Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [157]
But I insisted on a coup de grâce. We had already asked Linda several times if her eyes were shut under the blindfold when she was reading. She had insisted that she shut her eyes tightly. I wanted to prove that this was not so; we needed a way to see her open eye as she read the newspaper. To this end, I carefully told one of the men exactly what to do. He lay on the floor and looked upward, the newspaper blocking his view of Linda's face. I held the newspaper, and removed the tape "wing" I had applied. Linda was now able to read. I told her to do so, and as she began I snatched the newspaper away. The man on the floor rose to his feet. "I saw her eye," he said, "and it was open."
One more thing remained to be done. The staff and I returned to an anteroom where the tape recorder was set up. Into the mike were read the final results of the day's testing. As we were at this, the door opened and an elderly man who I later learned was the project director burst into the room and denounced one and all for bringing a magician into the lab. He disassociated himself from the tests and left. In a report published later in Science magazine, researcher Joseph Zubin told of the termination of the tests. The report ended with a brief and ungrateful remark. "It was found useful," it said, "to have a professional magician present." "Useful"? Yes; "necessary" would have been a better word.
If she expected to find another naïve researcher in Professor James A. Coleman of American International College, Linda Anderson was in for another surprise. At a press meeting arranged in Auburn, Massachusetts, Coleman offered Linda one hundred dollars if she could convince a panel that she could see supernormally. One member of the panel was Sidney Radner, a man who had long experience with magic and who I was sure would not be fooled. I was also present but had been brought in unseen because it was thought that Linda would bolt if she knew I was there.
A reporter for the Boston Record American was able to see in much the same way Linda had been able to, using the same blindfold. The mask having provoked controversy, Professor Coleman suggested that Linda merely close her eyes and not peek. Linda demurred, but finally agreed that Coleman could put tape over her eyes. As I had previously discovered, her makeup was heavy and the tape would not hold. It was finally secured in place after some of the makeup was cleared away, and as chinks began to develop Coleman blocked them with zinc oxide ointment, a clever method, since the material was quite opaque and stayed in place well. Although Linda was able to read a few words whenever a chink developed, she was struck blind, as planned, when repairs were made.
There were complaints about the "pressure" of the tape. There were long periods of nothing happening, then Linda reading a few words of the text, Coleman applying a dab of ointment, and more long waits. It was a fiasco, and Coleman held on to his money. Mr. Radner was not easy on Miss Anderson. He said her performance should be considered a variety act—nothing more. There were grumblings all around. Finally, Coleman asked Linda's father if he would like to comment on the tests that had been done in New York. The father said that he could not, since the results had not yet been decided. Although he was unaware of it, the verdict on the New York tests had long been in. I was called upon to comment on the tests, which I did, to the consternation of the performers.
Linda Anderson, after one more failure, faded from public view. She had provided police with a description of the whereabouts of, one Kenneth Mason, a five-year-old boy from Lowell, Massachusetts, who had been missing for four months. Linda had said that the boy would be found in a