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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 10/12/2007 : 03:15:28
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Those of you who follow JREF will doubtless be familiar with the Harvard-educated psychologist and pseudoscientist, Dr. Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. (Sorry, then, because I'm going to tell you about this greedy, lying asshole, anyhow.)
Dr. Gary Schwartz, Ph.D.
Silvia Browne with a sheepskin.
Schwartz runs a psychic scam operation called the "VERITAS Research Program," out of the University of Arizona, where he is a tenured professor.
For years Schwartz has served as a shill and a validating professional, always eager to apply a coat of "scientific" whitewash to all psychics: Q: Are mediums for real?
Our research supports the hypothesis that individuals survive physical death (survival of consciousness) and that certain mediums can receive and convey accurate information from them. Our research also eliminates several paranormal and non-paranormal explanations for the information mediums convey including fraud, cold-reading, general information, and telepathy. However, to date, the research also supports other less plausible paranormal hypotheses, such as super-psi (discussed in several essays on our Further Reading page). |
Schwartz wants more, now. More money. So he's now decided to become a psychic himself. He's now gone so far as to tell a (wealthy) grieving father that he'd made contact with his son on the "other side," and has, incredibly, asked for a mere $3.3 million (video) to help the deceased young man set up a "corporation" in the afterlife.
All this while Schwartz maintains his position in good standing with UA, a state-supported university which continues to pay, honor, and provide cover for Schwartz. Oh, I suppose the state sponsorship and the grieving loved ones don't provided enough money to create the right vibrations for really good psychic scientific research: You can now buy "Angel Oraments" (made by a real psychic!), and 100% of your donation will go to VERITAS.
How come UA allows Schwartz to turn an honored university into such an unvarnished spiritualist encampment? Randi says it best:| I must ask, will the University of Arizona remain unfazed by what appears to be not only a bizarre departure from academic propriety, but an adventure into the world of the spiritualist scam artist? When I offered the University the JREF million-dollar prize if Schwartz would submit his raw data on his John Edward “investigation” and thereby prove that Edward was a genuine psychic, the University declined to accept in spite of the fact that Schwartz had agreed – during an in-person visit to the JREF – that he would (a) follow the protocol that I'd designed to test Edward, and (b) submit to us the raw data from his investigation, though he subsequently allowed Edward to bypass the protocol, and never made any move to submit the data to us.. I think I now know why that offer to the University was turned down: I think that Schwartz is bringing so much money in to the University coffers, that another million just doesn't seem that attractive, in comparison. |
I hope this loathsome quack of a con artist is shut down by prosecutors, and that his co-con
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/12/2007 05:20:31
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/12/2007 : 06:28:05 [Permalink]
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The thing these grifters fear above all else is ridicule and the university would be exceptionally vulnerable to it. A raucous letter campaign and some ads taken out in newspapers and radio might turn the trick. I've said it before; "esoteric letters in a signature do not a scientist make." Also "Talk's cheap; takes money to buy good whiskey. Put up or shut up, doc."
Let the ridicule commence!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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University of Arizona's spiritualism scam
