Hi Peter!

Thank you for your kind answer. I checked the fine sites you gave in the end
of your message. Such a good situation you have in Austria! In Finland we
have only skeptics ruling strongly everywhere in the scientific community.

> It is difficult to urge mainstream scientists to
> cooperate with parapsychologists.


Certainly it is so. And there is not enough money to make them to cooperate.
But it is possible to ask for informal information, because it is certainly
possible to discuss the problems with somebody in relevant scientific
fields. That can be done even in scientific discussion forums in Internet,
without disclosing the aim of the questions. It is only question of general
scientific knowledge, that can be found everywhere in the literature.
Parapsychologists already use widely statistical methods, for example.


> I disagree insofar as I believe the late British
> physicist John Hasted has done a good job in
> investigating PMB. See his book "The Metal
> Benders." London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
> 1980. There is also a documentary "Spoon
> Bending" by Adrin Neatrour (Cincle Cut Motion
> Pictures). The text of Hasted's book used to be
> available on-line.

Yes, I know the book. I bought it soon after it was published. There is much
valuable information in the book, but it is a typical investigation by a
physicist, leaving important metallurgical possibilities unexplored and
losing unnecessarily great quantities of information.

Hasted was also too gullible in many situations in my opinion. The glass
spheres with the paperclip scrunches are a sad history. Looking the pictures
carefully it easy to see how the scrunches were made.

> Moreover, the phenomenon evoked widespread
> interest in the parapsychological community, see
> for example
> http://www.zem.demon.co.uk/belofb.htm.


Yes, I have that article in my personal files. A very good summary of the
history of PMB. I have also received the booklet 'Bernhard Wälti: Die
Silvio-Protokolle 1976-1977' from Eberhard Bauer, IGPP. But after all, I
think PMB has not been appreciated enough. Gathering information and doing
experiments in the years 1974-84 would have yielded fine results if done
more effectively. Now there is needed a new start, and that seems to be very
improbable.

> Could you provide sources for that french
> metallurgist?


J. Bouvaist, he was already mentioned in the Beloff article. His boss was C.
Crussard, the director. I do not know his studying direction. The very
important article with strong evidence is: 'C. Crussard, J. Bouvaist: Étude
de quelques déformations et transformations apparemment anormales de métaux.
Mémoires Scientifiques Revue Métallurgie - Fevrier 1978'


There is also another less formal but good article in a French magazine:
'François de Closets: Les pemières expériences scientifiques sur "l'effet
Uri Geller". Sciences et Avenir 1975, novembre'

> I investigated several children at that time,
> in particular a boy of 14 and a girl of
> sevenandhalf. For the latter, see
> http://parapsychologie.info/history/slides/21.htm .


Very interesting. I guess that is why you "believe" in the phenomenon like
me. Many parapsychologists do not believe.


>> When the metal bending is discussed now
>> much later, everybody remembers Uri Geller
>> but mini-Gellers are most often ignored.
>> Although their abilities are the most convincing
>> phenomenon to show that psi-phenomena can be real.


I regret my language error, I meant 'one of the most convincing', requiring
that one knows the evidence well enough.

>> Unfortunately the ignoring concerns also
>> the parapsychological community.

> In part, only.


I must agree now. I must also apologize that I have often a rather harsh
tone in my messages.


>> I should add that there is one elderly gentleman
>> in Germany, Reiner Höhndorf, who successfully
>> rans courses in PMB.

Ok, I am waiting for the results and scientific articles.


Best wishes,
Olavi