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Daryl Bem Proved ESP Is Real

You'd have to ask Bem why he didn't apply for the MDC. Every person with a dodgy claim has their own reason. Perhaps he didn't know about it. Perhaps he didn't believe Randi had a million dollars. Perhaps he believed it was a stitch-up and he wouldn't get a fair test. Who knows?
 
This was all discussed here at length some time ago.

Bem provided a kit for anyone who wanted to replicate his experiment. The replication was tried, I think twice, all with negative results.
 
I don't think this experiment qualified for the million dollar prize.
 
My bad, Randi specifically challenged Bem to try for the prize.
 
I downloaded Bem's replication kit myself.

It has a secure database, but a rather curious feature that the results of each test do not go straight into the database, rather they are output as a plain text file, which is used to input into the database.

This provides plenty of opportunity for the experimenter to peak and to decide not to commit certain tests to the database.

This is what I suppose Bem did, not necessarily deliberate fraud but it could be that he had convinced himself that there was a problem with some of the tests.
 
Major Major said:
This was an article that popped up when I opened a blank tab on my browser, so I took a look.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/daryl-bem-proved-esp-is-real?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I notice that it mentions Randi.

However, it never explains why Bem did not apply for the Randi Prize (his paper was published in 2011). Did he not want to go through Randi's gantlet of comments?

:Blackcat:
Click to expand...

Given you say "Daryl Bem Proved ESP Is Real" I take it you did not read the entire article?



For other folk: The main thrust of the article is about the quality and methods of research used in fields such as psychology, it is an interesting article I think we may have had a thread about it in the past.
 
Darat said:
Given you say "Daryl Bem Proved ESP Is Real" I take it you did not read the entire article?



For other folk: The main thrust of the article is about the quality and methods of research used in fields such as psychology, it is an interesting article I think we may have had a thread about it in the past.
Click to expand...

That was the title of the article. He produced a paper, but as people said his results had reproducibility problems.

The name is a little hard to search for.

:blackcat:
 
Major Major said:
This was an article that popped up when I opened a blank tab on my browser, so I took a look.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/daryl-bem-proved-esp-is-real?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I notice that it mentions Randi.

However, it never explains why Bem did not apply for the Randi Prize (his paper was published in 2011). Did he not want to go through Randi's gantlet of comments?

:Blackcat:
Click to expand...


The whole thing is obvious fiction. I lifted this from the first paragraph of the article:

A short while later, she found herself in a conference room, seated alongside several other undergraduate women. “Have you guys heard of extrasensory perception?” Daryl Bem asked the students. They shook their heads.
Click to expand...

A number of undergraduate women who had never heard of extrasensory perception? They must have all been under rock dwellers.
 
Darat said:
... The main thrust of the article is about the quality and methods of research used in fields such as psychology, it is an interesting article I think we may have had a thread about it in the past.
Click to expand...


Here's a fairly lengthy merged thread from 2010 in which Bem and his article were discussed.

(And anyone interested in reviewing other past discussions of Bem and his thoughts can find a few other JREF threads about him in this list.)
 
Thor 2 said:
A number of undergraduate women who had never heard of extrasensory perception? They must have all been under rock dwellers.
Click to expand...


I'm sure they had all heard of "ESP," they just had no idea what "extrasensory perception" was.
 
Major Major said:
That was the title of the article. He produced a paper, but as people said his results had reproducibility problems.

The name is a little hard to search for.

:blackcat:
Click to expand...

That's why it's now becoming mandatory to pre-register study details, hypotheses and planned analyses before collecting data.
 
Trebuchet said:
Randi, of course, is well known for using his psychic powers to defeat people trying to prove their own psychic powers real.
Click to expand...


I remember a parapsychologist once seriously claiming that there would never be a published report about a successful psychic experiment because skeptics would read the report and the negative vibrations of their disbelief would travel back in time and retroactively interfere with the psychic's powers.
 
Armitage72 said:
I remember a parapsychologist once seriously claiming that there would never be a published report about a successful psychic experiment because skeptics would read the report and the negative vibrations of their disbelief would travel back in time and retroactively interfere with the psychic's powers.
Click to expand...

I thought the problem with Randi is that he is emitting a strong negativity-field that stretches at least a mile in all directions. Any psychic person who enters will instantly have their powers negated. Psychics who can normally read minds, find metal or water with consummate ease, or lift heavy objects with their minds alone thus become unable to do so untill they get to a safe distance from him. ;)
 
People who live in haunted houses should let a skeptic live with them rent-free. Haunting problem solved.

Ward
 
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