The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode Notes for
Psychic Soldiers and Imperilled Silverware (episode 122)

Ray Hyman demonstrates Uri Gueller’s spoon bending feats at CFI lecture. June 17, 2012 Costa Mesa, CA. Photo by Sgerbic (own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In this MonsterTalk, we’re pleased to bring you an interview with psychologist Ray Hyman, a long time skeptical activist and educator, a founding member of CSICOP (now CSI) and one of the key investigators into the US government’s program to develop psychic soldiers. Some of this story was revealed in Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare at Goats, but in this interview you’ll hear Ray’s personal recollections about magic, skepticism and the mysterious claims of a famous psychic named Uri Geller.

Items of Interest

• The DuMont TV Network
• Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Awards
• Ray Hyman’s Skeptic’s Toolbox workshop (and Wiki article )
• University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies (formerly parapsychology dept referenced in story by Ray) and here.
• Uri Geller
• Russell Targ
• The Stargate Project
• Remote Viewing
• Ideomotor Effect (related to water witching, ouija boards and many other “paranormal” phenomena)
• The Psychology of the Psychic, by David Marks
• The Elusive Quarry, by Ray Hyman
• Why Smart People Can Be So Stupid, edited by Robert Sternberg
• The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson
• Water Witching (USA), by Evon Vogt and Ray Hyman
• How People are Fooled by Ideomotor Action

Music

• Intro music: Dark Walk Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under [CC BY 3.0]
• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.