MATHEMATICS PROVES THE AFTERLIFE! Professor Einstein said once that mathematics is the envy of other disciplines. Implied in this was the inevitable and consistent accuracy of mathematics. Statistics is the branch of mathematics that measures probabilities. I will be using very basic mathematical probability theory to show that the information being transmitted to John Edward, the highly gifted American medium, could not be coming by chance. Interesting to note that the Australian skeptics state that they would accept psi experiments as valid if it could be shown that there the probability of the results occurring by chance was one in a million. Ironic in the extreme, a conservative estimate of the probability of J Edward's information coming by chance in some episodes from his television show CROSSING OVER goes into one in trillions! When I challenged the skeptics to obtain the services of an independent statistician, someone not committed to either psi or skepticism to work out the mathematical probability of John Edward getting his results- I received no reply. That's very good news! In Australia, John Edward's CROSSING OVER is being shown twice sometimes three times daily on cable TV. This gives me the opportunity to tape the shows for the purpose of estimating the mathematical probabilities of John Edward's results coming by chance. 'COLD READING' - utter rubbish. First I would like to very briefly deal with cold reading because the skeptics are using this as a way out of conceding defeat in positive psi empirical experiments - especially when dealing with gifted psychic John Edward who is my subject for mathematical probability. Prof Ray Hyman, king of the American materialists, who has a longitudinal track record of being anti-psi has prepared a thirteen point guide to 'cold reading.' These are tricks to trap a person into believing that information is being transmitted using extra sensory perception. My view is that applying this thirteen point guide to gifted mediums is utter rubbish and Ray Hyman knows that. There has NEVER been just one instance, when Hyman or any of his experts in cold reading could demonstrate a cold reader being able to get results like John Edward regularly does. Never! And I guarantee you there will NEVER be! Mathematical probability properly applied is objective, definitive and accurate - something I found the skeptics CANNOT cope with. To work out simple probability next time you watch John Edward list all the 'hits' - ie, the accurate information initiated by JE himself. I estimate that JE obtains on an average some EIGHT such facts per segment of the show. You have to estimate from each hit what would be the odds in the American population of that information (the 'hit') occurring? For example, when J.E. says that " J … Jos … Josie … yes Josie …" The recipient confirms that she is Josie JE is referring to. Getting the name right - the skeptics give 1 in 15 but the level headed mathematician will give 1:40. And if the name was obscure, something no one ever heard of, then even the conservative statistician will give that one in a 100. In one of John Edward's CROSSING OVER shows this week- a member of the audience positively confirmed that his 'father used to dress up as a Catholic nun!' How many American (and British) males, married, over 50, with a family, dress up as a Catholic nun - 1 in 100,00? 1 in 300,000, 1 in 400,000 … in 500,000, 1in 1million? This could NOT be cold reading because all the information was fully initiated by the medium John Edward- with the other 'hits' and other segments in the show initiated by JE. The mathematical probability would be trillions to 1! Translated this means that the information is NOT coming by chance and is coming the way JE states: from the afterlife! Another brilliant 'hit' and ALL information was initiated by J Edward telling the recipient on one of his shows CROSSING OVER that what was coming through from the afterlife was someone over 55 years, male, not gay, married, with children, who dresses as a French maid to promote his business. These are SIX variables on just ONE item! Again, how many males in the U.S. or Britain would fit into those six variables? What odds would a level headed statistician would give for that? One in 300,000? One in 500,000? Now you have to remember that one the segment J Edward obtain another 8 hits - the procedure is for the hits to be multiplied by each other: eg 500,000 X 100 X 1000 X 400 etc. You will understand how quickly one obtains the figure of trillions to one that the information being transmitted could not be coming by chance. To the level headed informed observer, those odds when translated will show that the information has to come from the afterlife the way John Edwards has repeatedly stated it is coming from. So far skeptics have not given a credible alternative explanation for such overwhelming odds of trillions to one. In fact, skeptics have not given ANY alternative explanation at all. One has to remember that in Arthur Findlay's classic book ON THE EDGE OF THE ETHERIC, he writes that he obtained the services of a noted mathematician who concluded that the odds from some five facts coming by chance in a reading were some trillions to one! Skeptics may say, well our statistics do not compare with yours. Fair enough, all we have to do is then to agree on probabilities for each 'hit.' Better still, I would suggest that the task be given to some mathematician who has high credibility as an impartial observer, someone who does not embrace psi or scepticism.I would be more than happy to have such an empiricist work out the mathematical probabilities. I would like to qualify the aforestated: I refer to the work of gifted mediums we can scrutinise ourselelves. Not every medium is a gifted medium. My primary subject is J Edward. I agree with Prof Albert Einstein that mathematics when properly applied for empirical purposes yields results which are impossible to rebut. Mathematics is a rather novel but legitimate way of increasing the evidence for the existence of the afterlife - and when added to the twenty three other different areas of objective and empirical evidence I presented will continue to make it impossible for the negatively minded to ignore what other brilliant scientists have conceded : the existence of the afterlife. -- Victor Zammit (April 2003) Reprinted with permission from http://www.victorzammit.com |