Psychic Powers

Judith Richardson Haimes, who claimed a CAT scan she received at Temple University Hospital robbed her of her psychic powers, may recover more than $1 million as a result of a Common Pleas jury verdict. The eight-member jury deliberated about 45 minutes yesterday before deciding that Haimes should receive $600,000. Judge Leon Katz said state law also provides for delay damages. According to the law, the winning party is entitled to 10 percent of the award per year since the suit was filed, Katz said.

So you say you have psychic powers, do you? Well, here's how to make a quick $10,000. All you have to do is go down to the Franklin Institute tomorrow, Sunday or Monday and demonstrate them to James Randi, magician- lecturer who is appearing during the museum's special weekend, "Science Fact and Science Fiction. " Randi's lecture-demonstrations, scheduled in the Science Auditorium at 12:30, 2 and 3 p.m. tomorrow through Monday, are titled "The Truth Behind the Tricks. " In them, Randi - also known as the Amazing Randi, also known as Psychic Enemy No. 1 - will show how self-styled psychic Uri Geller really bends spoons on television (it's not with brain waves)

Common Pleas Judge Court Leon Katz ruled yesterday that a woman had failed to prove that she was unable to use psychic powers she said she possessed because of a reaction she suffered to medical tests performed 10 years ago. Katz ruled that the jury could not award Judith Richardson Haimes damages from Temple University Hospital and a staff physician, based on the loss of her business as a professional psychic. Katz ruled shortly after Haimes had rested her case that she "has failed to produce any expert testimony that her headaches and subsequent inability to practice her occupation as a psychic were caused by the defendants' conduct.

Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Katz yesterday threw out a $986,000 jury award to a woman who contended that she lost her psychic powers after a CAT scan, saying the verdict was "grossly excessive" and not based on the evidence. Acting on a motion by attorneys for Temple University Hospital, Katz ordered a new trial in the lawsuit by Judith Richardson Haimes. The verdict, which received national attention when it was announced in March, was "so grossly excessive as to shock the court's sense of justice," Katz wrote in an opinion.

Instead of a ridiculous liability judgment against Temple University Hospital, the hospital can offer to pass the psychic back through the CAT scanner in the reverse direction (free of charge) to restore her "psychic powers. " G.S. Weber Woodbury, N.J.

Between 1969 and 1976, Judith Richardson Haimes testified in Common Pleas Court yesterday, she offered psychic counseling to "mailmen, grocers . . . doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs. " In fact, she said, "I can't think of any walk of life I didn't counsel. " She testified that her best skill was the ability to see and "read" auras that surround people. She helped police find bodies. She held seances, and on more than one occasion the poet John Milton was said to have spoken through her voice at such sessions.

On a chilly day in November 1991, a grass fire burning near his rural Cape May County, N.J., home caught the attention of a red-haired, freckle-faced boy of 12. The boy, Mark Himebaugh, left a park where he was playing to watch the commotion and was never seen again. Investigators, from the local police to the FBI, descended on the small town of Del Haven. Hundreds of volunteers poked through underbrush and water pipes. Police searched with helicopters and bloodhounds. On radio and television, the boy's father, Jody Himebaugh, appealed for help.

"ENGLISH MUSIC" By Peter Ackroyd Knopf / $23 Peter Ackroyd's "English Music" is a tale of a young boy's awakening sense of identity. It is far from being a conventional "coming of age" novel, however. Coming of the "ages" would be more accurate. For Timothy Harcombe, the book's protagonist, is no ordinary child. Set in England during the 1920s and '30s, the novel depicts Timothy's relationship with his father, Clement. A psychic healer, the elder Harcombe possesses astonishing power to cure the troubled and the infirm.

The opening-titles sequence of Dinner for Schmucks offers a series of curious tableaux: meticulously constructed dioramas of two taxidermized mice, dressed up like people, in various stages of courtship. A human hand can be seen in several of the shots, delicately applying paint, or fixing an article of clothing on the cute, but decidedly dead, rodents. Whoever that hand belongs to has got to be weird. And indeed, as we soon learn, he is. Barry - played by Steve Carell with a nerdy overbite and, well, a mousy mien - is an IRS employee who builds elaborate miniature scenes in his spare time.

On a chilly day in November 1991, a grass fire burning near his rural Cape May County, N.J., home caught the attention of a red-haired, freckle-faced boy of 12. The boy, Mark Himebaugh, left a park where he was playing to watch the commotion and was never seen again. Investigators, from the local police to the FBI, descended on the small town of Del Haven. Hundreds of volunteers poked through underbrush and water pipes. Police searched with helicopters and bloodhounds. On radio and television, the boy's father, Jody Himebaugh, appealed for help.

"ENGLISH MUSIC" By Peter Ackroyd Knopf / $23 Peter Ackroyd's "English Music" is a tale of a young boy's awakening sense of identity. It is far from being a conventional "coming of age" novel, however. Coming of the "ages" would be more accurate. For Timothy Harcombe, the book's protagonist, is no ordinary child. Set in England during the 1920s and '30s, the novel depicts Timothy's relationship with his father, Clement. A psychic healer, the elder Harcombe possesses astonishing power to cure the troubled and the infirm.

So you say you have psychic powers, do you? Well, here's how to make a quick $10,000. All you have to do is go down to the Franklin Institute tomorrow, Sunday or Monday and demonstrate them to James Randi, magician- lecturer who is appearing during the museum's special weekend, "Science Fact and Science Fiction. " Randi's lecture-demonstrations, scheduled in the Science Auditorium at 12:30, 2 and 3 p.m. tomorrow through Monday, are titled "The Truth Behind the Tricks. " In them, Randi - also known as the Amazing Randi, also known as Psychic Enemy No. 1 - will show how self-styled psychic Uri Geller really bends spoons on television (it's not with brain waves)

I would like to commend Judge Leon Katz for rejecting the ridiculous damage award to Judith Haimes, who said that a CAT scan impaired her psychic powers. I certainly wonder by what criteria the jurors reached their decision. Where is their reasoning or common sense? One can lose psychic ability at any time. Surely, if Ms. Haines was psychic at the time she would have sensed a problem with the test. I applaud Judge Katz for his wise decision and integrity. Kathleen Gillespie Croydon.

Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Katz yesterday threw out a $986,000 jury award to a woman who contended that she lost her psychic powers after a CAT scan, saying the verdict was "grossly excessive" and not based on the evidence. Acting on a motion by attorneys for Temple University Hospital, Katz ordered a new trial in the lawsuit by Judith Richardson Haimes. The verdict, which received national attention when it was announced in March, was "so grossly excessive as to shock the court's sense of justice," Katz wrote in an opinion.

A March 28 front-page headline read, "$988,000 is awarded in suit over lost psychic power. " I wince whenever I see the word psychic used without quotation marks wrapped around it. As a consequence of your headline, there are thousands of people in the Delaware Valley who now have some amorphous impression that "psychic" powers like ESP actually exist. Unfortunately, the accompanying article said nothing to dispel that notion. Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Katz was quite correct in charging the jury to disregard Judith Haime's claim that an allergic reaction to a CAT scan dye has robbed her of her "psychic" powers, thus taking away her livelihood.

Judith Richardson Haimes, who claimed a CAT scan she received at Temple University Hospital robbed her of her psychic powers, may recover more than $1 million as a result of a Common Pleas jury verdict. The eight-member jury deliberated about 45 minutes yesterday before deciding that Haimes should receive $600,000. Judge Leon Katz said state law also provides for delay damages. According to the law, the winning party is entitled to 10 percent of the award per year since the suit was filed, Katz said.

Judith Richardson Haimes, who contended that a CAT scan done at Temple University Hospital was responsible for her inability to use her psychic powers, was awarded $988,000 yesterday by a Common Pleas Court jury. Judge Leon Katz had instructed the jury not to consider Haimes' assertions about psychic powers in weighing the malpractice suit, and after the verdict was returned, attorneys for the plaintiff and defense argued about whether the award was proper. The eight-member jury deliberated about 45 minutes before awarding Haimes $600,000, with $388,000 more in delay damages, based on her contention that the hospital was negligent in performing a CAT scan in September 1976.