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: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18299 or send a blank email to leave-18299-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
