I do believe that with the steel bar, it was already bent but he was holding it at an angle where it looked straight...and then slowly rotated it

I do believe that some people have psychic powers, but not necessary telekenetic powers that allow them to bend spoons, elevate something, etc.

Of course the bar was pre-bent -- it was never shown prior to positioning in front of the camera. Shermer had merely to rotate it 90 degrees. Spoons are favorite objects to 'bend' because, in head-on aspect, they don't reveal pre-bending either.

I watched James Randi bend & break a spoon right before my eyes, with my daughter (then 12) holding the spoon, at a lecture in San Diego in the 1980s. One of the most thrilling fake moments in our lives!

Giz, if you see how easy it is to fake telekinesis, and if you know how easily people are fooled -- or fool themselves -- then won't you come the rest of the way and agree that EVERY psychic phenomenon is bogus and that ALL evidence is as flimsy as what's seen on this video? There's a reason why this subject is relegated to the fringes of science. (Hint: It's not a conspiracy )

IT'S NOT A CONSPIRACY??? IS NOTHING SACRED?

Of course it's a conspiracy. The Main Stream Media is using this to draw attention from the fact that the US is being taken over by radical socialists who will fluoridate our water and destroy our Purity of Essence.

quote:

Originally posted by DorianGreyed:
Of course it's a conspiracy. The Main Stream Media is using this to draw attention from the fact that the US is being taken over by radical socialists who will fluoridate our water and destroy our Purity of Essence.

And bend your spoons. A professional investigator on the BBC explained that there is a metal alloy which has the property of softening under friction. Conjurors and illusionists, and worse, use it. That property enables them to rub a spoon which promptly softens under the rubbing.That looks dramatic. If you couple that with the general ability of conjurors to switch and manipulate cards, coins and other objects, you have the basis for an act. Without using the alloy they are well capable of switching a genuine bent spoon for a genuine straight one.

Now, has anyone wondered how conjurors manage to knock separate, solid, metal rings together so one ring links to the other ? It's one of the oldest tricks in conjuring. When it's done by a professional it is magic, even when you know how it's done!

No special alloy need be used for the standard spoon trick. By the time the demonstration begins, most of the work is already done. The object has been bent back and forth close to the point of metal fatigue -- all unobserved due to deft misdirection -- and is ready to disintegrate for the audience.

"Of course it's a conspiracy. The Main Stream Media is using this to draw attention from the fact that the US is being taken over by radical socialists who will fluoridate our water and destroy our Purity of Essence."

I won't be able to sleep a wink for weeks! And ... and ... surely it won't sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids?

(Must remember to resume saving urine. Must remember to COLLECT MORE JARS!)

The whole point is that he is not bending it with his mind (unless you count using his brain...) because if Uri Gellar is using "psychic powers" to bend spoons, he is doing it the hard way.

I need to go refill my tap water.

Elexina: Bravo! That was a brilliant application of Occum's Razor. I'll drink (water) to your conclusion, too.

I wasn't using anyone's razor, tsaeb, just common sense. Though maybe it amounts to the same thing.

Can I borrow your razor, 'Lex? My pits are a disgrace!

I thought only American women tortured themselves that way!!

Sure, I'll mail you one. Just send me a postage paid box. But wait! If you call now, I'll send the blade, too!!

I'm getting so old that my pits are the pits--hardly grow any hairs any more. . .

Just don't use Occam's Razor for splitting hairs.

Oh, I've got split hairs enough on my own, sir. No help needed there!