In July 1981, Randi leaked statements about the project at a magician's meeting in Pittsburgh. With spoon bending demonstrated, the lab ran a long series of experiments to test the range of their abilities, involving everything from moving objects in sealed globes, to changing electronic clocks, to making images appear on unexposed film.Īfter over a year of such tests, the lab began to prepare papers for presentation at a major parapsychology meeting in Syracuse in August 1981. Introduced to the researchers during the initial stages of the program, the young men convinced the researchers that their psychic powers were real. It involved planting two fake psychics, Steve Shaw (now better known as Banachek) and Michael Edwards, into a parapsychology (PSI) research project at Washington University. It was orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi. Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax that began in 1979 and ended with its deliberate disclosure in 1983. For the nuclear non-proliferation project, see Project Alpha (non-proliferation effort). For the military project, see Project Alpha (military). This article is about the parapsychology hoax.
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