Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [109]
Determining the truth about N Rays would have required a double-blind experiment. In such a test, the experimenter is unaware of the expected outcome, and those who control the test and judge the results are also not told what is expected, or what proportion of the samples are expected to be different, and so on. In this way, no presumed result (and therefore bias) is possible. Parapsychology needs many more experiments of this nature, and until the tendency to refuse such tests is overcome it will remain, at best, an unproved idea.
Three examples of my recent investigations of "miracles" that fail to pass double-blind testing illustrate the point. The first involved one Stanley L. Wojcik, whose card advertises, among other specialties, "Ghost Hunting" and "Séances." Stanley appeared with me on "The Candy Jones Show" on WMCA radio recently. He brought with him his "dowsing rods," which were one of the two general varieties used by dowsers. His rods consisted of two coat hangers straightened out to form long L-shaped pieces. These are held, one in each hand, so that it is exceedingly difficult to maintain them parallel to one another and horizontal. The slightest tipping of the hand causes a rod to swing about wildly. Deluxe versions of these rods have lubricated bearings in special handles. The idea is that the dowser advances with the rods held parallel and extending straight out in front until some object or substance is "sensed," at which point the rods either come together or diverge. Of course, it is simple for the operator to unintentionally (or quite consciously!) tilt the hand slightly, causing the rod to behave in a manner quite out of proportion to the small impetus given it.
Wojcik allowed himself to fall into a rather neat trap on the program. First, I innocently asked him if he would demonstrate how the rods behaved when detecting a small pile of coins. He produced coins from his pocket (I would not have supplied the coins, lest he claim that mine were "special" ones!) and put them on a small table in the WMCA studio. The dowsing rods obediently crossed precisely over the coins as he approached. Next, I asked if it would still work when the coins were covered with a piece of paper. Of course it would, and this was demonstrated. In an envelope? Naturally! This test, too, was a success. Now I was ready. I produced nine other envelopes, each with a bit of paper inside to simulate the lump made by the coins. Wojcik and the host of the show, Miss Jones, looked away as I selected at random a single card from among ten numbered cards I had in my pocket. The target envelope containing the coins was then placed among the other nine envelopes in the position indicated by the number on the selected card, and the ten envelopes were placed in a row on the floor. Wojcik was invited to find the target.
A very slight tilt of the right hand has caused the rod to veer to the left. This supposedly indicates the presence of oil, water, metal, or other underground material.
Dowsing rods: two stiff wires, each bent at a right angle at one end and held loosely and parallel in the neutral position.
A slight tilt of each hand causes a dramatic spreading of the rods. This, too, is said to indicate the presence of the material that is sought.
We did the test several times. Wojcik failed every time. At one point, after identifying the wrong envelope, he blamed it on a metal pipe he said was below the floor. I was ready for that, and we simply did not place an envelope in that spot for the other tests. The dowser, who had claimed fantastic percentages previously, scored zero. During the tests he had entered into conversation with me and had learned that I had no belief in an afterlife. When the tests were finished, I hit him with a fact that demolished his objection that there had been other metal masses in the room that "threw me off." He had averred that metal in the area was fatal to results, yet he had unerringly located the pile of coins under the paper