• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Monroe Institute

jfish said:
It has been almost a year since I last visited this forum. Some interesting experiences to share with my skeptic friends. I traveled to Peru to spend 2 weeks in a jungle ayahuasca healing retreat. While it was an interesting trip (in more ways than one), I can't say I obtained any "proof" of anything paranormal. More recently I traveled to the Rhine Center in Durham, NC to participate in a "psi" gathering. The subject of spoon bending has come up in the past in this forum I thought I would comment on the spoon bending component of this program. A bin of commercial grade spoons was passed around and everyone took one. We were instructed to gather mental energy, pass it down our arms to the spoon and then command the spoon to bend. There were about 30 people in the room each attempting this. Through multiple efforts my spoon did not bend. However, I observed others around me having success. By the end of that exercise I would estimate that 40% of the attendees had bent at least one spoon. The woman next to me was particularly adept repeatedly taking another spoon from the bin and bending it. I wish I had asked her to attempt it with my spoon and me holding it. I would have like to see if she could do it by cupping her hands around mine and bending my spoon. Perhaps there will be another opportunity in the coming year to try that.
Click to expand...

Why couldn't they bend the spoons when they were still in the bin?
 
If you can bend stainless steel with your mind - why do you need hands to lift them out of the bin?
 
Last edited:
Spoon Bending

It has been quite some time since I last visited this site. Thought I would stop back in to report that I had success bending a spoon and then a fork at a week long program on energy. I didn't have success initially but as I watched others having success, I repeated my efforts with the same spoon and eventually bent it in half. The fork was more substantial than the spoon. When I first selected it, I could not bend it using my hands. When I used the mental format I had been taught, I bent the fork in a 90 degree angle.

I have also had some mild success with remote viewing in two different programs. One as a day long workshop taught by one of the instructors who had been involved in the military remote viewing program in the 60s. The core principle is we have a subconscious ability to perceive things. The training centered on using a technique to allow this subliminal perception arise to normal conscious awareness.
 
Resume said:
Sure you did.
Click to expand...

"Oh, ye of little faith". Surely you have seen this MOST IMPORTANT NEWS that so completely refutes mainstream science and thousands of years of accumulated human experience reported in all the Main Stream Media?

Wait. Me neither. :o
 
Last edited:
jfish said:
It has been quite some time since I last visited this site. Thought I would stop back in to report that I had success bending a spoon and then a fork at a week long program on energy. I didn't have success initially but as I watched others having success, I repeated my efforts with the same spoon and eventually bent it in half. The fork was more substantial than the spoon. When I first selected it, I could not bend it using my hands. When I used the mental format I had been taught, I bent the fork in a 90 degree angle.

I have also had some mild success with remote viewing in two different programs. One as a day long workshop taught by one of the instructors who had been involved in the military remote viewing program in the 60s. The core principle is we have a subconscious ability to perceive things. The training centered on using a technique to allow this subliminal perception arise to normal conscious awareness.
Click to expand...
The remote viewing program didn't work.
 
jfish said:
It has been quite some time since I last visited this site. Thought I would stop back in to report that I had success bending a spoon and then a fork at a week long program on energy. I didn't have success initially but as I watched others having success, I repeated my efforts with the same spoon and eventually bent it in half. The fork was more substantial than the spoon. When I first selected it, I could not bend it using my hands. When I used the mental format I had been taught, I bent the fork in a 90 degree angle.



I have also had some mild success with remote viewing in two different programs. One as a day long workshop taught by one of the instructors who had been involved in the military remote viewing program in the 60s. The core principle is we have a subconscious ability to perceive things. The training centered on using a technique to allow this subliminal perception arise to normal conscious awareness.
Click to expand...


Congratulations on the spoon bending!!

Will you be applying for the 1 million dollar prize? All you would need to do is bend the spoon under controlled observation and you will not only be 1 million dollars richer, you will be set for the rest of your life. Sounds like it would be easy now that you know how.

You will change the course of science forever!!!

GO FOR IT!!!!
 
jfish said:
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.
Click to expand...

So the utensils were supplied by the same people making the claim. In order to avoid trickery, you need to enforce a rule that all materials be provided by and watched over by a neutral 3rd party.
 
I'm taking a course in Research Methodology and have an assignment - to present a proposal to test some form of parapsychology. I'm leaning toward a controlled and blinded spoon/fork bending study. I could use a well intentioned critique of my ideas - something more than simple criticism of the whole concept. Are there some individuals who would be willing to participate? I'll share an outline of what I have in mind. You look for weaknesses in the design. This won't be done in this public forum but privately.
 
There are plenty of people here who can critique a test protocol. I'd be interested to see what you come up with for spoon bending. Off hand I can think of no protocol which would reliably prevent cheating.
 
I also think that a protocol for spoon-bending that prevents cheating is difficult, or perhaps impossible.
However, if I had to design such a protocol, I would start with the following suggestions: Utensils to be provided by a third party. Claimant can choose one randomly and bend by hand to ensure that some undbendable alloy has not been used (if one such exists). Test is performed with one hand held behind back, and away from hard surfaces. Cameras should record the test from at least two angles.

And yet, I am not sure that it cannot be beaten.
 
One possible safeguard might be to get a professional magician who knows the tricks used for spoonbending to try the protocol. The talk show host who humiliated Uri Gellar was advised by James Randi as to what precautions needed to be taken to prevent cheating. If a good magician can't produce bent spoons using the protocol it ought to be reasonably cheat proof.
 
But even experienced magicians can be fooled - as evidenced by Penn & Teller's popular show "Fool Us".
 
Rather amazing such things are still going on. I was around when Geller was doing his thing and watched with interest as his nonsense was so thoroughly debunked. Randi was able to teach even inexperienced people to do these tricks..... One of the complaints about Geller was that he was so pedestrian...

The pro magicians who watched him were so easily able to figure out what he was doing.

And as the others point out, if these people are, by some species of telekinesis, able to "soften" the metal of these utensiles, why would it be harder to bend the thing in the middle of the spoon's "bowl"?
Or, to flatten the bowl completely, or make the spoon curl up like a spring?
Why, it would seem to me that once mastered, you could easily apply this method to anything made of metal.... A nice bit of rebar, perhaps.

Note....This was part of the spoon-bending nonsense as well "back when".... A fellow (not Geller) claimed to be able to force a precision steel rod "out of round" with his mind.
He was shown to be a fraud as well.

Finally, if the power of the mind is responsible for this effect, why must the individual hold it? Why not place the spoon in a holder, sit it in the middle of a group of mind-benders several feet away.... And turn that sucker into a pretzel. Should be easy, no?
 
jfish said:
I'm taking a course in Research Methodology and have an assignment - to present a proposal to test some form of parapsychology. I'm leaning toward a controlled and blinded spoon/fork bending study. I could use a well intentioned critique of my ideas - something more than simple criticism of the whole concept. Are there some individuals who would be willing to participate? I'll share an outline of what I have in mind. You look for weaknesses in the design. This won't be done in this public forum but privately.
Click to expand...

In your version of spoon bending is touching the spoon required?
If so how can you distinguish physical bending using muscular force from psychic bending?
Do you want to test whether YOU can do it, or whether anyone can do it?
If the former, have a disinterested party chose the spoon, and place it on a table and then you bend it from across the room. That will convince anyone.
I'd love to see the protocol.
I'm a scientist, not a paranormal investigator or debunker, however.
 
Here are the initial components of my protocol. Use multiple layers of blinding. A recruiter finds people to fill different roles - a purchaser of spoons and forks from a store such as Target. The purchaser also buys a lockable briefcase from Staples or Office Depot. The utensils are placed in the briefcase and the briefcase is locked. It is handed off to a briefcase handler who doesn't know the lock code. Only the purchaser knows the code and once he has handed it off, he has no more interaction with the briefcase. The handler delivers the briefcase to a university employed metallurgist. The metallurgist examines every utensil and performs whatever tests he feels necessary on a sample of the utensils. He etches a small mark at the base of each utensil, puts them all back in the briefcase, closes and locks the briefcase. He gives the briefcase back to the handler. The handler delivers the briefcase to the spoon bending test location on the evening of the bending exercise. The melatallurgist is there to open the briefcase and verify the utensils appear to be the same ones he examined and marked. An illusionist is there to examine the utensils and comment on whether he finds anything odd about the utensils.

Let's end there for now. This is the handling and testing portion of the protocol. Anything you can think of that would strengthen this segment?
 
Forgot to mention - the metallurgist has to call the purchaser to get the code. At that point only the purchaser and the metallurgist know the code.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom