I'm mostly sceptical of physical mediumship, but I'm impressed that Randi's 'explanation' is probably the most implausible (though I've read enough about Randi to say that I'm not entirely surprised). Seriously, a harmonica hidden in his mouth? Were harmonicas in the late 1800s even small enough to be concealed beneath moustaches? I'm also fairly positive harmonicas and accordions sound quite distinct from each other.
(2020-07-28, 09:31 PM)Obiwan Wrote: Yeah Randi is so clever and the people who actually studied DD Home repeatedly are so stupid.
"We have done all that we can do when the critic has nothing left to allege except that the investigator is in the trick. But when he has nothing else left he will allege that... We must drive the objector into the position of being forced either to admit the phenomena as inexplicable, at least by him, or to accuse the investigators either of lying or cheating, or of a blindness or forgetfulness incompatible with any intellectual condition except absolute idiocy."
-Henry Sidgwick, from his 1882 address to the SPR
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell