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Critic’s “Top 15” claims by psychic detective Noreen Renier

Sherlock

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I’ve been asked to post the “top 15” claims made by “psychic detective” Noreen Renier since many JREF forum members aren’t quite up-to-date on her three decades of claims. So among the literally hundreds --- perhaps thousands --- of paranormal and intuitive claims by TV psychic detective Noreen Renier over more than 30 years:

CLAIM #1: She is a host provider for at least two entities within her that allow mystic medium communications. Under oath and in court she called these by the names Sing and Robert.

ONE ANSWER: To keep things short let’s consider “Sing” whom she described as “an Oriental”. Now it could be a coincidence but the old Bonanza western TV series had ended a 14-year run and was being re-played at the time of her testimony. And interestingly actor Victor Sen Yung played the Cartwright’s family cook, Hop Sing. So perhaps in attempting to enunciate while eating a TV dinner entrée she became entangled during the entertainment and simply mistook an enteric blockage and any resulting sound as spiritual communication. Could be!

CLAIM #2: She has an ability to block billiard balls in a game of pool using her psychic powers.

ONE ANSWER: While this claim by Renier was reported by a Virginia newspaper it was offered without actually showcasing the claim. Perhaps this “pool game” actually took place in a swimming pool. She wasn’t specific. Thus when the balls “sank” in the pockets this might have been deemed mystical to anyone with very dark sunglasses and under the impression the game was still being played on a conventional pool table. Hey --- it’s a thought!

CLAIM #3: From a newspaper interview Noreen Renier reportedly claimed to be capable of changing physical matter and room temperatures with her mind.

ONE ANSWER: Hhhhmmmmm. Maybe she just meant she could hold chilled Jell-O against her head until it warms and the reporter --- ya the reporter --- got it wrong.

CLAIM #4: By watching pendulums swing over maps Renier stated she can interpret the location of missing persons according to a published story.

ONE ANSWER: Her pendulums might be camouflaged GPS receivers picking up transmission beacons tagged to missing persons by Grizzly Bears originally trained in Hollywood but now working for the National Park Service. Not even close huh. Well what’s the better explanation?

CLAIM #5: Noreen Renier apparently using paranormal powers believes she can see through human clothing as she seemed to reference on the Joan Rivers TV Show.

LIKELY ANSWER: Now let’s be fair. Renier didn’t say all clothing or all humans. So perhaps there’s an inability to actually demonstrate this because the claim is limited to apparel worn by Homo sapiens of the Paleolithic era. Or it’s possible she’s a distant cousin to Superman.

CLAIM #6: Ms. Renier has stated an awareness of being burned alive and stabbed in the head but suffering no physical scars.

ONE ANSWER: While this has been repeatedly claimed by Renier as "frightening and real" it might just be a daydream. Okay, okay. I my answer here sounds ridiculous and is awfully weak.

CLAIM #7: Describing the air crash death scene of four people accurately and the “crash site was exactly the way I had described.”

Gee on this one there are so many witnesses who say otherwise. Hhhhmmm. Let’s move on.

CLAIM #8: Subjecting herself to five years of laboratory testing and scoring “quite high in everything” during the extensive paranormal testing.

Hhhhmmmm. Renier actually testified under oath that she couldn't remember where this testing occurred, or the names of the research testing personnel. Neither could she later recall the names of any laboratory personnel who conducted her 5 year test program. She couldn’t even recall when any of this testing had ever taken place. And under further court questioning Renier even admitted that any results of tests that found her as “highly psychic” was actually just "one of the exaggerations" her publicist wrote up about her. That bad publicist. And then she said the five years were closer to just a couple days. But all that said --- none of it disputes her claim of scoring “quite high in everything.”

CLAIM #9: Providing an accurate Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in 2007. And providing an accurate revised Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing that same year.

Hhhhmmmm. In 2008 she did need to restate her income levels on a second revised bankruptcy filing significantly upward. By more than $100,000. And of course for the immediate year before her bankruptcy her income amount needed to be revised more than 10 times higher. But what are a couple extra digits here and there?

CLAIM #10: Levitating her own children.

ONE ANSWER: Maybe she was standing in that same swimming pool again.


CLAIM #11: Being an adjunct faculty member with teaching appointments at major universities and colleges.

ONE ANSWER: The Office of Human Resources at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida has confirmed that Renier has never been an "adjunct faculty member" as she lists herself on her web site. And for years she has also claimed to be an "adjunct faculty member" with "teaching appointments" from major colleges and universities including the University of Florida, the University of Delaware, and the University of Virginia.

Yet calls made to these major academic centers reveal she was never an accredited faculty member, faculty associate or even faculty assistant. Among the official adjunct faculty member listings throughout all of the accredited departments across these universities there are no listings for Noreen Renier.
And Noreen Renier herself also has no four year degree --- much less any college teaching degree --- from any accredited college or university.

But! She never said which planet.

CLAIM #12: She has a paranormal ability which can cause lights to flash on and off using only her mind according to a news story.

ONE ANSWER: She could have been watching TV re-runs of Medium and the batteries in her 3D TV glasses were running low. And then got all confused. And because watching Medium drained the batteries it was partly due to a paranormal event. And maybe some of that melted Jello-O dripped down. Ya, that’s the ticket.

CLAIM #13: Claiming in 1989 that “I know I can find the young lady" to a reporter. The young lady is missing Gainesville Florida student Tiffany Sessions. The story is captioned alongside a photo of Renier with “Top crime-solving psychic tells grief-stricken dad . . . I’ll find your missing daughter!”

ONE ANSWER: Sadly Tiffany Sessions remains missing in 2011. However Renier’s posted fees on her present website for missing person work with police are now up from near $75 in 1989 to her now current $1000 for a psychic telephone reading with the police detective assigned to a case which may last 60-90 minutes, with a follow-up phone consultation lasting from 45 minutes to an hour. That’s close to $9 a minute. Perhaps the raising of her rates reflects a huge drop-off in client volume since her success rate with parents who have been reunited with their daughters and sons through Renier’s paranormal ability is . . . non-existent?

CLAIM #14: Claiming that her psychic foresight allowed her to see even prior to his arrest that the rapist who drove a cement truck would be "driving a truck with something on it that goes round and round."

Well unfortunately she actually only scribbled a bunch of circles on scratch paper that she claimed later ---after the arrest of the suspect and a radio announcer found that the suspect drove a cement truck on his job--- were very significant circles as they too were also “round and round” and therefore reflective of a premonition of the cement truck going “round and round.” I discovered that the man ate Oreo cookies too. And his eye pupils were round. Even --- get this --- the door handle on his house was round. And later it was discovered all ten tires on the cement mixer were round. All ten --- not a single square one. Isn’t that amazing!

CLAIM #15: Renier writes in her biography of conversations with a mighty oak tree including at one point when "suddenly I was told by the ancient oak, 'We have one fear and that is fire. Would you mind not smoking while touching me?'"

Renier even writes that "archaeologists had their tape recorders whirring and were taking fast and furious notes" as she described the tree providing historical information about the area. According to Renier the tree even recalled where a river once flowed and where fighting (Cowboys and Indians?) had taken place.

Renier seems to claim that her super intuitive communication with trees helped archaeologists reveal past historical data. Apparently her abilities in this area allow trees to be qualified as credible witnesses. A bit odd this last one. Coming after a federal judge on March 21, 2011 stated in his court order that Renier “misled the court” and was not “a credible witness.” Perhaps instead of testifying herself she should have asked her tree to speak on her behalf. Of course it’s possible the tree became a billiard table and pool cues. Or Kleenex tissues. So it’s hard to say if it would still be willing to testify.
 
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CLAIM #15: Renier writes in her biography of conversations with a mighty oak tree including at one point when "suddenly I was told by the ancient oak, 'We have one fear and that is fire. Would you mind not smoking while touching me?'"

She touches trees?
That has to be kinky
 
As long as these old shams can charge fees like that you get rid of one and another 2 grow up in its place!
 
I sort of like the over-the-top psychics like this one. At least it makes it easier for me to explain to people why they might not be the best source of information on anything, except perhaps on how to make money from wierdness.

I was unable to persuade some of my relatives to ignore a local scammer because "she's is such a nice intelligent person, and she's perfectly normal. And she's a professor so that proves she can't be lying about her ability to sense dead people".

Cripes... At least I managed to convince them that there's something suspicious about a person who apparently can't say "Sorry, I can't sense anything that would be useful for you to know. Here's your money back". It's always useless obvious details with a heavyhanded suggestion that you should go for the more expensive readings in the future.
 
I’ve been asked to post the “top 15” claims made by “psychic detective” Noreen Renier since many JREF forum members aren’t quite up-to-date on her three decades of claims. So among the literally hundreds --- perhaps thousands --- of paranormal and intuitive claims by TV psychic detective Noreen Renier over more than 30 years:
While you don't list the Norman Lewis Williston Case in your "top 15", I would be interested in your analysis of it. An article states: "Skeptics have had a field day trying to find holes in the case, yet despite all their protestations, they cannot argue with the fact that wasn't until the family requested the involvement of a psychic, that the mystery surrounding Norman Lewis was solved. It is embarrassing for a highly trained police team to admit they have run out of clues on a case - and even more embarrassing to admit that a woman who calls herself psychic actually helped them locate a body they hadn't been able to find for 2 years, despite modern policing methods." See http://noreenrenier.com/media/articles/unconventionalwisdom.htm
 
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An article states: "Skeptics have had a field day trying to find holes in the case, yet despite all their protestations, they cannot argue with the fact that wasn't until the family requested the involvement of a psychic, that the mystery surrounding Norman Lewis was solved. It is embarrassing for a highly trained police team to admit they have run out of clues on a case - and even more embarrassing to admit that a woman who calls herself psychic actually helped them locate a body they hadn't been able to find for 2 years, despite modern policing methods."[/url]

http://www.gpposner.com/Williston.html
 
This pretty much says it all: "In my chapter on Renier for the book Psychic Sleuths (edited by Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1994), I showed at the time how Renier (like the rest of the psychics profiled in the book) had yet to convincingly demonstrate genuine 'psychic' power under proper observing conditions. Has Renier now become the first psychic to successfully do so? Or might her 'success' in the Williston case be explainable in more mundane terms, perhaps as the result of a combination of factors such as advance research, common sense/intuition, feeding back information gleaned from the police themselves, and 'retrofitting' -- interpreting ambiguous clues, after the fact, as having been remarkably accurate and valuable 'hits'?"

So, Posner all but concedes that Renier played a significant role in solving a cold case, but attributes her success to non-paranormal factors. Perhaps he's right, but has any skeptic ever helped the police solve a cold case?
 
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This pretty much says it all: "In my chapter on Renier for the book Psychic Sleuths (edited by Joe Nickell, Prometheus Books, 1994), I showed at the time how Renier (like the rest of the psychics profiled in the book) had yet to convincingly demonstrate genuine 'psychic' power under proper observing conditions. Has Renier now become the first psychic to successfully do so? Or might her 'success' in the Williston case be explainable in more mundane terms, perhaps as the result of a combination of factors such as advance research, common sense/intuition, feeding back information gleaned from the police themselves, and 'retrofitting' -- interpreting ambiguous clues, after the fact, as having been remarkably accurate and valuable 'hits'?"

So, Posner all but concedes that Renier played a significant role in solving a cold case, but attributes her success to non-paranormal factors. Perhaps he's right, but has any skeptic ever helped the police solve a cold case?

How would a skeptic solve a cold case?

Why, by non-psychic means. Much like the episode of 20/20 I watched last night.

See: http://tv.msn.com/tv/episode.aspx?episode=20078b46-902b-4421-8601-50f074f3429b

Description:
A private investigator tries to solve a baffling case involving a young woman who was beaten and left for dead.

:th:
 
So, Posner all but concedes that Renier played a significant role in solving a cold case[...]

I think you read a different article to me. You certainly didn't post a quote which supports the assertion you've just made.

Perhaps he's right, but has any skeptic ever helped the police solve a cold case?

The question you're really asking here is has a case ever been solved by police work, rather than by psychic help. And the answer is - all cases which have been solves have been solved by police work, rather than by psychic help.
 
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I think you read a different article to me. You certainly didn't post a quote which supports the assertion you've just made.
So, it was just a coincidence that the case was solved after Renier became involved?

The question you're really asking here is has a case ever been solved by police work, rather than by psychic help. And the answer is - all cases which have been solves have been solved by police work, rather than by psychic help.
Which contradicts what the Williston police say, but what do they know?
 
But can you name a skeptic, such as Gary Posner or Joe Nickell, who has assisted the police in the manner that Noreen Renier did in the Williston Case?


Sure, me, the Queen of Canada. I say so on my website. :cool:
 
Again, you don't really seem to have read the article.
Sorry, but I really have. Let me quote you the most relevant portions, where Gary Posner implicitly concedes that the case was only solved with Renier's assistance:

"After spending more than a year following-up on 'hundreds' of leads and conducting numerous land and aerial searches, all to no avail, the Williston police, and the Lewises, decided to enlist the aid of a psychic . . . On July 17, 1995, three weeks after Hewitt's initial phone call to her, Renier performed her 'psychic' reading, at her home. Clutching one of Mr. Lewis' possessions, she tuned into his vibrations and provided a number of specific clues intended to help lead the police to his body. The Williston Pioneer (on April 4 and June 27, 1996) quoted Chief Slaughter as saying that Renier indicated Lewis had traveled 'east from his home to an area where there is . . . water in something like a pit.' . . . A subsequent look by the police into several bodies of water proved as fruitless as the earlier searches. But because of Renier's reading, the police called in a team of Navy divers from Jacksonville to search one particular limestone quarry among many scattered throughout the area. Although about eight months elapsed before the team could arrive, on April 3, 1996, with the assistance of a $70,000 detection device, the divers did indeed locate the missing truck containing Lewis' remains, submerged in twenty feet of murky water. When the Williston police announced that the case had been solved largely as a result of Renier's psychic clues, the story quite naturally captured the attention of the media."

The great majority of Posner's article is devoted to challenging Renier's alleged hits, and speculating that she knew of a May 1995 report that the decedent (Norman Lewis) had told a handyman that he was despondent. But Posner never explains why, if that were the key to solving the case, the police didn't immediately solve it on their own, rather than calling in Renier two months later. Posner also is guilty of using 20-20 hindsight throughout his article; e.g.: "If Mr. Lewis and his truck were somewhere within the potential reach of the Williston police, where could they possibly be? In the middle of a densely wooded area? In an abandoned building? (Either, perhaps, if only a body was missing. But a truck?) Only one possibility even comes to mind -- submerged in a body of water." Yep, it was totally obvious where Lewis's body was -- that's why police called in Renier 16 months after an extensive search had turned up nothing.

Now, it is possible that Renier somehow picked up on non-paranormal clues that the police had overlooked. In any event, I would say that the Lewis family received a good return on the $650 that they paid Renier for her services. So, maybe she's a clever charlatan, but again, I inquire whether you or anyone else here can name a skeptic who has been instrumental in helping the police close a case of this nature.
 

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