Suzane Northrop
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Suzane Northrop is an American writer, podcaster, TV show host, and
psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...
medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
. She has written at least four books, and hosted the television show, '' The Afterlife with Suzane Northrop''. She participated in ''
The Afterlife Experiments ''The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death'' is a book written by Gary Schwartz and bestselling author William L. Simon, with a foreword by Deepak Chopra. The book, published in 2003, reviews several exper ...
'' which was turned into a book by
Gary Schwartz Gary E. Schwartz is an American psychologist, author, parapsychologist and professor at the University of Arizona and the director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health. Schwartz researches the veracity of mediums and ene ...
. The experiments and their conclusions were widely criticized across the scientific community for not being blinded, and for the lack of inclusion of any other scientifically credible evidence.


Early life

Suzane Northrop stated in an interview that her first memory of contact with the deceased occurred when she was five years old. However, in both that interview and in an earlier one with the Dayton Daily News, Northrop said that her first real contact with dead people happened when she was 13 when she spoke with her paternal grandmother who had just died the previous week. She received a music degree from the
California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...
, in 1979. She soon moved to New York City where she attempted composing as well as dance.


Mediumship career


Career highlights

Northrop started her mediumship career by giving readings at street fairs in New York City for $3. She published her first book in 1994, ''Séance: A Guide for Living'', and went on to publish three more books over the next decade. In 2008, Northrop hosted a ten-episode TV series called The Afterlife with Suzane Northrop. In August 2020, Northrop launched a podcast, ''The Dead People's Society Podcast''. Late in 2020, Northrop, along with Thomas John, hosted a ticketed event virtually where they provided readings and over the internet to several of the people in attendance.


''The Afterlife Experiments''

In 1997, Northrop was contacted by
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-American psychiatrist, a pioneer in near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "Kübler-Ross model". In 1970, Kübler-Ross deli ...
about appearing in a documentary being produced for
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
which would explore the question of the survival of consciousness after death. This would later become the HBO documentary ''Life After Life''.
Gary Schwartz Gary E. Schwartz is an American psychologist, author, parapsychologist and professor at the University of Arizona and the director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health. Schwartz researches the veracity of mediums and ene ...
and Linda Russek, who were involved in the project, wrote a very controversial book about the research he conducted during these sessions, ''
The Afterlife Experiments ''The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death'' is a book written by Gary Schwartz and bestselling author William L. Simon, with a foreword by Deepak Chopra. The book, published in 2003, reviews several exper ...
''. Schwartz describes Northrop's style as very fast, "an uninterrupted barrage of information...Northrup had begun talking virtually nonstop". Schwartz' findings were that Northrop, as well as the rest of the "highly skilled mediums, in laboratory controlled yet supportive conditions, can receive specific categories of information that can be rated accurately by trained research sitters." According to Schwartz, he and Russek set up a second set of experiments at the urging of
John Edward John Edward McGee Jr. (born October 19, 1969) is an American television personality, writer and self-proclaimed psychic medium. After writing his first book on the subject in 1998, Edward became a well-known (and controversial) figure in the ...
and Northrop which were set up with a new group of sitters and four of the five original mediums including Northrop. Schwartz refers to this as The Miraval Experiment. The goal of this second round of experiments was to replicate the findings of the original HBO show and expand on them with further quantitative data. Schwartz wrote about their findings in this second round of experiments "that the accuracy of mediums 1 and 2 (Edward and Northrop) was replicated" and provided data "that are consistent with the hypothesis that some form of anomalous information retrieval was occurring in these skilled mediums." This would lead to staff of the show ''Exploring the Unknown'', produced by
Michael Shermer Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of '' Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientif ...
, to call asking to do a segment on Northrop.


Mediumship criticism


''Exploring the Unknown''

In 1999, Northrop was profiled on the TV show ''Exploring the Unknown'' produced by
Michael Shermer Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of '' Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientif ...
. In that episode, Northrop is seen giving a reading over the radio. Mentalist
Mark Edward Mark Edward (born Mark Edward Wilson, May 19, 1951 – August 4, 2024) was an American mentalist and author. He wrote books on mentalism and séance theory and production, including '' Psychic Blues'' (2009), where he discussed working for the ...
was asked to explain how Northrop accomplished what appears to be talking to dead family members of the participants in the show. Edward said of Northrop that, “The technique is to talk really fast. Say a lot of things, so fast that the normal average person doesn’t have a chance to respond or reconstruct what you just said.” He further explains how Northrop can easily overcome incorrect or unrelated guesses by telling the sitter to "watch for it" and that she also provides statements that could have multiple meanings to give herself the widest latitude for turning a miss into a hit. Edward also provides the reasons behind her use of initials which have a much higher hit rate and can relate to almost anything.


''How Not To Test Mediums''

Northrop uses ''The Afterlife Experiments'' as evidence of her abilities. However, in his article, ''How Not To Test Mediums'',
Ray Hyman Ray Hyman (born June 23, 1928) is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and a noted critic of parapsychology. Hyman, along with James Randi, Martin Gardner and Paul Kurtz, is one of the founders of the ...
does a deep dive into ''The Afterlife Experiments'' and concludes that there were several major flaws in the experimental designs including the failure to use double-blind procedures, inadequate precautions against fraud and sensory leakage, failure to independently check on facts the sitters endorsed as true, and several others. Hyman also finds severe issues with Schwartz' interpretations of the data, such as creating non-falsifiable outcomes by reinterpreting failures as successes. In his conclusion, Hyman states that, "The studies were methodologically defective in a number of important ways, not the least of which was that they were not double-blind... Yet the experimenters offer the results as a "breathtaking" validation of their claims about the existence of the afterlife."


Bibliography

*''Séance: A Guide for Living'' *''Second Chance: Healing Messages from the Afterlife'' *''Everything Happens for a Reason: Love, Free Will, and the Lessons of the Soul'' *''A Medium’s Cookbook: Recipes for the Soul: A Step-By-Step Guide toward Creating a Banquet of Connections to Those Who Have Passed Over''


See also


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Northrop, Suzane American television personalities American women television personalities American spiritual mediums American psychics People from Corning, New York 1948 births Living people