Table of Contents:
Reader T.R.B. gives this example of that overpowering need-to-believe. I have so often cited examples in the woo-woo world where believers reject any and all evidence that does not fit their preferred/expected notions. Here we have the same selective process at work in a different field, but one that invites similar blind reactions.
Last spring, my college hosted a couple of guests who spoke about the Underground Railroad. One of the reasons they came is that, not far from here, is a community that in the 1850s was dedicated to anti-slavery and was a station on the Underground Railroad. I and one of my colleagues took our guests and several students to the small museum there, a house that was purposely built to hide fugitive slaves. Before I continue I should note that, although runaways are known to have traveled through the area, none actually hid in this particular house.
Our guests were impressed with the museum's artifacts and documents, the history of its construction, and the knowledge of its docents. Our students got a kick out of seeing the two secret compartments, accessible by trap doors. The docents also showed us the cellar, notable because the ceiling beams were hand-hewn and still holding up the entire house. Well, here's where the story gets interesting.
In a dimly-lit corner of the cellar, I noticed one of our guests swaying to-and-fro and moaning softly. I went over and asked if she was alright. A couple of students joined us. "Here's where they were," she said. "Excuse me?" I replied. "Ancestors," she said. "They were here. I can feel them."
I tried to explain to her and the students that diary entries — evidence — of the builder and owner of the house indicated that he had never hidden runaways, despite his intentions. And if he had, he would have done so in one of the hiding places, not in a corner of the cellar. But that didn't matter. "They were here," she insisted, "I can feel their energy, and that's enough for me."
I was so angry I could have spat. Not wanting to be impolite I simply left without further comment, but I could overhear her saying that "white people don't understand 'ancestor energy.'" The students were practically agog. I was appalled.
It really makes you wonder, doesn't it? Personally, I have very high academic standards, as do my colleagues. I set high standards for my students. I work hard daily with reputable books and original documents, and I strive to ensure that my work is accurate. I insist that my students do likewise. But what can I do when they seem so willing to dump everything I teach them the moment some spirit-sensing charlatan tells them they don't need to think, they only need to feel?I'm an historian and professor at a small college in Iowa. In [a July 9/04] item, "More Pseudoscience Earning Credits," you asked, rhetorically, "What is happening to our standards of education in the USA?" While I can't answer that empirically, I can relate a recent incident.
Here we have the word "energy" being used by someone who has no idea of its meaning, but knows that it's acceptable as an effective buzz-word that will lend false authority to a statement. Similarly, "vibration" and "quantum" are thrown about to bolster ideas that have no basis in fact. Note here that the race card has also been dealt, in expectation that it will add strength to the student's simply wrong assertion. But she was right in one statement when she said, ". . . that's enough for me." Low standards for acceptance, a great need for recognition, and the ability to ignore facts, have served her well — for the moment.
UK reader Noel Joslin is astonished:
Following on from Huw Roberts' communication [July 9/04 web page] I also watched the Newsnight program featuring David Tredinnick. I actually couldn't believe my ears when he said that we rely on the Sun going round the Earth. I am wondering whether it was a joke or a slip of the tongue. I also thought it was rather ironic when he also said something to the effect that his fellow MPs used to laugh at his promotion of alternative medicine. "But they are not laughing now!" he added. Well I think quite a few people must have had a laugh after the program.
Noel, for lots of folks, the Earth is flat and was created in seven days, and some people can bend spoons by merely looking at them. An MP — or a US congressman or senator — doesn't have to be well-informed about the real world and how it works, as we're discovering. Speaking of mystical metal-bending, in a week or two I will be posting a 30-second video here of Jacob Spinney, one of the current JREF interns, doing an incredible bare-handed fork-bend that will have you wondering. It's a new trick that's going onto the market soon, and our readers will have an opportunity to actually purchase the means to perform this wonder. Stay tuned!
It appears that my willingness to give Mr. Theodore Karavassilis (www.randi.org/jr/070204another.html) the benefit of the doubt, may have been very ill-founded. Reader Mike Lilley informs me:
1) I corresponded with him three times, not "dozens" as he claims.
2) In the commentary piece you published, he states his website is now "closed to new investors." This is not surprising, since he no doubt ran afoul of authorities when his site was claiming several million percent returns for any and all publicly-invited website investors, into his now "privately-held" company.
3) Karvassilisis claimed previously on his website that his invention was working, ready for full production, and just needed investors for manufacturing, etc. Now he claims it isn't ready. In your original commentary of 10/10/03, Karavassilis had written to your contributor [Olav Westerman]:After weeks of business travel I was catching up on your commentary archives and came across the follow-up piece re Karavassilis' "Energia" project. Is he an "honest self-deluded" individual, and was I thus too hard on him? Just a couple of notes by way of clarification as to his honesty:
My dear friend, ENERGIA generator is already working, no matter what you believe. We have announced to all of my investors the 1st live presentation of the generator in Athens in December. So, your opinion and your theories mean nothing since we have already built the generator and it's working. We have mechanics and physicians in our team.
4) Then Karvassilisis told me last October, and I quote exactly, by cut-and-paste: (I assume he meant physicists, not physicians.... though perhaps some of his investors might be better served by physicians if you know what I mean!)
...the measurments of ENERGIA generator's output will be executed by CRES (Center of Renewable Energy Sources) of Athens. All the results and the certifications will be available in our web-site just before Christmas. Our office in Athens will be open to anyone (investors or not) who want to see ENERGIA generator in action…
5) Karavassilis, of course, in violation of his promises just three weeks earlier about "October 03" test results being put on his web site, never did put up anything by way of any test results, or even any theory or any explanation whatever of what his machine supposedly does other than create energy from nothing.
6) Karavassilis now claims to you, that his "first working model" will be available by July 2004 (i.e. NOW), but of course if you ping him again in August...(or any other month thereafter, I suspect), you'll get the same postponement, bogus date shifting, excuse making, story line changing, he has done all along...and of course he claimed many times previously he ALREADY had the working model and wanted public investors who would immediately make many tens of thousands of percent on their investment, with customers already all lined up!
7) Let's not forget, Randi, that in your own commentary of 10/02/03 on Karavassilis you concluded by saying;Naturally that Karavassilis statement was completely bogus, as were previous statements he made that he would publicly publish full proof test results by October 2003. I contacted CRES and they never have tested his "invention."
The same old thing... These people are always just about ready to do their world-altering demonstration, but never quite get there. Olav [Westerman], please keep us informed on just how they avoid doing their promised demo in December....
8) When I first skeptically questioned Karavassilis about his claims to have an ALREADY-built and fully-operational manufacturable machine that could, (as he put it recently to you), "multiply the input power," I got a response, printed verbatim below, which I think better illustrates whether or not you are dealing with an "honest self-delusional" inventor,.... or a scam artist who had claimed many times previously to have an already-working machine, as he once again claims in his vitriolic message below.
You do not know who we are. You know only me, but behind me there is a team of people, scientists, investors, inventors. ENERGIA project is 7 year old project. 11 companies support us and we have investors all over the world. You speak to us thinking you are a God knowing everything. Well, "God" N-machines exist and we have one of them working for us. You are a stupid "close mind" scientist who think that knows everything. I did not ask your oppinion. Our investors are business men, scientists, teachers, students etc. and be sure that they can read and understand more than you can.
So keep your oppinion for yourself. It is illegal to accuse us and publish in internet that we are scammers and criminals. You have not the right to say anything you want about people who do not even know. I'll keep your name in our records. Right now, I prepare your file to inform my lawyer. If you send us one more email, or if you accuse us and try to hurt our project in any way... Our lawyer will start at once looking for your address. He will contact you and we will go to court. We can give to the court photos of our machine and papers or even a demonstration proving that we are not scammers or crimminals and then you will have a real problem. Please, continue sending stupid emails to us (it would help us if you put your address also) and you will find out if we are scammers or not. It will cost you but... "lessons cost".I am afraid that you are stupid like many others who believe that know everything. I advice you to study about "Zero Point Energy". You say that you fight scams but you are worst than scams. You are a part of a sick system that hates innovations. You do not know me but you say I am scammer and criminal. Well, according to your reaction, you are a piece of shit. Energia generator is working right this time so I do not care about you or your stupid believes. I do not speak about theories. We have 2 physicists in our team and they know a lot more than you know.
Mr. Lilley's final note: I've never invested in any energy scam and never will. I'm an Aerospace Engineer with a strong physics background. "Free Energy" machines that output more energy than what they see at input, do not exist, nor will they exist as long as Einstein's theory of relativity remains intact.
I can tell you that Olav Westerman never received any response, as he was promised. I tried to be kind to this man Karavassilis, but it seems that he's just another of the scam-artists, full of promises and anger at those who demand answers. It's now July 23 — where is the validation that you promised? Sir, you know exactly how and where to reach me; sic your lawyers on me right away.
We'll hear from him at the same time that Sylvia Browne responds….
THE ROAD PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
Reader Therion Ware tells us :
A very long time ago while I was a student, I got very interested in the Occult Arts and so on. And, I became very good at Tarot card reading, so much so, that I ended up propositioning the London Dungeon for a reading spot, and in the job interview I was asked to do a sample reading for a member of staff.
Why did I do this? Being a student, I needed the most money for the least effort. Needless to say, I got the job. And it was wonderful, even though I had to supply my own black robe, which I must say was rather better than what the regular staff were given....
At the time, I really believed in what I was doing. But then one day a man turned up, paid me my five pounds, and I couldn't read him at all, so it was — IMO — dead obvious that it was a test. Testers, saints, or serial killers have no body language, so they say....
So I rattled on about music, for some reason. And in the end he said, "Ok, so what do I do for a living?" I told him, "You're a consultant psychiatrist at St. Mary Hospital." He fell off his chair, 'cause I was right.
But a day or so later, I remembered that I'd seen him at a student lecture about problems students might have at South Bank, though at the time, I really believed I'd pulled a rabbit out of a hat. It was the later realization of the reality of what I'd done, that changed my opinion of these things.
Ok then, all I'm saying is that not everyone who does this kind of stuff is knowingly dishonest, and that sometimes a Socratic hammer might be better than a big steel one.I just wanted to make a point — well, an observation — about "cold reading."
My point has always been that many of these "readers" start out honest, really confident that they're doing the real thing, and then at a certain point discover that it's not genuine at all. At that point, they either decide that there's too much money in it to start thinking about ethics, or they quit. The faith healers also can go through this process, the successful ones being very much aware of their fakery. Even quack medical practitioners go through this process....
As for hammer-selection, I only have one size….
There is a strange doctor, Lawrence Dossey, MD, who has promoted belief in the effect of prayer on illness — a bizarre notion for a medical doctor — for years now. He has been the poster boy for the woo-woo folks who like to think that begging a deity will result in a cure. Here you see him in earnest discussion with parapsychologist Dr. Charles Tart, who not only believes in the same notion, but in a very large spectrum of others, as well, from Remote Viewing to Out-of-Body matters. Oh, to be the proverbial fly on the wall with these two…!
Dr. Bruce Flamm, mentioned here two weeks ago, has worked hard and long to show that the recent Columbia University-sponsored study of healing-by-prayer was a farce and a deception, and he now tells us that Dossey has enthusiastically embraced this study as definitive proof of his notion:
You may recall that faith healing guru Dr. Larry Dossey used the hopelessly flawed Columbia "miracle" study to demonstrate the "scientific validity" of faith healing. He did this in Southern California Physician, which is the official magazine of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the Orange County Medical Association, and several other medical associations. Specifically, Dossey said,
Controlled clinical trials and the peer-review process continue to serve us well. The most recent example of this process in action in the area of intercessory prayer is from Columbia Medical School — a positive, controlled clinical trail published in the respected, peer-reviewed Journal of Reproductive Medicine.
After many phone calls and letters Southern California Physician today informed me that they will publish my letter about the Columbia "miracle" study scandal in the August Issue. This letter ends with the statement,
All physicians should be keenly aware of the fact that no legitimate study has ever confirmed the existence of any paranormal or supernatural phenomena. Dr. Dossey cannot seem to accept this simple fact.
This is a remarkable statement from a professional academic journal. Choosing to eschew the usual "respectable" process of ignoring solid, legitimate, evidence that a published finding has been found to lack merit — and has even been found to be fraudulent — SCP has dared to extend its corporate neck, which may suffer a few nicks from the establishment as a result. I await the August issue with great interest. A doff of my hat and a bow to SCP!
As for Dossey's confident statement that "controlled clinical trials and the peer-review process continue to serve us well," I'm unable to find any such independently-arrived-at support of this claptrap. Dossey is simply wrong; if he were not, a major scientific paradigm-shift would have been in place by now. And please spare me the CIA/oil companies/atheists/Satanists/skeptics/communist/international conspiracy theories to explain why such a major breakthrough has been so effectively suppressed.
Reader Randall Wald was one of several who were amused by the MindGuard item last week:
If you liked MindGuard, you should check out the other pages created by Lyle Zapato. These include detailed instructions on the construction and use of aluminum foil mind-ray deflection beanies (including a discussion on whether tin foil works as well as aluminum); a description of how the New World Order has fooled everyone into thinking that the country "Belgium" actually exists; shocking proof that black helicopters are actually an evil, sentient life-form; and a religion devoted to the worship of Lord Kelvin (the guy after whom the temperature scale is named). Everything at this site is worth reading.
Anyway, the main URL is http://zapatopi.net/, though you might have guessed that from the MindGuard URL.
And reader George Spearing of Oamaru, New Zealand, where he tells us that their lack of an ozone layer — which of course facilitates easy mind ray penetration — requires constant AFDB (see ahead) usage, comments:
As usual, I read your website with interest — and was delighted to see that you have discovered "Zapatopi" and their "MindGuard" software! Just in case you missed it, you might like to check out their, "Aluminium Foil Deflector Beanies' (AFDB's) at http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html. Couple these with their MindGuard product, and you will be totally protected from the evil rays of those who are out to control us.
I cannot stress enough, that someone with your profile must embrace all the protection available from the charlatans and evil-doers who would seek to control your mind!
Thank you both for your concern. Here's a photo from the JREF Museum of Claptrap Devices of a similar cap using copper foil that was dropped off at the JREF a few years ago by a concerned chap who seriously told me I should wear it to protect my "frontal lobes" from deadly "E-rays," and I confess that there have been days when I've not worn the device. In fact, I've never worn it, which shows my callous rejection of modern science and technology, and my disdain for my own safety and health. By now, I'm sure, the E-rays have riddled my brain with their evil influences, and there's no more hope.
Reader Carl Fink explains to use what that mysterious substance is that last week's pages told you about when you try to dissolve commercially-prepared "un-natural" salt in water:
Silica is utterly harmless. Yes, it's sand, but it's also an ingredient in toothpaste, and found naturally in the tissues of plants. And, the Pathmark brand salt in my cupboard actually contains sodium silicoaluminate, another inert silicon compound and I'm sure there for the same reason.
Just in case people didn't know, the powder that doesn't dissolve when commercial salt is poured into water is not "sodium hydroxate" (no such thing — do they mean "hydroxide"?). It's silica. Commercial salt is mixed with a small amount of inert silicon dioxide powder to keep it flowing smoothly even when it absorbs some water.
Good news. So the evil salt-makers have been making us eat ground-up rocks along with the "hydroxate"? At least it's not sodium hydroxide, which is lye — or we'd be turning into soap….! We live in such a dangerous world….
Reader Diana Thoren discovers:
I am on page 82 in the book "The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America" edited by Kimberly Blaker. (I'm pretty sure Skeptic Magazine told me to read it.) I thought you would enjoy a quote for the day from our pal Pat Robertson, written in a fundraising letter in 1992:
The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.
Attaboy, Pat! You tell it like it is! They can't fool you, baby!
Please recall that this man campaigned to become president of the United States of America. If he'd won, he'd surely be using faith-based initiatives, invoking God in every speech, asking for prayers, and conferring with God on matters of national and international importance. That would be scary!
Wait a minute….
Reader Angelo Abela of Malta writes:
I read with much interest your book The Magic of Uri Geller and I just had to share my most genuine appreciation for this fine piece of literature. Sadly, prior to reading this book, I had heard much about Uri Geller but very little about you. Your efforts are doing much in dismissing frauds and dissolving myths for those people with an open mind. As a matter of fact I am a strong skeptic with regards to anything paranormal or divine. My job as a psychiatric nurse proved time and time again how the human brain can trick us into believing the most absurd of things. Your book really went in depth regarding the mechanics and psychology that fuel paranormal claims. I look forward to reading more of your work in the near future.
Angelo, you should have the updated version, The Truth About Uri Geller. There is a 10+-page added section of information that makes the case all the more convincing, so much so that all copies that we sell here at the JREF even have an inserted correction sheet, to fend off Geller's lawyers; we know how he adores firing off lawsuits at those who offend him, and he's very easily offended.
For those of you who may have the edition of the book without the insert, here's a scrap from it outlining one text change:
For purposes of clarity, here is the complete text of the July 1971 article as it appeared in the Jerusalem Post: Page 215: In paragraph 3, point f: Geller was not, technically, tried in a court of law and convicted . . . but was charged through the courts, and a settlement was ordered. The plaintiff in this case had claimed that Geller was doing tricks rather than performing paranormal feats, and the judge charged Geller court costs and awarded the plaintiff the price he had paid for admission to Geller's show.
Beersheba — The Magistrate's Court here yesterday upheld charges that Uri Geller, the self proclaimed telepathist, was guilty of breach of contract in that he promised to perform feats of telepathy, parapsychology, hypnotism and telekinesis, while in fact he merely employed sleight of hand and stage tricks.
Geller was ordered to foot court costs of I£20 and to repay the plaintiff — Uri Goldstein, a mechanical engineering student at the University of the Negev — the I£7.50 Goldstein had paid for a ticket to one of Geller's performances.
The court ruled with the plaintiff that Geller's performance C in contrast to his advertised promises C constituted a breach of the contract defined by the purchase of a ticket to the performances.LEGERDEMAIN RULED BREACH OF CONTRACT
I'm fascinated to see that the UK media are now referring regularly to Mr. Geller as a "magician"….
What follows is an old entry made on my Hotline, ten years ago. Dr. Marcello Truzzi, referred to here, was a sociologist at the University of Michigan in Ypsilanti, a perfect example of a fence-sitter, not willing to commit himself on any matter if he found it possible to waffle about it. The "psychic" referred to here as Roni Marcus was a Geller would-be, doing simple conjuring tricks for gullible scientists in Israel at first, then eventually ending up in the United States, where he was examined by a committee at Lawrence Livermore labs in California. This story of how he was exposed there is a long one, and for another time.
Truzzi had an extensive background in the circus arts, his family having been involved in that field for generations. Therefore, he was familiar with conjuring techniques and with magicians. He easily recognized tricks for what they were, but he steadfastly refused to formally designate what he surely knew to be tricks, as such; his academic reluctance to accuse anyone of deception extended to the whole rest of the world. He preferred to play the "neutral" game."
That was a great pity. Truzzi had the ability, the authority, and the position to be able to stop many of the tricksters in their tracks, but he chose to allow them to continue. I learned, after long exposure to Dr. Truzzi and his methods, that he would meticulously examine anything and everything that I communicated to him, in hopes of finding some weakness in the composition or the content that he could use to his advantage. I had to be very careful of my wording in order to prevent him from doing this, and I eventually tired of it; I simply had better things to do with my time, and I was convinced that Truzzi was more interested in playing word games than in actually accomplishing something. Thus my comment that you will read here.
(Dr. Beverly Rubik, referred to here, former director of the Center for Frontier Sciences at Temple University in Philadelphia, is now at the Institute for Frontier Science in Oakland, California. She is a leading proponent of "frontier sciences," and "complimentary medicine.")
My Hotline comment actually evoked an answer from Truzzi that took him off the fence — temporarily, at least, as you'll see up ahead.
I posted this on March 30th, 1994:
Dr. Truzzi is predictable. As with his formula treatment of all such matters, he could write his report right this minute (12 noon on March 30/94) without ever having met Roni. (Could this be precognition?) After a floundering, rambling account of the many items he witnessed, his report will say that though it can, just can, be suspected that perhaps, just perhaps, Mr. Marcus could have, just could have, maybe, just maybe, used certain modes of trickery in some, just some, of the items, there remains enough data here to suggest, just suggest, that he also displayed genuine psychic powers. That possibility — that all the laws of Nature have been violated — as with all of Truzzi's sage declarations, cannot be written off. Fence-sitting is a specialty of Dr. Truzzi; he's the world's reigning champion. I'm sure that he could attend a David Copperfield show and come away saying that some of it, just some of it, might, just might..... etc.
It is interesting to note that the "scientists" [physicists] who will "test" Mr. Marcus have already been primed to accept that it will be Marcus himself who runs the show, who changes the protocol to suit himself (a la Br'er Rabbit), does the "test" if and when he wants to, etc. To quote from a document that informs the committee just how bad the controls will be, we have:The "experts" who have designed the "tests" of Roni Marcus are falling into the same mode that the "experts" at SRI did back in the early '70s [with Uri Geller and others]. The suggested "tests" are — as expected — over-instrumented, a factor which appears to lend scientific validity to them but actually makes the phenomena much more difficult to observe. No protocol for selecting a pool of "target" images has been specified, either; this makes several of the "tests" useless and subject to wide interpretation and rationalization. As expected, substitutions and/or variations in the protocols are permitted. There are so many holes in the overly-complicated setup, that a conjuror, should there be one operating at the Roni Marcus "tests," would have a field-day. There is little comfort in knowing that such "experts" as Marcello Truzzi will be present.
He (RM) can produce his phenomena practically at will...He prefers (but does not insist) to choose the timing and order of the various feats himself, as he feels inspired.
Note: the automatic assumption is, that it is "inspiration" that dictates Mr. Marcus' choice, not necessity of the moment. The expected distractions during a session with Roni are itemized. Mind you, what's being described here is supposed to have been a "stunning demonstration of PK..." made under conditions that could support that description:
...as he manifested the phenomena. The phone rang often, the kid [Marcus' child] was quite noisy...with quite a lot of commotion.
And Roni, as happened at SRI in the '70s with another Israeli, will choose to "pass" on many experiments. Could those be the ones that a conjuror would have a hard time with, too? Will we learn of those "passes"? Or will those be considered "non-events" not worth reporting?
Those who will not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it, someone one said.
One can only hope that Mr. Marcus will not be tempted to throw in a little detected trickery just to help things along. After all, we know that real psychics have that unfortunate tendency. Too bad. And I wonder if Roni will try his luck at the tables in Las Vegas? After all, pseudo-scientifically speaking, he can't lose; if he wins money, he's psychic; if he loses, it's because psychics can't use their powers that way. Hmmmm.
Stay tuned. James Randi, The Uninvited.Scientific conditions, as you can see. And Paradise for a conjuror, if there had been one present. We can suspect that conditions will be tailored by Marcus to suit Marcus at the Berkeley session, too. The white rat is running the "experiments," remember. He may throw a tantrum if he doesn't like the conditions, and they did bring him a long way to do these carefully controlled tests.... Surely they won't allow his wife and toddler to be there, too? Of course not! These are Scientists!
Then this appeared on my Hotline on Thursday, 7th of April, 1994:
From: Marcello Truzzi. Date: April 5, 1994
I was just shown a copy of James Randi's "The 3rd 'Roni' bulletin" which makes reference to me. Since I am not a computer bulletin board participant, I have asked that the following be posted for me by a friend.
Once again James Randi shows his reluctance to check his "facts."
(1) I am not involved in testing Roni Marcus. Nor am I acting as a conjuring expert for those tests. I did, however, recommend several respected conjurors who could help evaluate Mr. Marcus's claims. The following was sent to the hotline on behalf of Marcello Truzzi by Dr. Beverly Rubik. Her address is: V2058A@VM.TEMPLE.EDU. [Note: perhaps not presently a valid e-mail address.] Presumably she can forward mail for Truzzi. Randi has read Truzzi's statement, but declined to respond directly. He explains his position on Truzzi in a short statement following Truzzi's.
Randi comments: most of those "conjurors" Truzzi suggested declined, but two did accept — both had expressed their prior belief in psychic claims, and one was a regular columnist for FATE Magazine. Not what I would call dispassionate consultants! Continuing:
(2) After Mr. Marcus's performances were first described to me, I told anybody who asked me that he seemed to be not only a trickster but that his effects can be found in magic catalogs. Randi never bothered to ask me for my views before pontificating about them. I have no reason to believe Mr. Marcus is anything but a conjuror. I said this to other magicians, and at least one of them spoke with Randi about Marcus and me. This strongly suggests Randi knows my position but has intentionally misrepresented it.
There's the epiphany, folks. Marcus' tricks were just so obvious that even Truzzi decided that they weren't remotely acceptable as psychic feats. And no, I was not aware of this rush of common sense by Dr. Truzzi until he posted these comments. I am posting this here to belatedly admit my ignorance of the facts.
(3) Contrary to Randi's nonsense about my allegedly being a "fence sitter" towards psychic claims, my skepticism is documented and unchanged. A clear and convincing scientific case for psi has not yet been made. I remain a nonbeliever in psi, but I do not share Randi's strident and dismissive posture towards parapsychology.
Marcello, I would have said that no case at all has been made for psi, let alone a "clear and convincing scientific" one — which would be the only acceptable one, in any case. And here, Truzzi invented an opinion for me, describing my attitude as, "strident and dismissive." Well, strident, yes — but for excellent reasons. I have stated repeatedly, and had stated well more than ten years ago, that I am in favor of competent, well-designed and properly-implemented research in parapsychology. I still hold that stance.
What follows is my explanation for non-communication with Truzzi that appeared on my Hotline:
To anyone interested: Many years ago I informed Dr. Marcello Truzzi that I would no longer communicate with him, acknowledge his letters or calls, or in any way respond to him. I did this because of serious differences that developed between us. That is still my stance. I will continue to not "suggest," "misrepresent" and/or "ask" anything of or about Dr. Truzzi. I will not be drawn into a discussion, and I have no other comment on the matter.From: James Randi. Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994.
Life is complicated. Dr. Truzzi is no longer with us to discuss this matter, though I sincerely believe that he would not ever have abandoned his savagely "neutral" attitude on all claims of paranormal powers, no matter what had been done — as we find at present — to show that the field of parapsychology is riddled with incompetence and, dare I say, some dishonesty. He was strongly committed to acceptance, though as you see in this example, he adopted a sensible and realistic view. His fence-setting did endear him to the media, who flourished him as an example of an established scientist who would at least lend his possible acceptance to paranormal claims, and he was often seen in the media as some sort of validation for ridiculous accounts that appeared there. He knew better, but I believe that he chose to favor the "dark side" to maintain the profile that he had. I regret that decision.
Reader "Andrew" writes, re what he calls, "Bad science in Stereophile Magazine":
The article I provide a link to (www.stereophile.com/features/141/) is, in summary, the editors of Stereophile stating that they do not use double-blind testing because it gives them different — "wrong" — answers. ABX is the terminology used for a particular kind of double-blind audio testing, a very easy kind to do. In effect, Stereophile Magazine is "dowsing" for whatever equipment they are promoting each month. Using techniques beloved of dowsers everywhere, they always find the right (usually more expensive) equipment!While this is not, strictly speaking, a claim of paranormal powers, you will recognize many familiar elements. Stereophile Magazine, and similar publications, promotes various audio equipment, fancy power cords, gold speaker wire, that sort of thing. They run tests which "prove" that these are better.
Well, yes, this is a paranormal claim, Andrew, if there actually is an advantage to having speaker leads that conduct a signal because they're treated magically — the only description one can make of the "special processes" they go through…. I've had run-ins with Stereophile before. Refer to www.randi.org/jr/03-23-2001.html. We discussed doing proper tests of their ridiculous claims for such devices as the "Tice Clock," a simple and definitive procedure that would certainly show the truth behind the nonsense — but they opted out half-way into the discussion. I also pursued George Tice himself, and found that he kept running away from proper tests, even though I had top audio people and the very best equipment available to do the work. It was ever thus. Bold claims, then retreat…. And they're never embarrassed, because they know that the suckers will continue to buy the products.
I still have Thursday, September 23rd, and Wednesday, September 29th in Frankfurt, open during my European trip this year. The rest of the 22-day tour (Sept. 21 to Oct. 12) is packed solidly, thanks.
Registrations continue coming in for TAM3…..
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