By Simon Singh via guardian.co.uk
It’s often said in their defence that psychics such as Sally Morgan do little harm, even if their powers are illusory
Earphone claims: Sally is seen removing a microphone from her right ear, and what appears to be an earpiece from her left ear.
It has been a difficult, but financially very rewarding 12 months for Sally Morgan, otherwise known as Psychic Sally. Although most nights she is giving demonstrations of mediumship on stage to an audience of more than a thousand people (each paying £25), there have been concerns about whether she has genuine psychicpowers and whether she obtains information about audience members in advance.
In Dublin in 2011, two audience members said they overheard a voice at the back of the theatre, which they felt was feeding Sally information via an earpiece. In Edinburgh in 2012, there was another odd incident, this time involving a large glass bowl always placed in the theatre foyer by Sally so that audience members could write notes about the departed. One audience member wrote a fictional name on a slip of paper and placed it in the bowl, only to receive a message during the show apparently from that fictional person (Toby Wren, played by Robert Powell in the BBC Doomwatch drama in 1970).
I should stress at this point that Psychic Sally strenuously denies any allegation of being fed information via an earpiece or peeking at the contents of the glass bowl, and she continues to believe that she can speak to the dead. Actually, talking to the dead is not particularly impressive, but Sally also believes that the dead talk to her. That is the spooky bit.
Read More: Is psychic Sally Morgan deluded but essentially harmless? | Simon Singh | Science | guardian.co.uk.
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