What do you psychokinesis enthusiasts think of THIS?

Question

This video is 30 min.long...but the first 2 min. were fascinating to me!

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=31yilcp8w9

Answer 1

The spoon bending trick (performance?) at the start of the tape was interesting enough but since it was not being observed by scientist (or possibly anyone else rather than maybe a camera person) and not under controlled conditions it doesn't really offer any evidence for psychokinesis. Also, I didn't hear the person claim that he was performing PK and not a magic trick.

In fact I wonder if such tricks confuse people about psychokinesis in that they expect it to be demonstrated on spoons (granted more interesting) than having to plow through statistical analysis of trials on random number generators and other such boring task to see a small effect of influence.

Then again perhaps these more interesting demonstrations (tricks?) are what motivated scientist to study the question in the first place.

I found the video a worthwhile historical overview (especially with the second part provided by Red H) of PK research.

Psiexploration

Answer 2

Pretty good. I first saw it demonstrated in the 1960's the Russians have always been advanced in that area. (they didn't have the religious hangups)

Answer 3

Magician school helped on these two introductory tricks!

The only part of the pen that moves is the metal clip. It's a magnet.

The spoon is pre-prepared and he's pinching it to make it bend. Straightening the spoon without taking it off-camera would impress and possibly stump me.

However, the skill with which they are performed is indeed impressive!

The video cited outdated information which is no longer valid in science: the brain does not use 7% of its matter, it only uses 7% in any given second... trust me on this, there were LOTS of studies done to invalidate any claim that there are unused portions of the brain.

The claim that the electronically-generate random numbers can't be predicted has been proved false many times.

That aside, most of the information given was merely a reporting of the claims, so it's not debunkable because it factually relates what people are saying (no claims about the factual status of the claims were made, though a bias in favor of PK's existence was clear, whether valid or not).

I like that they debunked the Russian... that's a very famous debunking.

Uri Geller's failure on Johnny Carson seems to fly in the face of the Russian woman's (Kulagina's) claim that she needed to prepare. Additionally, most magicians can perform on-cue, while most people with psychic stuff happening seem to more or less do it accidentally. Uri Geller is a fake in many ways, but I do believe that examining his claims in a scientific way would be best.

Rhine's been dismissed a number of times, but never debunked. His work in parapsychology is actually fairly important, and it's always sought to be as scientific as our understanding will allow.

I'm posting a link to the second half, which talks more about the scientific side of PK studies.`

Answer 4

In the first video, the pen fell over.  It's blurry and low resolution, but I saw nothing to indicate that the kid was doing it by waving his hands.  There could have been a string attached, the person behind the camera could have been blowing on it, the table could have been vibrating, and the kid didn't put the pen on a very stable surface to begin with - the edge of a glass?  Really.  If he could make it move, why not just put in the middle of the table and do it from there?  For all we know, he just made the video 10 or 12 times until the pen fell over at the right time.

In the second one, the spoon was already bent.  This is an old trick, very easy to do on video because you can only see two dimensions.  The spoon didn't appear bent looking at it straight on, or edge-on at the right angle, and then the kid slowly rotates the spoon so you can see the bent end - but it makes it look like it's bending itself.  The other person was right, Uri Gellar somehow made a career out of this old trick, but it's just that - a trick.

Answer 5

Eerie...looks like we have some young Uri Gellers out there.

Answer 6

How interesting that Uri ended up rich because he was really a water witch/dowser.

Those boys learned the trick from illusionists not Geller.

Geller under stood the phemomina of metal fatigue the spoon he broke was fatigued under the stress of his fingers working it back and forth as the model provided resistance.  And it was a cheap spoon.

This doesn't prove existance or non existance just that some people are clever.  Including the teen boys in the beginning of the film.

Answer 7

No matter what you may think of this video or Uri Geller, I watched my 8 year old daughter as a spoon literally seemed to melt around her finger. Her grandmother was showing her and her cousin (same age) the "trick". Extend the index finger, palm up. Balance the spoon across the finger. Gently rub the spot where the spoon crosses the finger. Within seconds, the spoon just dripped around her finger. I cannot do this "trick" and was stunned to see it happening. This was not a "prepared"  trick spoon, it was one of my own heavy gauge stainless ones from the silverware drawer. Doubt if you want, I know the phenomena can be real.