Banachek's Project Alpha would be a good show for a History & systems and class if the course covered the long and interesting battle over whether psychical research would or would not be included in the "new psychology." Most such courses and textbooks ignore (one is tempted to say "suppress") this episode.
Chris ....... Christopher D Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M6C 1G4 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo On 2012-06-09, at 5:47 PM, Gerald Peterson <peter...@svsu.edu> wrote: > He does a super show. We managed to have him visit us a few years ago and I > did his Intro, but this was before his current Project Alpha show, which > sounds fascinating! Would be a good show for a History and Systems class? > > > G.L. (Gary) Peterson,Ph.D > Psychology@SVSU > > > On Jun 9, 2012, at 4:45 PM, Christopher Green <chri...@yorku.ca> wrote: > >> Y''know, guys, the BemBash-alooza is getting a little >> methinks-thou-doth-protest-too-much-ish now. >> >> On related, but not so personal note, I went to see the "mentalist" who goes >> by the stage name Banachek last night. He was originally trained, as a >> teenager, by James Randi to fool psychologists at Washington U. who were >> conducting "scientific" investigations of psi phenomena into believing he >> was the real deal. It worked; they "certified" him. Then Randi and he (and >> one other "plant") held a press conference to expose what they had done. >> >> Banachek's current show, "Project Alpha," is all about deconstructing >> telepathy. He demonstrates a bunch of classic telepathy and telekinesis >> phenomena, showing them to be "tricks." He also does the famous 19th-century >> "Spirit Cabinet," Uri Geller-style fork-bending/breaking, and a past-lives >> regression (with two audience members who say they believe in past lives). >> His ongoing commentary includes mentions of a bunch of philosophers and >> psychologists who tried to deomonstrate psi phenomena, such as Henry >> Sidgwick, Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Metzger, Duke psychologist Karl >> Zener (who invented the psi cards with the circle, square, star, plus, wavy >> lines). No mention of William James though. >> >> He does all of this so apparently effortlessly that some True Believers have >> claimed he is deluded about not having true psychical powers. :-) >> >> All in all, a very entertaining evening. >> >> Chris >> --- >> Christopher D. Green >> Department of Psychology >> York University >> Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 >> Canada >> >> chri...@yorku.ca >> http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ >> ========================== >> >> >> >> On 2012-06-09, at 3:54 PM, Paul C Bernhardt wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> Do we know exactly when Bem did the studies that were published in JPSP? >>> >>> If he'd been doing studies for decades he could eventually have gathered >>> enough type 1 errors to result in the publication we saw in JPSP. >>> >>> Paul >>> >>> On Jun 9, 2012, at 2:23 PM, Michael Palij wrote: >>> >>>> Just another comment on the above: Bem has a website which can be >>>> accessed at: >>>> http://dbem.ws/ >>>> >>>> On it, Bem has a list of his publications, organized chronologically and >>>> in other groups. If one examines the chronological list, Bem's first >>>> publication involving PSI don't appear until 1990; see: >>>> >>>> http://dbem.ws/pubs.html#1990 >>>> >>>> He does have an 1989 book review of a book on parapsychology but >>>> nothing on parapsychology or the ganzfeld experiments before that >>>> (it appears the first ganzfeld experiment paper was published in 1994). >>>> >>>> So, if Bem was doing PSI work circa 1978-1982, why was he in the >>>> "closet", so to speak, about his work in parapsychology? What happened >>>> around 1990 to make Bem "go off the rails"? >>> >>> >>> --- >>> >>> You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca. >>> >>> To unsubscribe click here: >>> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=18295 >>> >>> (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) >>> >>> or send a blank email to >>> leave-18295-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> --- >> You are currently subscribed to tips as: peter...@svsu.edu. >> To unsubscribe click here: >> http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=18296 >> or send a blank email to >> leave-18296-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu >> > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: chri...@yorku.ca. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62bd92&n=T&l=tips&o=18299 > or send a blank email to > leave-18299-430248.781165b5ef80a3cd2b14721caf62b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18304 or send a blank email to leave-18304-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
