Skeptic versus Psychic: A 22 year legal battle

Background on John Merrell: His battle against pseudoscience and for child safety

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John Merrell has spent the last 20 years developing patents and products in the fields of digital imaging and telecommunications, and product designs for the hearing and visually impaired. He also continues to work on refinements to the current government operated public emergency alert systems used in the United States and Canada by NOAA; and both the Department of Homeland Security and Environment Canada. During some of his personal time he has investigated an assortment of quackery schemes, including medical claims by "psychics," and also scientific patent deceptions. He has been honored on several occasions both at the federal and state level for his work.

His home is nestled up against a natural greenway in the Pacific Northwest just north of Seattle.

He has worked for more than 20 years with four of the largest imaging and consumer electronics companies in the world and is currently a Vice President at age 53.

In late 2006 Merrell noted that “there are dozens of psychics who claim to be able summon the dead and have psychic powers of a God. For thousands of years soothsayers like them have failed to foresee or prevent both natural and sudden disasters. In recent years no psychic came forward to stop 9-11, nor did any warn of the events of Hurricane Katrina. No psychic has prevented the accidental deaths of leading public figures in recent weeks. And no psychic has ever led a law enforcement officer by the hand toward a lost and frightened child before the child died of cold o Merrell November 2006 r starvation. Never."

According to Merrell some law enforcement personnel have knowingly sent journalists towards a fantasized psychic story --- always a easy story for TV and media drama --- as an apparent cover for flawed investigations or to 'play' a naive suspect. He has noted several times law enforcement personnel in so doing have managed to cover real issues they would prefer the media to miss.

Merrell has for more than 20 years also been a member of CHILD (Children's Healthcare Is A Legal Duty) a nonprofit US organization fighting religion-based medical neglect.

In his efforts against pseudoscience claims he believes both law enforcement officials and the media share a responsibility for making sure claims are reported carefully and accurately.

Merrell and others within the skeptical community --- both those with religious and/or science convictions --- have shown the world we live in today is an incredible world of fact and fantasy. The young wizard Harry Potter is known to millions of readers. And played by Daniel Radcliffe, millions of movie viewers have seen his take-off at 70 degrees aboard a broom. But the few self-appointed psychics within the Harry Potter books are written as simple frauds, and those who typically have revealed such deceptions are often skeptical key players themselves, including Harry, Ron, and Hermione. And today no one should feel ashamed of being skeptical of mystical claims about medical healing or a medium who fingers someone as the guilty party after claiming to talk to the dead.

John Merrell has verified to the media that Noreen Renier stated she “was still hovering over the scene” above the air crash after flying above the terrain when she saw the plane and found herself "almost on top of it."

Merrell notes however that “Renier was never aboard a helicopter or a plane at the crash site. We live in the 21st century. It is time we asked for absolute proof of claims of psychics. We must distinguish between a flight upon a broom of fantasy and large scale efforts in the paranormal community to swindle the public. Having landed upon the moon, we shouldn't believe in visions that are only exaggerations of the mind. Many who naively support paranormal claims repeatedly do so even while making no effort to police the frauds."