The Lanford Experiments

[Ed]

I see all and will answer your mundane questions:

It all sounds much too elaborate..


Why the rented house?

They were shooting a porno flic the next day

Why film the setup and then wait overnight to test?

[They were using the egg albumin process and it takes a while to dry

Are cards the only thing Mr. Lanford can see through steel plates?

Naked chicks too

Why steel plates?

Homage to Superman's x-ray vision. These people are nothing if not romantics

Why the second deck?

Homage to the following porno flic


The list goes on and on and on and on.........

And I am here to illucidate.... you are welcome.

Edit to add: Nolan Coppenthingie? Really? I am sceptical.

 

[Dr Adequate]

We feel the results of these tests are truly astounding. Although we have urged Lanford to go public with his remarkable ability, he has said that he is content to remain a private member of our society and does not want publicity. As he so wisely puts it, “These little tricks are unimportant. They're just side effects. What matters isn't seeing playing cards. What matters is what we see in the human soul.”

At last, we hit rock bottom.

A guru who has the Power Of Doing Card Tricks.

"Pick a card, any card. Now put it back in the pack... was this your card?"
"A miracle! I Believe!"
"Splendid. Now drink the Kool-Aid."

But I my friend, can saw a lady in half. Renounce your false prophet and follow me.

 

[Psiload]

Re: Re: The Lanford Experiments

At last, we hit rock bottom.

A guru who has the Power Of Doing Card Tricks.

"Pick a card, any card. Now put it back in the pack... was this your card?"
"A miracle! I Believe!"
"Splendid. Now drink the Kool-Aid."

But I my friend, can saw a lady in half. Renounce your false prophet and follow me.

Hmmmm... sounds good, but I'm a tad skeptical...

what kind of car do you drive?

 

[Yaotl]

Re: Re: Re: The Lanford Experiments

Hmmmm... sounds good, but I'm a tad skeptical...

what kind of car do you drive?

and what kind of watch do you wear?

 

[Psiload]

Sounds like Lanford hit upon a slick six week all-expenses-paid vacation scam.

 

[Nolan Coppenger]

I can only give you what I have about this subject. I have many misgivings about the entire process so I am looking for comments. "Lanford" requested only that a quiet place be used as a venue. He lives in Des Moines, so it was not a matter of giving him a "vacation".

A committee devised the experiment procedure, not Lanford, who only specified what type of steel plate was to be used. He paid for the fabrication but did not supply the plates. Locking the house and leaving was to keep the room and house empty of people who might cheat.

The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities. They tend to disdain public displays. Lanford seemed an unusual prospect. As I said I have my doubts. Your organization is known for critical analysis so I submitted what I have here.

 

[Yaotl]

I can only give you what I have about this subject. I have many misgivings about the entire process so I am looking for comments. "Lanford" requested only that a quiet place be used as a venue. He lives in Des Moines, so it was not a matter of giving him a "vacation".

A committee devised the experiment procedure, not Lanford, who only specified what type of steel plate was to be used. He paid for the fabrication but did not supply the plates. Locking the house and leaving was to keep the room and house empty of people who might cheat.

The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities. They tend to disdain public displays. Lanford seemed an unusual prospect. As I said I have my doubts. Your organization is known for critical analysis so I submitted what I have here.

If they disdain public displays then why

Although we have urged Lanford to go public with his remarkable ability.

?

 

[Brown]

The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities. They tend to disdain public displays.

Interesting. Am I to understand that the members of the group have supernatural or paranormal powers?

In the event that someone is trying to infiltrate your group by doing a card trick, you may want to consider whether your controls were as tight as they could have been. If you try to test a trickster in the way that you try to test a scientific principle, you are very likely to be fooled, because many scientific experiments do not take trickery into account.

There are many fine magicians in Des Moines. One of them was a classmate of mine. Since you seem to have a budget that would justify renting a house, you could probably afford hire a consultant who would show you how to reduce the risk of trickery.

 

[Ashles]

A committee devised the experiment procedure

Your committee does not sound very well equipped to create experimental procedures.

Locking the house and leaving was to keep the room and house empty of people who might cheat

Why could the experiment not be done straight away? Why leave? This makes no sense.

The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities.

What abilities? People who can perform standard magicians' tricks?

Your story lacks internal logic. If you wished to test this person the whole thing could be done in an afternoon and would, from an experimental point of view be more sound if it were. Far too much time hs been given for Lanford to set up all sorts of trickery.

But without knowing more details (who provided the metal plates, who provided the cards, what access has Lanford had to the house, who is involved and how do they know Lanford, can Lanford pick locks etc. etc.) we can only point out that this is a very flawed and ridiculously over-elaborate experiment.

I'm sure your society is all secret and special with loads of handshakes and so on, but to us, at the moment, it merely sounds like the Society for People who Can't Create Logical Experiments.

It's odd, most people here could probably have come up with more sound protocol given about an hour.

If you really do have photos and video could you provide some links or upload them then we can give you more feedback.

 

[Psiload]

I can only give you what I have about this subject. I have many misgivings about the entire process so I am looking for comments. "Lanford" requested only that a quiet place be used as a venue. He lives in Des Moines, so it was not a matter of giving him a "vacation".

A committee devised the experiment procedure, not Lanford, who only specified what type of steel plate was to be used. He paid for the fabrication but did not supply the plates. Locking the house and leaving was to keep the room and house empty of people who might cheat.

The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities. They tend to disdain public displays. Lanford seemed an unusual prospect. As I said I have my doubts. Your organization is known for critical analysis so I submitted what I have here.

This sounds familiar...

"The purpose of the test was to gain membership in a private association of people of like minds and abilities. They tend to disdain public displays."

I'm pretty sure this was the plot of an X-Men comic I once read.

 

[Ashles]

Nolan, did you know your name was an anagram of:

Prolong Penance

How unusual. It only has one 2-word anagram. Slightly off the point, I know, but I like anagrams.

 

[Dr Adequate]

Nolan, did you know your name was an anagram of:

Prolong Penance

How unusual. It only has one 2-word anagram. Slightly off the point, I know, but I like anagrams.

And you said I was twisted.

I drive a chariot of fire, and I have a custom-made watch, the single hand of which always points to the Eternal Now.

 

[Yaotl]

Your committee does not sound very well equipped to create experimental procedures.

But they have lieutenants!

 

[Nolan Coppenger]

Nolan, did you post original material or is this taken from some other site?

~~ Paul

It is original materials as far as I know. I am trying to obtain more information for purposes of this discussion. I would like to be able to present a list of potential objections to the membership.

 

[Dr Adequate]

We rented the house for a period of six weeks. The first two weeks were spent attuning the house and generally cleansing it of any negative energies. Although it was a relatively new home people had been living in it and precautions needed to be taken in order to provide a neutral environment for the experiments.

We were guided to focus on the dining room as the proper setting for testing. All plants and floor lamps were removed as well as extra furniture, leaving only the dining room table and chairs. As you can see, the result was somewhat Spartan, but that had been our goal.

...

Two new decks of playing cards.

10 opaque black envelopes.

10 rectangular plates of 1/4” thick steel.

..

After closing the blinds...

This reminds me a bit of Dalton's Magic Rock, or Lucianarchy's technique of mind-melding --- actually, as a new poster, you'll have no idea what I mean. What I mean is, if these conditions are really necessary for the performance, how did Lanford find out that he had this ability in the first place? He was sitting in a house one day which just happened to have been extensively cleared of negative energies, whatever they are, and had hardly any furniture. He'd just drawn the blinds, when he noticed that if he concentrated long and hard (you say the performance was slow) then he could clearly discern the playing card that he'd just set his quarter-inch steel plate down on... it's often happened to me, I can tell you.

Flemming discovering penecillin is nothing compared to the serendipity this would require. Lanford couldn't come up with this procedure on purpose (makes no sense, I mean... removing the floor lamps?), and how the heck could he hit on it by accident?

You don't mention what powers you have. I am sceptical...

 

[Ashles]

You don't mention what powers you have. I am sceptical...

Oh check out Mr Sceptical. Geez...

Sometimes I just don't know what WILL convince you Dr Adequate.

You read a perfectly reasonable account of paranormal ability posted by someone on an internet forum that clearly shows that under poor experimental protocol a man with a pseudonym can perform card tricks, and simply because none of their facts are checkable and the experiment was to gain membership of a secret club which we aren't allowed to know any details about you immediately assume it's not genuine?

You are taking scepticism to a new and frightening level.

Did you not read that he favours earth-tones in his clothing? Does that mean nothing to you? He wears a Rolex AND drives a Volvo for goodness sakes.

You sound like one of those "pseudo-sceptics" I keep reading about.

 

[Psiload]

Re: Re: The Lanford Experiments

This reminds me a bit of Dalton's Magic Rock, or Lucianarchy's technique of mind-melding --- actually, as a new poster, you'll have no idea what I mean. What I mean is, if these conditions are really necessary for the performance, how did Lanford find out that he had this ability in the first place? He was sitting in a house one day which just happened to have been extensively cleared of negative energies, whatever they are, and had hardly any furniture. He'd just drawn the blinds, when he noticed that if he concentrated long and hard (you say the performance was slow) then he could clearly discern the playing card that he'd just set his quarter-inch steel plate down on... it's often happened to me, I can tell you.

Flemming discovering penecillin is nothing compared to the serendipity this would require. Lanford couldn't come up with this procedure on purpose (makes no sense, I mean... removing the floor lamps?), and how the heck could he hit on it by accident?

You don't mention what powers you have. I am sceptical...

Seriously... you take a straightforward talent like...

"Lanford sees through metal as if it were glass."

And then you go and devise an experiment that takes six weeks, invloves renting a house, cleansing it of "negative energy" for two whole weeks, and then you have to set about preparing playing cards, plates of steel, envelopes, setting up a video camera, donning you Earth-tone clothing, etc...

I could test this claim in about fifteen minutes for about a buck...

Slap a random newspaper down on a picnic table in a cozy public park somewhere, cover the newspaper with a sheet of aluminium foil, and then task Lanford with reading the headlines... or the want ads, or the obituaries, of the funny pages.

No statistical number crunching or rental contracts required.

 

[Kitty Chan]

If Nolan is a member of this society that

"many people do not believe in the special abilities we all practice, "
and
"we have urged Lanford to go public with his remarkable ability, he has said that he is content to remain a private member of our society "

There is more here than seeking outside advice. Some ideas on that thought:

So Lanford wants to join and the group wants him to go public, therefore if hes wrong it will protect the group and if hes proven correct then the group can claim him??

So Nolan, you cannot decide if Lanford should pass the test to belong so you are seeking outside advice.

Nolan whats really bothering you about Lanford? his abilities are not real but because everyone likes him you dont want to challange him or the group alone? That should bother you for one.

You are coming here to gather more solid proof than you can offer to make sure you are correct when you confront the committee.

Are your abilities better or less than Lanfords? How do you view this?

If the group lets Lanford in regardless of your objections how do you view that? Or the opposite how do you view them rejecting him.

And lastly ask the question What purpose is served by a secret group of special abilities? If the abilities are real then whats the groups concern about sharing them?

 

[Zep]

I'm sensing a wind-up...or a bunch of delusionals being played for all they're worth.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Perhaps there is some exaggeration in the claim that the metal plate becomes like glass. Otherwise, really, that would be pretty cool.

~~ Paul