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25th FEN Aniversary
18. Pseudoscience
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Debunked!: ESP, Telekenesis and Other Pseudoscience
  “The Sceptic Naturist” recommends this time the reading of
“Debunked!: ESP, Telekenesis and Other Pseudoscience”;
(in Spanish Conviértase en Brujo, Conviértase en Sabio; original title: Devenez Sorciers, Devenez Savants),
by Georges Charpak and Henri Broch
“There are two boundless things: the universe and human stupidity; although I am not too sure about this statement applied to the universe.” Einstein.
“We believe that most people should acquire a scientific culture because it is as crucial today as the word or writing was in the past.” Charpak and Broch.

Charpak, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, 1992, who works at the CERN and Broch, Physics Professor at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, (www.unice.fr/zetetique), debunk the hidden tricks of swindlers and cheaters by exposing them throughout this book with scientific accuracy and humour.

How is it possible that a great number of people in the 21st century, some university graduates, and even professors, still believe in gurus, healers, astrologists, seers, people with paranormal powers, UFO sighters and the likes? (68% of the University of Nice students think that bending spoons with mind power is scientifically proven and only 18% think that about the relativity time dilation.)

This book teaches us how to impress our friends by showing off our telepathic powers, the reason behind precognitions; how to bend metals, make light bulbs burn out from a distance, stop our heartbeat at a party or to forecast more than 100 earthquakes a year without error.

 

Let’s have a look at some instances:
How to have light bulbs burn out in thousands of homes on TV.
On a TV programme, a medium says that he will try to make the bulbs burn out in the homes of viewers through the power of his mind. After a while of intense concentration, a huge number of calls confirms that.
True powers? No, Mathematics. Let us say there are a million viewers during the hour that the programme lasts, (the result can be improved by asking the viewers to turn on the lights), and let us consider the fact that a bulb lasts an average of one thousand hours, (the chance of burning out is increased when they are being turned on). That leads us to conclude that at least 2000 bulbs will have burn out by the end of the programme. Only those affected would have called up; pure statistics!

Stop your heartbeat to impress your friends.
Set the scenery, (“While I was travelling in Tibet …).
Warn them about the danger, (“I will only do it once”).
Above all, do not let them see the rubber ball hidden in you armpit.
People identify pulse with heartbeat, so that if you stop your pulse by pressing the ball, you will have managed to make them believe it.
Fake fainting to increase the illusion…and do not laugh!

Telepathy; it is easy.
 
Do not forget about the scenery … your trips in India, etc.
Mention that “I have only succeeded with a friend, (let’s say Ortiz), and not always.” Let them beg you to do it, say it is a great effort… and finally yield.
Ask for a deck of cards. Never touch it, though. Somebody will extract a card and show it to you. Check your telephone book for your friend Ortiz’s telephone number.
Write it for anybody to go to dial and talk to your friend, (even if it is in a different room), and ask him which card you “see” at that moment. Your friend will guess it after some apparent strain.
Telepathy? No, a good address and telephone book, (or a good memory). You may have a table in your little book which has a card for each name. For example,

John Ace of spades Philip Ace of clubs
Garth Two of hearts Andrew Queen of clubs
David Three of diamonds ... ...
George Jack of spades ... ...

Also for different types of cards.
As you write the telephone number of your friend, (we have called him Ortiz), write first the name of the card; for example, if it was the 3 of diamonds, write David Ortiz. If David Ortiz hears only “Mr Ortiz?” Mr Ortiz should then ask which of his brothers he is asking for, since “I have several brothers.”

Were you ever amazed by an apparently inexplicable phenomenon, you should not hesitate, it is a trick. Otherwise, somebody would have been a millionaire by now, as Mr Randi (www.randi.org) has been offering a million dollars to anybody who could demonstrate paranormal powers, (one or other radiestesist has already tried) ;-)

Dr. Binkhus,
Translated by Alberto González Iglesias

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