Project Alpha
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Project Alpha was a famous hoax played on the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research, orchestrated by famous magician and skeptic James Randi. It involved two fake psychics: Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards.
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Peter Phillips' experiments
In 1979 James S. McDonnell, board chairman of McDonnell Douglas and believer in the paranormal, awarded a USD $500,000 grant to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the establishment of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research. He intended the money to be used for serious study of psychic phenomena in a controlled setting. The lab was led by physicist Peter Phillips, who decided to focus on spoon bending by children, technically known as "psychokinetic metal bending", or PKMB.
Before the testing had started, James Randi had written to the lab with a list of eleven "caveats" they should be wary of, and his suggestions on how to avoid them. These included a rigid adherence to the protocol of the test, so that the subjects would not be allowed to change it in the midst of the run. This had been the modus operandi of Uri Geller while being tested at Stanford Research Institute; whenever something did not work, he simply did something else instead. Other suggestions included having only one object of study at any time, permanently marking the object or objects used so they could not be switched, and having as few people in the room as possible to avoid distractions. Randi also offered his services to watch the experiments as a control, noting that a conjurer would be an excellent person to look for fakery. Phillips did not take him up on the offer.
Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards
Throughout the early phases of the project, many people claiming to have psychic powers presented themselves to the lab. The vast majority quickly proved to have no such ability, or, just as commonly, used sleight of hand to make their "abilities" work. However, after a short while it became apparent that two of the young men, Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards, were in fact much better than the others, and the lab started to focus their energies on them.
In fact, the two young men were "plants" of Randi's, friends of Randi whom he had met some time before. Part of Randi's instructions to these men was to tell the truth if they were ever asked if they were faking the results. They were never asked.
Shaw and Edwards were amateur magicians who had no problems fooling the researchers with fairly simple tricks. The project had originally started with spoon bending, so the two quickly developed a way to accomplish this trick. Contrary to one of the "caveats" Randi noted in his initial letter, the test setup included all sorts of spoons on the table, labeled with paper on a loop of string instead of some permanent marking. When starting to bend a spoon they would actually pick up two, flicking the second to their other hand, lying in their lap. While pretending to "work" the visible spoon, thereby attracting the attention of the watching scientists, they bent the second spoon against the side of the table, then switched the labels. Although it required some level of dexterity, there was nothing particularly "tricky" about their method.
One particular camera operator proved to be able to catch them at this every time, even after they tried to get him to "zoom in on the action" and miss what was going on in their other hand. They took to getting annoyed by his "bad vibes," waited until he was asked to leave, and then continued as before with a more suggestible and less competent cameraman. This was also a clear violation of one of Randi's "caveats"; the test run should have been stopped at this point and recorded as a failure.
The two were so successful at spoon bending that several other tests were invented. In one they were given pictures in sealed envelopes and then asked to try to identify them from a list shown to them later. Astoundingly the two were left alone in a room with the envelopes, and although there was a possibility that they would peek, this was "controlled" by examining the envelopes later. The envelopes were held closed with four staples, which they simply pried open with their fingernails, looked at the picture, and then resealed by inserting the staples back into the same holes and forcing them closed against the table.
In another test the experiment was electronic in nature; they were asked to influence the burnout point of a common fuse. After they "worked it" with their mind, an increasing amount of current was run through it until it blew. The two proved to have amazing abilities in this test after a few trials, eventually causing the fuses to blow immediately once they "got used to it". In fact they were simply palming the already blown fuses and then handing them back to the experimenters. They also found that by pressing down on one end of the fuse in its holder, or just touching it briefly, the instruments recorded unusual results that were interpreted by the experimenters as PSI effects.
In some cases the experimenters seemed only too willing to help in the tricks. In one instance Shaw and Edwards were asked to move small objects in a sealed transparent container, normally small bits of paper balanced on an edge. After failing to figure out some trick for this experiment, they simply asked the staff to cut holes into the container, allowing their "mind rays" to get inside. Then they simply blew through the opening.
Other examples included their ability to make digital clocks stop working properly (they popped them in a microwave for a few seconds), or make images appear on film just by staring at the camera (they spat on the lens).
Revelation and aftermath
In mid-1981 the two were fairly famous in the PSI world, and even outside it, and Phillips was planning on releasing a full report of their powers at a PSI meeting in August. After the announcements in the press, Randi wrote to the lab again and stated that it was entirely possible the two were simply magicians, using common sleight of hand to fool the researchers. In July 1981 Phillips finally asked Randi to join him in designing some of the experiments. Randi then replied with a videotape showing him duplicating spoon and key bending, using the exact methods the two were using at the lab. Phillips agreed to show this video at the upcoming meeting.
Randi then started to leak stories that the two were a plant of his, which reached the lab a week later and were considered to be a joke. The story had been widely circulated by the time the meeting was held the next month. Reactions were varied; some thought it was simply a lie, others that Randi was pulling off a hoax, and still others concluded the entire experiment was dreamed up as a conspiracy by Randi and Phillips to discredit the field.
Upon returning from the meeting, Phillips immediately changed the test protocols. The two found that they were no longer able to fool the experimenters so easily, and in most cases, not at all. During this time the lab started releasing additional reports that seriously toned down the success rate. Apparently they were beginning to understand what was going on.
However, at this point Shaw and Edwards were so famous that they were asked to travel widely and present their powers. Many other PSI investigators interviewed the two and gave glowing reviews, thus tainting themselves in the eventual aftermath.
Randi decided to finally end the project, and announced the entire affair in Discover magazine. The resulting crash of the parapsychology field was immediate and deep; many of the researchers who endorsed Shaw and Edwards after the August meeting were now burned in the process. One went so far as to claim that the boys really did have psychic powers, and that they were now lying about being magicians. Although the McDonnell Lab was by this time running considerably better experiments, the bad press was so widespread it was shut down.
It might seem that the whole affair can be written off as a couple of magicians fooling some well-meaning but gullible scientists. This would not be entirely accurate, however, nor reflect the serious issues underlying these events, the key ones being:
- That some scientists were strongly motivated to obtain positive results in PSI experiments, with the result that poorly designed experiments and inappropriately favorable interpretations were made without due critical review.
- That sleight of hand and other deliberate deception to fake PSI powers were not being sufficiently taken into account when planning scientific tests.
Many of the experiments seemed to go out of their way to allow for some sort of "way out" and thereby guarantee a positive result. Certainly the completely uncontrolled picture viewing experiments falls into this category, but it would seem that deliberately cutting holes into "sealed containers" does too. The experimenters appear to be either under the influence of an extreme case of self-delusion, or entirely aware of what was going on and unwilling to admit it.
Interestingly, the Skeptical Inquirer (published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) had revealed that Steve Shaw was a fake psychic in their Fall 1980 issue. At the time neither the authors (McBurney and Greenberg) nor the editor (Kendrick Frazier) knew that Shaw was part of Project Alpha. Clearly the parapsychology researchers either didn't read the article or didn't believe it.
The Project Alpha hoax was clearly a successful experiment in demonstrating the flawed methodology of at least some PSI investigators. It also had the effect of casting a chill over the entire field. Many other experiments were killed off in the aftermath of the Alpha debacle.
References
- James Randi, The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 1. The First Two Years, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 7, #4, Summer 1983, 24-32. (external link below)
- James Randi, The Project Alpha Experiment: Part 2. Beyond the Laboratory, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 8, #1, Fall 1983, 36-45. (external link below)
- James Randi, The PA and the Success of Project Beta, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 8, #2, Winter 1983-84, 102-103.
- Martin Gardner, Notes of a Psi-Watcher: Lessons of a Landmark PK Hoax, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 7, #4, Summer 1983, 16-18.
- Donald H. McBurney and Jack K. Greenberg, Downfall of a Would-Be Psychic, Skeptical Inquirer, Vol 5, #1, Fall 1980, 61-62. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-148-7.
External articles
- The Project Alpha Experiment, Part one and part two. Skeptical Inquirer. Summer and Fall, 1983.
- Truzzi, Marcello, "Project Alpha: Sabotage". Skeptical Inquirer, 8(2)187.