06.05b A Test for Spiritualists and
Purported ESP Adepts. Spiritualists and ESP adepts commonly
fail to achieve any supernatural results when in the presence of
magicians-- people expert in sleight of hand and tricks generally.
Martin Gardner wrote often on this point. The tricksters often respond
that the presence of magicians, or skeptics generally, makes them too
nervous, disturbs the spirits, and suchlike. The solution to both
problems is as follows.
Repeat the session 100 times. In 90 of the sessions, do not have a
magician present. In 10 sessions, do have a magician present. Do not
let the leader of the session know when a magician is present. This
means he will not become nervous--only 10% of the sessions will have a
skeptic present. Also, if the problem is that the spirits are
disturbed, this will become apparent because the supernatural will
fail to occur in exactly those 10 sessions where a magician is
present, despite the ignorance of the session leader.
If, on the other hand, trickery is being used, the magicians will
catch it in the 10 sessions at which they are present, or the
supernatural's failure to appear will be independent of whether the
magician is present.
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