Gullible Press Falls for Blindfold Trick Again
The Rotorua Daily Post (from New Zealand) reports that Ma Nithya Maheshwaranand, a 12 year old girl from Dallas, is able to read while blindfolded using her “third eye.” They write:
“At least two people, including a Rotorua Daily Post photographer, tested the blindfold and said they could not see through it in any direction.”
The reporter, Stephanie Arthur-Worsop, who is the education and court reporter for the newspaper, included only token skepticism, from Keith Garratt of the New Zealand Sceptics:
“I don’t know what people saw or whether it seems to be miraculous or not but there have been many illusionists and magicians who appear to do things that are miraculous but don’t claim that it’s supernatural.”
If the reporter had done some actual journalism rather than pandering to spiritualists she would have found that this is an old magician’s trick. It is actually not difficult to create the impression that you are using effective blinders while still allowing yourself to peek.
Whenever “third eye” or blindsight claims are tested under properly controlled conditions, which means that someone who knows what they are doing effectively blinds the subject in a way so that they cannot peek, their powers utterly vanish.
Many of these cases have been tested for the JREF Million Dollar Psychic Challenge. James Randi reports:
“So I simply take a little bit of tape and put it into their eye orbits over their eyelids so they cannot open their eyes, and they lose their psychic powers immediately. I tested them live on Japanese television, and another group like that in Korea.”
We didn’t hear any of this in the news story.
As long as there are gullible reporters, or just those who care more about juicy headlines than accurate reporting, the “peeky blinders” story will be repeated.
Of course, as skeptics, we’ll be happy to test each one. Ma Nithya can apply for the million dollar challenge, show up all of us skeptics, prove her abilities are real, and walk away with a cool million as a bonus. All she has to do is what she claims she already does, except with a tiny bit of tape to prevent cheating.
Source: This girl reads while blindfolded using her ‘third eye’
*there are gullible reporters
The Riverfront Times just ran a front page story on this exact scam that was exposed.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2015/07/who_better_to_expose_a_controversial_religions_tricks_than_a_bunch_of_magicians.php
Blindsight is an actual medical condition where totally blind people can somehow still navigate a room. This occurs when a lesion to a specific part of the brain result in blindness. An alternative pathway for vision can then still work. This works on a subconscious level. For example when you are driving a car and zone out for 5 seconds, your subconscious kept you going through that mechanism
I’ve seen substantially more miraculous things happen on a stage in Vegas.
[…] Gullible Press Falls for Blindfold Trick Again […]
I’m about as cynical as they come which is why I am not a ‘follower’ of anyone. I am not religious.
But I also recognize that skeptics are just the opposite side of the same coin as fanatics so I don’t just dismiss stuff based on my opinion or claim something doesn’t exist just because I myself haven’t experienced it.
Which is why, almost a decade ago, I was told of someone doing cards based on the story of Henry Sugar. I tried it myself for awhile and in 2009 found myself staring at what ended up being a crown on the back of a card. I couldn’t make out any more of it but knew it was a crown. Even when I blinked, it didn’t disappear. I turned the card over and it was a crown, on the jack of spades.
Since that time I have worked at this off and on. I haven’t seen anything since, until November of last year. I found myself looking at a small spade on a card slowly rotating left, then right. I also couldn’t make anything else out on that card. I turned it over and it was the small spade in the corner of the card, under the 3 of the 3 of spades.
I’ve had two more of these since, the last being a big bold 6 in the corner of a card.
So why bother mentioning any of this? I’m not very good at doing this, I couldn’t make a living at it for sure. And I’m sure not out to prove to anyone what I can or can’t do. But I think it has to be pointed out that skeptics are just as bad as fanatics. They really are the opposite side of the same coin. Neither of you would make a very good scientist because your conclusions are already set in stone and there’s no changing your minds.
I’m sure there are frauds and magicians with tricks out there but my own experience tells me that there must be others who can do the same thing and likely a whole lot better than me.