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Gary E. Schwartz is a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry, and surgery at the University of Arizona and the Director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.[1][2] Schwartz is also an author[3] and the Corporate Director of Development of Energy Healing for the Canyon Ranch Resorts. Schwartz is known for his controversial experiments with mediums and energy healing.[4]
Schwartz received his PhD from Harvard University and was a professor of psychiatry and psychology at Yale University as well as Director of the Yale Psychophysiology Center and co-director of the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic from 1976-1988. He is the Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health (LACH, formerly the Human Energy Systems Laboratory) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona.[5][6]
In his early career, Schwartz wrote on biofeedback research and health psychology. Schwartz's more recent research has been in parapsychology and consciousness-based healthcare. His VERITAS research project, which concluded in 2008, was created primarily to test the hypothesis that the consciousness (or identity) of a person survives physical death.[7] Schwartz performed experiments at the University of Arizona testing mediums such as John Edward of the TV show Crossing Over and Allison DuBois, who inspired the TV series Medium. Schwartz believes that DuBois could contact dead people. Schwartz says his experiments with DuBois included a reading for celebrity physician and author Deepak Chopra following the death of his father that Chopra characterized as 77% accurate.[8]
Schwartz's research projects at LACH involve investigate the following:[9]
Schwartz's methods have prompted criticism by skeptics such as University of Oregon professor Ray Hyman, who says they deviate from the accepted norms of scientific methodology, and criticizes Schwartz for research errors such as inappropriate statistical tests and using subjects predisposed to believe in psychic abilities.[10] Skeptic Robert Todd Carroll maintains that Schwartz's evaluation of mediums is subjective and a product of wishful thinking.[8][11] When skeptic James Randi asked the University of Arizona to submit Schwartz's research data to an independent panel for evaluation as part of his One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, Schwartz declined because he thought that the panel, which he believed would be picked by Randi but would actually be agreed upon by both sides of the controversy, might be biased. The University of Arizona's Peter Likins, their then-president, decided that Schwartz's statements should not be edited by the University, but were matters of "freedom of expression," whether right or wrong.[12] Schwartz has also been accused by psychic Laurie Campbell and Allison DuBois of exploiting their publicity value.[13]
Schwartz is the co-author of The Living Energy Universe, and is the author of The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death and The Truth About Medium and over 450 scientific papers. He has also edited academic books.
On Fox News on the Geraldo at Large show, October 6, 2007, Geraldo Rivera and other investigators accused Schwartz as a fraud and that he had overstepped his position as a university researcher by requesting over three million dollars from a bereaved father who had lost his son. Schwartz had claimed to have contacted the spirit of a 25-year-old man in the bathroom of his parents house and it is alleged he attempted to charge the family 3.5 million dollars for his mediumship services. Schwartz responded saying that the allegations were set up to destroy his science credibility.[14]
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