The legal system plays an important role in the area of psychic phenomena. Once you saw the word psychic it probably conjured images of a woman at a carnival sitting in front of a crystal ball or of advertisements asking you to call an 800 number to learn what your future, love life, etc. will be like. To dispel this image it’s best to start with what a psychic is, a psychic is someone “sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences: marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding.” (MERRIAM WEBSTER). Generally speaking and for purposes of this discussion a psychic is often considered to be someone that is clairvoyant meaning they can “see” what is going to happen in the future.
At this point you should be asking what this is has to do with the legal system. The following discussion should help to answer that question by showing that there is a common occurrence where many people will believe whatever a psychic tells them which understandably can lead to fraud. There than are various stories of psychics actually helping police to solve crimes, and of a government program that spent twenty years researching psychic phenomena.
The following cases point out examples of peoples’ belief in psychic phenomena being used to steal money from them. In these cases the fraudulent psychic uses their perceived powers to take essentially as much money as the person has to give. These cases point out that it is less about the possibility of actual psychic phenomena and more about con artists capitalizing on an individuals’ beliefs.
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In England in 1868 a 75 year old widow, Jane Lyon, believed that Home, an alleged medium (someone who claims to be able to communicate with the spirits of the deceased) was able to speak with her deceased husband. Lyon believed that she was following her husband’s wishes when Home convinced her “to adopt him as her son, and transfer £24,000 to him; to make her will in his favour; afterwards to give him a further sum of £6,000; and also to settle upon him, subject to her life interest, the reversion of £30,000.” (Lyon v. Home, L.R. 6 Eq. 655 (1868)). Lyon carried out these supposed wishes and legally set about transferring and arranging for Home to become her adopted son and to receive the stated amounts of money.
A few months after the transfers had been completed Lyon spoke with another spiritual medium who gave her yet another message from her deceased husband. The message this time stated that Home “was an imposter, and advised to go to law.” (Id. at 660.) Thankfully, Lyon got her money back when the courts stepped in finding that Home had used undue influence over Lyon. (Id. at 682.)
Sadly, this isn’t the last time that something like the above happened where a medium purported to convey the wishes of a deceased loved one. In 1907 in Steinkuehler v. Wempner (Steinkuehler v. Wempner, 81 N.E. 482, 486 (1907)) a case which concerned the will of a deceased woman who held a strong belief in spiritualism. It is stated in the facts that the night before making her will, she attended a séance and believing that her deceased husband told her that her grandchildren were going to cause trouble she wrote her will only leaving them $1 each. (Id.)
In a more recent case that was decided in 2008 Delores Hoffert’s husband passed away after suffering from leukemia but before he did he was convinced by psychic Linda Marks that his money was cursed. Before his death Marks had taken $320,000 of his supposedly cursed money. Despite judgment in favor of Hoffert, Marks only paid back $86,000 before defaulting. (Dolores Hoffert v. Delray Beach, Linda Marks and Det. Jack Mackler, 2008 WL 4093084)
In San Francisco Lisa Miller claiming to be a psychic was contacted by a woman looking for love. Miller claimed that the woman was cursed and needed “spiritual cleansing.” (www.sfgate.com). The woman gave Miller $108,000, gift cards, jewelry, and even financed a Corvette for her! (Id.) Miller was found out by the woman as a fraud when the woman saw a news report of Miller’s mother in law being arrested for taking $450,000 from another woman that she had agreed to “cleanse them [the woman’s family] of evil for money.” (Id.)
Miller was given two months in jail, five years’ probation, ordered to make full restitution, and is banned from “engaging in fortune telling, psychic readings, tarot card readings, love spell castings, palm readings and spiritual advising.” (Id.)
These cases clearly point out that there is a problem here. However, is it really a problem that can be addressed by enacting laws? If someone believes that they have psychic abilities isn’t it their right to make a living off it just the same way a weather man does when predicting the weather? It would seem that when people are tricked by supposed psychics the courts have been able to step in just as they would in any instance of fraud.
It is interesting to note at this point that in Maryland the court of appeals recently found that a ban prohibiting receiving compensation for fortune telling was unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment freedom of speech. (Nefedro v. Montgomery County, 414 Md. 585 (2010)). Similarly in Argello v. City of Lincoln (Argello v. City of Lincoln, 143 F.3d 1152 (8th Cir. 1998)) the Court was asked to determine the constitutionality of a city ordinance which stated “it shall be unlawful for any person to exercise, carry on, advertise, or engage in the business or profession of clairvoyancy, palmistry, phrenology, mind reading, fortunetelling, or any other business, profession, or art of revealing or pretending to reveal past or future events in the life of another.” (Id.) The District Court originally held that the ordinance was invalid as it was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment.
The Court upheld the District Court’s ruling and opined “Nor can the ordinance be upheld as a prohibition against fraud. It does not require that fortunetellers know that they are conveying false information, or that they have no power of seeing into the future. For all we know, certain persons genuinely believe that they have such powers. In this belief they may be mistaken, but that is not a decision that government is free to make under our Constitution.” (Id. at 1153.)
What happens when the psychic goes to court? In a rather worrying twist the psychic in question is the defense attorney! In 1993 there was a case from Alabama where a defense attorney “claims that he was a mystic, clairvoyant, and prophet, that he heard voices and responded to them, and that he possessed paranormal power to “sparkle” and to send “blue beams of energy.” (Neelley v. State, 642 So. 2d 494, 498 (Ala. Crim. App. 1993)). The court then went on to say that this didn’t affect his representation of his client at trial when she raised the issue of ineffective counsel. (Id.) This case speaks for itself with why it is concerning, however, the court found no evidence that the attorney’s behavior or spiritual beliefs affected or interfered with his ability to represent the defendant at trial. (Id.) In a rather different type of case of a psychic going to court a woman believes that she lost her psychic abilities after being hit on the head by a piece of wood in Home Depot. (Pellito v. Home Depot, Inc., JVR No. 67367)) The jury however, didn’t feel the same way and although they awarded her damages they didn’t believe that she had lost her psychic abilities. (Id.)
In a case different from those discussed above a psychic was used for an entirely different purpose. In Grand Rapids, MI a federal grand jury charged Barbara Myers, “with participating in a conspiracy to smuggle marijuana from Mexico to Michigan between 1990 and 1993.” (Eric Freedman, A Judge Predicts 78 Months will let Psychic Hone Her Skill, THE NAT’L L.J., May 13, 1996, at A24)) Myers unique role in the drug ring was that of their psychic, they used her to determine safe times for the transport of the drugs between states. Myers then took on a more active role in the organization allowing the marijuana to be stored in her house, wiring money to Texas, and handling cash transactions. Myers psychic ability seemed to fail her in the end though as the jury convicted her of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and money laundering. Myers was sentenced to 78 months in jail for her part as the drug ring’s psychic. (Id.)
The above examples point out that there are various reasons as to why the idea of psychic phenomena ends up in a court room. Perhaps what should be pointed out at this point is that there never seems to be a question of the reality of the psychic phenomena. Meaning that the court never seems to ask for proof that these people can do what they claim to do. Rather the cases seem to be decided for differing reasons with no one ever asking for the proof of the psychic ability.
It would certainly be hard to prove if not impossible that psychic ability exists in a court of law. However, is there really a reason that the proof of it should come up in these cases? I would suggest that it should. After all is it really fraud if the money really was cursed? Probably not. What if Pellito really did lose her psychic abilities after being hit on the head? Shouldn’t someone at least question if it’s real or not before deciding the case? It’s doubtful the cases would end up being decided differently but what if someone could prove that psychic phenomena exists and is real?
There are an entirely different set of circumstances in which psychics are used. These circumstances include attorneys who have used them to help pick a jury, and police who have used them to help solve cases. In these cases the psychics impact the law in a more direct way (Lawyers Use of Psychics: The Wave of the Future?, NAT’L L.J., Jan. 27, 1986, at col. 1). If psychics are able to offer useful advice then it’s all for the better, even if the advice isn’t useful or accurate no one is really hurt by it right?
In the case of People v. Memro (People v. Memro, 11 Cal. 4th 786, 839, 905 P.2d 1305 (1995)) officers involved in a missing child’s case became so desperate for leads that “they obtained an artist’s sketch based on a psychic’s vision of a person Carter [missing child] might have been with.” (Id. at 1131-32.) After consulting with Carter’s parents who confirmed the sketch looked like the Defendant the Detectives went to the Defendant’s residence and after speaking with the Defendant and viewing additional evidence in the Defendant’s apartment the Officers placed him under arrest. (Id.)
It would seem that the psychic in this case was able to provide accurate information and help the police to catch the Defendant. The Court ultimately found that the Officers use of the psychic “was merely an investigative tool and cannot be relied upon by the officers in connection with justifying their arrest. However, it may be used to follow up additional leads.” (Id. at 1333.) In this case at least the Officers were able to rely on information gained from a psychic in order to obtain additional evidence that would justify arresting the Defendant. If the psychic hadn’t given the sketch to the Officers this case may have turned out differently.
This case is a perfect example of the idea of psychics helping the police to solve crimes. The people that often assist law enforcement in this way have come to be known as Psychic Detectives. However, are these Psychic Detectives really all that helpful? Is it possible that they do more harm than good? After all if the police spend their time following a lead given to them by a psychic which turns into a dead end it wastes the time they could have spent on their own and maybe have gotten closer to solving the case.
An example of this is shown by an abduction case in 1996 in Arlington, TX where a search was conducted on foot and by helicopter because of a “vision” one man claimed to have. They never found anything and the abductees’ body was later found on the opposite side of the city from where they had been searching. (Nickell, Joe How Psychic Sleuths Waste Police Resources, Skeptical Inquirer https://web.archive.org/web/20060409101139). A more recent example from 2007 is when an elderly pair of women left their retirement home and disappeared. The police were contacted by 30 different psychics all giving different advice about where the women may be found. The result of all the psychic advice? An estimated 40 hours of police work sorting through all of the psychic advice. Unfortunately the women were found dead by a hunter and his son. None of the advice from any of the 30 psychics was correct. (Radford, Benjamin Bad Journalism Encourages Psychic Detectives, www.livescience.com/7425-bad-journalism-encourages-psy).
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children publishes a guide for families of missing children. Interestingly enough there is a section in it that discusses the use of psychics reminding families “keep an open mind and a closed pocketbook when considering the use of a psychic.” (US Department of Justice, When your Child is Missing: A Family Survival Guide, https://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/fam_surv.pdf at 10). The Guide also states that “regardless of whether some psychics have true visions, any purportedly psychic dream may be an actual observation by someone who is afraid to get involved. That is why even psychic leads need to be checked out whenever possible.” (Id. at 11.) The Guide also expressly states that families should be careful with trusting any purported psychics and not to give away the missing child’s’ personal objects to them without a way of getting them back.
A different approach to the use of psychic phenomena was that used by the US government. In a 24 year program named Star Gate which researched the use of remote viewing (the ability of an individual to “see” different locations with only their mind) as well as other psychic phenomena. The benefit of this research would be that if it proved useful and accurate it would allow for a new kind of spy to be used and would give the US an upper hand worldwide. (DEAN RADIN, THE CONSCIOUS UNIVERSE xvii, 15 (1997). See also, Edwin C. May, The American Institute for Research Review of the Department of Defense’s Star Gate Program: A Commentary, THE JOURNAL OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY, March 1996, at 3).
From the above discussion it can clearly be seen that undue influence and fraud are very real legal concepts that can arise when dealing with psychics. This shows that the legal system plays an important role when it comes to psychics as a way of protecting the public from charlatans who are merely out for personal gain. Even though this leaves open the question of proof. The courts seem to look past proving that what the psychic says or does is true and rather look at the belief of the individual who has usually been tricked into giving away, in some cases their life savings.
*Please note this article isn’t intended as legal advice.*