In the first half, professional mentalist and magician Mark Edward talked about his new book Psychic Blues, which looks at the business side of psychics (rather than the spiritual), and examines the cons, tricks of the trade, and people that defraud the public. There is no actual evidence that people speak with spirits of the deceased, or successfully aid the police in investigation cases, he claimed. The art of being a psychic involves techniques such as cold reading and observing body language, or even digging up information about a client via the Internet, he detailed. They also use what is called in mentalism "the scattershot technique,"-- i.e. throwing something at the wall to see if anything sticks. An example of this is when a psychic is speaking to a group, and mentions the name Helen for instance, and the odds are the name will mean something to at least one person.

Another technique psychics use is "muscle reading," gleaning information from a person's ideomotor or unconscious physical responses, Edward revealed. He critiqued the current bout of paranormal-themed reality shows, contending that show writers cobble ghostly story lines together based on something they find in the footage such as a squeaky chair. As far as TV shows featuring psychics, he suggested that many of the misses of the psychics are left on the cutting room floor, making them appear much more accurate than they really are. Edward believes that 85% of psychics are outright charlatans, and the other 15% are delusional or mentally disturbed.

------------------------------------

In the second half of the show, we heard the other side of the Other Side! Paranormal investigator & documentary producer, Tim Coleman and one of the world's leading experts in physical mediumship, Robin Foy, discussed the Scole Experiment, called one of the most successful examples of physical mediumship and afterlife communication ever. Foy was one of the participants of the experiments which took place over a five-year period in the 1990s in Scole, a small village in Norfolk, UK. Spirit personalities were said to take over the body of mediums and speak through them, and over 1,000 hours of recordings were made. There were also "spirit voices" heard through an amplifier, and messages from a "Trans-Dimensional Communication Device," the design of which reportedly came from the spirit of Thomas Edison.

The experiments at Scole yielded photographic and video evidence (see below), and images appeared on sealed film rolls, without being shot by a camera, according to Foy. There were also spirit materializations, apports (objects appearing out of thin air), and levitation, he continued. At some of the Scole sessions, scientists were present, and witnessed orbs or spirit lights moving in and out of the bodies of the participants, Coleman said. He also talked about his study of Marcello Bacci, an Italian medium and "direct radio voice," whom he believes is able to receive spirit voices, often of deceased children that are recognized by their parents, through his old tube radio.

News segment guest: R. Gary Patterson