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Originally Posted by troutman
I've told this story a few times here:
A "psychic" wanted to retain me to sue a newspaper on the grounds of discrimination, for refusing to run her ads. I told her she would have to prove that she was psychic - I asked her "what am I thinking right now"? She hung up the phone.
Anyone could have guessed what I was thinking, and she couldn't even do that.
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Oh, oh... can I play? I'm seeing you, sitting, trying to stiffle a laugh.... and... and you're thinking.... something with a cow... no... wait, it's a bull..... I can't quite make it out.... a bull..... and.... Marc-Andre Pouliout...... no... wait.... his nickname maybe.... no maybe it's really him.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Puxlut
I just finished reading Houdini's biography and he was a HUGE debunker of spiritualists even though he was a beleiver of life after death (he had a weird relationship with his mother and spent fortunes going to seances to try to talk with her)
He ultimately realized that they were all fake and spent years and alot of his own money traveling across the states proving they were fake. He was a member of Scientific American where he posted a reward for a real "medium"... the reward was never claimed.
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James Randi actually explained this on Carson once. Houdini actually offered a reward if he couldn't duplicate the "amazing feat" from any medium. While that is pretty good and the reward was never claimed, it didn't go quite as far as Randi. He will pay $1M if you can prove your "abilities" to an independant panel.
The difference is, of course, that if I had real ESP (lets say), I could show Houdini and he could figure out some trick way to fake it. Doesn't necessarily mean I was faking it, just that he could duplicate it somehow.
Randi just asks you to prove it, with certain controls in place to ensure no cheating. All he asks Sylvia Browne to do is 10 readings for 10 people that actually believe in her. Give him (Randi) the readings, and he'll shuffle them up then give them to the 10 people. His point is that the 10 people should be easily able to pick out which of the 10 readings are for them, but if they are so generic that they could apply to anyone (and they will be), they'll be wrong more than they are right.
After initially agreeing to be tested and claim the $1M, she has never actually taken him up on it. Her latest excuse is that he is not a "Godly" man. Whatever.