The public tune in in their thousands to watch celebrity TV psychics perform anything from spoon bending to giving messages from beyond the grave.  But sceptics have tested, investigated and speculated on the validity of the skills of these celebrity psychics.  This hub looks at three celebrity psychics who have come under scrutiny from sceptics and the effect this has had on their careers.

Uri Geller was born in Israel in 1946 and rose to fame through TV performances of what he claimed to be paranormal powers such as psychokinesis.  Most famously, he is known for “spoon bending” and making watches stop or go faster.  Critics have said that these performances can also be done using stage magic tricks.  James Randi has famously said that if you are using psychic powers in order to do these tricks, you’re doing it the hard way.

In 1973, Uri Geller appeared on the Tonight Show with presenter Johnny Carson, a former magician. The show’s producers had contacted famous sceptic James Randi for advice on how to prevent trickery during Uri’s performance. With Randi’s advice, the show producers presented Uri Geller with a selection of their own props (such as spoons) and Uri was unable to perform any of his usual “tricks”. The show makes for uncomfortable viewing!

In the mid 1990s, during a performance on an Israeli TV show, he was shown to slip a small magnet from behind his ear to his thumb, in order to manipulate a compass. 

After this incident, Uri Geller withdrew from the public eye until he returned in a reality show in 2007.  He is said to have said “"I'll no longer say that I have supernatural powers. I am an entertainer. I want to do a good show. My entire character has changed.".

John Edward was born in 1969 and is a well known TV psychic.  He wrote his first book on the subject of being psychic in 1998 and was granted his own television show the following year, Crossing Over with John Edward. That show features John Edward giving readings to audience members and was a ratings success until it ended in 2004.  Now, his latest shown John Edward Cross Country has been running since 2006 and continues to be a success.

A psychologist named Gary Schwartz ran a series of tests to test the psychic abilities of John Edward and several other mediums and concluded that John Edward’s skills are genuine in his book The Afterlife Experiments. However, his study has been criticised by his peers through a review published in the Skeptical Inquirer.

The main criticism of John Edward is that he uses well-known “mentalist” cold-reading techniques. UK mentalist Derren Brown describes nicely the art of cold reading in this interview:

James Randi also noted when analysing one of John Edward’s performances how only 3 of 23 statements were actually confirmed as being correct by the audience.  The editing of the show has also been criticised, with suggestions made that they are edited in such a way as to make his statements appear more accurate.

John Edward denies ever using foreknowledge, cold or hot reading in his performances.

Derek Acorah is a well known British psychic medium, born in 1950.  He is most famous for his appearances in ghost hunting TV show Most Haunted, where he acted as the team’s psychic medium until 2005.

Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding is reported to have claimed that Derek Acorah was asked to leave Most Haunted after the show’s in-house parapsychologist, Dr Ciaran O’Keefe, fed him misinformation which he later used in the episode recording as an apparent possession.  The name fed to Derek Acorah was “Kreed Kafer”, who Derek claimed to be possessed by during recording.  Dr Ciaran O’Keefe later revealed that he had made the name up and it is an anagram of “Derek Faker”.

Since then, he has worked on a variety of projects including his own TV show called Derek Acorah on Sky Real Lives, which continues to be successful.

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