Richard
Muse
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2001
- Messages
- 960
Here is a letter that I'm sending to media here in Sydney. Does anyone know the real deal with Etta Smith? She was given as an example of a real psychic who sovled a crime.
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I am writing to you to voice my protest at Network TEN for producing the TV series, ‘Sensing Murder’.
I assure you this is no knee-jerk, ‘all psychics are rubbish’, reaction. My concern is based on two grounds: first, that the claim so-called psychics can and have played a role in solving crimes is false; and second, that their meddling in criminal investigations is, to say the least, counterproductive.
If ‘psychics’ really could solve crimes, wouldn’t every police force around the world have ‘psychic’ division? Imagine the dramatic improvement in clear-up rates, and the deterrent effect on would-be criminals. Imagine the relief to the families of the missing and murdered when the ‘psychics’ provided the answers they so desperately were seeking. I’m afraid that imaging is all you can do as you know as well as I that this is just not the case.
In fact, in terms of criminal investigations, ‘psychics’ are regarded as pests. They waste police time and resources and consistently fail to provide investigators with any information that could lead to the solution of crimes or the discovery of missing persons. And far from helping the families of the missing and murdered, psychics often hound these unfortunate people, using their suffering as a tool of self-promotion.
The great damage that this show will do, apart from giving false hope to the families of the murder victims, is to promote the mistaken belief that ‘psychics’ can and do help the police by using their supposed supernatural powers. The farce that is ‘Sensing Murder’ will no doubt add to this sad situation. All this in the name of ratings as after all, it is a TV show format designed to get bums on seats, not to solve crimes.
If I’m wrong, then where is the evidence? After all these years, which criminal has been convicted, which missing person found due to vital information from ‘psychic powers’?
‘Sensing Murder’ and Network TEN are now in the running to win the annual Bent Spoon Award at our National Convention being held this November in Sydney.
I would also now like to praise the 7 Network for the show, ‘Forensic Investigators’, a fascinating series that promotes the real work of scientific criminal investigations that DO solve crimes.
I leave you with a quote from the father of Genette Tate, a 13-year-old English girl who disappeared in 1978.
Many people came to us offering threads of hope. We clutched at them desperately in the early days… But the promises of the psychics were all lies. They raised false hope in us. At times we really believed we were onto something. The suggestions and ideas preyed on our minds… But always, when it came to the crunch, the so-called leads and ideas led absolutely nowhere but into a pit of despair…
We discovered that the work of the psychics was not just ludicrous and laughable. It was sinister and evil. Once we got into that web of deceit-and that is what it was-we found it very hard to struggle free. None of it ever led anywhere except to despair and disappointment, misery and confusion. We had become enslaved to the suggestions of the psychics.
(From Lynne Kelly’s book, The Skeptic’s Guide To The Paranormal, pp. 154-155)
Yours truly,
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I am writing to you to voice my protest at Network TEN for producing the TV series, ‘Sensing Murder’.
I assure you this is no knee-jerk, ‘all psychics are rubbish’, reaction. My concern is based on two grounds: first, that the claim so-called psychics can and have played a role in solving crimes is false; and second, that their meddling in criminal investigations is, to say the least, counterproductive.
If ‘psychics’ really could solve crimes, wouldn’t every police force around the world have ‘psychic’ division? Imagine the dramatic improvement in clear-up rates, and the deterrent effect on would-be criminals. Imagine the relief to the families of the missing and murdered when the ‘psychics’ provided the answers they so desperately were seeking. I’m afraid that imaging is all you can do as you know as well as I that this is just not the case.
In fact, in terms of criminal investigations, ‘psychics’ are regarded as pests. They waste police time and resources and consistently fail to provide investigators with any information that could lead to the solution of crimes or the discovery of missing persons. And far from helping the families of the missing and murdered, psychics often hound these unfortunate people, using their suffering as a tool of self-promotion.
The great damage that this show will do, apart from giving false hope to the families of the murder victims, is to promote the mistaken belief that ‘psychics’ can and do help the police by using their supposed supernatural powers. The farce that is ‘Sensing Murder’ will no doubt add to this sad situation. All this in the name of ratings as after all, it is a TV show format designed to get bums on seats, not to solve crimes.
If I’m wrong, then where is the evidence? After all these years, which criminal has been convicted, which missing person found due to vital information from ‘psychic powers’?
‘Sensing Murder’ and Network TEN are now in the running to win the annual Bent Spoon Award at our National Convention being held this November in Sydney.
I would also now like to praise the 7 Network for the show, ‘Forensic Investigators’, a fascinating series that promotes the real work of scientific criminal investigations that DO solve crimes.
I leave you with a quote from the father of Genette Tate, a 13-year-old English girl who disappeared in 1978.
Many people came to us offering threads of hope. We clutched at them desperately in the early days… But the promises of the psychics were all lies. They raised false hope in us. At times we really believed we were onto something. The suggestions and ideas preyed on our minds… But always, when it came to the crunch, the so-called leads and ideas led absolutely nowhere but into a pit of despair…
We discovered that the work of the psychics was not just ludicrous and laughable. It was sinister and evil. Once we got into that web of deceit-and that is what it was-we found it very hard to struggle free. None of it ever led anywhere except to despair and disappointment, misery and confusion. We had become enslaved to the suggestions of the psychics.
(From Lynne Kelly’s book, The Skeptic’s Guide To The Paranormal, pp. 154-155)
Yours truly,
