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The Laurel and Hardy of Psi

With regard to Randi's new book, I guess my basic response is Ho Hum. I think that most intelligent people now see Randi exactly as he is.

—Harold Puthoff

July 3, 1979

When a scientific paper titled "Information Transmission Under Conditions of Sensory Shielding" appeared in the British magazine Nature in October 1974, it had already made the rounds. As early as 1972, Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, its authors, had submitted it to U.S. publications as a project of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). All had rejected it. Its acceptance by Nature was indeed interesting, especially since it was held by the editor for an unprecedented eight months while he checked on what he called "a ragbag of a paper."

Nature is among the most prestigious scientific publications in the world. That its staff accepted this unusual paper seemed at first surprising, for their standards are known to be high. What is not generally known among those who have accorded the paper the imprimatur of established science as a result of this acceptance is that it had been through several submissions and revisions before it was accepted, the more harebrained material having been weeded out at the insistence of the editors. More importantly, Nature ran a lengthy editorial in the same issue explaining that the Targ-Puthoff paper was being published so that scientists could see the kind of material that was being turned out in the field of parapsychology. The editorial called the article "weak," "disconcertingly vague," "limited," "flawed," and "naïve." But Nature accepted it, and as a result it was followed by a long stream of respectful publicity. Even the New York Times fell into the trap, treating it as a respectable paper. If the Times had known what is now known about the Targ-Puthoff work, it would have been covered on the entertainment pages.

As it was, the two authors were the toast of the psi world, being asked to speak and opine on all aspects of the paranormal. They became spokesmen for what science believes to be irrational. Even before publication of the Nature article, they assumed this post. There was great excitement in Geneva, Switzerland, during August 1974 when Targ and Puthoff announced an earth-shaking experiment conducted in 1972 with "a gifted subject, Mr. Ingo Swann." Since this "psychic" had yet to make his daring "astral trip" to Jupiter (see chapter 4) that was to impress Targ and Puthoff so deeply, they were now only barely aware of his great powers. The two SRI scientists stood before an audience of their peers and delivered themselves of yet another Rosemary's Baby, to the admiration of all present. In fact, two of those present, Charles Panati of Newsweek magazine and author Arthur Koestler, gushed over the event for weeks. I tell of it here because it is an excellent example of the difference between a report and the actual event and foreshadows the later, more famous Nature report on Uri Geller.

Targ and Puthoff related that Swann had been taken to Stanford University, where he was confronted with a huge magnetometer, set up at that moment to register the rate of decay of a magnetic field. They told Swann, they reported, that if he were to paranormally affect the magnetic field, this would become evident on the chart recording. Swann "placed his attention on the interior of the magnetometer, at which time the frequency of the output doubled for about... 30 seconds." Next, they continued, Swann was asked if he could stop the field change as indicated on the chart. "He then apparently proceeded to do just that," they said. As Swann described his efforts to them, the chart recorder performed again! Then, they claimed, when they asked him not to think about the apparatus, the trace resumed its normal pattern, but when he again mentioned the magnetometer, it acted up again! They requested him to stop, they said, because he was by then tired from his efforts.

I ask the reader to reread the preceding paragraph carefully, to form a picture of what