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Is Schwartz on Crack?

Luke T.

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On SkepticalCommunity, a discussion of the paranormal came up. Somehow it managed to sneak in. Somebody paused to take a breath in the anti-JREF fillibuster and OckhamRules took advantage.

It involves a person or persons near and dear to many JREF hearts, including Randi himself.

Apparently, Gary E. Schwartz has done another study of after-death communication (ADC) and felt no personal embarassment whatsoever about placing it on the internet.

Click here for a link to the report, with thanks to OckhamRules.

Click here for our discussion/apopleptic siezure on SC.

For those of you who are familiar with the Cantata/CFLarsen/Claus Larsen - SGrenard/Steve Grenard saga, there is an interesting note that Scott Grenard (deceased) is apparently hard at work in the afterlife as a "departed hypothesized co-investigator".

Beware. Reading the report may cause the well-informed skeptic to suffer insanity due to the number of overwhelming flaws.

(edited to fix first link)
 
In the very first paragraph of the paper:

The transcripts and commentary described in this paper were read verbatim as part of Dr. Schwartz’s keynote address on June 27, 2005 at a tribute in London honoring Montague Keen
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Luke T. said:
In the very first paragraph of the paper:
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Let's be fair here. I just accidentally wrote a syllabus for a course that I will evidently teach 45 years in the future (spring 2050 instead of spring 2005). Typographic errors happen.
 
new drkitten said:
Let's be fair here. I just accidentally wrote a syllabus for a course that I will evidently teach 45 years in the future (spring 2050 instead of spring 2005). Typographic errors happen.
Click to expand...

Okay. There's plenty of other errors to let that one slide. :D

Still. Don't you think he should have caught the date error during editing?

I only pointed it out as a sort of foreshadowing of the rest of the paper. ;)
 
kedo1981 said:
This stuff is almost painful to read, these people are completely deluded.
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I found it very painful to read. I kept oscillating between maniacal incredulousness and deep anger.
 
The whole site is downloaded for reference.

Schwartz' ass is grass, and I'm a lawnmower.
 
You know, I bet his mother was one of those that always used the phrase "You can do anything you put your mind to."

That's a nice phrase, used by many parents everywhere. But recently, as I've grown older and interacted with more people, I've begun to seriously dobt that there is any truth to this at all. In fact, I'm sure there isn't.

Some people can't do anything they put their mind to. Some people can only do a few things if they put their minds to them. Others can only do a few things, and the last thing anyone should do is encourage them to put their mind to it, as that would only insure they could no longer do as needed.

I think Schwartz is a category C.
 
CFLarsen said:
The whole site is downloaded for reference.

Schwartz' ass is grass, and I'm a lawnmower.
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I was hoping that would be your reaction. :D

You might find the topic on SC has some comments of interest to you.
 
The use of Scott Grenard as a "departed hypothesized co-investigator" certainly explains Steve's intractability on the subject. Talk about the exploitation of grief! It's sickening.
 
In the paper, you'll note that "GS" is Gary Schwartz. He participated in the experiment by giving details of the subjects being read to the mediums, and then questioning the mediums as to what they could read about the subjects' dearly departed. He then wrote the comments validating the mediums' answers, and scored the Q&A's!

This is his idea of a "double blind" experiment.

edited to add: There's blindness, all right. Of the scotoma variety. ;)
 
Luke T. said:
The use of Scott Grenard as a "departed hypothesized co-investigator" certainly explains Steve's intractability on the subject. Talk about the exploitation of grief! It's sickening.
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I am not aware that Steve is related to Scott. Got any refs?
 
The recent deaths of (a) contemporary researchers skilled in mediumship research (e.g., Susy Smith and Montague Keen), (b) other scientists interested in the question of survival (e.g., John Mack and Carl Sagan),
Click to expand...

Somewhere, Carl Sagan is weeping.

JPK
 
Luke T. said:
This is his idea of a "double blind" experiment.
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This really questions the value of tenure.

Don't get me wrong: I am the first to hail the idea of academic freedom, the notion that you should not be inhibited by what is considered "public knowledge", when you do scientific research. Let a thousand ideas bloom.

But there are limits: If you consistently violate the rules of science, you are dog meat, pal. Don't think you can hide behind the virtues of scientific thinking. If you want to be a player, you gotta play by the rules.

Schwartz clearly does not.

When does tenure become a liability to human progress?
 
Luke T. said:
In the paper, you'll note that "GS" is Gary Schwartz. He participated in the experiment by giving details of the subjects being read to the mediums, and then questioning the mediums as to what they could read about the subjects' dearly departed. He then wrote the comments validating the mediums' answers, and scored the Q&A's!

This is his idea of a "double blind" experiment.

edited to add: There's blindness, all right. Of the scotoma variety. ;)
Click to expand...

Well, this is the fruitcake who claimed that his tests were "triple blind," and never really explained what that meant.

Obviously, it's supposed to mean "everyone's blind to the fact that I'm pulling a fast one." :D
 
CFLarsen said:
I am not aware that Steve is related to Scott. Got any refs?
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No. I made a query about the name on SC, and OckhamRules said that Steve had mentioned his interest in ADC was related to the death of his son.

I put 2 and 2 together...

Originally posted by Mike D.
Steve Grenard's deceased son's name is Kevin.
Click to expand...

...and got 3? :(
 
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