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A class on spoon-bending

galla

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Aug 23, 2006
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I know about the tricks that "psychics" use to bend spoons, but how does someone teach a class of students to bend spoons? This is a claim I saw today, claiming a 90% success rate for students, along with "how to sprout seeds in the palms of their hands".

The attendees presumably believe themselves to be psychic, or want to learn how to be psychic (ie. they believe in the paranormal) but this isn't a class on magic or how to fake being psychic. I'm going to assume the teacher doesn't tell the students to pre-bend the spoon.

Any ideas how the students' spoon-bending might be achieved?
 
galla said:
I know about the tricks that "psychics" use to bend spoons, but how does someone teach a class of students to bend spoons? This is a claim I saw today, claiming a 90% success rate for students, along with "how to sprout seeds in the palms of their hands".

The attendees presumably believe themselves to be psychic, or want to learn how to be psychic (ie. they believe in the paranormal) but this isn't a class on magic or how to fake being psychic. I'm going to assume the teacher doesn't tell the students to pre-bend the spoon.

Any ideas how the students' spoon-bending might be achieved?
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I would guess that it would work a bit like a Ouija board, where the participant is doing the work without realizing it.
 
I've never understood why people think it's hard to bend spoons. Just scoop some icecream out with one, that always bends mine. I'd find it a lot more impressive if someone came out with an unbendable spoon.
 
Godmode said:
I've never understood why people think it's hard to bend spoons. Just scoop some icecream out with one, that always bends mine. I'd find it a lot more impressive if someone came out with an unbendable spoon.
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Damn straight. I've bent at least half a donzen spoons that way! An unbendable spoon...not that would be a feat!
 
Godmode said:
I've never understood why people think it's hard to bend spoons.
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I've never understood why Uri and friends would never bend a knife. Weird, isn't it.

And they also refuse to bend my mother's cutlery, because you'd need a steam hammer to bend a spoon of that make.

Their psychic strength seems to be limited to cafeteria-type 10 cent sheet metal spoons.
 
More to the point: how would you go about convincing someone who went to one of these classes that they didn't have psychic powers?
 
Yahzi said:
More to the point: how would you go about convincing someone who went to one of these classes that they didn't have psychic powers?
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It ain't easy. Many of these people would prefer to believe that they have magical powers and just bent a spoon with their mind. You might ask how come no one, including Geller afaik, can bend a spoon without touching it. Why does the spoon need to be handled to bend it psychically?
 
Thanks for the comments (I forgot to subscribe to this thread and didn't realise there were replies). The link to the spoon-bending party is interesting, in that it says "it helps to create an atmosphere of excitement and emotional arousal". Emotional arousal is a sure-fire way to distort one's perceptions.
 
galla said:
Thanks for the comments (I forgot to subscribe to this thread and didn't realise there were replies). The link to the spoon-bending party is interesting, in that it says "it helps to create an atmosphere of excitement and emotional arousal". Emotional arousal is a sure-fire way to distort one's perceptions.
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Welcome! I'm new, too. Anyway, to stay sort of kind of on topic, I want to ask if anyone's seen Uri's stupid-looking car with all those bent spoons on it. iirc Randi said in one of his recent newsletters that he thought that Uri driving around the Middle East in it could certainly cause peace as all the soldiers would probably drop their weapons laughing. :D
 
Yes, I've seen a photo of that car. Nice to "meet" you, too, Minarvia. I've been reading the JREF forum on and off for a year but my usual hangout was Internet Infidels. My hubby Yahzi is a long-time member here.

Anyway, on to the seed sprouting. I've read that Geller uses radish seeds so I think I might buy a packet and see what I can see. It's been a while since I did Biology but my theory is that the "sprout" develops within the seed and uncurls once the seed cracks, giving the appearance that it's "growing". Presumably the palm of the hand provides the correct warm, moist environment to cause the cracking. In one report of this trick, Geller apparently had a handful of seeds and only a couple actually sprouted, so it would seem only a small percentage are psychically atuned to his mind...
 
This thread has quite a lot of relevant discussion about both spoon-bending and trying to convince spoon-benders to reconsider paranormal explanations. The thread is quite long, but worth slogging through the insults for some excellent discussion.
 
I think you may find that the palm of a hand provides many places for an already sprouting seed to be hidden.

galla said:
Anyway, on to the seed sprouting. I've read that Geller uses radish seeds so I think I might buy a packet and see what I can see. It's been a while since I did Biology but my theory is that the "sprout" develops within the seed and uncurls once the seed cracks, giving the appearance that it's "growing". Presumably the palm of the hand provides the correct warm, moist environment to cause the cracking. In one report of this trick, Geller apparently had a handful of seeds and only a couple actually sprouted, so it would seem only a small percentage are psychically atuned to his mind...
Click to expand...
 
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