By Sharon Hill
Last month, I posted the tragic story of a missing little girl in Mississippi and the efforts to try to find her. A volunteer group called "Find Me" who uses so-called psychic means to locate missing persons and help solve crimes gave police information they felt was pertinent to her location. I was highly critical of psychic detectives - anyone who values making conclusions via evidence should be. There is extremely poor evidence (usually exaggerated testimonials) that psychics help in any way to solve crimes any more skillfully than the police or private investigators. They simply do not give useful results and it can clearly be argued that there is no merit in consulting a psychic to help find a person or solve a mystery.
Myra Lewis is still missing. This week, the county sheriff held a press conference announcing that the report of GPS locations from the Find Me group did not yield any helpful information towards the case.
Last month, I posted the tragic story of a missing little girl in Mississippi and the efforts to try to find her. A volunteer group called "Find Me" who uses so-called psychic means to locate missing persons and help solve crimes gave police information they felt was pertinent to her location. I was highly critical of psychic detectives - anyone who values making conclusions via evidence should be. There is extremely poor evidence (usually exaggerated testimonials) that psychics help in any way to solve crimes any more skillfully than the police or private investigators. They simply do not give useful results and it can clearly be argued that there is no merit in consulting a psychic to help find a person or solve a mystery.
Myra Lewis is still missing. This week, the county sheriff held a press conference announcing that the report of GPS locations from the Find Me group did not yield any helpful information towards the case.
If only it were that easy - to tap into a secret source to find answers. It is not to be. Psychic detectives have repeatedly failed. In 2008, scientific investigator Benjamin Radford solicited the BEST psychic detective case from pseudo-skeptic podcast host Alex Tsakiris. The case of the BEST evidence disintegrated under basic scrutiny.
It must become more widely known that consulting a psychic is a waste of time, and possible money, providing only false hope for desperate people. While there is likely a benefit to pooling resources via a volunteer group to help assess facts and leads, touting the concept of psychic powers is a dead end.
Myra has been missing since March 1st.
It must become more widely known that consulting a psychic is a waste of time, and possible money, providing only false hope for desperate people. While there is likely a benefit to pooling resources via a volunteer group to help assess facts and leads, touting the concept of psychic powers is a dead end.
Myra has been missing since March 1st.
Sharon Hill, P.G., EdM, is a geologist with a specialty in science and society and public outreach for science. She is the creator and editor of the unique critical thinking blog DoubtfulNews.com and researches, writes and speaks about the paranormal, monsters and natural phenomena for various publications including Skeptical Inquirer and Fortean Times. Follow her on Twitter @idoubtit.
