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James Randi was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. He was the co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician under the stage name The Amazing Randi and later chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims. Randi retired from practicing magic at age 60, and from his foundation at 87.
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to conduct organised scholarly research into human experiences that challenge contemporary scientific models." It does not, however, since its inception in 1882, hold any corporate opinions: SPR members assert a variety of beliefs with regard to the nature of the phenomena studied.
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. The word "psychic" is also used as an adjective to describe such abilities.
John Edward McGee Jr. is an American television personality, author and a self-proclaimed psychic medium.
Charles Robert Richet was a French physiologist at the Collège de France and immunology pioneer. In 1913, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis". Richet devoted many years to the study of paranormal and spiritualist phenomena, coining the term "ectoplasm". He believed in the inferiority of black people, was a proponent of eugenics, and presided over the French Eugenics Society towards the end of his life. The Richet line of professorships of medical science continued through his son Charles and his grandson Gabriel. Gabriel Richet was also one of the pioneers of European nephrology.
Sylvia Celeste Browne was an American author who claimed to be a medium with psychic abilities. She appeared regularly on television and radio, including on The Montel Williams Show and Larry King Live, and hosted an hour-long online radio show on Hay House Radio.
Levitation or transvection, in the paranormal or religious context, is the claimed ability to raise a human body or other object into the air by mystical means.
Medium is an American supernatural drama television series created by Glenn Gordon Caron that originally aired on NBC for five seasons from January 3, 2005, to June 1, 2009, and on CBS for two more seasons from September 25, 2009, to January 21, 2011.
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija.
Ectoplasm is a term used in spiritualism to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. It was coined in 1894 by psychical researcher Charles Richet. Although the term is widespread in popular culture, there is no scientific evidence that ectoplasm exists and many purported examples were exposed as hoaxes fashioned from cheesecloth, gauze or other natural substances.
Rosemary Altea is a British author who describes herself as a medium and healer. She has appeared on various programs, including Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and featured in the series premiere of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! alongside mentalist Mark Edward. She has written six books and claims to have a "healing foundation".
Leonora Piper was a famous American trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably William James and the Society for Psychical Research.
Franek Kluski, real name Teofil Modrzejewski (1873-1943), was a Polish physical medium criticized by trained magicians and skeptics as a fraud. Kluski was best known for his séances in which alleged "spirit" molds of hands materialized. It was later demonstrated by Massimo Polidoro and chemist Luigi Garlaschelli that these molds could have easily been made by fraudulent methods.
Gordon Smith is a British psychic medium; known as the UK's "most accurate" medium.
Harriet Lamb CBE became CEO of WRAP - a Climate Action NGO - in December 2022. She was formerly the CEO of Ashden and of the peacebuilding organisation International Alert. From 2001 to 2012 she was executive director of the United Kingdom Fairtrade Foundation. Prior to this she was a leading campaigner for fair trade. In September 2012 she became chief executive officer of the global standards, certification and producer development organisation, Fairtrade International.
James Van Praagh (; is an American author and television personality who describes himself as a clairvoyant and spiritual medium. He has written numerous books, including The New York Times bestseller Talking to Heaven. Van Praagh was a producer and screenwriter on the 2002 CBS primetime semi-autobiographical miniseries Living with the Dead starring Ted Danson. He also hosted a short-lived paranormal talk show called Beyond with James Van Praagh.
True-believer syndrome is an informal or rhetorical term used by M. Lamar Keene in his 1976 book The Psychic Mafia. Keene coined the term in that book. He used the term to refer to people who continued to believe in a paranormal event or phenomenon even after it had been proven to have been staged. Keene considered it to be a cognitive disorder, and regarded it as being a key factor in the success of many psychic mediums.
Theresa Caputo is an American purported psychic medium, best known for her TLC reality television series Long Island Medium.
Tyler Henry Koelewyn is an American reality show personality who appears in the reality show series Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry and Life After Death with Tyler Henry as a clairvoyant medium since 2016. He has published two books.
Matthew L. Fraser, also known as Matt Fraser, is an American psychic medium, published author, and television personality. He is best known for his central role in the reality TV show Meet the Frasers.
References
- ↑ "Psychic Private Eyes - Meet The Psychics - T.J. Higgs". phpBB. 2006. Archived from the original on 23 May 2007. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
- ↑ "Take a trip to the other side when...". The Comet. 17 May 2012.
- ↑ "Psychic Celebrities". Gallery v1. 2006. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
- ↑ "Medium TJ 'wants to share her special gift'". Herald Express. 15 June 2016.
