KATZ@USC-ISIF.ARPA (07/04/85)
From: Alan R. Katz <KATZ@USC-ISIF.ARPA> The two teenagers fooling the parapsychologists were in fact coached by James Randi. There is an excellent report on this by Randi in the Skeptical Inquirer about a year ago. The whole thing was made public a few days before a TV "special" on James Randi vs Uri Geller (Randi has written a book exposing Geller) which was supposed to be a "fair" and "balenced" account of whether Geller is actually doing paranormal things. One of the things I found most interesting was not only did no parapsychologist think to ask the teenagers if they were doing conventional magic (as they had agreed ahead of time to answer honestly if so asked), but that Randi repeatedly wrote to the parapsychologists warning that they should watch for certain "tricks" fake psychics might employ; tricks that the teenagers were in fact using (which they learned from Randi)!! To give an idea of what types of feats they were able to perform, here's an example: The experimenters obtained a cheap plastic sealed digital watch, that would have been impossible to open without ruining the case (I guess you couldn't even get to the battery). The subjects were asked to perform PK on it. The teenagers said they needed to take the watches HOME WITH THEM OVER NIGHT (WHICH THEY WERE ALLOWED TO DO!!!). The next day, sure enough, the watches were running crazy, and there was NO sign that they had been tampered with!!! How did they do it???? Simple, they simply placed the watch in a microwave oven for a minute or two. This is an example of the "evidence" for PK!! Alan -------
mcgeer%ucbkim%Berkeley@sri-unix.ARPA (07/04/85)
From: Rick McGeer (on an aaa-60-s) <mcgeer%ucbkim@Berkeley> Why did they need to take the watch home with them? Wouldn't a strong magnet have done as well? Rick.