Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2(pesnta.1.2) 9/5/84; site idsvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!idsvax!steiny
From: steiny@idsvax.UUCP (Don Steiny)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Inquiry on Reincarnation (Randi)
Message-ID: <151@idsvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Jun-85 16:04:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: idsvax.151
Posted: Sat Jun  1 16:04:51 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 18:14:52 EDT
References: <611@digi-g.UUCP> <27500079@ISM780B.UUCP>
Organization: Independent Consultant - C/UNIX, Natural Language
Lines: 56

> 
	Several years ago I was living in a motel doing a
out of town consulting project and I turned on the television
to a show by Randi.

	The show was one of the more remarkable things I have seen.

	A fellow was preported to have "telekenisis", the ablility
to move objects at a distance.   He would balance a card on a
pin in an inverted aquarium and move it with "the power of his
mind."  He was hot, he had been on "That's Incredible" and 
he was rated the #1 psysic by National Enquirer for years
in a row.  He had been studied at universities, and no one 
could catch him faking.

	Randi showed footage of him doing his trick and then
footage of himself figuring out how to do it.  He found that
an aquarium does not seat itself around the edges perfectly,
and that by blowing under the edge, he could do the same trick.

	Randi called the guy up and told him that he was from
some T.V. show that wanted to display his remarkable powers.
The guy shows up, not having any idea of what Randi was up to.
Because of the way Randi had set it up, the meeting was filmed.

	Randi arraigned it do the guy could not do the trick by
making sure that the wrong corner of the aquarium was available
(or something like that).   The guy could not do his trick.
The guy became noticably adgitated and started pacing around
making excuses.  Then Randi said "let me try."  Randi did the
trick and the guy flipped out.

	The guy broked down and told his whole story.  He was
horribly abused as a child, he was totally illerate, and he
had thought up the trick in prison.  He felt it was his
right to do so because of a hallucination he had while
he was a child locked in a closet by his father.  He passed
lie detector tests because he had learned to "get outside
himself," dissassociate,  when his father was beating him
when he was young.  He would imagine that he was watching
himself being beat, taking a lie detector test or whatever.

	One of the things I found most enlightening was when
Randi asked him if it was easier to fool adults or children.
He said that adults were much easier to fool because they
*want* to believe in psysic powers.

	I believe this guy's story is a metaphor for Geller.
Geller will not do his tricks for either Randi or Johnny
Carson.  (Johnny Carson is also an excellent  magician).

pesnta!idsvax!steiny
twg!idsvax!steiny
Don Steiny - Computational Linguistics
109 Torrey Pine Terr.  Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060
(408) 425-0832