Paranormality: Why we see what isn't there (3 page)

Putt lives in Essex and is an experienced medium who has given both personal and group readings for several years. According to her website, much of this work has been carried out with the invaluable assistance of her Egyptian spirit guide ‘Ankhara’, whom she first encountered while participating in a regression hypnotherapy session. Putt’s website also describes many instances where she has apparently provided undeniable proof of the spirit world, as well as listing several television and radio programmes that have enlisted her services.

After much discussion, Putt, French and I agreed on the details of the test. It was to take place on one day and involve ten volunteers. Putt would not know any of these people in advance, and would attempt to contact a deceased friend or relative of each volunteer, and then use this spirit to determine information about the volunteer’s personality and life.
 

The big day arrived. Each of the volunteers was scheduled to arrive at French’s laboratory at different times throughout the day. To minimize the possibility of Putt picking up any information about the volunteers by the way they looked or dressed, French had them remove any watches and jewellery, don a full-length black cape, and put on a black balaclava.
 

A volunteer takes part in Patricia Putt’s test.

Each volunteer was shown into the test room and asked to sit in a chair facing a wall. Putt then came in, sat at a desk on the opposite side of the room and attempted to make contact with the spirit world. Once she thought she had a direct line to the dead, Putt located a spirit that knew the person and then quietly wrote down information about the volunteer. My role in the test was to bring Putt in and out of the test room at appropriate times, stay with her as she attempted to contact the spirits, and to generally keep her company throughout the day. Putt and I spent much of the time between the sessions chatting. At one point I asked her if there was a downside to working as a professional psychic. Without a hint of irony she explained how annoying it was when people made an appointment to see her but then failed to show up.
 

After Putt had completed all ten sessions the volunteers were asked to return to the test room. They were each given transcriptions of all of the readings that Putt had made that day and were asked to look through them and identify the reading that seemed to apply to them. If Putt really had the powers she claimed, the volunteers should have had an easy time. For example, let’s imagine that one of them had been brought up in the country, had spent a significant amount of time travelling in France, and had recently married an actor. If Putt really did have a direct line to the spirit world, then she might have mentioned a childhood surrounded by greenery, the strong whiff of brie, or the phrase, ‘darling, it was a triumph’. Once the person saw those comments they would instantly know that that reading was intended for them, and so would have no problem choosing it from the pack. In order for Putt to pass the test, five or more of the volunteers had to correctly identify their reading.
 

Each volunteer carefully examined Putt’s readings and identified the one that they found most accurate. We all then gathered in French’s office to see how Putt had scored. Volunteer One had chosen a reading that had been meant for Volunteer Seven. The reading selected by Volunteer Two was actually made when Volunteer Six was sitting in front of Putt. And so it went on. In fact, none of the volunteers correctly identified their reading. Putt was stunned by the result but has vowed to return with a new and improved claim
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You could argue that Putt failed because she agreed to work under an artificial set of conditions. After all, unless she gets a gig at an introverted amateur Batman look-a-like convention, she will rarely be asked to produce readings for people who are dressed in a black cape, wearing a black balaclava, and facing away from her. The problem is that other experiments conducted in more natural settings have yielded the same result.
 

Interview with Prof Chris French

http://www.richardwiseman.com/paranormality/ChrisFrench.html
 

In the early 1980s psychologists Hendrik Boerenkamp and Sybo Schouten from the University of Utrecht spent five years studying the alleged paranormal powers of 12 well-respected Dutch psychics
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The researchers visited each psychic in their home several times each year (‘Is he expecting you?’), showed the psychic a photograph of someone that they had never met and asked them to provide information about
that person. They also carried out exactly the same procedure with a group of randomly selected people who didn’t claim to be psychic. After recording and analysing over 10,000 statements, the researchers concluded that the allegedly paranormal powers of the psychics failed to outperform the random guesses made by the non-psychic control group, and that neither group produced impressive hit rates.
 

These types of failed studies are not the exception, they are the norm
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For over a century researchers have tested the claims of mediums and psychics and found them wanting. Indeed, after reviewing this vast amount of work, Sybo Schouten concluded that the psychics’ performance was simply no better than chance. It seems that when it comes to psychics and mediums, Randi’s million-dollar prize is safe.

The conundrum is that surveys suggest that around one in six people believe they have received an accurate reading from an alleged psychic
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To solve the mystery it is necessary to learn the secrets of the psychic readers. There are several ways of doing this. You could, for example, spend several weeks on a psychic development programme attempting to open your inner eye. Or you could enrol on a month-long course at a college for mediumship and try to tune into the dead. Alternatively, you could save yourself a great deal of time and effort by forgetting all about that. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, most mediums and psychics use a fascinating set of psychological techniques to give the impression that they have a magical insight into the past, present and future. These techniques are referred to as ‘cold reading’, and they reveal an important insight into the fundamental nature of our everyday interactions. To find out about them we are going to spend some more time with a familiar friend of ours.
 

Revealing the Mysterious Mr D
 

Before continuing our journey into the psychology of psychic readings I would like you to take the following two-part psychological test.
 

First, imagine that the illustration below represents an aerial view of a large sandpit. Next, imagine that someone has randomly chosen a place in the pit and buried some treasure there. You have just one opportunity to dig down and find the treasure. Without thinking about it too much, place an 'X' in the sandpit to indicate where you would dig.
 

Second, simply think of one geometric shape inside another. Many thanks. We will return to your answers later on.
 

At the start of the chapter I described how Mr D once visited Edinburgh University and demonstrated his amazing abilities. In reading after reading, complete strangers sat down opposite him and left convinced that he knew all about them. One of the most impressive readings was given to Lisa, who had no idea how Mr D had come up with accurate information about her personality, her brother’s career and her recent relationship difficulties.
 

As you may have guessed by now, Mr D did not possess genuine paranormal powers. In fact, he had spent much of his life using cold reading to fake psychic ability, and was happy to reveal the tricks of his trade. Mr D used six psychological techniques to appear to achieve the impossible
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To understand the first of these we need to travel to the non-existent town of Lake Wobegon.

1. Flattery Will Get You Everywhere

In the mid-1980s American writer and humourist Garrison Keillor created a fictional town called Lake Wobegon. According to Keillor, Lake Wobegon is located in the centre of Minnesota but can’t be found on maps because of the incompetence of nineteenth-century surveyors. When describing the townsfolk, Keillor noted that ‘all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average’. Although written in jest, Keillor’s comment reflects a key psychological principle now referred to as the ‘Lake Wobegon effect’.
 

Much of the time you make rational decisions. However, under certain circumstances your brain trips you up, and you suddenly let go of logic. Psychologists discovered that a major cause of irrationality revolves around a curious phenomenon known as the ‘egocentric bias’. Nearly all of us have fragile egos and use various techniques to protect ourselves from the harsh reality of the outside world. We are highly skilled at convincing ourselves that we are responsible for the success in our lives, but equally good at blaming failures on other people. We fool ourselves into believing that we are unique, possess above average abilities and skills, and are likely to experience more than our fair share of good fortune in the future. The effects of egocentric thinking can be dramatic. In perhaps the best-known example, researchers asked each member of long-term couples to estimate the percentage of the housework they carried out. The combined total from almost every pair exceeded 100 per cent. Each had displayed an egocentric bias by focusing on their own work and downplaying their partner’s contribution.
 

For the most part, this egotism is good for you. It makes you feel positive about yourself, motivates you to get up in the morning, helps you deal with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and persuades you to carry on when the going gets tough. For example, research has shown that people are unrealistically optimistic about both their personality and abilities. 94 per cent of people think that they have an above average sense of humour, 80 per cent of drivers say that they are more skilled than the average driver (remarkably, this is even true of those that are in hospital because they have been involved in a road accident), and 75 per cent of business people see themselves as more ethical than the average businessman.
 
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It is the same when it comes to personality. Present people with any positive trait and they are quick to tick the ‘yes, that’s me’ box, leading to the vast majority of people irrationally believing themselves to be far more cooperative, considerate, responsible, friendly, reliable, resourceful, polite and dependable than the average person. These delusions are price that we pay for the happiness, success and resilience that we enjoy in the rest of our lives.

A good cold reader exploits your egocentric thinking by telling you how wonderful you are. Mr D’s readings were full of flattery. After just a few moments glancing at Lisa’s palm, Mr D told her that she had a good imagination, possessed lots of creative flair and had an eye for detail. A few moments later Lisa learned that she could have been a psychic because she was very intuitive, had the unusual ability of giving her opinions about people without hurting their feelings, and was a very caring person. Each time she heard compliments like these, the Lake Wobegon effect kicked in, leaving Lisa with no explanation for Mr D’s allegedly accurate insights into her personality.