Conjecturing Up Spirits in the Improvisations of Mediums

In Keith Augustine & Michael Martin (eds.), The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life After Death. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 585-614 (2015)
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Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the “Arizona experiments” conducted by experimental mediumship researcher Gary E. Schwartz, a psychology professor at the University of Arizona, in 1999. During the experiments, a number of “psychics” were tested for their ability to communicate with the dead, and afterward Schwartz concluded that his results produced strong scientific support for the existence of an afterlife. This paper critically evaluates Schwartz’s arguments for this claim. 1. The World of Mediumship - 1.1 Mediums and Sitters - 1.2 Hits and Misses - 1.3 The Secret to Success - 1.4 The Great Ghost Swindle -- 2. Possible Explanations - 2.1 Survival - 2.2 Cold Reading - 2.3 Hot Reading - 2.4 Other Supernatural Explanations -- 3. An Example of Cold Reading -- 4. Cast - 4.1 Gary Schwartz - 4.2 Laurie Campbell - 4.3 George Dalzell - 4.4 George Dalzell - 4.5 John Edward -- 5. The Experiment - 5.1 Phase 1: The Not-So-Blind Reading - 5.2 Phase 2: The Not-So-Silent Silent Reading - 5.3 Phase 3: The Not-So-Extraordinary Reading - 5.4 Embellishing the Evidence - 5.5 Sloppy Preparation - 5.6 Missing Parts - 5.7 Collusion -- 6. Truth, Lies, and Statistics - 6.1 The Number Game - 6.2 The Name Game, Part 1 - 6.3 The Name Game, Part 2 - 6.4 The Dog with an “S”-Name -- 7. The Results -- 8. The Aftermath - 8.1 The Sound of One Hand Clapping - 8.2 What Happened?

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