Geraldomania!

I received an email informing me that an "investigation" of paranormal researcher Gary Schwartz would be aired on Fox News Channel this weekend. As best I can tell after perusing the FNC schedule, the program in question is Geraldo at Large, which airs tonight (Saturday) at 8 PM Eastern Time. The  show re-airs at midnight and at 4 A.M. Sunday. It runs 60 minutes.

Geraldo at Large also airs on Sunday at 8 PM, but I'm not sure if it's a repeat or a whole new show with different subject matter.

According to a capsule description on the FNC Web site, the Saturday show will include a segment on the "real-life woman behind the TV show Medium." That would be Allison DuBois, who was tested by Gary Schwartz but later had a falling-out with him. DuBois has just put out a new book and is presumably on Geraldo's program to promote it.

Ordinarily, nothing would convince me to watch Geraldo, but this segment may - emphasis on may - be interesting, if it sheds any light on Dubois' differences with Schwartz.

Comments

[Chris]

I dunno, I get a bad feeling about this. The minute I read this entry, I was struck by the thought that they're going to paint him as a kook.

[Mike D.]

I wonder if there are people who will say that this was predicted in Veronica Keen's automatic writing.

[Ginny]

I saw it. A man says Schwartz contacted him by mail about his deceased son, gave details about son's character and personality, stayed at the man's house, and tried to extract $3.5 million (of which the man paid an installment of $50K) for further communications with the son, who Schwartz claimed was going to start some kind of corporation on the Other Side.

This sounds too audacious and too bad to be true. Since when does Schwartz claim to have psychic abilities himself, as this man implied? So far as I know, all he has ever claimed to do is test those who do purport to have such abilities. The letter from Schwartz was shown, but not its contents, only the date, address, and "Re:" lines.

On the other hand, Schwartz would not come on to rebut, and a debunker was standing by to denounce (along with Geraldo) all mediums as frauds and all believers as gullible fools. And Laurie Campbell told of falling out with Schwartz over allegedly violating confidential communications.

On the OTHER other hand, it's kind of hard (bordering on impossible) to buy Geraldo as a crusader for truth and protector of the innocent. :-)

[Ben]

Did this man report these alleged violations to the University of Arizona? If he didn't, then it's difficult to believe that this man has a serious case.

[Ginny]

I'm going to tape it when it reruns, so I can watch more closely for the details and maybe further research on the parties involved. But they said the prosecutor had told the man that while what Schwartz did was unethical, it was not illegal.

[Ben]

On the other hand, Schwartz is somewhat weird. His book The GOD Experiments was just bizarre. I couldn't believe that the book came from a supposedly serious scientific researcher.

[Ginny]

Oh, and spare me the debunkers' faux pity, too. The condescending out-of-hand dismissal of believers as gullible is bad enough, but topping it off with crocodile tears ... "they are suffering, they so want to believe, the poor things" ... is downright infuriating. These people are frequently psychologists, so you'd think they'd know how badly that plays!

[Michael Prescott]

I just watched it. Okay, here's the thing. I've heard other allegations about Gary Schwartz over the past two or three years. Some of them were similar to the allegations made in the Geraldo report tonight. I'd even been told that Schwartz was under investigation by legal authorities in Arizona, thought I wasn't able to confirm this.

Also, it's a fact that many of the mediums who worked with Schwartz in the early stages of his research have parted company with him - Laurie Campbell and Allison DuBois are only two of them. These mediums have accused Schwartz of unethical behavior.

Last year I followed a long thread on a pro-paranormal site in which various people had very negative things to say about a medium Schwartz recently endorsed. These people, who were probably in a position to know, felt that the medium in question (it's nobody famous) was a fraud, and that Schwartz should have known it.

Occasionally I've criticized Schwartz for not publishing the full transcripts of his sessions. Without the full transcripts, it is impossible to evaluate the data. In a newsgroup, I once raised this concern with Julie Beischel, who worked at Schwartz's lab, and she claimed that putting the transcripts online would be very time-consuming and require all sorts of manpower. Nonsense. It takes almost no effort to upload a text document to a Web server and add a link to that document on a Web page. Hell, with blog software they could just post the transcripts as blog entries.

The bottom line is that I've had doubts about Schwartz for some time. Some people may have noticed that I rarely mention his work and do not include his experiments when discussing the best evidence for an afterlife.

Tonight's brief but damning investigative report only makes me more skeptical. Although the report had its predictably tabloid elements (victim Michael Knopf weeping on camera, slow-motion shots of Schwartz looking creepy), the basic story seems pretty straightforward and hard to argue with. If Schwartz has a convincing rebuttal, why didn't he return the reporters' calls? Also note that investigative reporter Marianne Macy intimated that Schwartz "managed to do this to a lot of people," and that more stories may "come out of the woodwork" now that this story has broken. If there is any truth to these statements, we may be looking at a pattern of misbehavior.

The show claimed that Schwartz received $1.8 million from the National Institutes of Health. If this is true, it is an enormous sum compared to the funding of all other paranormal research combined. $1.8 million should buy one hell of a lot of research. Where is it?

I'd say that this story is quite devastating, and that if Gary Schwartz wants to rescue his reputation, he'll need some better answers than "No comment."

[Michael Prescott]

>a debunker was standing by to denounce (along with Geraldo) all mediums as frauds and all believers as gullible fools.

I didn't take it that way. Although Geraldo is clearly skeptical, he didn't state his opinion directly. As for Marianne Macy, I didn't hear her say that all mediums are frauds, though she clearly believes that Schwartz is a fraud.

>I wonder if there are people who will say that this was predicted in Veronica Keen's automatic writing.

Well, you know what? It kinda was. I still have trouble swallowing the stuff about Moses and Ramses, though.

[Michael Prescott]

One other thing. Here's how Schwartz styles himself on his Web site:

"GARY E. SCHWARTZ, Ph.D., Director of the VERITAS Research Program, is a professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the University of Arizona ..."

What appears to be the case is that Schwartz is a professor of psychology, period. He does teach courses in the departments of Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at UA, but this is not the same thing as being a professor in all those fields.

A small thing? Sure. But a penchant for exaggeration is not an ideal quality in a paranormal researcher, to put it mildly.

[drew hempel]

Too bad Magnetic Man isn't on there!

http://www.magneticman.org/

[Ben]

"The bottom line is that I've had doubts about Schwartz for some time. Some people may have noticed that I rarely mention his work and do not include his experiments when discussing the best evidence for an afterlife."

I don't blame you. If you read his writing, there is something fishy about the guy (there seems to be a hint of zealousness). He doesn't write with the rigor or seriousness of researchers like William James, Hodgson, or Ian Stevenson.

[Tim]

At the very least, you can surmise from the evidence that Schwartz has a penchant for the spotlight. He's published 3 books aimed at the popular audience that are clearly designed to titillate, with titles that include the words "God" and "Afterlife."

My read on him is that he's dying to be a celebrity and probably wealthy as well, and that's made him do some imprudent things. I'm an author, and Michael knows like I do that when you get into areas like the origins of ideas, revealing confidential information in a book and money, relationships can get strained and people can start sniping at each other. I have no doubt that's the source of the conflict between Schwartz and DuBois and Campbell.

I sincerely hope the allegations of extortion are untrue. I would hate to see Schwartz's research be cast in a bad light by such sordid goings-on. But as Michael says, he needs to do something else to clear his name besides pull a John Kerry.

[Kevin]

Perhaps the most unfortunate consequence of the controversy surrounding Schwartz is that it only gives reinforcement to critics who contend that research in this and related areas is a complete waste of research funds, thus making investigation and understanding all the more difficult. The unsubtle presentation which was broadcast illuminates how corporate media uses psychological warfare techniques to discredit ideas and the people supposedly representing them (Michael cites the shots of the weeping victim and carefully selected images of Schwartz). In no way do I defend Schwartz or his work, both of which will have to stand or fall on whatever their merits, but the presentation style of this and related "informative" programming, especially network "news" broadcasts, demonstrates the reasons for the decline in large media viewership and the parallel increase in use of the internet as sources of "reliable" information. The next obvious step will be to gain control of internet information content. Otherwise, government/corporate agendas are increasingly susceptable to undermining by competing ideas, a problem compounded for the individual because of the difficulty in establishing the veracity of any information acquired. While this goes on, consciousness research and afterlife studies indicate that what we can describe as truly important in our existences is being communicated to us in a variety of ways. All we need to do in order to begin to understand is to pay attention, do our best to separate the good from the bad, and move forward. No easy thing, that, but where's the value in "easy"?

[Eteponge]

Thank you Michael for bringing this to everyone's attention. I had no idea about any of this regarding Gary Schwartz. I'd always heard of him as a high profile researcher of mediumship who performed unbiased triple-blind experiments with mediums that highly suggests that mediumship is very testable and very real.

I'd read criticisms of him before, but they were only directed at his earlier experiments. I'd read rebuttals to these however, showing how his later experiments had fixed everything flawed from his earlier experiments and were greatly stepped up to avoid earlier mistakes and potential problems.

These accusations circling around him, and mediums who have worked with him going against him, and mediums highly suspected of fraud passing his tests, and his apparent "no comment" mentality to all of it, does not paint him in a good light.

[Diego]

It is a true indication of the rational foundation and unbiased nature of this blog to see the same high standards of authenticity applied equally to both paranormal investigators and their critics.

[Alex]

I wouldn't be surprised if this story simply destroys academic research into the "paranormal." If the allegations are true, then there is a serious possibility that universities will try to distance themselves from this type of research (notably UVA). Schwartz is probably going to make it a hell of a lot harder to get funding.

[Tim]

Don't jump the gun, Alex. Remember, what we have so far are a lot of rumors and unverified allegations. Of course, that's all the pseudoskeptics need to point fingers and shout, "See, we told you Schwartz was a fame-grubbing crackpot!"

Rumors do occur and many are false. I think the best way to approach this might be to reach out to other psi researchers and see if they will comment off the record about Schwartz, the rumors and the veracity of his research. I for one was very interested to see the results of his upcoming quintuple-blind mediumship experiments, but unless this controversy is resolved quickly, all of his research will be placed in some serious doubt. After all, if he truly is besotted by fame, who's to say he wouldn't falsify his results in order to gain notoriety? And as Michael says, he hasn't published his transcripts. Can you say, David Thompson redux?

To be fair, let me present a possible alternative hypothesis for the story told by the victim on Geraldo: it was a hoax. Someone reads one of Schwartz's books (which were bestsellers, so a lot of folks read them) gets the idea that he can extort money from people by claiming to be this famous scientist who's in contact with dead people, and sends out letters to some bereaved people. It's actually fairly plausible in this celebrity-obsessed society, and I have to admit the idea that a guy like Schwartz, whose work is already so scrutinized, would be stupid enough to try to extort money from people does defy credulity a little. Not many faster ways to destroy your career. Why risk it?

We shall see.

[Cyrus]

I'm skeptical of these allegations against Schwartz, and Tim's post seems plausible to me. I go to the U of A, so maybe I will look into it myself. I can't imagine he would extort anybody, ruin his career for money, and jeopardize his passion--psi research. He's never struck me as such a person. Unfortunately, whether true or not, this is going to be ammunition for the debunkers.

Though, if true, it certainly does add a little weight to Veronica's predictions/viewpoints (or whatever they are).

[Michael Tymn]

I don't know what to believe about Schwartz, but I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and not "hang" him as others seem to want to do. I can certainly understand him refusing to comment on the show as there was no way that Geraldo was going to let him state his case. Schwartz knew that whatever he had to say would be edited and he would still come out of it looking like the bad guy that Geraldo wants him to be. If I were Schwartz's attorney or PR man, I'd certainly advise him not to make any statement to Geraldo.

Schwartz's book The Afterlife Experiments was reviewed by Daryl Bem for the Journal of Parapsychology in 2005. Bem, who is a professor of psychology at Cornell and perhaps parapsychology's most respected proponent, notes "several...troubling errors in the book that one would not expect from someone with Schwartz's background." You can access the review at: http://dbem.ws/Afterlife%20Experiments.pdf.

[Larry Boy]

I don't think this, even if true, will ruin parapsychological research. The field has withstood larger crises for more than a hundred years. Also I don't think large universities will start attacking their parapsychologists just because of a sensational TV show about one already controversial researcher, as if that automatically would invalidate other parapsychologists' reputation. More likely is probably that they will keep silent and let things continue as they do.

[RobL]

I agree that this won't sink parapsychology as a whole, but it could be potentially devastating to research involving mediums. Dirty rumors, whether they're true or not, are like blueberry stains* - they're very difficult to remove. If these claims take hold it could be a long time before mediums are allowed back into the labs again. I'll bet Marcel Cairo is super pissed about this piece.

*Please don't post tips on how to remove blueberry stains.

[Samantha]

I agree with Michael Prescott's posting on Dr. Schwartz's credentials. I have done a little research on this myself and have found that he is not teaching any classes this fall at the U of A. His PhD is only in Personality psychology, he is not an MD or surgeon, psychiatrist, any of those things. One question to ask the U of A is how is he paid, from what Department? This would show where his true appointments are....does he have appointements in all these departments?
I also have questions for the U of A regarding his LACH programs....How is it he is director of a lab with no scientific advisory board? Have those programs been approved by an IRB? He claims so, but I strongly think not....where is this Lab? Who are his subjects?

[JoeMB]

Michael,

That magnetic man seems to have the same ability as the Dutch (alleged) medium Robbert, that I linked to in my emails to you. I had never seen that before and now there are two of them. Supposedly.

From MP's earlier blog entry on Montague and the "prediction..."

* * * * *

In the latest message, "Montague" claims to be assisted in his afterlife adventures by both Moses and Ramses the Great. Since these rather noteworthy names are given, we can only speculate as to the even more noteworthy name that was withheld. I'm guessing Jesus.

The post also contains this none-too-veiled reference to an afterlife researcher:

The dishonest ones will no longer be able to control the field in which we work. All that is needed now is patience for G.S. to slip up and expose the fraud that he is. Our Foundation will step forward as a Centre of Influence to bring people together as never before.

The G.S. in question is presumably Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona, with whom Veronica had a much-publicized falling-out.

[Jenny]

I find this posting to be very disturbing.

It is only adding to the gossip and not based on any facts. It is not HELPING to further Survival research but feeding into the Scanal driven media of today, just to sell books.

Please look at the peer reviewed date in
January of 2007 describing a triple-blind study conducted by the VERITAS Research Program in EXPLORE: the Journal of Science & Healing.
http://www.explorejournal.com/article/PIIS155083070600454X/fulltext

Keep in mind, We are looking at the foundation of a journalist who once tried to uncover The vault of Al Capone. Talk about shotty investgations- Sensationalism seems to be the fair of Geraldo and it seems Ms. Dubois, and media focused mediums like her, wish to use that same energy to sell her books, promote shows like sensing murder( campbell) ETC

Todays press is a generation that promotes the gossip of Pop stars losing their children . Hotel queens going to Jail on DWI charges and now meet Allison Dubois , The medium who doesnt do Public Lectures on her work but would rather give out chances to win Lunch with her. This scandel is bringing brought to the limelight to bring attention to her Book sales.

Keep in mind this medium is the one who posted on her website that she was to appear on a very brady wedding on VHI as a guest and was seen drunk dancing on Table Tops.

Not the first time she showed up to "work" drunk"

We are looking at a Medium who USED Dr Schwartz to gain attention to her mediumship. Instead of looking at the actions of the people involved lets look at the data.

Sad that this is giving fuel to the professional skeptics

"Jenny"
Former TV Producer

[suzy]

Check out http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/detrm_letrs/YR07/jun07a.pdf

[Michael Prescott]

>It is only adding to the gossip and not based on any facts.

There were facts cited in the Geraldo piece.

>It is not HELPING to further Survival research

Maybe not, but I'm not a propagandist serving a cause. I say, report the facts, whatever they are.

>I can certainly understand him refusing to comment on the show as there was no way that Geraldo was going to let him state his case.

If I were in his position, I would comment. And although I think Geraldo is sleazy, I don't see him as the hatchet man that others make him out to be. If Schwartz was afraid of being edited, he could have come on live.

But I agree that we shouldn't jump to conclusions. The ball is in Schwartz's court now. He needs to issue a statement or take some other action to clear his name. Failure to do so will be pretty damning.

>Someone reads one of Schwartz's books (which were bestsellers, so a lot of folks read them) gets the idea that he can extort money from people by claiming to be this famous scientist who's in contact with dead people, and sends out letters to some bereaved people.

Except that Schwartz allegedly visited Knopft and stayed in the deceased son's bedroom. Also, if it were a hoax, wouldn't Schwartz have wanted to comment on it? And the clear implication of the report was that the Arizona legal authorities did find evidence of unethical (not illegal) conduct on Schwartz's part.

[Tim]

A few points...

I don't believe one has to have a degree in a field or have a professorship in a department to teach courses in that department. The Wikipedia entry on GS says only that he "is a professor of Psychology teaching courses in psychology in the departments of Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the University of Arizona." I can see where a psychologist would be a valuable addition to the curriculum in all those disciplines.

I've read GS's books and found them to be rather sloppy as well, from my investigative journalist's perspective. To me, he seems to be a legit scholar who is nonetheless a survival and paranormal enthusiast and lets his desire for his subject matter to be 100% real invade his writing, if not his work. Remember, these were potboiler books intended to sell lots of copies on the mass market. They were not "Entangled Minds," which while a popular book was quite scholarly.

I suspect the gossip about GS is just that, but the fact remains he seems to be a self-promoter and a bit sloppy in his research, though perhaps he is clearing that up with his later experiments. I read the Explore article on his triple-blind experiments and they looked pretty promising. But again, if he is so self-aggrandizing, how can we be sure the work is legit?

It's unfortunate. I hope he will come forward with transcripts or something, but I doubt it. He wants to be a pop culture figure or something.

[Michael Prescott]

Thanks, Suzy, for the link to the PDF file. This ties in with Laurie Campbell's complaint that Schwartz violated confidentiality agreements.

>I don't believe one has to have a degree in a field or have a professorship in a department to teach courses in that department.

True. But Schwartz claims professorships in all those fields, and this appears to be a case of "academic degree inflation."

[Ryan]

I thought the term 'professor' just meant a college/university teacher, in America?

In the U.K the term is used differently - it refers to the head of an academic department.

[Alex]

"Remember, what we have so far are a lot of rumors and unverified allegations."

True, but you have to remember that universities are already ambivalent about supporting these types of programs. All it takes is rumors and unverified allegations. Combine this with Schwartz's somewhat sketchy reputation and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Michael Prescott]

I don't think very many universities support psi research to begin with, so there may not be much to lose. Wasn't Dean Radin forced out of the University of Nevada after after publication of The Conscious Universe? Princeton shut down Robert Jahn's PEAR lab. The University of Virgina continues to support reincarnation research, but that's about it, at least for American schools.

[drew hempel]

Wait -- there's more than one "magnetic man" -- check out these Magnetic Men videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p42JnyypCo0

Get these people on Geraldo pronto!

[Tim]

From reading Jahn's statement a while back (I don't have a link at the moment), I believe he said that the lab's funding had run out. Princeton did not shut them down.

[william]

We humans are an interesting species. Geraldo was upset that Swartz got a 1.7 million dollar grant to study life after death and Geraldo made negative comments about that. We lost 15 billion in Iraq in cash and not a peep from fox noise.

Believe very little from these cable news networks they are corporations in the business of making profits and they know what sells.

If one does research into the paranormal expect this from a very materialistic scientific establishment and a religious society. Paranormal researchers throughout history have been ill-treated.

It will be interesting if Swartz posts anything on his website to counter fox noise.
http://veritas.arizona.edu/

Got to go Britney is on TV.

[Alex]

"Geraldo was upset that Swartz got a 1.7 million dollar grant to study life after death and Geraldo made negative comments about that."

I seriously doubt that the NIH gave a $1.8 million grant for paranormal research. They only fund projects that are within mainstream academia. It was probably for something related to psychology/psychiatry.

[sgrenar]

The grant was from NCCAM to study complementary and alternative medicine. Such grants go to the University, not to the investigator and are heavily audited by the government. There are investigators on this grant other than Schwartz working to prove or disprove the validity of claims made by various CAM technologies, drugs and things like healing by prayer. CAM research will ultimately serve to bust the quacks as well as validate traditional remedies that actually work.

So while psychology and the placebo effect may even play a role in these efforts, it is not the major thrust of the grant mentioned. I agree Geraldo implied this grant was for mediumship research as he parsed his remarks and lowered his voice but he was way off base. Clearly he suceeded in making people believe that Dr Schwartz is the sole beneficiary of this money and that it was being used for mediumship. Neither is true.

Looked at a little differently this is an excellent way to spend the taxpayers' money since so many of us taxpayers get ripped off by CAM scams while others could benefit from new herbal remedies that remain unproven scientifically.

[Michael Prescott]

Steve (sgrenar), I understand you're highly critical of the Geraldo report and have been discussing it in another forum. Would you care to share your critique with us? It would prove useful to get another perspective, as I do not want to indict Dr. Schwartz on the basis of faulty information.

[sgrenar]

Michael:

The information regarding the NCCAM grant is factual whereas Geraldo manages to make a 1.8 million dollar erroneous implication out of it and I felt that this required some clarification.

Because I have spoken with the grieving father (in person) whose pre-taped footage was used on the program and since I was introduced to him as a health care
professional I am unable to comment on any aspect of this.

There is also, however, a dispute between Dr. Schwartz and Campbell, DuBois, Veronica Keen and, apparently, Maria Talcott which involves a breech of confidentiality which I also cannot discuss mainly because I just learnedonly a small part of it. Somehow Dr. John Mack, the Harvard based alien abduction researcher, who was killed by a car in the UK when crossing a street on his way to Veronica Keen's home is also involved in this dispute, at least post-mortem. I don't understand this either, I am sorry.

Clearly it is not your job to indict anyone nor is the proper venue to base such an indictment the Geraldo show.

Beyond the above there was no charge of
academic dishonesty or any criticism leveled at Dr. Schwartz' work itself.

I am sorry I could not be of more help but thank you for asking.

[Don Watson]

My interest in this controversy stems from the harm the "paranormal" scientific community can suffer from exposés of this sort. Many people are eager to discredit evidence of things they don't believe, and it's a serious mistake for our community to play into their hands, either by acting non-credibly or by not exposing false criticisms.

On Geraldo's show, Michael Knopf said that Gary claimed he spoke with Michael’s son while he (Gary) was in the shower. This raises two questions of credibility:

Did Michael lie? If so what did he have to gain by lying?

Did Gary lie to gain money from the Knopfs? Or does he believe he is really a medium while showering? If so, has he subjected himself to a scientific protocol to establish it?

It's important for us to get answers to these questions, because we must police our own community. If we don't, ignorance, prejudice, and folklore will fill the void.

If Gary is guilty of lying, he isn't the first academic to do so. "Bootlegged" research--i.e., research on one project with funds provided for another project--is common, and fairly benign. However, lying to a funding agency--whose members know of bootlegging--is very different from lying to a bereaved family to obtain money from them.

Such an offense is so egregious that, if true, it would disqualify Gary from receiving any kind of research money.

It hurts me to write this, because Gary has been my friend for several years. Nonetheless, when he has erred scientifically, I've pointed it out. For instance, see my review of his book, _The G.O.D. Experiments_ at:
www.enformy.com/GOD_experiments_review.htm

It hurts even more to think that he would jeopardize his career with shady behavior.

[Urban Mystic Dee]

I saw the report on Geraldo and can say I am surprised by what constitutes "news" today. The whole thing seems way too bizzare for me and I happen to think that this is a hoax as well. Gary Schwartz appears out of nowhere and visits some guy who supposedly lost his son in a plane crash, takes a shower and sleeps in his bed? That has to be by a wide margin the least likely story the media has ever concocted. Does he scour over newspaper obituaries for rich people to prey on? The man's not a ghoul, he has better things to do with his time. Then the guy claims Gary is a medium (a claim nobody has made until now) and contacted his likely fabricated son in the shower? Is this the afterlife equivalent of Larry Craig soliciting sex in the men's room? Then Gary supposedly told this guy that him and his son had a strained relationship before he died and the guy says "who the hell does this guy think he is telling me about my son?" If Gary is supposed to be a medium and this guy hired him he is exactly(italic) the guy to be telling him about his son, that's what mediums do, tell people about the dead! And then some nobody radio jock came on and said "we all know this if fake. The media has a vested intrest in death being the end so we can rule people's lives from cradel to grave!" If there were a less likely story I haven't heard it, anywhere, regarding anything(also italic).

[Michael Prescott]

>Gary Schwartz appears out of nowhere and visits some guy who supposedly lost his son in a plane crash, takes a shower and sleeps in his bed?

I believe the story is that Schwartz contacted Knopf and was invited to stay in his home. Schwartz allegedly asked to sleep in the son's bedroom in order to pick up the son's "energy."

>contacted his likely fabricated son

Michael Knopf's son, Paul, was not fabricated. The New York Times covered Paul Knopf's death in a light plane crash in December 2002.

[Kelly]

In response to "Jenny"....Take it from someone who is Psychic and knows Schwartz, it is HE or someone from his camp (which I hear is little to none...Beischel gone)......who wrote was "Jenny".....Notice how he does not have the balls to respond himself, or post anything to his website......that is because his ass is FRIED and he knows it.......

[Kevin]

Following up on Tim's reference to the closing of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research lab when funding was exhausted, Dr. Robert Jahn noted in his closing remarks that he and Brenda Dunne had rigorously and successfully demonstrated psi effects in their experiments and, to his mind, had nothing left to "prove". Here's hoping that their results stimulate other researchers to further investigation into mind/matter interaction. And, regarding the mention of the placebo effect by "sgrenar"(Steve), here is a phenomenon which has to be accounted for in virtually ALL experimental studies involving the human host, yet the placebo effect is completely unexplained. How does it work? How does the mind turn the "belief" in the efficacy of a sugar pill or distilled water injection masquerading as a "new miracle drug" into physical healing? The effect itself is a fascinating mystery.

Regarding Dr. Schwartz, I share the amazement many have posted here concerning the professor's seeming conduct. As Michael points out, staying at the home of someone who subsequently is moved to alleging the actions claimed does strike many of us as a "red flag" moment. The professor's silence in the face of the allegations is not only troubling, but shows a considerable lack of good judgement in the arena of public perception: when claims of any kind are made against a person or organization, it is imperative, even crucial, to counter those claims publically in as strong a manner as is possible, and quickly. The dubious history of politics offers too many examples of this.

[sgrenar]

Michael Knopf is definitely real as was his son who tragically died in a small private plane crash which was covered in the NY Times as cited above. The FAA's investigation is also on their website and when this all came up, I visited the FAA site to read their accounts. The FAA report indicated the engine had caught fire, the plane then burned and crashed.

As I indicated above I met and conversed with Michael Knopf. This was at a lecture on mediumship Mr. Knopf, his wife and daughter attended. The lecture was not given by Dr. Schwartz, who attended, but by a NY area medium and which was followed by a demonstration.

I am afraid, however, we are all being naive if we do not know that asking for donations and raising money is a part of a university researcher's job description. Dr. Schwartz' bosses at UA would want him to do this as would the brass at any institution that is fueled by grants and donations to stay afloat. Funding, as a rule, doesn't levitate in over the transom by itself. Especially in this field.

I am not sure how Gary was introduced to Mr. Knopf but it was probably through other donors and/or people interested in the research. I believe this is called networking.

The argument/question that Don brings up is whether Dr. Schwartz conveyed feelings of mediumistic contact with deceased son Paul as an inducement to obtain funding. And if true it begs a further question as to whether this is ethical or appropriate.

I have to stop here because I would be getting into areas that would breech Mr. Knopf's privacy.

[william]

I think I remember that some enlightened Hindus believe that god creates because god loves a good play with lots of drama.

Spending time watching the news one must admit that god certainty knows how to direct, produce, and create some interesting characters in its play.

The phenomenal world just keeps on giving great performances in drama.

[Ben]

"I am afraid, however, we are all being naive if we do not know that asking for donations and raising money is a part of a university researcher's job description."

Who the hell brought up this point? Every college graduate has probably experienced receiving several emails a week from the alumni association attempting to solicit donations. The point we're discussing is whether he manipulated the Knopf family into donating money so their son could set up some sort of corporation on the "other side." I'm not implying that the allegations are true, but get with the program.

[Michael Prescott]

>The argument/question that Don brings up is whether Dr. Schwartz conveyed feelings of mediumistic contact with deceased son Paul as an inducement to obtain funding. And if true it begs a further question as to whether this is ethical or appropriate.

The Geraldo report claimed that Schwartz said the deceased Paul Knopf was trying to set up a corporation in the afterlife and somehow required $3.5 million to fund it (!). If - I stress if - Dr. Schwartz made any such representations, I would say his behavior goes far beyond simple fundraising and is definitely inappropriate and unethical, not to mention bizarre.

It is hard to see how Michael Knopf could have been taken in, even temporarily, by such a crazy suggestion, but unfortunately the history of mediumship offers many examples of grieving people who parted with enormous sums under similarly dubious circumstances. (Here's one such case.)