There is no question that the history of mediumship is a deeply tarnished one. We would be hard pressed to find a field where so much deceit, trickery and chicanery have been found.

It is therefore no wonder that few people in academia have been interested in testing mediums. Not only is there precious little to work from, the mediums themselves are not helpful either.

However, a professor at the University of Arizona, Gary Schwartz, not only succeeded in persuading a handful of mediums to undergo scientific testing in 2001, he also found what he presented as compelling evidence of an afterlife: At least some psychics have actually been able to communicate with the dead.

This is a critique of that experiment.