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may come away believing that
unknown data was developed by some
wondrous means. Not so."
Such thoughts have not dissuaded the
work of Schwartz and Russek, both cur-
rently pursuing their research at University
of Arizona School of Medicine.
The pair are now embarking on a
double-blind, multi-centered study at
University of Arizona, University of
Washington, University of Virginia
and University of Edinburgh that may
ultimately prove or disprove the verac-
ity of the power of mediums.
In the study, individuals, called sit-
ters, will be on the phone with a
medium but neither the medium nor
sitter will be able to communicate
with the other. Both the sitter and the
medium will be unaware of the identi-
ty of the other. The medium will do a
reading of the sitter that will be tran-
scribed and sent to the sitter along
with someone else's reading.
The sitter will then have to mark
the correct parts of each reading. Only
after the correct responses are tabulat-
ed will the sitters be told which read-
ing was theirs.
Schwartz admitted in an interview
Drs. Linda G.S. Russek and Gary ER.
published
in May's Biography magazine
Schwartz: "When our plTsical bodies
that the mediums may demonstrate
deconstruct, the energy and the
less than stellar results because he or
inforination that t('-as iivina. inside
she will not be able to ask questions of
the cells continues on in ril'e same
the sitters,
way that the light .frorii the distant
He believes, however, that there will
stars conti)zties long afier the ph sisal
be a 50 percent accuracy rate for the
star has died, — asserts Schwartz.
mediums despite this handicap, com-
pared with a 20 percent accuracy rate
for the control group.
through July 29 in a highly entertain-
"There are three hypotheses about
at
ing show called Mind Games
the data," he told the magazine.
Detroies Century Theater. In the
"One, the medium is reading the
show, he is able to "read the minds" of
mind of the sitter. Two, the informa-
various audience members.
tion is stored so the medium is just
Although his fascinating skills
reading "the book" on a dead person
appear to be otherworld13,,, he says that
who is no longer there. The third
they are based on nonverbal cues and
hypothesis is that the mediums are
intuition, some skills he was born with
talking to dead people.
and others he has developed.
"We [have] already done experi-
He believes that mediums use the
ments to strongly suggest that what
same skills, but attribute their readings
the mediums are doing is more than
to messages from departed souls. Instead
of communicating with the dead or with just telepathy," said Schwartz.
As for what Dr. Henry Russek
spiritual masters that live in the great
would
think of his daughter's work,
beyond, the mediums, he asserts, have
Linda
Russek
said that he would be
the same intuitive abilities he does.
proud
of
it.
As
a cardiologist, he was
James Ranch, a former magician and
one of the first to prove that emotion-
escape artist, established the James
al stress had an impact on the per-
Randi Educational Foundation to
formance of the heart.
investigate psychic, supernatural and
"He cared very deeply about the
"magical" claims. Psychic mediums, he
pursuit
of truth," she told an inter-
says, use a technique known as "cold
viewer.
"Our
survival-of-consciousness
reading."
research
is
a
natural
extension of his
"They tell the subjects nothing, but
own
interests
as
a
scientist
who envi-
make guesses, put out suggestions, and
sioned so much more than the eye
ask questions," he says. "This is a very
could see." D
deceptive art, and the unwary observer
Science And Spirituality
Researchers engage the service of mediums to
determine whether consciousness survives death.
JILL DAVIDSON SIC_A_R
Special to the Jewish News
A
fter cardiologist Henry Russek
died, his daughter Dr. Linda G.
S. Russek missed him intensely and
believed that his consciousness still
existed. But how could she prove it?
When she met Cornell and
Harvard-educated Dr. Gary E. R.
Schwartz, she found someone who not
only shared her belief but wanted to
prove the same thing.
Prior to meeting Russek, Schwartz,
currently director of the Human
Energy Systems T iboratory at the
University of Arizona, had developed
something called the universal living
memory theory, hypothesizing that the
energy and memory contained within
our cellular makeup continues on after
the death of the body.
The pair began to examine this the-
ory, later producing a 1999 book, The
Living Energy Universe (Hampton
Roads Publishing; $21.95).
In the research for the book and
since its publication, Schwartz and
Russek studied the abilities of medi-
urns to contact the energy of individu-
als who had died,
In one study in which five mediums
were able to channel some 600 pieces
of information about one individual,
83 percent of that information was
found to be accurate. Repeating the
experiment with individuals who were
not mediums, there was a 36 percent
accuracy rate.
Schwartz and Russek, both of whom
are Jewish, are two of only a few scien-
tists who are not only studying but also
measuring information on the ability to
communicate with the dead. Most aca-
demics have discredited the concept.
In history, one of the more famous
debunkers of mediums was Harry
Houdini (born Ehrich Weiss, the son
of a rabbi). Like Houdini, Mark Salem
also believes that a medium's powers
can be explained away as something
other than supernatural, deriving
instead from an inherited gift paired
with honed abilities.
Salem, also the son of a rabbi, holds
a doctorate in psychology and is an
expert in nonverbal communication.
He also is a mentalist, performing