William Cheshire's ESP

Jacob Sullum | March 25, 2005

Speaking of Terri Schiavo's consciousness or lack thereof, The New York Times ran a sidebar yesterday that was clearly intended to discredit William P. Cheshire, the neurologist who recently signed an affidavit suggesting that she may not be in a persistent vegetative state. Although the story had an obvious slant, Cheshire's bias and lack of thoroughness are hard to deny. The most damning part was a quotation from his affidavit: "Although Terri did not demonstrate during our 90-minute visit compelling evidence of verbalization, conscious awareness or volitional behavior, yet the visitor has the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her."

The distinct sense of a presence? Is this guy a doctor or a psychic?

Comments

|3.25.05 @ 10:11AM|#

Cell phone transcript from Dr. Cheshire Verizon account:

"Honey, the visitor is stuck in traffic. The visitor's going to be at least another 45 minutes."

"That's ok. I'll keep the visitor's dinner warm. Say, can the visitor pick up some toilet paper on the way home?"

"Sure, the visitor will stop by the Quick-E-Mart..."

"Thanks. I love you honey."

"The visitor loves you too. Bye."

|3.25.05 @ 10:48AM|#

Bob Dole doesn't get the joke, joe.

|3.25.05 @ 10:51AM|#

More excerpts from Cheshire's affidavit:

"Y'all mind hanging back? You're jamming my frequency."

"You can't choose between life and death when we're dealing with what is in between. Now tell her before it's too late."

"This house is clean."

|3.25.05 @ 10:51AM|#

Nostradamus predicted the Schiavo case, you know.

|3.25.05 @ 11:01AM|#

Dr. Cheshire Verizon: "Back off man! I'm a scientist!"

|3.25.05 @ 11:50AM|#

Maybe they should send in parapsycologist Dr. Peter Venkman to analyze whether her spirit is in there or not.

|3.25.05 @ 12:50PM|#

"Is this guy a doctor or a psychic?"

Funny you should mention psychics. TV "medium" and Biggest Douche In The Universe, John Edward, was on a recent episode of Fox And Friends to plug his most recently published literary attempt to mate Catholic prayer with newage (as if there really is a difference). He claimed that he could sense Schiavo was still aware and they he could sense her "soul" within her body.

Is there anything that scum-sucker won't try to cash in on?

|3.25.05 @ 1:01PM|#

flips over the High Priestess card and

"yet the visitor has the distinct sense of the presence of a living human being who seems at some level to be aware of some things around her."

turns the Five of Cups card and

"the visitor senses there's something missing inside her, however..."

end with the Death card

"...this is not looking good at all."

|3.25.05 @ 5:07PM|#

More from Dr. Cheshire:

"Well, I'm getting weak signs of consciousness, but I'd damn sure that you'll hit water if you dig through the floor right about here."

|3.25.05 @ 5:08PM|#

Akira writes: "Is there anything that scum-sucker won't try to cash in on?"

Do you mean Edwards, or Fox?

|3.25.05 @ 6:28PM|#

"Do you mean Edwards, or Fox?"

Well, I was thinkig of Edward, but you can throw Fox in too. They had to put him on thinking that someone would watch.

|3.27.05 @ 2:33AM|#

Yeah, I bet Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, will immediately object to Dr. Cheshire's wacky ideas. Which would be a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

If you want to amuse yourself, read George Felos' book Litigation as Spiritual Practice. Felos believes things that makes Dr. Cheshire look like a model of sanity. Felos claims that one of his earlier right-to-die clients, while in a Schiavo-like vegetative state, telepathically commununicated with him (Felos) and told him that she wanted to die.

It gets even more creepy than this. Felos says in his book that, while taking a plane ride, he started thinking about death, and *as a result of these thoughts,* the plane nearly crashed. You see, Felos seriously claims that he has the power to overcome the spirit/body barrier and change reality just by thinking about it. He thinks that if he had persisted in his meditations on death, he would have caused the destruction of the plane and all its passengers.

Read the book for yourselves if you think I'm just making this stuff up!

Say what you will about Dr. Cheshire, but at least the good doctor doesn't think he can hijack airplanes by pure spiritual power.

|3.27.05 @ 10:14PM|#

I laid into the Mayo Clinic not only for the remote control but for Cheshire's personal comments about the "beautiful" woman and what he personally would or would not do. They sent me back the uh-oh response which they subsequently posted at
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2005-jax/2724.html

|3.28.05 @ 1:40AM|#

Not that Fox's competition is on a much higher intellectual level:

"More material on the never-ending-decline of CNN. This is the text from the front page of the site, as of 12:11 AM on the east coast ...

"'A representative of the parents of Terri Schiavo said Sunday last-ditch appeals will be made in Washington to get the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube reinserted. After a news conference announcing the plan, a woman, saying she was from the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigades, grabbed the microphone to say Terri Schiavo should be allowed to die in peace.'

"Nope. Not The Onion, CNN.

"I'm not sure I can stay up late enough to see their report on sword-swallowing privatizers or the preview of the new CNN Presents documentary on the man raised from infancy by a pack of lizards and his brave struggle to adjust to life among humans."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_03_27.php#005259