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From: trt@rti-sel.UUCP (Tom Truscott)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Parascience
Message-ID: <265@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 10:38:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.265
Posted: Fri Jun 21 10:38:54 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Jun-85 02:32:33 EDT
References: <272@sri-arpa.ARPA> <216@unccvax.UUCP> <458@oakhill.UUCP>
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 33

> ... Experiments show that almost anyone can bias these devices
> (i.e. no super psychic needed) and that animals also cause biases.
> ...
> Given the above I find it somewhat interesting that many people think there
> have not been reproducible experiments to indicate PSI functioning.

The Amazing Randi has offered a $10,000 prize for anyone who
can come up with any such experiment.  Please take him up on it.

On my desk is the "Top Secret" perpetual motion toy.
Lots of fun for passers-by.
If a 'PSI device' were neatly packaged it might make a bundle
for the inventor.  If it reproducibly demonstrated PSI
it would be an incredible thing.
I am sure every physics, engineering, and psychology department
in the country would be willing to shell out > $100 to get one.
For example, at Duke "J. B. Rhyne" University all the freshmen
in psych classes have to be guinea pigs for various experiments.
I am sure people would be delighted to participate
in a PSI experiment that actually worked.

I worked for two years at a psychophysiology lab in Duke Med Center.
We had an EEG machine and a small PDP-11 with plenty of A/D and D/A.
One of the principal investigators was an ESP buff
who spent many an evening doing precognition and telepathy experiments.
He especially liked doing FFTs on the 'evoked potentials'.
Every now and then he would get very excited about a 'positive result'
but later he would conclude it was not, alas, 'significant'.
I concluded that people with competency in statistics tend to
repress PSI ability in others, and that if only he were not
such an expert the experiments would have worked
and he would have gotten some nice papers out of them.
	Tom Truscott