Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [23]
1. It is claimed that the subject does not seek money or fame, and thus no motive to deceive exists. Examples: The two girls had no stake in the deception that could have brought them money and, indeed, seemed to suffer more than they profited. The assumption made is that only money and notoriety are plausible motives. Ego and just plain fun are not thought to be sufficient. The Fox sisters, whose innocent fun in cracking their toe bones led to the founding of the major crackpot religion known as spiritualism, certainly had no other motive, yet what they started grew and got away from them in no time at all.
2. The subject (a child, peasant, or sweet little old lady) is said to be incapable of the techniques required; lack of sophistication precludes deception. Examples: Elsie and Frances were children and therefore not suspected of being able to use a camera with any skill or of being able to produce the fairy cutouts. Today, Russian parapsychologists are fuddled by a Mrs. Kulagina, a peasant who uses common conjurer's tricks rather clumsily to deceive them.
3. It is said that the subject has failed to pass tests designed to determine if the necessary skill is present. Examples: Gardner wrote that he "tested her [Elsie's] powers of drawing, and found that... the fairy figures which she had attempted in imitation of those she had seen were entirely uninspired, and bore no possible resemblance to those in the photograph." In France recently, Jean-Pierre Girard was tested for strength by his mentor, Charles Crussard, to see if he could physically bend the bars that he seemed to be bending psychically. Crussard reported that Girard was not able to do so, no matter how hard he tried! Girard and Elsie had the same advantage: They were dealing with simple folk who thought that their subjects' failure to pass a test proved them honest. It is not difficult to fail to bend a metal bar, nor is it beyond the ability of a little girl to fail to draw a decent picture.
4. Faults discovered in the story or performance tend to prove the phenomenon real, it is agreed, since a clever trickster would not make such basic errors. Examples: It was said that if Elsie had been really trying to make photo number one a good fake she would have posed Frances looking at the fairies, not at the camera. Consider the other possibility: If Frances had been looking at the fairies, it would have been hailed as perfectly natural! Either way, Frances wins. And when Jeane Dixon, the alleged prophet, predicts an event that does not come to pass, she is acclaimed for having been honest enough to give it a good try anyway.
5. If a phenomenon is consistent with previously reported ones, this is cited as strong evidence that it is genuine. Examples: The costumes and the size of the fairies produced on film by Elsie were in accord with storybook accounts, so verification was assumed. That the fairies were constructed to match the accounts and the expected appearance seems not to have dawned on any of the investigators. When the illusionist Uri Geller and his metal-bending tricks came along, several parapsychologists refused to accept him because "there is no precedent in the literature." The implication is obvious: If previous examples had been reported, they would have accepted Geller as the others did.
6. It is claimed that critics give poor or insufficient reasons for doubting reported paranormal events and are therefore not to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, this is sometimes true. Examples: Some skeptics unwisely assumed that the Cottingley photos were taken in a studio, with painted waterfall and all. Gardner demolished them by going to the actual scene and photographing it, remarking, "Another photographic company, which it would be cruel to name, declared that the background consisted of theatrical properties." Some scientists today have put