Dean Radin -Podcast and Spoon Bending

[paqart]

Originally Posted by really

If I saw a spoon bend without anyone touching it while it's bending I'd admit I saw it bend.

I did something like this with a heavy butter knife that was essentially a solid strip of thick metal, but didn't "bend" it so much as rolled it up like a carpet. It was rolled so that the metal on both sides of the blade was nearly touching the metal on other parts of the roll.

At the time I did this, I also mangled about 25 other items of cutlery, but because I had my fingers in contact, I figured that the metal must have been weaker than I thought (and my fingers stronger.) Only years later, when I saw these things again, did I wonder about that explanation. In one of the other pieces, I'd rolled up the handle of a fork into a tight spiral, and it was a heavy handle. Some were twisted around their long axis, all the way down the length of it, and others looked like the classic "bent at the neck" versions of spoon-bending.

Funny thing is that while I found these unconvincing at the time, when I was telling a friend about it, I said that just because they hadn't worked out, didn't mean it couldn't be done. We were talking about bending keys also, because my friend had studied Uri Geller as a graduate physics student, so I said that regarding that, "it is possible," with some conviction in my voice. At about that moment, a key he had just pulled out of his pocket bent in half.

With all that said, when I moved to Europe a few years ago, I tossed all the bent/rolled knives, forks, and spoons, so I don't have them anymore.

AP

[really]

Originally Posted by paqart

With all that said, when I moved to Europe a few years ago, I tossed all the bent/rolled knives, forks, and spoons, so I don't have them anymore.

AP

From memory of long ago without any corroborating visual evidence what do you want me to make of this ?

[paqart]

Originally Posted by really

From memory of long ago without any corroborating visual evidence what do you want me to make of this ?

Sorry, I responded to the wrong person. I was responding to Miguel's post about the weak points of a spoon.

AP

[paqart]

Originally Posted by Kai

No matter how often this kind of thing is brought up, what is being discussed is still a "trust me I'm trustable" structure, which is not science.

[snip]

"can this be considered a surrogate for scientific evidence, in other words a demonstration in some sense that spoonbending exists?" then the answer again is "of course not," if you are talking about a scientific standard of knowledge.

This kind of answer does not advance the question. First, it is wrong in the sense that at some level, no matter what the subject is, you have to trust your source. This is as true of a parapsychologist as it is for an astrophysicist, or even yourself, because on some level you have to trust yourself. Therefore, it does not make sense to answer this question on that level.

The question instead appears designed to ask how a skeptic would answer based on the facts as given. Therefore, with the assumption that Radin is honest and reliable. If you cannot accept this, then feel free to ignore the question and post on other subjects instead.

AP

[Arouet]

I posted above about the interview with Radin where he described the incident a little differently - does anyone remember it? I think I got it from a link on this forum, so I'm sure some of you must have heard it as well? But I'd like to relisten before being sure.

[Lizzie S]

Just as an aside, my sister sold a painting to Uri Geller and I helped to deliver it to his house. In the process of discussing art and sharing a cup of coffee, completely impromptu, he went and grabbed a kitchen tablespoon to demonstrate his spoon bending skills and I will tell you, from what I could see it bent like liquid metal. I tried the same with another spoon and, of course, nothing! If it's just a parlour trick I don't see why he felt the need to prove anything as we weren't psychic investigators and we merely asked about his psychic abilities as we were about to leave. Interesting to see him do it though in the flesh, having watched so many documentaries relating the same during the 70s.

[Sandy B]

Originally Posted by Arouet

I posted above about the interview with Radin where he described the incident a little differently - does anyone remember it? I think I got it from a link on this forum, so I'm sure some of you must have heard it as well? But I'd like to relisten before being sure.

I don't have time to listen to check, but I thought it might have been this interview:
#197 – Scientific Parapsychology with Dean Radin | Shrink Rap Radio Psychology Interviews: Exploring brain, body, mind, spirit, intuition, leadership, research, psychotherapy and more!

[Sandy B]

Originally Posted by Lizzie S

Just as an aside, my sister sold a painting to Uri Geller and I helped to deliver it to his house. In the process of discussing art and sharing a cup of coffee, completely impromptu, he went and grabbed a kitchen tablespoon to demonstrate his spoon bending skills and I will tell you, from what I could see it bent like liquid metal. I tried the same with another spoon and, of course, nothing! If it's just a parlour trick I don't see why he felt the need to prove anything as we weren't psychic investigators and we merely asked about his psychic abilities as we were about to leave. Interesting to see him do it though in the flesh, having watched so many documentaries relating the same during the 70s.

That would have been a cool experience!

[Lizzie S]

Originally Posted by Sandy B

That would have been a cool experience!

It was indeed! Particularly as it wasn't your cheap bog-standard spoon but quite an ornate, thick one. He bent it in about 15 seconds flat!

[Sandy B]

Originally Posted by Lizzie S

It was indeed! Particularly as it wasn't your cheap bog-standard spoon but quite an ornate, thick one. He bent it in about 15 seconds flat!

I read one of his books recently, and there are all these pictures of rather valuable pieces of silverware that people have had him bend. While I think it's all very interesting, part of me thinks it's sad to break such nice things.