A physicist obsessed with exposing psychic frauds is forced to rethink his life when one of them performs miracles he cannot explain.

SYNOPSIS:

Dr Paul Fletcher is a physicist at New York University, but spends more time on an obsession than his job. He is angry at the way in which self-proclaimed psychic Don Craxton takes people’s money and, Paul believes, gives them false hope by claiming to talk to their deceased relatives or spiritually heal them. Whenever Don appears on a chat show, Paul secures a slot the following week to expose his fraudulent methods. This irritates Don, but also gets Paul down as he is frequently booed for offering no hope and being negative. The two appear on a chat show together and agree to break the deadlock by Don undertaking a challenge. He will read the minds of twenty people at a fully controlled televised event. If Paul cannot explain how Don did so, he will accept Don is psychic and from then on remain silent.

Don encourages Paul to prepare for the event, saying that he needs all of the help he can get. At it, Don successfully reads the people’s minds, displaying a degree of accuracy that would rule out ‘cold reading’ or chance. Paul nervously declares on national television that he cannot identify the method that Don employed and therefore, abiding by the agreement they made, accepts that he is psychic. Don rejoices at the consequent boost to his credentials.

Paul takes the blow badly as deep down he still thinks Don cheated. He cannot understand how such a deceiver could be so rich and loved while he, who tries to tell the truth, ends up humiliated. He visits a church where he meets a minister, George, and describes his problem in the abstract. George says good will triumph if only Paul is prepared to see things through, and is confused when Paul says he made a promise that means he cannot keep fighting.

Meanwhile, Paul’s wife Laura endeavors to work out what Don did. Watching the television programme repeatedly, she spots subtle anomalies in the audience. An identity fraud specialist, Dave, who attended the challenge, also contacts her, having tried to find Paul. Together, they work out that there were people signalling visually to Don, without using any detectable radio devices. They also discover that several thousand people in the area were telephoned before the challenge to encourage them to attend. They work out that the signallers made these calls to exert some control over who turned up, before researching the relevant people on the Internet. When they put this theory to Paul, however, he destroys it by explaining that he made the phone calls to try to ensure that skeptics attended.

George discovers who Paul is from the Internet. He tells Paul of his own dealings with Don, and persuades him to resume his crusade. Paul realizes that to get attention he must offer as much “magic” as Don so he hires a Broadway theater to lecture on parapsychology. He intends to use stage effects to get people interested before encouraging them to look for rational explanations. Laura is mortified that Paul should risk their savings on the venture, but Dave organizes some effective crowd funding. However, Paul’s university threatens a tribunal if he pursues a public lecture on a subject that is the remit of another department. Don anticipates that Paul’s lecture will talk about him, and asserts that Paul promised to remain silent if he could not work out what Don did within a week, meaning Don could still sue if he says anything now. Although Paul thinks this is ridiculous, he knows Don’s money and lawyers mean he would always win in court.

Dave manages to trace someone, Rob, who was in the audience at the challenge signalling to Don. Rob reluctantly explains to Paul that he was paid by Don to research people, memorize their details and signal to Don. Paul works out that Don, when he encouraged Paul to prepare for the event, had planted the idea for him to telephone identified skeptics in the area to encourage them to attend, and so they simply had to research that same cohort.

Paul still fears legal action but, realizing Dave is not bound by the same promises, teaches him the techniques so that he can run events as a spiritual healer to garner attention. The fact Dave is unknown means he can proceed undetected, but he ensures that his small events attract a following online. Don soon hears about them, and suspects Dave is working with Paul, so invites Dave to meet him. Dave knows what a persuasive charmer Don can be, but even he is taken in when Don suggests that Dave should work for him, and offers him money in such a way that Dave does not feel he is sacrificing his principles. When Paul meets Dave secretly, Paul realizes what has happened and is shocked that Dave is not planning to expose Don when they appear on the television together later that week.

On the live chat show, Don and Dave conduct a faith healing session with each healing one of two people with the same condition. After ‘healing’ his person, however, Dave suddenly tells her to seek treatment to sustain the short-term relief he has just provided with his techniques. Don is outraged, but Dave suggests they return the following week, with one person having done nothing and the other as Dave suggested, to compare the results. It transpires Dave was double bluffing, but had to maintain the pretence of being taken in by Don in front of Paul in case Don had bugged him.

On the following week’s show Don is exposed, but Dave also ensures that leaflets fall from the studio ceiling with positive messages that enable people to accept reality but maintain faith and hope as well. Paul receives one of these messages, which strengthens his relationship with Laura. Losing many possessions and facing bankruptcy, Don curses, but then sits back and plans his next scam.

PSYCHIC FRAUD?