This weekend ‘afterlife researcher’ Dr Gary Schwartz was the subject of an investigation by Fox’s “Geraldo at Large”. The hour-long show alleged that Schwartz contacted a man named Michael Knopf, saying that he was in contact with his dead son. Knopf says that Schwartz tried to extract $3.5 million from him by playing on this ‘communication’ with his son.
During the show medium Laurie Campbell also told how she (along with Allison Dubois) had a falling out with Dr Schwartz due to breaches of her confidence and past agreements (see our previous update concerning Schwartz vs Dubois). All in all, the show painted Dr Schwartz in a very bad light.
Schwartz is still yet to respond to these accusations (of course, we’ll keep you up to date if anything emerges – he does tend to answer his critics though). Given Geraldo’s past and the tabloid nature of the show, not to mention ‘boggle factor’ of a high profile researcher trying to fleece someone of millions, this story could well be overblown – so the old maxim ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is worth holding to. Beyond the drama of this actual case though, this report could deliver quite a body blow to paranormal research in general, and give plenty of fodder to ‘skeptics’ in future questioning the reliability and honesty of researchers in the field of the paranormal.
Michael Prescott announced news about the show on his blog, and there have been regular updates and commentary from a number of people over there which are well worth checking out.
