The Sixsense Academy

What is the "Sixsense Academy" You say? And wouldn't "Sixth" sense be easier to pronounce and make more... um... sense?

Well the answer to your second question is clearly yes, though I suppose we can give them a pass and assume that they were attempting to avoid association with the crappy Shamalamadon movie. As to your first question, think of the Sixsense Academy or the, "International Academy of Spiritual Education", as Dumbledorf's castle, only for cons and the diluted. No really, the website claims the Liverpool academy is based in Leasowe castle, cute huh?

In reality, this is basically a troupe or traveling circus for psychics masquerading as an "educational organization" with no real physical hub anywhere; as far as I can tell from they're website, which seems deliberately vague and misleading on this point. Unless of course you think they might actually own a castle in Liverpool, a concert hall in Ireland, and a sanctuary in Spain. Ya, me neither. But the website does claim they have plans to "open Academies" in the south of England, as well as here in the US, and won't that be fun.

As you would expect, the list of available tutors on the site includes, psychic healers, mediums, life coaches, a "world renowned angel Channeler and soul expert" and a member of the MBE, the Most Excellent order of the British Empire, ya I don't really know what it means either. But for me, there are three tutors who really stand out from this crowd of seven.

First, There's Nina Hall, who is apparently one of the UK's leading, "Aura photographer, Aura Imaging & WinAura Live Consultant's". Now, what makes her most special to me is the "winaura" thing. Cause when I saw that word I thought, "Winaura? What is that, some kind of windows program for reading auras?" Why YES! Yes it is- this will be getting it's own entry. Oh ya, and Nina does psychic surgery too, great.

Next, there's Nicky Whittaker ( no link, she apparently doesn't even rate a profile on the page) , who doesn't do anything particularly special that I know of, since she is listed on the site solely as a, "Spain tutor". Not a Spanish tutor, not a tutor in Spain, but a Spain tutor. You know, in case you need to brush up on your...um... Spain.

But most important by far is the whole reason I found the academy in the first place, Joe "the man who sees dead people" Power. listed on the academy web page as: "International TV, Award winning, Psychic Medium, Author & Teacher".

I've written about Joe before, but in case you missed it; Joe is your standard run of the mill, "I see dead people" (oh the irony), kind of "psychic medium". His favorite pastimes include, pretending to talk to the dead, exploiting the grieving, humiliating himself on TV- with a little help from Derren Brown, and wasting the time of local authorities by claiming some special insight into murder investigations, and missing persons cases. He even managed to find some time just last year to falsely accuse members of the MSS of violent threats. Busy guy that Joe.

But hey, maybe some of the other folks are good at what they do.

Bottom line, while I freely admit that I am completely unfamiliar with most of the people on the list, and perhaps they all manage to fall into the, self-diluted believer category; Joe, in my humble non-liable opinion, does not. Joe knows exactly what he's doing, and it isn't talking to the dead. So weather you believe in any of what this so-called academy is selling or not, it seems fair to assume that any organization willing to include him on their list of trusted experts, not to mention a psychic surgeon who employs a scientifically baseless computer program in her act; knows exactly what they're doing too, and it isn't educating.

-CAINE-

Source:sixsenseacademy.com on Twitter: @SixSenseAcademy

Image credit (In order of appearance): The Sixsense Academy and Joe Power

You should also check out The Merseyside Skeptics' site for more of they're dealings with Joe.

Stephen Hawking's "shocking" revelation

Yes I know, I'm at least a week behind the rest of the world but I'm still trying to work time to blog back into my schedule, so bear with me...


-"Physicist Stephen Hawking clarifies his belief on god's role in the creation of the universe"-

That probably should have been the headline surrounding the quote released from Hawking's newest book last week in which he stated that god is not necessary to create the universe. While not an entirely manufactured controversy, the decision to release this particular quote was a fairly obvious, and effective, attempt to Promote Hawking's newest book (which I just finished downloading from itunes BTW.) " The Grand Design" which he co-wrote with Caltech physicist Leonard Mlodinov.

The popular media of course ran with the idea that Hawking had somehow significantly altered or even reversed his original position which it's completely obvious he has not if you've read or heard anything he has written over the past thirty years or so. Fortunately, I was far from the only person to feel this way and aside from a little frothing from the usual conservative and religious sources, the controversy fizzled and died fairly quickly. But not before Fox News, you know the "Fair and balanced" guys who go absolutely ape-shit when anyone suggest that they are anything but- or that they spend 95% of their time spewing christian propaganda, managed to post this little sermon on their website:

"The scientist Stephen Hawking is out with another book that will delight his fellow atheists. Hawking says there is no room for God in science and that a creator is not behind the universe. Gravity, he says, is what united particles after the "Big Bang" and produced our planet, this universe and many other universes in which he believes life also exists.

Here are some verses that refute that: "Anyone who wishes to know God, must first acknowledge he exists;" "Were you there when I laid the foundations of the world?" "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."

As one translation puts it: "God chose what is nonsense in the world to make the wise feel ashamed. God chose what is weak in the world to make the strong feel ashamed."

And then there are these: “the fool has said in his heart ‘there is no God’” and “the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing.”

If Hawking thinks it’s all foolishness, isn’t that evidence he is perishing?

Cal Thomas is America's most widely syndicated newspaper columnist and a Fox News contributor. "

I'm not about to waste any one's time attempting to point out all the things that are wrong with the above- what I assume is meant to be- editorial comment, but the point of it seems to be this: People who question my god's existence are dumb and dieing. Hawking questions my god's existence-THEREFORE- Hawking must be dumb and dieing so don't listen to him and go nuke a gay whale for Jesus. OK... the gay whale thing is speculation on my part but I think it fits the overall message of the post.
-CAINE-

Image Credit: Image cropped from the cover of: "A Brief History of Time"

Joe Power VS Derren Brown And The MSS.

Joe power is the worst kind of so called psychic, not only does he exploit the grieving by claiming to make contact with deceased loved ones, but he also manages to waste the time of local authorities whenever possible by "assisting" them in murder investigations and missing persons cases.

You may remember Joe as the man who claimed to have recieved the words; "Peace, peace, peace the message is peace.", from the spirit of John Lennon in a 2007 American broadcast appropriately named: "The Spirit Of John Lennon". Since then, Joe or "The Man Who Sees Dead People" as he dubs himself in his book, has been busy back home in Liverpool continuing to build his career as a psychic medium. But recently it looks as though that career may have taken a turn for the worse.


On a recent episode of the Skeptics with a k podcast, Michael Marsh co-founder of The Merseyside Skeptics Society, discussed a phone call he had received from his local police department. The officer called to inform him of a recent complaint that Marsh's organization had made violent threats against psychic Joe.

Marsh explained to the officer the relationship between Joe and The MSS as well as his own past interactions with Joe and assured him that neither Marsh himself nor his organization would ever encourage or tolerate violence or threats of violence against anyone. Satisfied with Marsh's explanation the officer assured him that it seemed no wrong doing had occurred.

What would have provoked the UK psychic to make an unwarranted allegation against a set of his critics? Perhaps it has something to do with his recent appearance on the UK's paranormal investigation show, "Derren Brown investigates", hosted by Mentalist, Magician, Artist and Skeptic Derren Brown.

During the show Joe allowed Derren to film and interview him while he performed psychic readings for various subjects. At first things seemed to go well for Joe as he was able to score a number of seemingly impressive hits during his first reading. It would later turn out that this particular woman actually lived next door to Joe's sister not merely on the same street as Joe admits in a statement on his web page released after the fact .

Joe appeared both confident in his abilities and pleased with the conditions of the show as they moved on to his next planned event. But all of that would change as Derren began to remove elements of control from Joe's hands. Leading to amongst other things, Joe's refusal to participate in a previously-agreed-to blind test meant to prevent him from employing techniques such as cold reading. Joe explained it would be impossible for him to conduct such a reading because as a clairaudience, he required verbal interaction with an individual to conduct a successful reading. A claim which is made even more laughable once you've been greeted by the sizable add on Joe's homepage which supplies you with a number to text for a psychic reading.

But the ultimate turning point in the show, as well as Joe's attitude, came when he was presented with a subject which Derren and his producers had chosen from a list of their own applicants rather than the list of individuals given to them by Joe's management, as had been the case for the first and most successful of Joe's readings on the show. After abruptly ending his reading of this woman, declaring that her mind had been corrupted by merely meeting "known skeptic" Derren Brown. Joe began to accuse Derren of lying to him about having met the woman before her reading, even though Derren had admitted to doing so directly to Joe before the reading and on camera.

A statement released on Joe's web page about his appearance on the show includes the following about this particular reading:

"You may have watched my recent appearance on “Derren Brown – Investigates” on Monday 10^th May 2010. If you managed to catch it, you will have noted ….all was not as it seems as the well know sceptic, himself might say.

For example, the production company advertised for a list of readers to use in the documentary. Ultimately they therefore had a free reign as to who they chose for me to read for. I was not informed who I would be reading for, where I was going or when I was reading."

That's right, "Psychic medium" Joe Power says it was unfair of Derren and his producers to ask him to "read" someone without first telling him who they were, where they lived, when the reading would take place, and then allowing him to decide weather or not he actually wanted to read them in the first place. Kind of makes you wonder if Joe Understands the difference between being psychic and running a background check on someone.

All in all I'm enjoying watching the image Joe's worked so hard to create unravel in such a public way and can only hope his spiral back into obscurity where he belongs continues to be as public and as humiliating as possible so that no ever wastes their money on Joe's lame parlor tricks again.

-CAINE-

Links and Additional Content

First of all go visit the Merseyside Skeptics Society page and check out the Skeptics With a K and Inkredulous podcasts. Check out they're blog as well to read about Marsh's first encounter with Joe, SPOILER ALERT: someone gets called a pedophile and it isn't Joe... and also his account of the most recent accusations of threats of violence.

Visit Derren's page for more info on Derren and his show and of course Watch Joe fail for yourself on Derren Brown Investigates in the video below.

Posted by YouTube User: SkepticaTV

Image Credit: Joe Power, The Merseyside Skeptics Society, and Derren Brown

Video posted by Youtube user: SkepticaTV