Related Terms • psi

Definition: Despite years of pleading for parapsychological researchers to consult with professional illusionists and magicians about the proper sorts of controls which should be set up to detect fakery in experiments on psychics, none had ever bothered. They were warned about how easily they could be tricked, but they either didn't believe the warnings or simply didn't care.

As a result, James Randi instituted Project Alpha on the theory that if the researchers would not believe intellectual arguments, then they might accept the power of a real-life example of just how vulnerable they were. He convinced two young men, amateur conjurers themselves, to volunteer for a series of experiments at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Randi had only recently contacted the researchers there, recommending that they consult with an illusionist, but he was informed that they could manage fine on their own - so, the idea that there could be people who might try to trick them was recently on their minds when the two young men arrived.

These two newly-minted "psychics" produced a plethora of paranormal phenomena for the researchers: spirit photographs, spoon bending, moving objects with their minds, and more. This was all received very enthusiastically and written about with great excitement - although when Randi was able to see the accounts and demonstrate how some of the actions could have been preformed, the researchers quickly began inserting words like "apparent" and other modifiers in their descriptions. Eventually, Randi revealed the entire scheme, essentially making the researchers look very naive and foolish.

Shortly after that, the Parapsychological Association issued a warning to all members, suggesting that they should seriously consider including a professional illusionist when devising experiments if they want their results to have a strong possibility of being considered credible. Randi had very effectively demonstrated how readily parapsychologists could be tricked by even an amateur illusionist.

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