His Challenge To Psychic James Van Praagh and Other Celebrity Psychics
Grothe challenged celebrity psychic James Van Praagh to prove his claims of psychic mediumship and communication with the dead a number of times in the news media, and organized a "zombie attack" featuring volunteers from the James Randi Educational Foundation of one of Van Praagh's "Spirit Circles," which net Van Praagh thousands of dollars from his clients seeking communication with their deceased loved ones. This was to publicize both that Van Praagh refuses JREF's Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge and how the JREF considers Van Praagh's claims to communicate with dead people to be unfounded and harmful.
Grothe has also spoken out against celebrity psychics Theresa Caputo (the Long Island Medium) and John Edward, criticizing them for taking advantage of the grieving by using a collection of psychological manipulations commonly referred to as cold reading, and has also criticized companies like Priceline.com and national media figures such as Dr. Phil for giving a platform to such psychic performers.
Read more about this topic: D. J. Grothe
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