovery? If I had succeeded in repeating it I might have achieved
every scientist’s dream - to uncover something absolutely new and
shocking about reality. But it just isn’t so. As Richard Dawkins
said, if Geller’s powers could be proved to be real they would open
up an entirely new field of physics, scientists would flock to be involved,
and someone would get a Nobel prize. But they haven’t been.
That’s why it was so refreshing to see Secrets
of the Psychics - to see the ‘mysterious’ ouija board explained,
to see the mediums’ tricks exposed, and to learn just why all those
experts doubt that psychic phenomena exist at all. And to all those producers
pandering to popular belief I say wake up! It is possible to make
an enjoyable anti-paranormal programme. It is possible to be sceptical
and still please the viewers. Even my local green-grocer liked it "You
know" she said (lowering her voice almost conspiratorially) "I
don't think Uri Geller’s really psychic, do you?".
No I do not. I was glad to give evidence at the
hearing. I was glad to explain why the evidence is not good enough. And
above all I was glad that Uri lost his complaint. I may be wrong about
his psychic powers, in which case he will be able to prove it to me, and
then I will gladly change my mind. Meanwhile it’s good to know that
programmers can make challenging and sceptical programmes in the knowledge
that, if they do so fairly and honestly, the broadcasting complaints procedure
will stand by them. And when Secrets of the Psychics comes on again
- do watch.
