James Randi sabotaged a blindfolded sight experiment
url :: http://theblindcarefoundation.com/Randi-eng.html
Intro
This story began in the middle of 2001. Natalya Lulova, a student of my School of Perception of Information of the Surrounding World, accepted JREF’s One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Natalya’s task was to demonstrate her ability to receive visual information without utilization of the “usual” organs of sight.
Randi’s ad-hoc explanation “Randy’s explanation of Natalia’s earlier success was simple. He had noticed an unusual concavity in the bridge of her nose and discerned, from the sideways turning of her head, that she was using her right eye to look left — or the left eye to look right — through tiny, hairline gaps between the blindfold and her distinctive nose. By placing duct tape over the bridge, he had, so to speak, unmasked Natalia’s (and Komissarov’s) deception.”
Nonsense? Yes, but not for Randi!
# Psychological attacks
Randi slandered mr. Komissarov before the challenge
It is universally known that the best defense is a good offence: it is most efficient to crumble, thwart, intimidate, and crush the opponent the moment he as much as looms over the horizon— all by utilizing an indirect approach. And, as are the indispensable attributes of any attack— the terrifying shout of battle, the monstrous countenance, and the madly protruding eyes. The goal: to psychologically oppress the opponent, along with his will for continued resistance.
The first stage of the road to victory begins here— a psychological attack on both the applicant and the members of his team.
I am the first to have a taste of this medicine, since in the letter attached to Natalya’s application I am mentioned as the person who was responsible for the development of her paranormal ability. A message was sent to the lawyer with a confirmation of acceptance of Natalya’s application (November 13th, 2001), in which Mr. Randi, anything but humble in wording, stated his surprise at the fact that “such a competent and respectable lawyer” allowed himself to be dragged into an adventure initiated by obvious fans of easy cash.
“I observed,” writes Randi, “a common tendency amongst Russian immigrants: they all greedily reach out for easy cash. They are willing to lie, cheat, and go down absolutely any road necessary, as long as it guarantees what they so desperately crave”.
“I am convinced,” continues Mr. Randi in his letter, “that Mister Komissarov belongs to just that sort of person, perhaps even to the worst of them, since he does not hesitate to involve children in accomplishing his lousy goals.”
“For the remaining years of my life,” shares the former magician, “I have made it my job to publicly expose frauds such as Mr. Komissarov before the video camera. I take great pleasure in doing this. Mr. Komissarov will be publicly unmasked and humiliated. And maybe, just maybe, this will serve as an excellent lesson for future reference. What bothers me is that an innocent child will have to suffer, having been dragged into this despicable falsehood by a person lacking all sense of morality. Public exposure of fraud can result in a deep trauma for such a young adolescent. Let this be yet another burdensome sin on the darkened, rotten soul of Mr. Komissarov.”
Just like that, I am no more or less than your average swindler and bastard. It was never accounted for that before this, Randi has never even heard of me, let alone met me.
Randi slandered Mark’s lawyer
“You caused me a great deal of damage by sending me 3 computer viruses — after I had specifically notified you about this — twice…” (The lawyer sends out many e-mails from his computer on a daily basis to his respondents, none of which ever complained about messages carrying computer viruses. –M.K.) “…I now have a 3 system anti-virus program in place that will protect against any further attacks of this sort from you.”
“I believe that the lawyer may only be acting in his advocacy function. That would mean that representing Natalya requires him to accept her claims without any [declared] doubt, and to work unreservedly for her interests. On the other hand, if there is a contingency factor working here — meaning that he would get a percentage (40% is customary) of any proceeds — he might well be seeing the image of four thousand hundred-dollar bills piled up on his desk. But I don’t think so; I think he’s just honestly deluded.”
Randi slandered the participant, Natalya (10 yrs old)
“After reading your letter, I suspect that the girl herself may be the guilty party, and Mr. Komissarov may be the duped.”
“Miss Lulova wants to know details of the “simplified” blindfold I intend to use? Mister Lawyer, has it not occurred to you why she wants to know such details? Would a genuine psychic have any need or desire to see how his/her sight would be blocked? I know that a magician would find that essential, so that he would know whether or not he could defeat the blindfold. And he would want to know in advance about it, in order to be ready to apply his tricks to the problem. Think: a real psychic would not need to know this, nor would he/she need to know about the setup of the room where the test would take place. But a magician would want to know both these variables. Just something for you to think about, not that I believe you will take it seriously.
“I’m not going to deal “with prima donnas here. Miss Lulova is accustomed to having her way with you, telling you what she will or will not do, when and how she will do it. She will not have that privilege with me. She should understand that thoroughly.”
# Sabotaged experiment
The experiment started well for Natalya
Firstly, according to the rules of the test, we were to place our blindfold over Natalya’s eyes. I cut two circles out of the duct tape, each one being slightly larger than the size of her eyelids and adjusted them over her closed eyes. She easily read all the words in the test. Andrew Harter was passing her the cards with typed words, and while sitting half a meter away, he could see full well no holes or cracks were present in the blindfold. The applicant demonstrated her paranormal abilities clearly and instinctively.
Randi’s assistant became desparate
The legs of the table with the million sitting on top of it were becoming progressively more unsteady. What to do? How can the million be saved? To make matters worse, the question of how to best watch out for himself stood before Andrew Harter. Just think— the boss is in the hospital; he has entrusted you to expose a ten-year-old charlatan, and instead of that, you are ready to hand over the million!
So what can you do? Where is the escape route? It seemed there wasn’t one. And there wasn’t— as far as honest means were concerned, that is. But this was no time to consider honesty, not when the situation needed to be changed pronto for the sake of survival. Underhanded tactics followed suit. Is this a matter to find surprising? Not when James Randi’s whole career as a professional debunker is constructed on just that.
It is well-known, that when a person is put under severe emotional stress, he will be unable to adequately perceive the world (an example of the quote “blind from rage”). But this is a matter of sight— a visual perception of the surrounding world— a concept that has been secured and proven reliable by hundreds of millions of years of evolution on Earth. What is left to be said about the other, still extremely fragile and uncommon mode of perception used by Natalya? Andrew Harter’s last resort of a scheme counted heavily on provoking Natalya into unbearable emotional stress.
Randi’s assistant starts accusing Natalya of cheating
This is masked with a supposed “discussion of the test’s outcome”. However, going by all written and unwritten rules, such discussion should pass in the absence of the applicant, especially when testing is not yet complete. It is doubtful that Andrew Harter had anything to really discuss; what he needed was Natalya.
He starts by declaring that he saw how Natalya was cheating, via a crack that had formed under her left eyebrow. He did not care whether or not this was even anatomically possible. Even if a crack were to form under the left eyebrow, in order to see anything through it, one would have to roll the eyeball upwards, rip off the top eyelid, and drill a hole in the skull on the eye-socket. To me, the absurdity of such a declaration is absolutely obvious, but the assault is directed not at me, but at a ten-year-old girl.
Natalya was literally dumbfounded by so impudent a lie: Andrew’s scheme was coming together quite well, and he proceeded to “artfully” build on this. Once our blindfold was removed, she reached up to itch the irritated skin under her eye, and Harter instantaneously took advantage of this. “Aha!” he exclaimed, “I saw how she just licked her finger and wet the skin under her eye, so that the duct tape would not be able to stick!”
This hideous lie finishes Natalya off. She is no longer in the condition to demonstrate anything; her demonstration has been irreparably spoiled. The small, ten-year-old girl sat in the library of James Randi’s Florida office, crying bitterly, and repeating over and over as though she were a broken record: “Mark, why is he saying that I’m cheating? I am not cheating!”
And how was I to explain to her, that because this involved big money, foul play has entered the picture? That in this world exists the type of person for whom the smell of money defeats and overpowers all else, that they don’t care one bit that before them is merely a child… Only one thought circulated through his primitive brain: “There are many children in this world, but this million— there is only one!”