Rest of article can be found here.Can psychics be good for your health?
A phenomenon known as remote viewing, which claims to use psychic powers to 'see' what is invisible to the naked eye, may have an intriguing role to play in healthcare
By Lucy Pinney
Published: 7:00AM BST 31 Aug 2009
Three months ago, Twitter hosted its first scientific experiment and invited users to help demonstrate the existence of psychic powers. Professor Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, recruited 7,000 volunteers via the social messaging service to investigate "remote viewing" (RV). A remote viewer is a gifted individual who claims to be able to "see" events in the past, present and future, and identifying distant locations.
The psychology professor, famed for his mass-participation experiments, which explore the curious science of everyday life, travelled to a mystery site in the UK, whereupon he sent a Tweet. Participants were asked to pinpoint his location by selecting it from a line-up of five photographs. As only 15 per cent of people correctly predicted Prof Wiseman's location – despite a 20 per cent probability – he pronounced RV to be a hoax.
I can't say I'm impressed by Prof. Wiseman's 'experiment', which makes no attempt to adhere to any remote viewing protocols or indeed to select a group with any RV experience; just a random group of Twitterers making guesses from a selection of five pictures. That's hardly a test of remote viewing per se, is it? There seem to be no controls on the experiment at all. And this is supposed to be scientific?
Andrew (who is a member of this forum), needless to say, is somewhat miffed at his remarks being taken out of context; particularly the inference that the NHS is officially funding or is otherwise involved in RV research, which is most definitely not the case. His website has had over quarter of a million hits since yesterday, and he's had 1500 hate emails. And people wonder why folk like dowsers are often reluctant to talk to the press...<sigh>The NHS is involved in an ongoing trial to establish whether RV has social and medical applications.
Andrew Usher, dean of the British Institute of Homeopathy, and a (non-clinical) partner in an NHS practice in Scotland, is working with a GP to determine if RV can save lives. Usher's Med RV project uses a team of remote viewers around the world who try to detect illnesses that have been missed by conventional scientific and medical procedures.
The comments after the article make interesting reading too, although predictably they seem dominated by the usual sceptical hyenas. Both Andrew and remote viewer Daz Smith defend themselves admirably, and even President of the IRVA Paul H. Smith makes an appearance. His comments on Wiseman's 'experiment' can be found here.