Psychic Detectives

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[edit] Definition

A psychic detective is someone who claims to use psychic powers in order to help solve crimes.


Most psychic detectives seem to specialize in cases involving murdered or missing persons; we have never heard of a psychic detective offering to untangle a complex tax fraud. In particular, they specialize in cases which achieve a high media profile. We cannot find a case of a medium volunteering information about a crime before it was reported in the press; and the more widely reported a case is, the more the spirit world seems to have to say about it.

In many cases, the claimed abilities of psychic detectives could easily be put to the test under controlled conditions; for example determine someone's location, and whether they are dead or alive, given a photograph of that person or an object associated with them. Any psychic who willing and able to demonstrate such an ability will receive a Million Dollar Prize from the James Randi Educational Foundation.

In practice, the information given by psychics is so vague that it would be useless even if psychics could be relied on. The archetypal psychic prediction is that a body will be found "near water", which helpfully rules out almost all of the Sahara desert. Or "near trees", which eliminates Antarctica from the field of search.

[edit] Claims of Police Assistance

The idea that police regularly consult with psychics is widespread among the public, but it has no basis in fact. Claims that a particular psychic has assisted the police almost without exception originate with the psychic herself, rather than a grateful client or police department. Such claims are regularly disseminated by a lazy and credulous media, as in the following example:

"A few months after Polly was recovered a psychic claimed that she solved Polly’s case on the television program Hard Copy. Not only was she using my daughter’s death to promote herself, but she also dismissed all of the wonderful people: police, media, and volunteers who worked so hard and tirelessly to locate my child." [1]

Police do not employ psychics, and any unsolicited information they receive from them is given the lowest possible priority:

"In relation to specific cases (e.g. a murder/kidnap) the enquiry & investigation teams are duty bound to look into ANY (note emphasis) information provided that may have a bearing on a case. If someone claims it comes from a psychic source then it will receive the lowest ranking in terms of intelligence quality AUTOMATICALLY. No ifs, buts or maybes - it gets the lowest rating i.e. source unknown and unproven. As Police officers we receive hundreds of items of info daily and so the grading system is important in order to keep on top of things and make sure that the wheat is separated from the chaff. I am in the Police, have experience on Uniform, CID and covert ops, I have talked to Super's, C.I.'s, DCI's, DS's and DC's with vast amounts of experience in murder, robbery, rape, child abuse and smaller level crimes. Not a single one has EVER used or would use a psychic." [2]

The effect of tips from self-styled psychics is to waste police time and resources [3]. In a serious case, police are obliged to follow up every lead; and during a prominent case police may get literally hundreds of tips from psychics [4], each (it almost goes without saying) giving different information, so that each claim needs to be checked separately by an officer whose time could otherwise be better spent.

The reason police are obliged to follow up such leads is that people sometimes give real information, acquired by ordinary means, under the guise of clairvoyance. Indeed, anyone possessing accurate information, not made public, about a crime, is de facto a suspect. Here, for example, is a case where a psychic really did lead police to make arrests:

"Acting on what he said was a tip from a psychic, Chapa ordered police last fall to dig on the grounds of Raul Salinas' ranch outside Mexico City, where they exhumed the partial remains of a still-unidentified man. Chapa claimed they were of the missing congressman, saying Raul Salinas had beaten the man to death with a baseball bat.
Under questioning by police Thursday, psychic Francisca Zetina - who calls herself La Paca and claims to carry a magic wand of dried quince jelly - admitted the bones were those of an in-law.
La Paca said she and a son-in-law dug up the body from a family plot for reburial in Raul Salinas' yard." [5]

[edit] Approaching Families

Not content with pestering the police, psychics also seek out the family members of missing people to offer their dubious assistance.

"We, the families of the missing, are victims in several ways ... Psychics and other users of purported paranormal phenomena, cause unnecessary and damaging pain and anguish to families of the missing." [6]

Organizations offering support for parents with missing children condemn the activities of psychic detectives as not merely futile, but a form of exploitation. [7] [8] [9]

[edit] Making Accusations

Some psychic sleuths go so far as to make specific accusations of crime against named individuals. Today there is little chance of anyone being harmed as the result of a false accusation by a psychic. This has not always been the case. In the Middle Ages in Europe the equivalent of a psychic detective was a white witch, whose advertised services would include finding criminals, and specifically identifying maleficient witches. Such accusations could and did lead to prosecution, to public lynching, or to private murder of the accused --- for a crime which it is impossible to commit.

[edit] Links

General

Specific psychic sleuths

[edit] Related Articles

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