Geoff Boltwood / "Tareth" - Psyhic Healer

Particleman

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Hi Forum,

In a discussion with a friend at work, the subject of 'Faith Healing' came up when he mentioned that he'd visited a Psychic Healer who goes by the name of Tareth (previously, Geoff Boltwood). You can visit his webpage by googling 'Tareth' and going to the first link (apparently I can't post links yet).

The claims of Tareth are numerous; ranging from psychic healing to producing oils from his hands. He has also demonstrated that he can make seeds sprout in his hands and is allegedly a dab hand at alchemy. My friend had also visited him for pains in his back which were auspiciously cured by Tareth's powers. Tareth was also able to tell him medical facts about him and could generate an unnatural amount of heat from his hands.

Sound familiar? Of course it does, such claims have been made many times before and in each case found to be bogus upon closer inspection. This of course doesn't prove that Tareth is fake as well, but it's a very good reason to deploy the sceptical face.

Anyway, the reason for my posting is to ask the forum if anyone has ever heard of this guy, and if so has his work been debunked or exposed before? In my discussions at work I was frustrated by a lack of knowledge about this guy, and could only point to other examples of people with similar claims who have been debunked before (Peter Popoff, Uri Geller etc). Naturally, this claim was 'different' and I could make no headway in the debate.

Towards the end I changed my approach slightly, pointing out that the existence of such a person would call into question almost huge fundamental aspects of how we understand the universe, and that this man is incredibly selfish for not submitting himself to proper study.

How does the forum approach such situations? Have you ever heard of this man?

It seems very likely to me that the 'Oils in the Hand' and the 'Sprouting Bean' miracles really the old 'Oils in the Hand' and the 'Sprouting Bean' magic tricks. Unfortunately I have no idea how the 'Sprouting Bean' magic trick is done. Could anyone give me a quick explanation of how to demonstrate something similar myself? I think this would be a powerful demonstration of how these effects can be replicated through trickery.

All feedback welcome.
 
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The post from Jeff Wagg on the homepage today is interesting, the same kind of thing about proof....
 
The claims of Tareth are numerous; ranging from psychic healing to producing oils from his hands. He has also demonstrated that he can make seeds sprout in his hands and is allegedly a dab hand at alchemy. My friend had also visited him for pains in his back which were auspiciously cured by Tareth's powers. Tareth was also able to tell him medical facts about him and could generate an unnatural amount of heat from his hands.
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The claims made by many psychics are pretty vague, but this stuff with the hands would surely be easy to test. Of course, I'm confident Tareth will come up with plenty of excuses not to be tested.
 
Would you believe that Uri Geller once offered to put up his own money in a "psychic challenge" to Mr. Boltwood? If he could produce oils from his finger-tips under "proper conditions" (supervised by magician David Berglas) then Uri was going to pay Mr. Boltwood something like £50,000. It never happened of course.
 
Steve Knight said:
Would you believe that Uri Geller once offered to put up his own money in a "psychic challenge" to Mr. Boltwood? If he could produce oils from his finger-tips under "proper conditions" (supervised by magician David Berglas) then Uri was going to pay Mr. Boltwood something like £50,000. It never happened of course.
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Geller challenging a psychic? That's rich.
 
I can't find the source of this quote either in my files or on the internet but somewhere or other I found this a few years back.

"I first saw another 'psychic' do this. His name was Geoff Boltwood. Back around 1988 or 1989 Boltwood did his seed sprouting on a television programme in London. The television programme was broadcast live on a Friday evening, although Boltwood's appearance may have been filmed.
After that appearance Uri Geller challenged him to do it under controlled conditions and said he'd pay Boltwood GBP10,000 if he succeeded. The week following Boltwoods appearance Uri was ready to test him on the live programme, along with Uri's friend, Magic Circle Chairman David Berglas, and Tony Scofield, a scientist from London University who was a supporter of Boltwood's. Although he had previously agreed to turn up for the test, Boltwood finally didn't appear. Uri's comment was "Well, to be quite fair, I don't blame him. I wouldn't come either. It's a tight situation. He's nervous. The offer is still there. But I don't blame the man."

I tried contacting Mr. Scofield for further details but received no response.

ETA: I just found the original source:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/sc...6810?hl=en&q=geller+boltwood#c7c8c67ddca96810
 
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So how would a magician produce oils from his hands? I guess you'd just have to palm a capsule of oil and break it at the right moment.
 
jimtron said:
The claims made by many psychics are pretty vague, but this stuff with the hands would surely be easy to test. Of course, I'm confident Tareth will come up with plenty of excuses not to be tested.
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In Chapter One of that book pakeha linked to (thanks pakeha!), Boltwood basically asserts that it is "impossible to 'test' a healer's ability." This is pretty much what they all say, in one way or another. The whole thing's a closed circle, probably to keep reality out.


M.
 
No worries, Moochie. I live for links.
I think your assessment is correct. The longer I'm here at JREF the more clear it is to me that woo is woo- self delusion, manipulation and moolah.
 
Geoff Boltwood (Tareth)

Hello Particleman..

I lived a mile from Glastonbury town centre for about 17 years, and I know Geoff Boltwood very well. He is definitely a great bloke, and I HAVE seen the oil from the palms of his hands thing.....we had gone to one of his meetings in the Assembly rooms there, for the sake of my wife, who had a TERRIBLE "woman's " problem, and I MEAN terrible ! Months of a terrible abdominal pain, doctors were constantly unable to help her in any way whatsoever....I am at least as skeptical as anyone in here, I assure you.....but all I can say is that Geoff called my wife up, he sat there in a very sleeveless shirt, meditated for a a few minutes, then slowly held his hands near her, and some very pleasant smelling oil substance suddenly very much appeared to gush from his hands, which he gently applied to my wife.....and this next bit is true, I promise...within almost no time at all, she got better, and stayed better.....I have PLENTY of other things I can tell you about of him, let's see how this goes first.....
 
Welcome to the forum, billbryant.

Particleman hasn't visited the forum for over 10 years, so don't expect a reply from him.

I'm glad your wife's problem got better, but if you're really "as skeptical as anyone in here" you'll already know that tells us nothing about Mr Boltwood's healing abilities.
 
As far as I'm concerned, props, gimmicks, fancy names, and exotic clothing are immediate red flags for any claim of healing efficacy.

Oil from hands and sprouting seeds are easy slight of hand for an amateur magician.

Greasy!
 
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How does one acquire a "very sleeveless shirt"?

Also, the phrase "I am at least as skeptical as anyone in here, I assure you" is not a good one to throw around if you only joined in the last month. There are nearly 1000 members here, and you have not had sufficient time to deduce the "skepticality" of every member.
I've been here for seven years and I still don't know everyone.
 
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