Q. How come every single famous 'psychic' was eventually unmasked as a
phony?
A. It's true to say that there always have been and always will be phonies
and charlatans claiming psychic powers either for profit or for notoriety.
But it's wrong to say that every psychic has been exposed as fraudulent.
Quite apart from famous names like Uri Geller, there are dozens of individuals
all over the world who have repeatedly performed paranormal feats in controlled
conditions.
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In England there are Nicholas Williams, Stephen North, Julie
Knowles and a number of juveniles who remain anonymous such as Andrew G. In
France there is Jean-Pierre Girard. In Japan there is Masuaki Kiyota and in
Russia there are numerous individuals, the best known of which is Nina Kulagina.
Working with English metal benders, John Hasted, professor of experimental
physics at Birkbeck College, University of London, has devised extensive methods of
guarding against conscious or unconscious fraud. He has for example implanted
microscopic strain gauges in metal specimens linked electrically to a chart
recorder to provide a record of the forces imposed on the specimen. He has
recorded many instances of stresses being registered simultaneously from three
or more gauges, and extensive deformation of the specimen, under circumstances
that rule out fraud. In one famous case, a large piece of aluminium was twisted
out of shape by Andrew G., a 12-year old boy, from a distance of 30 feet.
Doctors Charles Crussard and Jean Bouvaist in France have
recorded metal bending by Jean-Pierre Girard in glass
tubes that have been completely sealed under conditions that have been examined
by Hasted and others. Working under the auspices of a French commercial metals
company, the investigators have gone to enormous lengths to ensure the effects
they are examining were produced paranormally and not by normal methods.
For example each metal sample was hallmarked so it could not
be substituted, and all its dimensions measured accurately before and after
bending. The hardness of the metal was tested before and after and the
crystalline structure of the metal examined by taking 'residual strain
profiles'. The structure was also examined under the electron microscope and
micro photographs taken. In addition the chemical composition of the metal was
examined before and after.
These observations revealed a number of structural anomalies
such as a local hardening of the kind produced by compression forces of many
tons, but apparently originating internally.
Hasted has adopted similar rigorous precautions to rule out fraud. For example
he and the French researchers have been able to get subjects to bend metal rods
that it is beyond the strength of any normal person to bend. Crussard has
videotaped Jean-Pierre Girard bending a metal rod by gently stroking it, yet
producing a bend that requires some three times the strength of a normal person.
Hasted has also reported the phenomenon of a metal-bender turning part
of a spoon 'as soft as chewing gum' merely by stroking but under closely
controlled conditions that enabled the plastic deformation to be verified by
Hasted himself and where the chemical composition and weight of the spoon was
examined before and after. It is possible to soften a metal spoon chemically but
only by causing a corrosion that would leave a number of alteration such as
weight loss, and no such changes were detected.
The usual response to such experiments is "How come
scientists have discounted them? They must have been frauds musn't
they?"
What has tended to happen in the past two decades, especially since CSICOP
has been on the case, is that if anyone claiming psychic powers shows any signs
of gaining scientific credibility, then a concerted attempt is made to ridicule
and publicly debunk that person, showing how he or she "could have"
faked their results. These "explanations" are usually
preposterously contorted exercises but as long as the mud sticks they
serve their purpose. Thereafter the "skeptics" can always
claim "so and so was caught cheating and exposed long ago".
No-one
ever bothers to check the real facts and most people dimly recall the public
notoriety that the "skeptics" achieved simply by making accusations of
fraud.
