Before we come to this week's page-change, a brief notice of current events at the JREF....

We're just about recovered from the Open House 2000 event we held here on the 3rd, and we're still lunching on the groceries left over from the spread we provided for the guests. It's a good sign when you see that visitors to your event are more involved in conversation than in snacking! The reaction overall was very positive. We at JREF had the chance to meet new friends, and to renew old contacts. Inquiries are coming in about various funding projects we offered, and about other aspects of what we do here. It took a lot of work to get it all together, and I have thanked my hard-working staff for their extra efforts in organizing the details and launching the affair so effectively. We hope that you were able to take with you a better understanding of what we're all about. We're dedicated to critical thinking and providing accurate information about science, "psychic" phenomena, quack medicine and paranormal claims, all subjects which so often are eagerly accepted by the media -- and thus the public -- without any objections being raised or critical questions being asked. On another note, the notice I sent out on the e-mail Star List about a possible voodoo doll, has brought a huge response. That posting read:

"I'm told that one of the nut-cases out there has declared that "negative vibes" can be sent out against individuals. You know, voodoo, bad thoughts, curses, the whole spectrum. Okay, let's do a test. I invite ALL the bad guys out there to curse me, point-the-bone at me, send me "bad cess," and in general wish me real evil stuff. Try to get me dead by thinking me dead, by putting out every nasty wish you can summon up, and let's see what happens.

"In fact, I have been seriously thinking about putting out a Randi doll, complete with fingernail parings and a scrap of my beard -- so that it will really work, of course! I'll even supply the hat-pins to insert into your chosen part of my body!

"Is that a viable project? If so I'll set about production immediately. I think the doll would have to sell for about $40 or so, plus postage, but it could be a good income-generator for the JREF. I can imagine there are thousands of folks out there who not only believe it would work to put me under the sod, but who would also invest that relatively small sum of money in hopes that they could do me in. Give me your feedback on this, will you?"

Well, there were three general reactions:

(1) If I should die, get ill, or have an accident, or if anyone in my office, my family, my circle of friends, any JREF members, a resident of Florida, or anyone remotely connected with me in any way, should develop even a hangnail, the Bad Guys would claim victory.

(2) It's a GREAT idea! Put me on the buyers list! (Little indication of whether they believe or don't believe it will work......!)

(3) Some coo-coo with a bazooka will come around and blow me away to prove the doll works.

Those are the chances I take, of course. But the whole thing just might be moot now, because I'm told that the original nut-case who suggested the project, has now announced that he's put me in "psychic protective custody by placing a protective subtle energy shield around him to protect him from harm." However, in typically shilly-shally mode, he adds, "However, this may not be enough to protect him." So, if it works, he was right; if it doesn't work, he was right.

These guys sure supply lots of evidence of their irrationality, don't they? We don't have to go searching very far for it.

Bottom line: I'm shopping for a manufacturer, and we just may have a genuine, certified, Randi Doll on sale. Watch for an announcement.

(And, since the product will actually feature real beard- and nail-clippings, the Strange Folks out there will doubtless be rushing off to forensic labs to have my DNA pattern verified. Rush away, folks. It will check out.....!

As if we needed further evidence of how poorly we can recall events with accuracy, I will tell you of a letter that just arrived here at JREF. A fan, Lance May, wrote to tell me that in a self-help book written in 1980 by David M. Burns, M.D., he had come upon a passage that puzzled him. It described a trick that the author said he'd seen as a child. I will quote the passage:

". . . One of my happiest childhood memories is when I was eight years old and saw Blackstone -- World's Greatest Magician, perform in Denver, Colorado. I was invited with several other children from the audience to come up on stage. Blackstone instructed us to place our hands on a two-feet by two-feet birdcage filled with live white doves until the top, bottom, and all four sides were enclosed entirely by our hands. He stood nearby and said, "Stare at the cage!" I did. My eyes were bulging and I refused to blink. He exclaimed, "Now I'll clap my hands." He did. In that instant the cage of birds vanished. My hands were suspended in empty air. It was impossible! Yet it happened! I was stunned."

Groan.

I knew both Blackstones, père et fils, very well. This episode is an account of a performance by Blackstone Sr., though Junior did precisely the same routine in his time. Between them, they probably performed the trick ten thousand times or more. It was a staple part of their shows, and I myself handled the equipment many times. Let me enlighten Dr. Burns on just where his account varies from reality.

The cage was hardly "two-feet by two-feet." It was precisely 4.5 by 4.5 by 5 inches. The good doctor's misrecollection of its size might be partly explained by his own diminutive proportions at the age of eight, but still seems a bit excessive. But, I can tell you from LONG experience, tellers of good tales rather tend to hyperbolize the details in order to make the story just a bit better.

And, need I say, that tiny cage was not "filled with live white doves," or indeed, even one white dove. It had hanging in it a fake yellow canary. The thing was a fake simply because Blackstone Sr. had at one time done the trick using live canaries, then accidentally killed one during a show, and immediately adopted the fake for future use.

Dr. Burns might well have been easily confused on this point because of other huge cages -- really "filled with live white doves" -- that both Blackstones caused to appear and to vanish during their shows. His error is quite understandable.

But there is another point where the gentleman errs. He writes that "[Blackstone] stood nearby and said, 'Stare at the cage!' . . . He exclaimed, 'Now I'll clap my hands.'" Well, friends, that would have been difficult, to say the least. In actuality, the magician held that cage at each side between his own two hands, and the kids were asked to place their hands on the front, back, top, and bottom. He counted, "One, two, three!" and brought his hands together on empty air, as did the children, to their total amazement. He did not stand nearby, nor could he clap his hands.

Briefly, Dr. Burns' description is typical of so many accounts that try to be accurate and to represent the actuality of what the teller experienced. A minimum of some 15 to 20 years -- probably more -- had passed between Burns' experience of the magic show, and his written account. He'd told the story many times, and it had changed along the way. The memory that he built up and reinforced became his reality, and I'm sure he was very confident that it was accurate.

In the paranormal and the UFO field, do you think that this same phenomenon might be at work from time to time....?