Talk:Project Alpha (hoax)

message: Wikipedia's Steve Shaw was born in 1975 - he was six years old when Project Alpha was in its hot phase. --Hob Gadling 14:46, Jun 6, 2005 (UTC)
: Different Steve. This one most often goes by his stage name Banachek. -- Krash 13:33, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  Banachek was born in 1960 in England and apparently first started posing as a psychic in high school (Trinity High School, Washington, PA) in 1977. He did metal bending as well as mentalist tricks at that time, which led to coverage in his school paper (The Hiller, October 13, 1977) and in the local Washington, PA newspaper a year and a few months later (the Observer-Reporter, January 4, 1979). Lippard (talk) 21:08, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Steve Shaw? 

message: I removed this line from the end of the Project Alpha wiki: "and the field [of parapsychology] is generally ignored as bunk by many." This seems obviously biased and representative of a POV. -Redxela Sinnak 16:41, July 11, 2005 (UTC)
: That seems to be a factual statement to me. Don't many people ignore parapsychology as bunk? Bubba73 (talk), 03:33, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of "ignored as bunk" 

message: :Randi decided to finally end the project, and announced the entire affair in Discover magazine—at that time a fairly in-depth magazine. The resulting crash of the parapsychology field was immediate and deep; many of the researchers who tried to get in on the feeding frenzy 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
That's not neutral language. - Ta bu shi da yu 06:46, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that it needs to be rephrased. Bubba73 (talk), 17:42, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

text: I disagree. The use of "feeding frenzy" and the exclamation point may a little "colorful," but I don't see anything that doesn't fit a neutral viewpoint (in so far as there's such a thing as a neutral viewpoint). KarlBunker 12:40, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  That's basically what I meant - tone it down a little. Bubba73 (talk), 05:16, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

text: Point taken. I've rephrased "feeding frenzy" and removed the exclamation point. KarlBunker 13:57, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutral? 

message: : External articles
:: *The Project Alpha Experiment, Part one and part two. Skeptical Inquirer. Summer and Fall, 1983.
This link is dead, because that site is beeing updated, it needs to be reviewed when the site is back up and running. --Topstar 00:23, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The article is now located at http://www.banachek.org/nonflash/project_alpha.htm. Morganite 17:44, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dead Link 

message: "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."
Nothing really wrong here, but when you say "killed off", do you really mean it? Again not a criticism, I actually want to know.--MyNameIsNeo 20:35, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That was pretty "rough & ready" language, and also makes a statement not supported by Randi's article. I rewrote it. KarlBunker 21:57, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, back after a long time. This is an interesting point, because if you were around at the time (I entered U just after these events) you would know this was the case. Every university I visited (three) prior to starting school had some sort of paraphyscology lab, recently closed. I know this wasn't entirely due to Alpha, perhaps even not at all (the 70s were ending), but certainly the field became "tainted" as a result of the project. Now getting a ref for this is essentially impossible. I know of no study called "number of parapsychology labs in operation before and after project alpha" and doubt that one exists, in any diluted form either. Yet I'm sure many other readers of my age remember the same events taking place. So what to do, leave out this important event because there's no ref and likely never will be? Seems like a shame. Maury 02:37, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: How about newspapers of the time? Didn't they publish related articles? If there aren't any references, I doubt the notability of the events. Surely at least closing of the departments were reported somewhere? -- Coffee2theorems | Talk 23:59, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Colloquial language 

message: The excuse that the observant cameraman was giving "bad vibes" seems to contradict what one of the young men said in this video. Does anyone have sources for the claims currently in the article? Perhaps did they use the "bad vibes" excuse at a different point in time than the time the guy was talking about in this video? 138.89.122.55 07:49, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The (para)quote in question comes from the Skeptical Eye article from Discover, at least as I remembered it at the time. You're right, it does seem to be at odds with the description in the video, as does the description of a hole being cut (as opposed to the bell jar not actually being a bell jar). Consider both to be highly suspect. Maury 22:20, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Bad Vibes" from cameraman 

message: I think there should be some sort of link to Project Beta. This gives an example of James Randi's little known service to the parapsychology community following the success of project Alpha.
In 1982, when I (Stanley Krippner) was president of the PA, James Randi appeared on a panel of magicians that the program chair had arranged for the annual convention. The PA Council had just passed a resolution that put the Association on record that its members were advised to consult magicians when dealing with presumptive macro-PK phenomena. During the convention, held in Montclair, New Jersey, Randi invited John Beloff and me to dinner at his nearby home. During dinner, we discussed the PA resolution, and John described a young "metal bender" he and his team were investigating in Scotland. Randi agreed to develop a device in which a thin metal rod could be placed. However, if the device were opened or tampered with, a chemical would change color and reveal the deceit. Later, John gave the device to the young man, who claimed that he could only bend metal in the privacy of his home. When the device was returned, the metal was bent, the sealing wax was intact, but the chemical had changed color. John concluded that the wax had been melted, the metal had been bent by ordinary means, and the device had been resealed with the same wax. When Randi heard about this, he proclaimed that his "Project Beta" had been successful. Unlike "Project Alpha," in which Randi's confederates infiltrated a parapsychological laboratory as research participants, "Project Beta" simply required that Randi's advice be requested by a prominent parapsychologist. John Beloff was as prominent as they come.
 Kazuba (talk) 01:46, 6 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Project Beta

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 2 external links on Project Alpha. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060503224225/http://www.banachek.org/nonflash/project_alpha.htm to http://www.banachek.org/nonflash/project_alpha.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060503224225/http://www.banachek.org/nonflash/project_alpha.htm to http://www.banachek.org/nonflash/project_alpha.htm
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The following Wikimedia Commons files used on this page have been nominated for speedy deletion:
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thread_title:  Commons files used on this page have been nominated for speedy deletion 

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thread_title:  A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion 

message: The article states that the CIA accused Randi of "gross distortions" in an internal memo.
Accused by the CIA in a help internal to the CIA – that doesn't make sense to me. Rather, a member of the CIA accused Randi. I'll adjust the wording.
Checking the memo, it was "PREPARED BY (REDACTED)" and it's not clear that it expresses the view of the CIA rather than the view of the author of the memo. 
PREPAR BY (REDACTED)".ED Chriswaterguy talk 22:26, 25 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  CIA memo