(2017-08-29, 05:46 PM)Leuders Wrote: [ -> ]Laird do you have a source for Russell Targ being an amateur magician? This is the first time I have heard that claim. By using the term 'magician' he would have had to been a practicing one. There is no evidence Targ ever worked as a magician or has any experience in magic trickery.
I'm sorry I'm not Laird, but I wonder if this helps:
"In this talk below, Targ discusses his early years from being a magician to becoming a psychic with remote viewing being an important focus. He mentions how many magicians supplement their tricks with psychic abilities."
http://www.transients.info/2017/06/russe...p-trainer/
I must admit I haven't actually watched the video, though.
[Edit: Couldn't resist checking. The stuff about his having been a stage magician is about 1 minute in.]
(2017-08-29, 05:55 PM)Chris Wrote: [ -> ]I'm sorry I'm not Laird, but I wonder if this helps:
"In this talk below, Targ discusses his early years from being a magician to becoming a psychic with remote viewing being an important focus. He mentions how many magicians supplement their tricks with psychic abilities."
http://www.transients.info/2017/06/russe...p-trainer/
I must admit I haven't actually watched the video, though.
Thanks, I really need to ask around on this. I asked Joe Nickell and he told me Russell Targ was never magician and the claim is a fabrication. It would be interesting to know what Targ really says, I will check it out.
Leuders
I have often wondered about RationalWiki, and I wonder whether you would be interested in a thread here through which people could offer corrections and thereby improve the quality of that resource. I don't mean things that are just matters of opinion and which can be the subject of endless debate, but factual things that should be common ground between sceptics and proponents.
(2017-08-29, 05:59 PM)Leuders Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks, I really need to ask around on this. I asked Joe Nickell and he told me Russell Targ was never magician and the claim is a fabrication. It would be interesting to know what Targ really says, I will check it out.
Sorry, I'm confused. Do you mean you asked Joe Nickell within the last 20 minutes, since you posted that you'd never heard the claim?
(2017-08-29, 05:46 PM)Leuders Wrote: [ -> ]Laird do you have a source for Russell Targ being an amateur magician? This is the first time I have heard that claim. By using the term 'magician' he would have had to been a practicing one. There is no evidence Targ ever worked as a magician or has any experience in magic trickery.
Very few parapsychologists were amateur magicians. Hereward Carrington was a rare example. I have no reason to believe Targ was a magician (amateur or otherwise).
Ray Hyman.
You probably shouldn't post this kind of thing... It exposes the profoundity of the research that goes into writing pieces at RW. If you are going to trash the man in such a juvenile manner (as is done here:
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sean_David_Morton), at least try to familiarize yourself with his background.
(2017-08-29, 06:24 PM)E. Flowers Wrote: [ -> ]It seems very unlikely that they would be willing to incorporate rebuttals any time soon.
Even so, it might not be a complete waste of time offering factual corrections.
I can't help being curious about the thinking behind RationalWiki. And if they did refuse to correct a demonstrable error, why that would be.
(2017-08-29, 06:09 PM)Chris Wrote: [ -> ]Sorry, I'm confused. Do you mean you asked Joe Nickell within the last 20 minutes, since you posted that you'd never heard the claim?
Yes I asked him. I have also worked with Joe Nickell in the past in real life.
(2017-08-29, 06:32 PM)Chris Wrote: [ -> ]Even so, it might not be a complete waste of time offering factual corrections.
I can't help being curious about the thinking behind RationalWiki. And if they did refuse to correct a demonstrable error, why that would be.
I decided to delete that post as pointless, I assumed that their recalcitrance to cooperation was self-evident and focusing too much on them would sidetrack the thread. But...
Maybe you can invite Steve out for dinner, they do share the same approach.
(2017-08-29, 06:36 PM)Max_B Wrote: [ -> ]Just a claim from his own memoirs as a teenager....
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NNxH...22&f=false
Thanks for the source, I do not trust what he wrote, just an unreliable claim. Also Targ has had very bad eye sight throughout his life, even when he was testing Geller. He really is the last person you would trust to spot any kind of trickery. No wonder he was easily deceived.
(2017-08-29, 06:10 PM)E. Flowers Wrote: [ -> ]Ray Hyman.
You probably shouldn't post this kind of thing... It exposes the profoundity of the research that goes into writing pieces at RW. If you are going to trash the man in such a juvenile manner (as is done here: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sean_David_Morton), at least try to familiarize yourself with his background.
Rationalwiki has hundreds of editors, I was not involved in that page and very little on anything parapsychology related. I have not been involved in the majority of them. I focus on debunking mostly conspiracy theories and UFO reports.