In an early awkward exchange, Goldsmith attempted to demonstrate his energy force – a "tingling" or "heat" – to Denton through touch, but the host said he couldn't feel anything.

The host then questioned Goldsmith on his "dangerous" approach and the lack of medical credibility to back his results, comparing him to a "placebo effect", prompting a strong response from his guest.

"If it is a placebo, so what?" Goldsmith replied, referring specifically to a patient with CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome) that was featured on his show. "So no one else fixed her and then whatever I did, did."

The discomfort peaked when Denton chastised Goldsmith's attempts to have his powers "proven", particularly an upcoming study from University of Arizona Professor Gary Schwartz, whom he described as an "art professor in New York who has published extensively about his belief in ghosts".

"What you're claiming to do is mysterious and unknowable and almost impossible to measure, and what he's interested in are things that are unknowable and mysterious and almost impossible to measure, so he's not an objective observer of what you do," the host said.

"I don't know him well enough to defend him as much as I'd like to," Goldsmith replied. "But the fact he's spent a large part of his career interested in this area gives him insight into how to test things. Now that doesn't make him wrong."

"I would argue it makes him predisposed to want to show that you're right as opposed to having a scientific, neutral, credible method ... It's problematic," Denton hit back.

"Where you're walking and where you're talking are different places. You're talking you want credible but you're not walking that space," he added.

The episode had been hyped by Seven as "an interview guaranteed to divide the nation", and it drew strong reactions from viewers: some who applauded Denton's attempts at exposing the "con man", and others who accused the host of "bias".

Denton, who returned to his interview format in April, 10 years after Enough Rope's hit run ended on the ABC in 2008, had hinted at such drama before the series launched.

"I think in this very shouty age, where we have weaponised offence-taking, what will be our biggest and most important challenges will be to put people on that screen whom we and the viewers potentially strongly disagree with, but try to understand at least why they think the way they do," he said last month.

Interview continues on Seven next Tuesday.