Ed said:
As far as the "parties" go, I think that you have your answer. Tell me, do you really think that all of those folks who get "hypnotised" are really "hypnotised" when a hypnotist does his thing? Why not? Now picture a party of woos, wouldn't you feel left out if your spoon was the only non-flaccid one?
And you have the proof in Michael Crichton's account. He says that at one point he was getting a bit p*ssed off that his spoon wasn't bending when everyone else's was, so he tried to bend it by brute force. And he couldn't (more on that in a moment). Then Houck came along, took it from him, did something, handed it back and then it started to bend.
There are other interesting things in Crichton's account. He mentions somewhere that people bring along their own spoons etc., and Houck asks them to put them in a big pile on the floor. Then, when everyone had donated their spoons, Houck dumped a drawerful of "silverware" on top of the pile. People were then encouraged to take an item from the pile and try it.
O.K. so there's this big pile of cutlery on the floor, everyone wants an item and are milling around the pile. I want to get a spoon or whatever. What do most people do? They take something from the top of the pile so as not to bring the proceedings to a complete halt while they rummage through the entire pile. But what's on the TOP of the pile? Why, the "silverware" dumped there by Houck....! Therefore, regardless of what anyone BROUGHT, the probability is that they end up choosing an item supplied by Houck. It doesn't matter if one or two get a "donated" piece, as long as the majority end up with supplied items.
And why the pile in the first place? If most people brought their own spoon etc., why couldn't they just keep that one and use it?
I commented earlier that I was surprised that someone couldn't bend a 3/8 inch aluminum bar. It depends on the length of course, but the commentator said that the bar could be bent over the knee, so it wasn't very short otherwise that would have been impossible. And if it was long then it's not exactly a hard or difficult metal to bend. Then we have Crichton saying that he couldn't bend a spoon by brute force. How likely is that with a normal spoon? And how do we know the bar is aluminium?
I then note that Houck was supposedly employed for 42 years by Boeing. Who do what exactly? They make aircraft. And they are particularly interested in materials stress research. But checking a bit further it turns out that Houck was apparently a project manager of an advanced research team at McDonnell Douglas. Researching what? He doesn't say... What do McDonnell/Boeing research most? Materials stress, particularly plastic deformation of metals under unusual circumstances. It's one of the most common causes of failure in jet engines.
I couldn't find much detail of what their research has revealed in simple terms but I did find some mention of metals with extreme hardness which suddenly become plastic under mild stress and heat. Three different types were mentioned in different reports, ones with microscopic air bubbles, ones with titanium dioxide powder and ones that had been saturated with hydrogen at high temperature and pressure. I also note from some general metallurgy sites that plastic metals often exhibit extreme resistance before becoming plastic and then they tend to suddenly harden into another extreme strength state.
Titanium is one of the strongest metals around, it's also light. Like aluminium. It's also a metal that is widely known for unusual plastic effects. It's one of the main components of shape memory alloys. And it's widely used in aircraft.
Now, none of the above proves anything of course, but it's certainly highly suspicious.
Finally, working on the Pragmatist principle that hard core woo's usually have something to sell, I thought it may be worth seeing if Houck had anything related to sell. He does. He just happens to sell a software program that is designed to "tune up" your psychic powers in preparation for remote viewing, spoon bending etc...
Definitely warrants a hmmm....!
On the positive side, the idea that the spoons etc., are some special material is unlikely if he lets people take them away, assuming that the material is somewhat expensive - it may not be, I wouldn't know.
I can't say that the whole thing is a trick or that psychic powers are NOT involved. But it definitely LOOKS suspicious.
Regarding a test, the first thing to do would be to use an item that is guaranteed NOT to have been supplied by Houck or anyone else involved. Secondly, seal it in a glass box or something and THEN bend it by "mind power" without anyone touching it at all. Also make sure the area is monitored for unusual radiation, magnetic fields etc. A tiny magnetic induction coil could be hidden in someone's sleeve that would rapidly spot heat a metal object brought close to it for example. There are probably many more things that need to be done, but I think those would be a good start.
