&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/54587?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=We%27re+giving+Sally+Morgan+the+chance+to+prove+her+psychic+powers+%7C+Simon%3AArticle%3A1647172&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Psychology+%28Science%29%2CScience+and+scepticism%2CScience%2CTheatre%2CStage&amp;c5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CTheatre&amp;c6=Simon+Singh+%28contributor%29&amp;c7=11-Oct-15&amp;c8=1647172&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Comment&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2FPsychology&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simon Singh&lt;/strong&gt; explains why he hopes psychic Sally Morgan will take up an offer to demonstrate her powers in a scientific test&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After concerns raised last month that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sallymorgan.tv/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;celebrity psychic Sally Morgan&lt;/a&gt; may not be quite what she claims to be, it is perhaps not a surprise that she has now announced &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.facebook.com/sallymorgantv&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;on her Facebook page&lt;/a&gt; that she is &quot;to commence libel action in relation to press allegations that she is a cheat&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/15/simon-singh-libel-case-dropped&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Having myself been sued for libel,&lt;/a&gt; by the British Chiropractic Association, I am always interested when a wealthy corporation or individual threatens a defamation action after criticism that they might promote a controversial or ineffective service. I decided to probe a bit deeper. In particular, is there any way to find out whether Psychic Sally is a cheat, deluded or endowed with supernatural gifts?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story began on 11 September, when Sally hosted one of her &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.grandcanaltheatre.ie/eventDetail.aspx?mid=188&amp;eventId=180&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;psychic shows&lt;/a&gt; at the packed Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin. As usual, she appeared to put members of the audience in touch with the spirit world, but the following night three women who had seen the performance independently &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2011/pc/pod-v-12091117m02slivelinepsychic-pid0-1022352.mp3&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;called RT&Eacute;&#039;s Liveline radio show&lt;/a&gt; to express concerns. They stated that they had heard a voice through a window behind them, which had been left open. They believed that &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/20/psychic-sally-morgan-hears-voices&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;the voice was feeding Sally information via a radio link to an earpiece&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sally published &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sallymorgan.tv/official-statement-in-regards-to-the-guardian/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;a statement&lt;/a&gt; strenuously denying any fakery, and instead blamed the overheard voice on technicians talking to each other: &quot;I have never met these two boys before in my life and more importantly, they have nothing to do with my show. I have no communication with them and there is no way they would have been able to talk to me when I was on stage.&quot; The theatre supported this account in its own statement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This sounds like a reasonable explanation, but does it explain what the women heard? I contacted two of the women who had phoned RT&Eacute; Radio. Both Sue and Dorrie are surprised at the hostility expressed by some of Sally&#039;s supporters, so they have asked me not to disclose their surnames.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They remain adamant that the voice they heard was not the result of innocent chit chat. Indeed, there are a number of points that still require explanation. For example, Sue and Dorrie heard the voice mention &quot;David&quot;, &quot;pain in the back&quot; and &quot;passed quickly&quot;, and they both claim that Sally then repeated this word-for-word on stage, but in a more dramatic fashion. When Sally repeated the words, Sue says that the voice confirmed by stating &quot;Yes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The mystery voice then talked about &quot;Stephen&quot;, &quot;pain in back&quot; and &quot;passed quickly&quot;, and again this was repeated. They claim several others heard the voice, and the resulting fuss caused an usherette to leave the auditorium and the window was then closed. According to their recollection, the show came to an abrupt end soon after this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They have provided me with other details, such as the type of sleeve around the hand that closed the window and the accent of the voice. Do these details match the theatre staff blamed for the incident? Unfortunately, this remains unknown, because the theatre has refused to comment further and would not agree to an interview.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I should stress that Sue and Dorrie did not attend the show together, so their accounts appear to be independent. Also, both hoped to receive reassurance from loved ones on the other side, so at the time they were certainly sympathetic towards the idea of Sally&#039;s purported gift.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I am certainly not suggesting that we should judge Sally to be a cheat based on the accounts of just two people. Also, like any rationalist, I would be sufficiently open-minded to accept that psychic powers exist if I were to be presented with strong evidence. However, we have a problem because Sally is adamant that she is not fed information via an earpiece, while Sue and Dorrie are confident that they heard a voice giving information consistent with Sally&#039;s subsequent channelling.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before discussing how to move forward, it is worth bearing in mind why this is important.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many people who attend psychic shows are vulnerable, desperate or recently bereaved, and it is important that they are not being exploited. From a purely financial point of view, Sue feels let down, having spent &euro;40 (&pound;35) to see Sally instead of spending it on her toddler. My best estimate is that Sally sells over 100,000 tickets each year, which generate at least &pound;2m.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Given that psychic shows are big business and in light of a long history of fraudulent mediums, surely Sally and other high-profile psychics should be doing more to reassure their fans, perhaps by proving their psychic abilities in rigorous scientific tests.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sally&#039;s response to recent articles raising concerns has been to start a defamation action against her critics. Her solicitor is unwilling to say who is being sued for libel, but we can be sure that the law is unlikely to shed much light on whether or not Sally is genuinely psychic. English libel law tends to quash debate and scare off critics, and we are unlikely to ever see a trial in which Sally will be asked to prove her psychic powers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;However, Sally herself, on several occasions and in her recent statement, has said: &quot;I totally respect cynics and sceptics as if we don&#039;t ask questions we don&#039;t get answers.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So the solution is simple. Sally should agree to scientific testing of her psychic abilities. Her consistent successful channelling on television and in theatres should mean that she will pass any test with flying colours. If Sally is a genuine psychic, then the result can only be positive, inasmuch as it would provide credibility for her psychic colleagues and push forward our understanding of the universe.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I hope Sally will be glad to hear that I am working with the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Merseyside Skeptics Society&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/french/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Professor Chris French&lt;/a&gt; at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London, to construct a suitable test that would offer a chance to demonstrate whether or not she has psychic powers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We will announce details later this month, probably in the run-up to Halloween when the spirits will be particularly active. I genuinely hope that Sally accepts the challenge, and I would be even more delighted if she passes. However, if she declines our invitation, then perhaps her greatest gift is the ability to foretell her own failure.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/psychology&quot;&gt;Psychology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/science-scepticism&quot;&gt;Science and scepticism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatre&quot;&gt;Theatre&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/simon-singh&quot;&gt;Simon Singh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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