Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [156]
Time for another reader experiment, please. Begin reading a newspaper aloud. Have someone suddenly place a piece of blank paper over the part being read, and continue "reading" as long as you can. You'll be surprised to find that you will know as many as four or five words that follow the last word you read. The reason is that most persons "scan" ahead a bit when reading out loud, and it is this advance information that you are recalling. Linda must have discovered this fact with great delight. It accounted for her ability to briefly continue reading when the area around her right eye was covered.
After the break, another test was started, but this time I asked if I might apply the blindfold, and I was permitted to do so. I affixed the same blindfold to Linda, and added a few bits of black tape to the obvious separations near her nose. She required a short settling-in period before she started each test, and we sat there waiting. Linda asked for some chewing gum, which was always kept on hand "to make her comfortable," I was told. I knew the real reason for it, but wanted my colleagues (dare I say that?) to notice it. She began chewing the gum rather savagely, contorting her face grotesquely until the tape loosened at the edges. Then she announced she was ready—but I wasn't.
I suggested to her that she should not chew gum, because her movements had dislodged the tape. She apologized, but not, I thought, without a slight gritting of teeth. We attempted to reapply the tape, but Linda wanted to be excused for a moment. When she returned and sat down to suffer my attentions again, I noted that she had layered on some makeup. I pointed out that the tape would not stick to the makeup and held up a moistened tissue. "Let's wash it off," I offered. Linda objected, saying that soapy water gave her acne. "Then we needn't worry," I countered, attacking her cheeks with the tissue, "because this is witch hazel." I could not resist using the word. The devil made me do it.
At last properly blindfolded, Linda sat there in silence. She yawned a great deal and brought her fingers up to her face, but each time there seemed to be a break in the seal, I replaced it. It was a little like continually picking the scab off a wound, and Linda got very angry with me. She asked to speak with her father alone. We left her and the father together for a few minutes, and while we waited outside I offered a confident prediction that the tape would again be loose when we returned. Sure enough, it was, and the father told us that Linda felt uncomfortable when blindfolded this way.
We began the final chapter in the drama. I offered to remove the blindfold altogether, but she objected, saying she needed total darkness for her powers to work. I assured her that I would supply that for her, and I meant it. I cut from a piece of black cloth tape two ellipses just big enough to cover her eye orbits and put them in place. If tears could have seeped through the tape, Linda would have drowned us. She was unable to see with this most minimal of all blindfolds. The area of her face that the scientists thought she was using to "see" with was well exposed, so she had no excuse.
In a very disturbed state, and obviously wishing to get something out of the session, she demanded to return to the previous blindfold. I agreed, and even said that I would not put the annoying tape on the edges! She was ecstatic, and the white-coated figures around me thought I was mad. But I had an ace to play from my sleeve.