Psychic Sleuths? Press Delete!

In October 1898 in Lebanon, New Hampshire, housewife Nellie Titus suffered a series of recurring dreams in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of 16 year old Bertha Huse from a neighbouring township. In the face of considerable scepticism from all of those she confided in, including her husband, she begged the authorities to search an area of the Mascoma River which had already been repeatedly searched by a diver previously. So certain was she that this section of water was the watery grave of young Miss Huse she even joined the diver at the rivers edge when he begrudgingly obliged.

She claimed that she had been drawn to this location by visitations by Bertha whilst she slept and her dreams where in fact visions bestowed upon her by the desperate soul of the child. As you may have guessed they did indeed find the remains of Bertha Huse and as a result the reluctant Mrs Titus was regarded with everything from suspicion to astonishment to great acclaim.

Claims of psychic detection are nothing new but real cases of successful location of a missing person or body are extremely rare and even then they tend to be lavishly embellished by the reporting medium. It is of course common knowledge that police forces have used mediums in the past with varying degrees but predominantly limited success. But this is not because of their belief in the paranormal but instead a more grounded hope that perhaps a naturally gifted person may be capable of doing something that some behavioural profilers spend a lifetime learning to achieve in giving detailed and dependable insight into a crime and often the perpetrator.

With this in mind it never fails to make my skin crawl when I learn of yet another medium offering their visions up when a news story breaks of a missing person. From the Lindbergh baby to the heart-aching case of April Jones, it is inevitable that there will be those who, for genuine reasons or for self promotion, will involve themselves and their psychic ability very publicly in the case.

These days the outlet for many such claims seems to be online where a throng of mediums seem to have emerged. Recently I took to removing several posts and eventually the posters themselves from my Facebook thanks to a surge of peculiar messages regarding the fate of little April Jones and regarding the renewed search for the remains of little Ben Needham who disappeared from a holiday home on the Greek Island of Kos in 1991. 

I have befriended many mediums and psychics in my work, even as a sceptic, and as such I enjoy seeing their updates on my timeline now and again but during the search for Ben Needham one post in particular disturbed me more than most.

The post from this particular female medium read: ‘I had visions of red in connection to the whereabouts of Ben Needham and now I see on the news the police [specialist search team] are wearing red!’

There was a clamour of likes and complimentary comments beneath her post which all made me cringe violently. A tenuous (and ultimately wrong) link at best I thought, especially since only a very small number of the Greek police officers were wearing bright red overalls and I had to ask myself why would anyone put that on Facebook?

Would it help in finding Ben? Was it a message of hope for the Needham family? Would it have any positive effect at all? No.

To me it appeared vitriolic. A “look at me” request as the author seeks to be perceived as somehow linked to a headline case among their own Facebook followers. A silly claim that need never be shared for it served no real purpose other than to jump on little Ben’s bandwagon. If I were even more cynical I would suggest it served almost as a promotional tool to gain more readings and even though that’s not what I actually think, had Ben been found I do wonder what retrospective claims would have been made then!

In all I have recently removed five mediums who all began posting their psychic connections about missing children including April Jones to moors murder victim Keith Bennett. Their visions tend to suspiciously coincide with media interest and frankly I don’t want to see useless and grossly inappropriate comments on my Facebook timeline that involve the disappearance or death of someone else’s child and I imagine the parents of these poor kids would shudder at the thought of such self aggrandising messages circulating out there. Such comments come across as clumsily disrespectful as best or boastful at worst.

The world has moved on a great deal since the days when Nellie Titus could point to a river and say ‘there’, effectively influencing the course of an official search. The ubiquitous psychics of today stand so little chance of recreating the extraordinary exploits of Mrs Titus they should perhaps consider what real purpose spreading such a comment truly serves. If it won’t bring someone’s loved one home then perhaps they should simply press delete on this one.