Dean Radin -Podcast and Spoon Bending

[metaphysics101]

Hi all,
I was listening to one of the very early podcasts with Dean Radin as a guest, and I listening to his fascinating account of him seeing his spoon bend in his hand at a spoon bending event way back in 2000. Recently I found some info on it with pictures that was posted from Dean's Website.
Here is a link if you want to see a picture of the spoon and his comments in regards to what happened


Dean

So my question is, after you visited that page and read Dean's comments, what would be a skeptic's response? Honestly without calling Dean Radin a flat out liar, I don't think a skeptic could have ANY rational explanation for this. I've even tried to bend the bowl of a spoon with a pair of pliers, and I couldn't even do that, so outside of paranormal phenomena, or just calling dean a fraud, I don't think there's an explanation.

Personally, I don't see Dean lying about this, I think he just experienced an amazing paranormal event. He did mention that he tried to replicate this several times and he hasn't been able to which fits into the mold of this phenomena being more random than we think.

Also just for discussion, say that a skeptic happened to visit this spoon bending event and was a witness to this spoon bending. If that skeptic couldn't get it to replicate, does he do the right thing and admit that he saw it happening, and declare it a reality but we just don't know how to replicate it? or do he just say that there MUST be a trick involved because it couldn't be replicated?
What are your thoughts on all this.
Dusty

Nonetheless, absolutely fascinating!

[anonymous]

Originally Posted by metaphysics101

So my question is, after you visited that page and read Dean's comments, what would be a skeptic's response?

1) Just spoon bending? What else?
2) Got Video?
3) Let's talk about something else.

Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos

As I've said before, I've read two of his studies and wasn't impressed by either. Is there another one I should read?

As for spoon bending, Dean Radin claims he has done it. There are spoon bending parties all over the place. If you don't like spoon bending, how about some other demonstrable PK effect?

~~ Paul

Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos

Got video?

~~ Paul

Originally Posted by hoggworks

That's the theory, yes. As to Dean Radin, I wonder why he'd be sure that it wasn't an unconscious effect, considering it's unconscious.

[really]

I want high definition video of a spoon bending without anyone touching it. A photo of a bent spoon isn't persuasive.
I want to see a spoon bent not always at it's structurally weakest points like what has occurred in each photo.

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

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by metaphysics101

So my question is, after you visited that page and read Dean's comments, what would be a skeptic's response? Honestly without calling Dean Radin a flat out liar, I don't think a skeptic could have ANY rational explanation for this.

Dean Radin says he bent a spoon in his hands. There is nothing incredible about that and I don't see any reason to suppose that he would lie about that.
Here is a video of Shermer doing the same.

Dean Radin evidently thought the phenomenon not sufficiently remarkable to follow-up on. You should not expect skeptics to be more excited about this than him.

I've even tried to bend the bowl of a spoon with a pair of pliers, and I couldn't even do that, so outside of paranormal phenomena, or just calling dean a fraud, I don't think there's an explanation.

Of course, there's no reason why every spoon should be equally bendable.

What might be illuminating would be to take several batches of mass-produced spoons, or just any old piece of metal, really. Then to make measurements of the force required to bend each batch with the hope that there should be different forces necessary for each batch.
These 'standard spoons' could then be used at a PK party to determine how much force really is exerted.
This could then be compared to direct measurements of force exerted by human fingers. Perhaps that's unnecessarily complicated, though.
I'd still be curious to know how much force spoons can take before bending.

Say, that spoon that wouldn't bend with pliers, did you eventually bend it fingers and your mind?

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by really

I want high definition video of a spoon bending without anyone touching it. A photo of a bent spoon isn't persuasive.
I want to see a spoon bent not always at it's structurally weakest points like what has occurred in each photo.

The bowl is hardly the weakest point, though it would be more remarkable if it had been bent the other way.

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.

Interesting reading:
http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/BJP-key.pdf

[Open Mind]

Originally Posted by Miguel

Dean Radin says he bent a spoon in his hands. There is nothing incredible about that and I don't see any reason to suppose that he would lie about that.
Here is a video of Shermer doing the same.

It is pity Shermer wasn't filmed trying to bend spoons in same area later, Certainly I have no spoons in my house I could bend in the curved part without some tool ...then again I didn't want to damage my spoons and they are thick metal ... I put enough force into these that any more would have made the fingers hurt.

Perhaps other readers could try this ... do you have spoons you can bend by fingers alone into the position shown by Radin and Shermer? Don't hurt your fingers but if it isn't bending at all (like mine) I am not sure what is occurring.

[Arouet]

That's what I don't get too. Radin is a parapsychologist. A spoon bending experiment would presumably be relatively cheap to design and carry out.

Why no experiments?

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by Open Mind

It is pity Shermer wasn't filmed trying to bend spoons in same area later,

What do you mean?

Originally Posted by Open Mind

Certainly I have no spoons in my house I could bend in the curved part without some tool ...then again I didn't want to damage my spoons and they are thick metal ... I put enough force into these that any more would have made the fingers hurt.

Perhaps other readers could try this ... do you have spoons you can bend by fingers alone into the position shown by Radin and Shermer? Don't hurt your fingers but if it isn't bending at all (like mine) I am not sure what is occurring.

The silver price has gone seriously up in recent years. I would advice anyone to check the current price of their silverware before doing damage to it.

Couldn't bend one of my cheap steel spoons. It was somewhat smaller than the big soup spoon Shermer had, which implies worse leverage. And also, of course, it was steel and I'm guessing Shermer had silver overlay like Radin.

[P.Blah]

In his book "Travels", Michael Crichton has a short chapter describing a spoon bending party he attended. Spoon Bending

[Open Mind]

Originally Posted by Miguel

What do you mean?

Since Shermer thinks it is purely adrenaline ... he should have found a similar spoons and bent those using anger, brute force etc. ... going to have the spoon examined for melted bends seems a bit irrelevent to me.... since empirical evidence is not dependent on wrong theories.