The Case of “The Girl with X-Ray Eyes”
On February 14, 2005, UK television Channel 4 broadcast a program entitled “The Girl With X-Ray Eyes”. The presenters related the examination by CSICOP scientists of a Russian clairvoyant named Nahtasha Demkina.
Claims had been made that Russian teenager Natasha Demkina was able to diagnose medical conditions in people simply by observing them.
On UK television Channel 4 Natasha was examined by well-known media skeptics and CSICOP representatives Ray Hyman and Richard Wiseman.
After a series of somewhat perfunctory tests, the scientists announced that Demkina’s claims were negated.
The result was a flood of adverse comment. The conditions under which the tests were conducted – and the criterion of failure applied by CSICOP – were severely criticised.
What was intended to be a victory for dogmatic skepticism turned into something else.
Here we present some of the criticism leveled at the investigators.
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