> The guy still makes a living conning money out of gullible young > mothers and James Randi held on to his $ million. > Apparently Fred Lenz made millions out of gullible people and he bought himself a mansion in Stony Brook, NY and a Mercedes-Benz to drive around town in so he could stage his "Woo Woo" events.
Work cited: 'Conjuring' Being a Definitive History of the Venerable Arts of Sorcery, Prestidigitation, Wizardry, Deception, & Chicanery and of the Mountebanks & Scoundrels Who have Perpetrated these Subterfuges on a Bewildered Public by James Randi St Martin's, 1992 Rama demonstrating a one inch levitation Woo Woo event on stage in front of a crowd of TBs: [image: Inline image 1] On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 6:34 AM, salyavin808 <[email protected]>wrote: > > > > > More below...... > > > ---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote : > > *From:* salyavin808 <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Monday, April 14, 2014 8:48 AM > *Subject:* Re: [FairfieldLife] Are the TM-Sidhis nothing but Placebo > Effect? > > > Some of the people Randi have had to put up with! He had a guy who could > turn pages of a book with his mind. He'd sit with a book in front of him > and the pages turn without him touching them! I saw the film even. > > Randi asked if him he could do it with a sheet of glass between him and > the book and he said of course he could. He couldn't obviously, how anyone > could be so deluded they weren't aware they were just breathing on the > pages is beyond me. The human capacity for self-delusion must be near > infinite. Which is why believers can't be trusted to examine themselves > properly. > > He's had harder subjects than that though, telepaths and mind readers that > turned out not to be are common as muck, cold readers even if they aren't > aware that is what they are doing. Loads of them still make a living even > after they failed in the test Randi set. "It was set up to fail" they claim > afterwards. Whereas before they were keen to demonstrate their powers under > conditions they themselves agreed to. To keep their belief in their powers > intact they scapegoat Randi as unfair. Go figure. > > It's the "When Prophecy Fails" syndrome all over again. A prophecy fail > makes the TBs believe in it even more. Go figure. There is simply no > accounting for self-importance and an inability to say, "I was wrong." > > People are willing to come up with so many twisted theories to explain > *their* mystical experience. And as far as I can tell, all of this is > driven by self-importance. They're declaring "My experience was SPECIAL" > (and of course, silently saying "And so am I"), and they're desperate for > any way to "prove" it. What such people are unable to cope with is someone > hearing about "their experience" and saying, "No, it's not special at all, > and neither are you." > > > One of the most interesting people that took on the Randi challenge was a > guy who thought he could talk to babies telepathically. > > UK's Channel 5 made a doc about him in their "Extraordinary People" > strand. The most extraordinary thing to me was that anyone thought it was > possible in the first place, I mean babies don't have thoughts and > conceptualised desires, they don't even have a language at that age! > > None of this has stopped the guy making a fortune out of his "powers" he > still fills halls up and down the country with dopey women and their > bawling kids where he rather obviously cold-reads irrelevant crap about > their family lives and charges them a fortune to tell them things they > already know. It's no different than mediums preying on the bereaved > really. And credit where it's due, he was very good at it. > > Anyway, this guy took up James Randi on his offer and went to claim his > money. Randi interviewed him and they came up with a test that would > showcase his skills. Boy, was he confident and he really thought the > money was his. > > The look on his face when he came out of the soundproof room to see how > well he'd done and found out he'd drawn a complete blank was priceless and > he accused Randi of cheating and setting him up to fail, but we all saw it. > There was no doubt without the parents to talk to he couldn't do it. > > So why was it called Extraordinary People and not Extraordinary Failures? > After his disappointment with Randi the documentary makers took him to a > psychologist rather more sympathetic to claims of this kind (you can see > the problem there) who did an EGG of him when he was in his cold-reading > trancey state and declared that he was using his brain in a way that he'd > never seen before. And it was interesting but looked like he'd simply > started using another brain section for his trick, maybe one that gets used > in altered states? > > Anyway, this was taken as confirmation that he really did have a special > supernatural skill even though it completely ignored all the other evidence > of cold-reading and his failure at Randi's lab. To me it was a fine > cautionary tale about trusting sympathetic scientists* and the willingness > to believe. > > The guy still makes a living conning money out of gullible young mothers > and James Randi held on to his $ million. > > *And clueless documentary makers. > > > > >
