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Roger,

please be kind enough to write to the Home Office regarding the fact that whenever the subject of so-called paranormal phenomena is featured on mainstream media outlets the public are only being allowed access to just one expert opinion - the one being put forward by parapsychologists like Professor Richard Wiseman who start from the base that "paranormal phenomena" do not exist.

For example: The BBC 'Everyman' programme featured the medium Gordon Smith giving great comfort to people who had lost loved ones. In a follow up programme, the Richard and Judy Show on Channel 4, Gordon Smith was put up against Professor Richard Wiseman. What should have happened is that the public should have been allowed access to the two scientific arguments regarding mediums like Gordon Smith.

Also in the studio should have been a qualified scientist who is diametrically opposed to the conclusions of Professor Richard Wiseman. Scientists of the calibre of our Cambridge Nobel Laureate for Physics, Professor B. D. Josephson, who start from the base that the study of survival after death should be via subatomic physics - that we are only dealing with natural and normal forces in the universe. That nothing in nature is "paranormal" or "supernatural". There has to be a rational scientific explanation to account for everything that happens.

Until this balance is achieved we are not falling in line with Article 19 of The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This demands a balance on all "media" outlets.

Michael Roll

Related material on this site:

On June 11, 2002, Chris Robinson appeared on The Richard and Judy Show. Natasha Demkina: The Girl with X-ray Eyes 17 year old Natasha, a gifted 'medical intuitive', was invited to New York by CSICOP to participate in an experiment to test whether or not she is truly psychic. The experiment was made the focus of a documentary broadcast on the Discovery Channel in October 2004. ITC RULES ON PARANORMAL PROGRAMMES ON LIVING TV A Desperate Move by The Independent Television Commission - Rulings that restrict TV programmes about mediumship: "Crossing Over" and "6ixth Sense" (Living TV), and "Are You Telepathic?" (Channel 5) (June 29, June 21, 2003) ITC ANNOUNCES PROGRAMME CODE REVISION (November 26, 2003) "Demonstrations of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and similar practices are acceptable only when they are clearly and explicitly presented as entertainment, or when they are the subject of legitimate investigation. Programmes should not be included at times when significant numbers of children are expected to be watching: for example, before the watershed on public service channels." Supernormal Phenomena - Letter from Prof. Richard Dawkins to Stan Ford (January 22, 1992)

Tags: Berry, Wiseman