Dennis McKenzie - The "Soham" Psychic

I think it's a blatent attempt to flog a book on a connection to a tragic loss of young life which is in very poor taste and he should be ashamed of himself. As you say Fluff, he brings nothing to a sad story other than vague, typically imprecise psychic bullsh*t and I'd like to know (without having to buy the book) how he can pad his claims out to fill more than a few pages.
No doubt we'll get the guys life story thrown in (a la Mia Dolan style) and how he's made lots of other startlingly accurate connections for clients, the local W.I. and numerous other credulous individuals.
The deaths of those two young girls is still far too fresh in the minds of both those involved and the wider public for some obscure media wannabee to be cashing in - especially using it in such an ill conceived manner in the books title.

More realistically he could have called it: Dennis McKenzie (big letters) Another psychic grief surfer. Let's hope this book soon makes it into the 99p bin.

morganp

From what i gather from a good friend who has recently had her first book published although the publishers do choose potential titles for books the author still has a say in the final choice and can influence the decision.In the case of my friend she was unhappy with two different titles suggested by her publisher and negotiated a change.However i am aware that all to often the publishers go with a title that they feel has impact and is instantly eyecatching which may have been the case here.

The publisher however didnt write the book or choose the subject matter.

Not sure how questioning regardless of any claims or the nature of his involvment the appropriateness of using anykind of a case such as this as material for a book promoting yourself is biased against psychics ...as i said


I dont see where i called Mr McKenzie a fake, nor do i see where i called his claims false or incorrect , infact i confirmed that he was in the press at the time , that he was in contact with Mr Wells and that what he said in connection with the cases was documented at the time.I do however question his motivation to write a book about it and the purpose or point of doing so .

Perhaps the site should change its name to "Psychics...if you want to discuss them then make sure you have covered every possible viewpoint, written your post with the carefully observed and obsessive dispassionate neutrality of saint and whatever you do NEVER question their motives incase it looks like bias instead of curiosity".
Not quite as catchy mind you ...bit of a mouthfull...cant see it catching on

I get your point though Ant ....bias does make anyone or anything loose credibility but i dont believe questioning something is bias, i cant see how relating facts like someone wrote a book, they will inevitably therefore gain from doing so financially and in profile , they chose to write on a subject that is even still incredibly delicate and raw not from a view of offering anything new or useful but from a personal promotion point of view(im more than open to hear any other suggestions as to what or why it could have been written or what usefull purpose it serves).

If it was BADAUTHORS then id have a plenty of other NON psychic authors i could post the same about but as i said in my initial post thats not the name of this site hence my inclusion here of an author who is.

It just gets increasingly dull and laborious posting anything on here when it gets labeled as a hatchet job or biased or whatever when the reality is i am hardly the most hardline "ban em all" diehard "uber skeptic" out there and simply have an interest in the subject matter and in discussing it with people or sharing others views and comparing them with my own ....who the hell knows maybe even learning something or agreeing with them.

Not a direct rant at you Ant by any means , just something ive noticed becoming more and more apparent in a lot of forums recently where its beginning to feel any comments have to be so over structured over thought and so clipped and bereft of any kind of emotion at all they loose a little of what actually makes us human in the first place....just suffering from a bit of skeptical site fatigue or rather all the rules regulations and constant over analysis on what you say , how you say it and every last detail of what you might or might not mean etc etc ...im all for trying to post fact and detail and for that fact and detail to be correct but sometimes it would be nice to be able to just ask a question or opinion on something when you perhaps dont have a huge mission or motive in hand in a post .

The skeptical, and logically correct, way to approach such claims is to assume they are false until/unless the claimant proves they are true.

So it's fine to question his claims (skepticism) and his motives (cynicism) on the premises that his claims are likely to be false and this is likely to be a cashing-in exercise.

I think you'll find it's the exact opposite.

What's your next highly appropriate point - comparing skeptics to Hitler? ;D

So what in your opinion does that make him Ant - the first incredibly accurate, genuine psychic ever to get facts spot on or just another person who either believes he has psychic powers or is an out and out con man?

Where's the bias you're going on about? past experience tells us that so far no psychic or medium has been proven to genuinely posess any supernatural predictive abilities. That's not to say that
at some point in the future someone will come along and demonstrate such abilities and those abilities will be validated by science but unless you know any different and want to tell us more Ant I don't think this gentleman is 'the one'.

If you want to give me some evidence that this guy is genuine feel free to do so otherwise as Jigsaw has mentioned, we have to seriously question the validity of his intentions and his claims unless he or you convince anyone otherwise.


morganp