Recap

The Skeptic's Cage

Dr. Michael Shermer, the publisher of Skeptic Magazine and a columnist for Scientific American debated three scientists, one each hour, on various aspects of scientific thought and the paranormal. The first was Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., a professor at the Univ. of Arizona, who presented evidence that certain mediums who claim to communicate with the departed are yielding accurate information. This can't be conventionally explained, and the most likely conclusion is that there is survival of consciousness after death, said Schwartz. Shermer replied that the evidence is slim and fraught with experimental design problems.

In the next hour, Russell Targ, the co-founder of the Stanford Research Institute’s Remote Viewing program, joined the show. He pointed out that the CIA and other government organizations funded their remote viewing work for 20 years, spending $20 million. He also cited specific cases of amazing psychic perceptions such as the time Pat Price picked out one of Patty Hearst's kidnappers from a book of mugshots. Shermer countered that the CIA ended their funding of remote viewing a decade ago and also noted that psychics were not helpful in the Elizabeth Smart and Polly Klass cases. Targ agreed to contact remote viewer Joe McMoneagle to see if he would be willing to try and locate the missing Natalee Holloway, as a way of proving remote viewing's validity.

Appearing in the last hour, Dean Radin, a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, shared evidence for mind/matter interactions such as the work being done with random number generators. There is a move away from randomness on the generators when major events such as 9-11 are taking place, indicating an effect of global consciousness, he reported. Shermer argued that such experimentation is absurd and doesn't serve a useful purpose. Radin explained some psychic phenomena as quantum communication transfers taking place between humans, while Shermer said that the neurons are not functioning at the subatomic level.