fred@inuxc.UUCP (Fred Mendenhall) (01/18/84)
Any comments on the NOVA program on ESP ? If you didn't see it, it should be rebroadcast sometime this week in each viewing area. Also if you didn't see it please send your flames to /dev/null. Fred Mendenhall
palmer@uw-june (David Palmer) (01/20/84)
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That NOVA seemed to be rather uncritical. It talked about Targ's
work, and said it was reliable, but I think Targ was one of the
researchers who demonstrated their lack of tight control on James
Randi's "Alpha" project.
For those of you who haven't heard: James Randi is a professional
stage magician (just like Uri Geller used to be, before he found "Psi"
more profitable.) He has spent a lot of time trying to convince
psychic researchers to have tighter controls (he knows of no
"successful" psychic experiment with adequate controls.) He carries
around a check for $10,000, and has offered many times to give it to
anyone who does, with psychic powers, anything that he cannot do with
stage magic.
Because professional ethics forbid him to explain how he does his
tricks, there has been some speculation among the more naive "Geller
gawkers" that he is actually psychic, and only pretends to use trickery
and sleight of hand ('just like Geller used to do.')
Project Alpha was an expos'e of the shoddy controls that psychic
researchers use. He first went around to psychic research labs,
examined the experiments they were doing, and then suggested controls
which would prevent any magician's tricks. He then sent two of his
protege'es to apply as 'psychic' research subjects. They performed a
variety of amazing feats when no one was looking (putting a digital
watch in a microwave oven, unsealing a glass tube, bending the strip of
metal inside, and resealing it, etc.) and were soon being hailed a
'super-psychics'. They had been instructed to confess if anyone ever
asked them if they were using trickery, but no one ever did.
One of the researchers who loudly praised their psychic abilities
was Russell Targ, who was featured prominently on that NOVA.
Even if the Horizon program came out before word of Project Alpha
reached the public (the copyright on the program was 1983, but it
didn't indicate the month) they still should have talked to Randi, as
he is the leading critic of psychic pscience.
For more information on Project Alpha, read "The Skeptical
Enquirer" for 1983, probably the Spring and Summer issues.
David Palmerpalmer@uw-june (David Palmer) (01/21/84)
About my preceding article on Randi's Alpha project:
On rereading the article in 'The Skeptical Enquirer' (Summer and Fall,
l983) I found that Targ was not the main gull, and was not even
mentioned. The Alpha project concentrated on psychic experiments
performed by Peter Phillips of George Washington University.
David Palmerpresley@mhuxj.UUCP (01/23/84)
Has Tamara Rand made a prediction yet on what the final score of the Super Bowl will be? -- Joe Presley (mhuxj!presley, ihnp4!j.presley)