Monroe Institute

[jfish]

Regarding preparing props in advance - the 30 participants that evening were circulating among 3 rooms viewing before wrapping up the evening with the spoon bending session. We discussed the experiences in the 3 rooms for perhaps 20 minutes before turning to the spoon bending exercise. The bin of utensils was in the room during that 20 minute discussion and no one was handling the utensils during that time.

I would think that bending a spoon back and forth to fatigue it in advance would be more likely to result in a break rather than a bend. However, I don't have any experience with this so I can't be sure. If some of the utensils had been fatigued in advance making a portion of them easy to bend, I would expect the distribution of bending success to be distributed among the participants fairly evenly. That wasn't the case. While I randomly took 3 different spoons from the bin and didn't have any success, the women next to me and across the table from me repeatedly took utensils and bent every one they handled. The 40% who were successful, bent more than one spoon. The odds of a random distribution of fatigued spoons with repeated sampling from the bin to only 40% of the participants seems very remote to me.

Regarding bending at the same spot - if I get a chance to attend another, I'll ask one of the adept benders to focus the bending to another spot to see if the "softness" can be found somewhere other than the thinnest portion.

 

[Robrob]

Odd how its always a spoon, etc... bent exactly where you would gave bent it if you were using your hands in the first place. Out of curiosity, why doesn't anyone ever bend a fork? You'd think bending the times (in opposing alternate directions) might be a cool trick.

 

[Pixel42]

The likeliest explanation is that some of the utensils in the bin were fatigued in advance by the people who supplied them.

 

[Robrob]

Regarding bending at the same spot - if I get a chance to attend another, I'll ask one of the adept benders to focus the bending to another spot to see if the "softness" can be found somewhere other than the thinnest portion.

If someone can use their powers to bend a utensils at anything other than the thinnest spot with the greatest leverage (such as the spoons bowl stem) I will be greatly surprised. You never see someone bending the inner fork times or even the handle of a spoon - far away from the fulcrum point.

 

[EHocking]

jfish, once you know the trick of how to fake bending a spoon with your mind, it is simple to pull the trick off repeatedly.

The mistake you made was actually trying to bend your spoon with your mind.

The successful spoon-benders in your group did not make this mistake.

 

[Steve001]

Regarding bending at the same spot - if I get a chance to attend another, I'll ask one of the adept benders to focus the bending to another spot to see if the "softness" can be found somewhere other than the thinnest portion.

Some ideas for you.
Have them bend the bowl of the spoon in the direction opposite of its curvature. Have them bend any portion of the handle along the axis of least cross section. Have them bend a solid stainless steel dinner knife along the axis of least cross section.
Branch out to other materials such as plastic rods, glass.... It stands to reason every material should succumb to the power of the mind, not just forks and spoons.

 

[Resume]

Regarding preparing props in advance - the 30 participants that evening were circulating among 3 rooms viewing before wrapping up the evening with the spoon bending session. We discussed the experiences in the 3 rooms for perhaps 20 minutes before turning to the spoon bending exercise. The bin of utensils was in the room during that 20 minute discussion and no one was handling the utensils during that time.

I would think that bending a spoon back and forth to fatigue it in advance would be more likely to result in a break rather than a bend. However, I don't have any experience with this so I can't be sure. If some of the utensils had been fatigued in advance making a portion of them easy to bend, I would expect the distribution of bending success to be distributed among the participants fairly evenly. That wasn't the case. While I randomly took 3 different spoons from the bin and didn't have any success, the women next to me and across the table from me repeatedly took utensils and bent every one they handled. The 40% who were successful, bent more than one spoon. The odds of a random distribution of fatigued spoons with repeated sampling from the bin to only 40% of the participants seems very remote to me.

More remote than people bending them with their "mind?"

Honestly?

And, wtf good is this power anyway? Defense against an army of spoon wielders?

"Aha, I've bent your spoons with the power of my mind and now you're defenseless!"

Then the sound of numerous gunshots . . .

 

[dlorde]

And, wtf good is this power anyway? Defense against an army of spoon wielders?

"Aha, I've bent your spoons with the power of my mind and now you're defenseless!"

Later - My God! He's been scooped to death with distorted spoons...!

@jfish: Did you examine any broken spoons? It would be slightly surprising if the broken edges were indistinguishable from those of a spoon broken manually. This would be a simple enough comparison to make. Also, if mental powers are softening the metal, it should be possible to stretch the spoon by pulling it apart. I'd like to see a spoon-bender do this.

It seems unlikely that mental powers could fatigue the metal to breaking point in a manner indistinguishable from a manual fatiguing process...

 

[jfish]

There were no broken utensils. If I recall correctly, there were multiple fork tines bent. Every utensil that I handled after being bent had reverted to its more usual tensile strength. Dlorde - good suggestion about stretching rather than simply bending. If I get a chance to return to a similar gathering in the future, I'll be sure to look into that.

Resume - does everything of any value have to provide power? If there is such a thing as focusing mental power to bend a spoon, perhaps there are people who could use their creative imagination to think of a useful application of this capability.

Ehocking - at the suggestion of others I've seen some videos showing how to create the illusion of bending metal. Because there are skilled illusionists doesn't mean that everyone I saw bending spoons in the room is a skilled illusionist. It is possible that the Rhine Center knows a lot of illusionists and arranged to have them all show up on the same night to pull the wool over the eyes of the other 60%. That doesn't seem plausible to me. If anyone of those illusionists spilled the beans, the Rhine Center would likely lose a lot of funding. Quite a risk from my perspective. Once they lose credibility by doing something fraudulent like that donors would turn their backs on the Center.

Suggestions on how to increase plausibility are appreciated.

 

[Resume]

Resume - does everything of any value have to provide power? If there is such a thing as focusing mental power to bend a spoon, perhaps there are people who could use their creative imagination to think of a useful application of this capability.

It has no value other than a magic trick, a trick you apparently paid money not to learn.

 

[EHocking]

Ehocking - at the suggestion of others I've seen some videos showing how to create the illusion of bending metal. Because there are skilled illusionists doesn't mean that everyone I saw bending spoons in the room is a skilled illusionist. It is possible that the Rhine Center knows a lot of illusionists and arranged to have them all show up on the same night to pull the wool over the eyes of the other 60%. That doesn't seem plausible to me. If anyone of those illusionists spilled the beans, the Rhine Center would likely lose a lot of funding. Quite a risk from my perspective. Once they lose credibility by doing something fraudulent like that donors would turn their backs on the Center.

Suggestions on how to increase plausibility are appreciated.

i am not a skilled illusionist and have pulled this trick off a number of times.
As you say, the "secret" to this trick is all over the web and has been known since the 70s.

Note that not one person in the intervening 40+ years has demonstrated spoon bending by force of their mind.

Not one.

Believe what you like, but if any of those people you think bent spoons with their mind they could make a very quick million by hitting a link at the top of this page.

I will bet your finder's fee that none of them will.

 

[jfish]

I am skeptical of the $1M offering. The people behind it have a vested interest in never granting it. I wish to thank those that offer objective suggestions. Statements of rigid beliefs among some don't add value to the investigation but that has always been the case.

 

[Pixel42]

I am skeptical of the $1M offering. The people behind it have a vested interest in never granting it.

It doesn't matter what their vested interests are, if someone was able to demonstrate a paranormal ability under conditions which exclude trickery previously and mutually agreed by both parties they would be legally obliged to hand over the million.

The ability to bend spoons in the manner you describe without (knowingly or unknowingly) using any of the several mundane ways to perform this trick would certainly win the million.

 

[Resume]

I am skeptical of the $1M offering. The people behind it have a vested interest in never granting it. I wish to thank those that offer objective suggestions. Statements of rigid beliefs among some don't add value to the investigation but that has always been the case.

You sure pick odd things to be skeptical about.

 

[tsig]

There were no broken utensils. If I recall correctly, there were multiple fork tines bent. Every utensil that I handled after being bent had reverted to its more usual tensile strength. Dlorde - good suggestion about stretching rather than simply bending. If I get a chance to return to a similar gathering in the future, I'll be sure to look into that.

Resume - does everything of any value have to provide power? If there is such a thing as focusing mental power to bend a spoon, perhaps there are people who could use their creative imagination to think of a useful application of this capability.

Ehocking - at the suggestion of others I've seen some videos showing how to create the illusion of bending metal. Because there are skilled illusionists doesn't mean that everyone I saw bending spoons in the room is a skilled illusionist. It is possible that the Rhine Center knows a lot of illusionists and arranged to have them all show up on the same night to pull the wool over the eyes of the other 60%. That doesn't seem plausible to me. If anyone of those illusionists spilled the beans, the Rhine Center would likely lose a lot of funding. Quite a risk from my perspective. Once they lose credibility by doing something fraudulent like that donors would turn their backs on the Center.

Suggestions on how to increase plausibility are appreciated.

Bend the spoons without touching them.

 

[dlorde]

...Every utensil that I handled after being bent had reverted to its more usual tensile strength.

How on Earth could you know that?

Resume - does everything of any value have to provide power? If there is such a thing as focusing mental power to bend a spoon, perhaps there are people who could use their creative imagination to think of a useful application of this capability.

It's hard to imagine how such a presumably energy demanding capability could evolve unless it provided some significant advantage for its resource demands. But metal working is a fairly recent phenomenon and I know of no historic claims of the use of 'mind power' in working metal. Does anyone know when the first recorded claim of mental metal bending was made? It wouldn't surprise me if it was within the last 100 (probably 50) years, which makes the likelihood that it's a naturally evolved capability extremely remote. That and the absence of a plausible mechanism have clear implications (i.e. magic or fakery? you be the judge)...

 

[dlorde]

You sure pick odd things to be skeptical about.

 

[Robrob]

I am skeptical of the $1M offering. The people behind it have a vested interest in never granting it. I wish to thank those that offer objective suggestions. Statements of rigid beliefs among some don't add value to the investigation but that has always been the case.

So far your comments have not suggested a skeptical POV.

Please let me know when someone bends a fork in a way not possible by slight of hand. E.G.

 

[EHocking]

Statements of rigid beliefs among some don't add value to the investigation but that has always been the case.

Really?

 

[pakeha]

i am not a skilled illusionist and have pulled this trick off a number of times. ...
Believe what you like, but if any of those people you think bent spoons with their mind they could make a very quick million by hitting a link at the top of this page.

I will bet your finder's fee that none of them will.

I am skeptical of the $1M offering. The people behind it have a vested interest in never granting it. I wish to thank those that offer objective suggestions. Statements of rigid beliefs among some don't add value to the investigation but that has always been the case.

There ARE other challenges, jfish.
Speaking of vested interests, just how much did each of those 30 participants spend for that group bender "psi" gathering?