The contrast was so dramatic that it took on almost mythic proportions. In one corner, Natasha Demkina, a 17-year-old girl from the small town of Saransk in Russia, hailed by her supporters as 'the girl with X-ray eyes'. They claim she is able to 'see' inside people's bodies on a cellular level and make medical diagnoses more accurately than most practising physicians. In the other corner, professors Ray Hyman and Richard Wiseman of CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), together with Andrew Skolnick, executive director of CSMMH (Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health).

Natasha had come to New York in 2004 to submit her abilities to a rigorous scientific test, devised and administered by CSMMH in association with CSICOP. The latter have over three decades' experience in exposing hoaxes, frauds and fakes in the paranormal world. But what happens when an attractive young Russian girl encounters a group of middle-aged sceptical scientists from the West? Spiritual beliefs come up against material values. Rural poverty meets funded research. Orthodox religion goes head-to-head with orthodox science. Neither faith nor fantasy has ever responded particularly well to laboratory conditions.

The people who climb the crumbling steps to see Natasha in her mother's apartment have as much faith in her X-ray vision as Natasha has in the healing powers of the water found in a holy well in a nearby church. Both seem to supply something the health authorities cannot.

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