Q. Why is it that the supernatural powers we hear being claimed are never
performed in front of cameras or recorded on electronic instruments?
A. There is a long history of anomalous phenomena being electrically
recorded and photographed under strictly supervised laboratory conditions, going
back more than sixty years.
Probably the best-known of such cases are the sessions that Uri Geller spent
at Stanford Research Institute, which were virtually all filmed.
One such
filmed session shows the following. A one gramme weight is placed on the
scale pan of an electronic balance and the balance is covered by a glass bell
jar. Geller is not allowed to touch or approach the balance. The
film shows the balance registering first an increase in weight and then a
decrease in weight. A little later, Geller is shown causing a full-scale
deflection on a gaussmeter (an instrument for measuring magnetic fields).
James "The Amazing" Randi
continues to claim that he has exposed Uri Geller and shown how his
"tricks" are performed. In reality, neither Randi nor anyone
else has shown how Geller could perform by trickery the effects captured on film
at SRI.
It may well be true that magicians like Randi can fool most of the
people (including me) most of the time; and it may well be true that scientists
are easy to fool if you know how. But it is categorically false to say
that magicians' tricks enable you to cause a scale under a bell jar to register
an increase and decrease in weight, and a gaussmeter to register a full scale
deflection under the conditions imposed -- and filmed being imposed -- at SRI.
Randi's only suggestion for these phenomena is the hilarious idea that Geller
caused the effects by jumping up and down on the floor -- unnoticed by the film
camera. But the scientists conducting the experiments not only jumped up and down before
testing began, they also kicked the table and knocked the bell jar to eliminate
such experimental artefacts.
Films of Geller at SRI and other individuals in other laboratories can be
bought and viewed by anyone. That they continue to be ignored raises the central
question that parapsychology should be addressing: What evidence for
paranormal phenomena would 'skeptics' be willing to accept?
British skeptic Dr Jonathan Miller was candid enough to admit on television a
few years ago, "Even if you showed me the evidence for homeopathy, I still
wouldn't believe in it."
The only difference between Dr Miller and other skeptics is that he is honest
enough to admit that no facts are going to change his mind.
