Talk:Philip experiment

"his wife Lorne"

Lorne is a man's name. Should this be Lorna? 99.238.167.214 (talk) 04:09, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Dr A. R. G. Owen validates the paranormal abilities of magician Uri Geller

https://www.urigeller.com/dr-a-r-g-owen/ Metal objects were bent or divided (by Geller) in circumstances such as to prove conclusively … that the phenomena were genuine and paranormal. Dr A. R. G. Owen. New Horizons Research Foundation,Toronto, Ontario – Canada Miistermagico (talk) 05:47, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

I don't know about Geller (note that he is the source of that reference, not Owen), but Matthew Manning bent a number of objects, including a key of mine, at Owen's 1974 Toronto PK conference. There was no video recording, but it is hard to see how he could have bent it using normal means given the force required, and the absence of Geller-like rapid movements. I was also present at one of the Philip Group sessions, and observed raps apparently moving round the table as 'Philip' was asked to 'say hello to X' to each person in turn. Make of that what you want, but to me that apparent movement of the raps around the table seemed pretty convincing (I looked under the table to check that the participants were not making the raps). --Brian Josephson (talk) 10:07, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

It is a magician's job to do things that are "hard to see how he could have" done it. So, nothing unusual here.

People whose work only involves things which are so simple that their behaviour can be predicted exactly by equations, such as physicists, sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that they should also be able to understand everything else, and when they don't, they think there is something wrong with the basics. Actually, not understanding stuff is normal, not paranormal.

But yes, Geller is not a reliable source. --Hob Gadling (talk) 19:34, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Even though I'm a physicist I can often figure out how magicians do their tricks. But then again magicians are pretty good at persuading people such as yourselves that there is no such thing as the paranormal. How do you explain that bent key, by the way (it was my own key so Manning wouldn't have had a duplicate (which was how Randi attempted, unsuccessfully as it happened, to fool physicist John Taylor one time: "I saw you swap that spoon"). All done with chemicals? And magicians never offer to do their magic with setups designed by parapsychologists--Brian Josephson (talk) 19:52, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

I will not try to explain magic tricks. You won't want to understand my point anyway (for the onlookers: if you fail to explain something, it does not mean anything except that you fail. Concluding that everybody else would fail too is just stroking your wounded ego - "I am so smart that only a paranormal effect can keep me from understanding everything") and the purpose of this page is improving the article.

Please do not rip apart other people's contributions. I moved the second part back up where it belongs. --Hob Gadling (talk) 20:41, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

In any case, there's no need to take your time explaining to me things that I know already. And yes, let's not waste further time discussing this; my first point was, I believe, relevant to possible improvement of the article, but I'm not sure that the same could be said of your subsequent comments. But it is very tempting to have a conversation here, I have to admit! --Brian Josephson (talk) 20:53, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Really a "Romani" girl, or a "Gypsy" girl?

"Gypsy" is not only "Romani", there are also other tribals like Sinti, Lalleri, Calderasch etc.. If the participants said only "Gypsy", "Romani" is an illegitimate misinformation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tobias Claren (talk • contribs) 02:10, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Rromani would be the people in general. Sinti, Kalderash, Vlax, etc are tribal groups within the nation. Gypsy would be the out-group slur. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.83.88.19 (talk) 18:45, 15 August 2020 (UTC)