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Lighting candles just by staring at them?

DinosaurKnight

New Blood
D
Joined
Oct 2, 2005
Messages
6
Such an ability would undoubtedly qualify for the prize, right? I know a guy who swears up and down that his Wiccan cousin can do this (He's seen it with his own eyes, dammit, so you know it's true!). But then he claims it wouldn't be eligible for the challenge.

In his defense, he's probably right. Odds are he's either making stuff up or witnessed a parlor trick, neither of which, as I understand, are eligible.
 
This wiccan cousin hasn't had parabolic mirrors installed in the back of his eyes has he?
I saw a similar trick using a parabolic mirror, a lightbulb and a match once.
 
I think it could be a challenge possibility.

Get an ordinary candle from the supermarket or wherever. Put it in a glass box so that no external physical interference is possible. Bring in your boy and get him to stare at it until it lights. Pretty easy to test.
 
You know what would be cool... Lighting cigarettes like that.

Go to a woo party and you could pick anyone up. Wait for someone to get a cigarette out, offer to light it, and then just stare at it for a second or two until it lights.

I think I have to learn this trick.
 
DinosaurKnight said:
Such an ability would undoubtedly qualify for the prize, right? I know a guy who swears up and down that his Wiccan cousin can do this (He's seen it with his own eyes, dammit, so you know it's true!). But then he claims it wouldn't be eligible for the challenge.

In his defense, he's probably right. Odds are he's either making stuff up or witnessed a parlor trick, neither of which, as I understand, are eligible.
Click to expand...

Propose to your "guy" he should simply ask his "Wiccan cousin" to apply. From what I have learned about the Challenge, lighting a candle just by staring at it will qualify almost assuredly as paranornal, hence eligible

Have him propose a protocol, etc.

We eagerly await his response. Perhaps he will team up with Mrs. Beth Clarkson? http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29763

"Yoga Fire!"
 
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I've been thinking about this since my original post. You know as much as I do at this point; there really wasn't anything more to his story other than a few "I swear to god"s and whatnot.

Assuming he really did witness something he couldn't explain (he seemed sincere), it's reasonable to conclude it was a parlor trick of some kind. If so, then the Wiccan cousin was obviously aware that she was performing a parlor trick. If someone who genuinely believes in magic has to resort to parlor tricks to convince others of their magical powers, one might think that would make them pause and say, "Hey, wait a second, maybe this is all BS after all."

I dunno... An application will never come of this, I'm sure. I pointed out the existence of the challenge when he told the story, and got the "it wouldn't be eligible" response. If I get a chance, I'll tell him that I did a little light research and discovered that it would indeed be eligible, but I'm sure he'll just have another excuse. That's the way these things always seem to go any time I ever direct anyone to the challenge.
 
DinosaurKnight said:
I've been thinking about this since my original post. You know as much as I do at this point; there really wasn't anything more to his story other than a few "I swear to god"s and whatnot.

Assuming he really did witness something he couldn't explain (he seemed sincere), it's reasonable to conclude it was a parlor trick of some kind. If so, then the Wiccan cousin was obviously aware that she was performing a parlor trick. If someone who genuinely believes in magic has to resort to parlor tricks to convince others of their magical powers, one might think that would make them pause and say, "Hey, wait a second, maybe this is all BS after all."

I dunno... An application will never come of this, I'm sure. I pointed out the existence of the challenge when he told the story, and got the "it wouldn't be eligible" response. If I get a chance, I'll tell him that I did a little light research and discovered that it would indeed be eligible, but I'm sure he'll just have another excuse. That's the way these things always seem to go any time I ever direct anyone to the challenge.
Click to expand...

The Challenge Application could serve as you Ace-in-the-hole when you want to shut up this guy and/or his friend.

I concur with your "parlor trick" assessment.

But a lot of "magicians" don't care about magic. They seem to simply want to fool people, dominate, scare, wow them and what have you. Perhaps this "wiccan cousin" does count to this group.



There is this guy, he used to work as a magician I think - people tell he still does tricks.
John, Jim, ... ?
Well, he seemed to be particularly miffed at people who fool others with "magic" tricks for the sake of selfish and/or destructive reasons.
Jack, Jerry, ... ? (Ah, shady mind...)
Be that as it may, this dude founded an organisation, a newspaper, a department store, something like that, you know. What they do is, they tell others how they are fooled by guys like your guy's guy. Yeah, they's got a whole ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong stuff on a, what you call that, web page thingie, where you can read how people get fooled and how they fool themselves.
Jeff, Jona, ... ?
Dang, I forgot the name!
Well, you should check out his page. This dude rocks. :)
 
I can put OUT candles just by looking at them. You know, if I wait long enough.
 
DinosaurKnight said:
Assuming he really did witness something he couldn't explain (he seemed sincere), it's reasonable to conclude it was a parlor trick of some kind. If so, then the Wiccan cousin was obviously aware that she was performing a parlor trick. If someone who genuinely believes in magic has to resort to parlor tricks to convince others of their magical powers, one might think that would make them pause and say, "Hey, wait a second, maybe this is all BS after all."
Click to expand...

If oyu talk to him again, you might not only want to suggest that his friend could apply and would most likely be elligebale. You could add that having a witness (i.e. him) will help to speed things up, too. Mention how easy and cheap it would be to test this claim.

Even though I dount that she will have mirrors implanted in her eyes, I was often wondering if, should an applicant ever pass the prelimenary tests, they would have to be subject to a full body search for the final tests. What would you have to control for, if there was one successful demonstration of this ability?

Rasmus.
 
vbloke said:
This wiccan cousin hasn't had parabolic mirrors installed in the back of his eyes has he?
I saw a similar trick using a parabolic mirror, a lightbulb and a match once.
Click to expand...

Did this get documented anywhere? Thanks vbloke.
 
The most common claim is that the powers won't work for the test because the skeptical vibes spoil the mojo.

This is easy to fix up - you start by getting a demo under the normal conditions for it to work. Once they've done it several times in front of you, you have demonstrated that your skeptical vibes don't affect it.

Then you produce the candle.

Of course, the Houdini method would be to palm the candle and substitute one of your own.

Of course the claim "I can light candles by looking at them" is eligible for the test. Not passing is not the same as ineligible. But I think the witness means it won't pass.
 
This reminds me of some candles someone at work bought. You put them on a cake and invite the birthday person to blow them out. They would go out then light themselves. The ONLY way to put them out was to soak them in water.

I suggest that we will not get an application as it is a parlor trick such as the one above.
 
I have seen this done with sound. You can whisper into a mirror and a person at the other mirror located across the room can hear you.
 
vbloke said:
This wiccan cousin hasn't had parabolic mirrors installed in the back of his eyes has he?
I saw a similar trick using a parabolic mirror, a lightbulb and a match once.
Click to expand...

I like the parabolic mirror idea - if you had a few other mirrors and random stuff around your room it wouldn't be so conspicuous, and you could keep a lamp trained on the mirror that you only turn on when you want to show your little parlour trick.

Then simply perform your little magic ritual while slowly moving the candle into the focal point and, hey presto! It would also have the advantage that the candle/match you're using is completely normal, and so your ardent skeptic friend could examine it to pieces.

Not a bad piece of misdirection, really.

Another quick thought - would it possible to focus light sufficiently using a crystal ball with a handily placed lamp? That would be even less conspicuous in the room of some New Age junkie.
 
Regarding "re-light candles". My friend had birthday once and someone put re-light candles on birthday cake. Problem was it was 50th birthday.

That was memorable, 50 candles that don't blow out. ;-)

Had to get a glass of water to douse the candles and scrape the top icing, wax and candles off the top of the birthday cake.
 
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