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Originally Posted by Open Mind  Are you impressed by this? Do you seriously call this 'research'? They fake a photograph and to see how stupid they can make a fortune teller look? How on earth did their trial measure for weak effects? This *is* evidence that Steven Novella and 'Skeptic's Guide to the Universe' have not read the parapsychology/psychical research |
This is an excellent point. I've always been dismayed that when pseudosceptics are proactive about testing psi (rather than just sitting on your backside and waiting for "claimants" like Randi does) they usually go and test people who are likely to fail, for example going to a psychic fair.
There was a TV program made by Richard Dawkins not long ago where he was doing the usual debunkery stuff and one section of the show involved the whole "paranormal" thing. He set up an experiment to test a bunch of unknown dowsers who predictably failed. To be fair, his program was more about how people fail to apply reasoning but I got the feeling that he was generalising this failed demonstration to whole of the "paranormal" field. I would bet that the belief system of certain pseudosceptical viewers was reinforced by this.
I wonder why people like Novella, or Dawkins, who do occasionally perform "tests", don't go and test people who already have been scientifically tested with success like Joseph McMoneagle?