Sensing Murder Psychics Revealed is a fascinating look into the lives of the four psychics from the Sensing Murder program, how they deal with sceptics, and the events that have shaped their lives. Unfortunately it also includes tame sceptic Nigel Latta commenting on the “psychology” of the individuals and his theories on psychic phenomenon. Expect another book from him any day.
High point
Scott Russell Hill’s interview included footage of predictions made in 1996 that later came true. Superb!
Low point
Nigel Latta pontificating about psychics and being compared to Albert Einstein.
Nigel Latta
Clinical Psychologist Nigel Latta is touted as an expert at detecting lying and we're told that he was firmly in the sceptics camp until viewing the filming of a segment for the Sensing Murder show. At Nigel's own website he tells a slightly different story, but continues to maintain that the psychics came up with information that he could not explain.
- There was no cold reading on the day. I know what cold reading is because I use many of the same techniques myself when interviewing various criminals over the last 17 or so years. If it was happening I would have seen it.
- The psychic's information was specific and not general. She was not making a bunch of guesses and then fine tuning her statements based on responses from the crew.
- That means either she was told by the production company prior to the reading, or she was getting her information that day from people the rest of us couldn't see, or picking up some crazy quantum mechanical vibe, or whatever.
- Because of all this I am at a loss to explain what I saw that day. I thought it was freaky then and I still think it's freaky now.
The television episode compares Nigel to Albert Einstein who apparently had the same problem understanding telepathic communication. Hmmmm. According to Nigel, Einstein called telepathic communication spooky attraction at a distance. Not quite sure that the parallels apply. Nigel Latta and Albert Einstein, the two great thinkers of their time?
Nigel goes on to say hearing voices is pretty normal, and estimates that 10% of people hear voices, but don’t necessarily have psychosis. Miss Prozac is feeling lonely. Why don't the voices talk to her?
All the psychics described difficult childhoods psychics saying they were physically and or emotionally abused as children. Nigel speculates that children who have experienced trauma develop a radar that is tuned into the bad things in life and may link to the development of psychic abilities.
He says that according to recent research 80-85% of people will experience the voice of their loved one around the time of their death. Miss Prozac searched online but was unable to find any reference to this research. If anyone has a link to this research please post it in the comments.
Nigel goes on to say that all the psychics were “weird from the get go” and were always a bit different as children. He suspects psychics can take background white noise and “stuff” and make meaningful pictures out of them. Okay, sure Nigel.
Nigel Latta works as a clinical psychologist and is the author of
Before Your Kids Drive You Crazy and
Into the Darklands which includes Nigel's comments on the Sensing Murder showTalking about the problems some of the psychics have experienced in their lives, Nigel Latta says it’s not surprising that people who give advice to others might have issues in their own lives, saying financial advisers go broke and psychologists may have problems in their lives. Could he perhaps be talking about himself? Is he hinting that all is not right in his life? Whatever the case it’s hardly ideal when financial advisers go broke, and certainly not the gold standard for advisers of any description to not have their own house in order so these inane comments proved of little value.
He comes up with gems like
“It isn’t just the psychics who are saying man it’s a wacky universe. The physicists are also saying there’s some strange and bizarre stuff that we are just kind of starting to get our heads around. So just like Columbus being told the world is flat, maybe these people are kind of the modern day equivalent of Columbus. We’re all saying the world is flat, and they’re saying, no, no, I’m pretty sure it’s round.”
At this point, Miss Prozac suspects that Nigel’s credibility among psychologists and scientists is zip, although lovers of Sensing Murder will no doubt applaud him for his “insights’. Miss Prozac wishes that the producers had edited out the entire Nigel Latta segment, as she was on the fence up until this point. She quite enjoys watching the show and getting updates on the hunt for murderers. While she hasn’t seen any definitive proof that the psychics are coming up with new information, they do make for an interesting show, and it’s a heck of an entertaining show to watch.
Scott Russell HillScott Russell Hill is described as a psychic to the stars, including doing several readings for Princess Diana. Interestingly, she dreamed about danger thinking her sons were in danger and spoke to Scott about it. He told her the children were safe, immediately before she died in the Paris car crash. After this he sunk into a deep funk and did no readings for two years. However, this story has a happy ending as other predictions have been spot on.
Scott worked as a DJ before becoming a full-time psychic in 1996 when he accurately predicted a series of events years before they happened. On 28 September 1996 on Radio 5AA Adelaide’s Psychic Saturday Night Scott predicted:
- John F Kennedy Jnr disaster around him to do with a plane crash, a light plane
- Bomb or an earthquake going off in Bali, buildings on fire and devastation
- Key times of danger for the World Trade Centre and New York are the months of September, October and November 2001. It’s like a missile strike or something striking the building from the air
- Princess Diana will be in the wrong place at the wrong time and she could be involved in an accident in a car
He goes on to say that he dreamed about a
Woman’s Day magazine cover, Eiffel tower and knowing she died in a car crash. This is impressive stuff. Miss Prozac feels like booking a seat on a plane to Adelaide to see this guy perform live! If only he had had that insight on the day Princess Di telephoned for advice…
Adelaide based Scott found being on
Sensing Murder bad for his health. At the end of one show his blood pressure was 210/60 and it became too much for him which is why we don’t see much of him in the second series of the show.
When Scott was seven, he fell into the sea. He believes he died and went to heaven, saw a white light, and then returned to life. After this experience his psychic experiences intensified and he started having visions. He went to his local priest for help and received more attention than he wanted when the priest sexually abused him.
As a 12 or 13 year old he was brutalised by teens who physically abused him while trying to make Scott perform fellatio on them. Yikes, this guy has been through some horrific experiences. Scott is now a trained martial artist.
Scott currently lives with his girlfriend of five years Kerstin who handles all his bookings. He says the worst customers for private readings are the ones that only want you to tell them what they want to hear and don’t want to hear the truth.
Sue NicholsonIn addition to working as a psychic, Sue Nicholson also holds workshops to help people develop their psychic powers and exorcises spirits from homes and offices. She has been married to hubby Steve for 30 years, whom she met before moving to NZ from Birmingham. She reckons spirit told her she would meet him and that it was a soul mate connection. Steve proposed four weeks after meeting.
As a child spirits would sit on her bed and chat to her. She said they told her she was a good person when her mother was abusing her making comments such as:
You’re so ugly, nobody’ll ever like you.
You’ll never do any good in this lifetime.
Get away from me, you make me feel sick.
Nasty stuff.
At the age of 10 years Sue was overwhelmed she thought about attempting suicide by jumping off the window ledge. Her mother found her and vowed to make things even worse for her after this time. In her late teens Sue again planned to commit suicide, and swallowed all the pills she could find. When she woke she was on “the other side” where she was told she had a job to do and go back.
Her youngest daughter Sarah is a professional golfer and uses her psychic ability to help her find golf balls! How strange is that? You can
read more about Sue’s psychic family here.
Take note. Sue gets very nervous before the Sensing Murder shows and doesn’t like it when people come for readings just to “test” her. She says
“I’m not a side show. You know, this is real for me. This is a job for me.”
Kelvin CruickshankKelvin Cruickshank works full-time as a psychic medium. After one Sensing Murder episode he found it hard to break the link to Angela Blackmore, who he said would turn up at his home after filming ended, but for the most part Kelvin appears to enjoy working with spirits.
Kelvin is best mates with his 13 year old son Javan, who likes hunting, fishing and going on Dad’s motorbike. Javan also appears to have psychic visions and says it’s “really cool” that he can see things in his head or his dreams before they happen. You can
read more about Kelvin here and find out about
his T-Shirt being auctioned here. Or at least we're told it's Kelvin's T-shirt complete with "orb".
Kelvin’s mum Rev. Heather Butcher is a hospital chaplain. She said that when he was little Kelvin was always very clingy at night and fearful. Kelvin attributes this to seeing spirits that no one else could see. He says he had difficulty distinguishing between live people and spirits.
“Sometimes I have to touch people to make sure they’re real or not.”
Kelvin said he found it difficult as a child to concentrate with the spirits yabbering to him all the time, and as someone with dyslexia he found it difficult to learn new recipes from books when he worked as a chef.
One day he told his ex-wife that he could see her dead great grandparents standing next to her. She freaked out. Tearfully Kelvin says it cost him his marriage, and that she would only take him back if he would get psychiatric help for the voices he was hearing in his head. He was diagnosed with ADHD and told him to take Ritalin or be “locked up”, so he took the drugs. He overdosed on Ritalin and died in his mother’s arms, before coming back to life, and kicking Ritalin for good.
A million Kiwi women rejoiced at the news that Kelvin is currently single. He apparently has quite a fan club with women emailing him proposals and cosying up to him after his shows.
Deb WebberDeb Webber lives deep in the Queensland rainforest with her two children, and her father, Arthur, who has a heart condition. She tells him he was “pretty much bad at everything” but they loved her for it. She goes on to say he was the sort of man that shouldn’t have children and that she hated him as a child. Ummm, that’s a strange thing to say on national television. Miss Prozac thinks Deb needs to call on one of the spirits to give her a wee bit of counselling, as she sounds a tad bitter. However, you only have to look at her
skirmish with Eating Media Lunch's host Jeremy Wells to see that Deb finds it hard to get past being hurt - which means she won't have enjoyed
EML's final episode of 2007.
Mind you her father Arthur, who is a believer in spare the rod and spoil the child, says Deb was a show off as a child, so perhaps Deb has a point about him not being very supportive.
Describing her spiritual experiences, Deb says at one stage she spoke to Jesus Christ who gave her a piece of paper that opened up to a list of all the questions she ever had as a child, but he didn’t let her keep the piece of paper. Apparently this was a huge revelation that convinced her about spirit.
Before working as a psychic Deb worked as a nursing assistant, chattering to spirits. She now believes that the Aboriginal spirits chose her to guard over the forest in her backyard and loves spending time in the bush. It did look very peaceful…
Deb was married for 13 years, and says her ex taught her hate and that this teaches her love. Sounds like a bunch of cockamamie to Miss Prozac, but Nigel Latta says the hate makes her more human. Huh? After the relationship break up Deb started drinking heavily to try and dull the sounds of the voices in his head. Honestly, given the choice between having to listen to voices in her head or having to listen to Nigel, Miss Prozac would choose the voices every time.
Deb is currently single and seeks advice from other psychics to get help for her own love life.
Watch Sensing Murder onlineSensing Murder is now available on TVNZ ondemand for a small charge. You can
watch this episode for 12 play points, which you have to purchase from the website. TVNZ currently offers 20 free points on registration, so you can register to download this episode for free and still have a few points left over.
There was nothing different tonight, and quite frankly I am disappointed. I was looking forward to this series, being a bit of a real crime TV freak. However all it is, is Latta promoting his book of the same name by giving his interpretation (and it is just that, even if he doesn't think so) on criminals that fit right into his belief system.
Psychologist 
TV2’s 
