domains. Because psi phenomena trans- cend space, time, and matter, Beloff does not think they will ever be "explained." Books They have less affinity to physics, he is convinced, than to "magic, sorcery, and witchcraft." The currently fashionable effort of some parapsychologists to base The Search for psi on quantum mechanics leaves Beloff cold. Although an atheist, he admits that he is open to the possibility that there the Holy Grail is some sort of "universal cosmic intelligence" which, although uncaring Martin Gardner about human history, nevertheless may be responsible for the extreme manifes- The Relentless Question: Reflections on On the contrary, Beloff is not only tations of psi. the , by John Beloff (Jeffer- convinced of the reality of ESP (extra- son, N.C.: McFarland and Company, sensory perception), PK (psychokinesis), Jung, who had a better nose for the Inc., 1990), 221 pp., cloth, $29.95. and precognition; he also accepts the paranormal than Freud, was driven reality of such "extreme phenomena" as to extend the personal unconscious and introduce a collective uncon- ohn Beloff's new book opens with an levitations, poltergeists, miraculous scious. But even the collective un- Jautobiographical essay, followed by healings, materializations of human conscious may be inadequate. The fifteen papers and lectures updated with forms by mediums, and just about parapsychologist may need to come notes, and a bibliography of his books everything else on the psi scene. He is to terms with something in the nature so trusting of the competence of psi of a cosmic mind conceived as being and articles. It is a splendid, candid, well- at once a universal data bank and a written introduction to one of the most researchers and the honesty of their reservoir of power which suitably curious minds in modern parapsy- subjects that only the booms of enor- endowed individuals can occasionally chology. mous smoking cannons will convince draw upon in order to achieve some him that anyone has dissembled. paranormal goal. Perhaps it is just I say "curious" because none of such a cosmic mind that the great Beloff's experiments has ever indicated mystics, from all ages and from all the reality of psychic phenomena, yet he eloff was born near in 1920. faiths, have been alluding to when they is absolutely incapable of attributing this BAfter obtaining a bachelor's degree claim to be in direct communion with the godhead. to his impeccable honesty and experi- in psychology, he taught for a year in the United States, at the University of mental skill. He has never had a psychic Illinois. He and his wife, also a psychol- Since 1962 Beloff has been a psychol- experience. His parents, he tells us, were ogist, then took posts at Queens Uni- ogist at the . nonreligious Russian Jews who settled versity, in Belfast, where they also After a terminally ill and in London. Neither believed in the obtained their doctorates. His first his healthy younger wife joined one paranormal. As a teenager, Beloff lost experiment was an effort in 1961 to another in a suicide pact, their will his faith in God and has been an atheist demonstrate PK influence on beta named their friend Beloff as one of the ever since. (He doesn't mention it, but particles randomly emitted from executors. He was instrumental in this supports the view that for many radioactive sources. The null results, he establishing the Koestler Chair of parapsychologists, belief in psi has writes, were a "presage of things to at his university, and in become a substitute for religious faith.) come." It was the beginning of his appointing the American Robert Morris His four siblings also do not share his reputation as what he calls a "negative to occupy it. belief in psi. Moreover, he reveals, or psi-inhibiting experimenter." He Although for years Beloff's graduate "Neither my wife nor our children nor wonders whether he is "tone deaf" to psi, students were getting doctorates in any of my many nephews and nieces were and whether this personality defect is parapsychology and going on to success- ever troubled by my `relentless ques- what dogs his investigations. ful careers, Beloffs own research con- tion.' " By "relentless question" he In 1962 his first book, The Existence tinued to be fruitless. Pavel Stepanek, means: Are there paranormal phe- of Mind, was a vigorous attack on a Czech psychic, was tested with positive nomena? Gilbert Ryle's Concept of Mind, a book results by many parapsychologists, but One would expect that under these defending the view of most psychologists when Beloff tested him in 1964, the circumstances a person would have that mind is no more than the function results were negative. In 1965 Beloff and serious doubts about the paranormal. of a complicated material brain, with no John Smythies, now at the University "ghost in the machine." Beloff defends of Alabama, sought evidence for psi Noted author and skeptic Martin a sharp dualism—it is a recurring theme among brain-damaged subjects. "No Gardner lives in North Carolina. in his papers. Although mind and matter luck here either," Beloff writes. He and interact, they are widely separate Smythies later collaborated on The Case

Winter 1990/91 55 for Dualism, published in 1989. What about Uri Geller, the Israeli Beloff of the wisdom of a famous Beloff was president of the Society magician who created such a flap a few paragraph by David Hume in the chapter for Psychical Research (1974-1976), and years ago with his paranormal spoon on miracles in his Enquiry Concerning twice president of the Parapsychological bending? "Dare we rule out the numer- Human Understanding: Association (1972 and 1982). He retired ous accounts of teleportations that have from the University of Edinburgh in been reported in connection with But suppose, that all the historians 1985, though he continues as editor of Geller?" Geller's most famous telepor- who treat of England, should agree, the Journal of the SPR. tations were of himself. He claims that that, on the first of January 1600, Can it be," he asks himself, "That I while walking a street in Manhattan he Queen Elizabeth died; that both before and after her death she was seen by no longer dared to doubt?" He was badly was suddenly teleported to the back her physicians and the whole court, shaken, he confesses, by two revelations porch of Andrija Puharich's house in as is usual with persons of her rank; of dishonesty: the discovery that Walter Ossining, New York. In his book Uri, that her successor was acknowledged J. Levy, a rising young American para- Puharich also tells of an occasion when and proclaimed by the parliament; psychologist in the laboratory of J. B. Uri teleported himself from Ossining to and that, after being interred a month, she again appeared, resumed the Rhine, had cheated on experiments with Rio de Janeiro, then returned with a throne, and governed England for animal psi, and the proof by Betty thousand cruzeiro note. "I find myself three years. I must confess that I Markwick that S. G. Soal, England's top still undecided," Beloff naively writes, "as should be surprised at the concurrence psi researcher, had shamelessly fudged to whether [Geller] was ever anything of so many odd circumstances, but data. A third blow was the revelation other than a charlatan and an entertainer should not have the least inclination to believe so miraculous an event. I that a "remarkable medium" Beloff had or whether he used his knowledge of should not doubt of her pretended discovered on the Isle of Wight was a stage magic to gain the wealth and fame death, and of those other public charlatan. Through the help of a sister he so ardently desired and which his circumstances that followed it; I and friends, "I realized this just in time modest psi ability would not have en- should only assert it to have been to prevent my making a fool of myself." abled him to do so." pretended, and that it neither was, nor possibly could be real. You would in In spite of such "bitter pills," Beloff Psychic surgery? "Given only the vain object to me the difficulty, and has never doubted the wildest forms of agreed facts about the career of the late almost impossibility of deceiving the psi. Although he admits he is not certain Arigo, have we the right to affirm that world in an affair of such consequence; about strong phenomena, over and over there is nothing at all in psychic surgery?" the wisdom and solid judgment of that again he lambastes all skeptics who Arigo, the most famous of Brazil's renowned queen; with the little or no advantage which she could reap from express doubts. "I have come to realize," psychic surgeons, performed his para- so poor an artifice. All this might he admits, "that my own ignorance of normal operations by following instruc- astonish me; but I would still reply, conjuring techniques may have misled tions that a dead German doctor that the knavery and folly of men are me," yet his self-admiration is sufficient whispered into his left ear. such common phenomena, that I to justify continual attacks on the should rather believe the most extraor- Throughout his career Beloff has been dinary events to arise from their conjectures of knowledgeable magicians haunted by reports of humans being concurrence, than admit of so signal about methods used by psychics to lifted into the air. "A siddhi, such as a violation of the laws of nature. produce extreme results. levitation, is a natural concomitant of Let me cite some instances. Ted Serios a certain advanced stage of Yoga." He Beloff has no doubts about the is a Chicago psychic who once claimed is enormously impressed by the fact that powers of the great spiritualist mediums the power to project images from his Saint Teresa, the most famous of of the past, even though he concedes that mind onto the film of a Polaroid camera. Catholic flying nuns, was "greatly at times they must have cheated. "A "Knowing all we know now about the embarrassed when her nuns caught her readiness to cheat," he warns, "should conditions under which Ted Serios was levitating." The many levitations of St. never be taken as a sign that the medium tested," Beloff writes, "can we say Joseph of Cupertino—the "flying friar" lacked genuine psychic ability." Again: categorically that we refuse to believe in who often floated above treetops, some- "There may be something inherent in the psychic photography? ... It is, of course, times carrying a fellow monk with him— psychodynamics of producing strong most unfortunate that [Serios] lost his Beloff regards as "the best attested phenomena that predisposes one to ability, just when the controversies miracles associated with any religious cheat." He readily admits that Eusapia surrounding him reached a peak." Beloff figure in history." Palladino, the notorious fat little Italian does not tell his readers that this loss E. Cobham Brewer's Dictionary of medium, was a charlatan. "When things occurred immediately after the Ameri- Miracles (1884) contains thousands of were not going well, she lapsed into her can monthly magazine Popular Photo- documented Catholic miracles so stu- old habit of cheating." graphy explained how easily Ted could pendous that one cannot help wondering Such a stance makes it difficult for have produced his thought pictures by why they no longer occur. See especially magicians to persuade Beloff of any- using a tiny optical device readily the levitation miracles listed in the book's thing. If they succeed in convincing him available in novelty stores. It would be first section under the heading "Lifted that a psychic once cheated, the most charitable to assume that Beloff has Up." One would suppose that only a he will admit is that he or she cheats never read this exposé. glance through this book would convince sometimes. When not caught cheating,

56 FREE INQUIRY a psychic's miracles are presumed Helen Duncan, of Dundee, Scotland, ence, but he didn't bother to take one genuine. Many pages in Beloffs book who died in 1956. He describes her as away with him to be examined for an defend Palladino, as well as the powers gross in appearance, uncouth in lan- interior wire. Beloff writes that he once of such known mountebanks as the guage, and often caught in fraud. He gave one of his students two black leather Boston medium Margery, Eva C., and fails to mention that Harry Price wrote rings to give to the Indian psychic Sai the American entertainer Bert Reese, a book in 1931 titled Regurgitation and Baba, but Sai Baba refused to link them. who specialized in what magicians call the Duncan Mediumship in which he However, Beloff adds, Sai Baba did "billet reading." gave convincing evidence that Duncan produce for a lady an apple attached to An amusing illustration of Beloff's swallowed much of her paraphernalia, the branches and leaves of a tamarind colossal ignorance of conjuring methods then regurgitated it when the lights were tree. She tried to preserve this PPO in is his statement that on occasion a out. However, Beloff says he has talked formaldehyde. Alas, the apple became psychic with exceptional PK ability will to persons who saw her produce ghostly detached from the branch so she threw "move an object other than the one on forms of people they recognized, and it away. which they are concentrating." Beloff who vanished by sinking into the floor. In the January 1990 issue of the seems never to have heard about the art One housewife said that when she Journal of the SPR, Beloff published an of misdirection. A favorite ploy of embraced her dead husband she could English translation of an article that Geller's is to misdirect attention to his feel the arthritic knobs on his fingers. appeared two years earlier in a German hands by strenuous efforts Co make a Another identified her dead mother by journal of parapsychology. It shows a key bend, while one of his secret aides two moles on her face. Helen was tried photograph of two tiny square frames, surreptitiously deforms another object for witchcraft in 1944, and sentenced to each about an inch on the side, one made that has been placed to one side. nine months in prison. of paper, the other of aluminum foil. The book's final chapter, on extreme Beloff is scornful of skeptics, like the They are interlocked. The Swiss psychic phenomena, is the book's funniest. Beloff philosopher Antony Flew who scoffed Silvio Meyer, who claims to have linked cites five cases that he insists no skeptic at such reports. Flewism is Beloff's them paranormally, says he cut the paper can explain. First, the case of Louise derisive term for such scoffing. Let me frame from a sheet of notepaper, and Coirin, a French woman whose left propose another term, Beloffism. It is the aluminum frame from the metal foil breast was totally destroyed by cancer. the gullible tendency to believe even the in which a sandwich was wrapped. First After placing on it a clod of earth from most preposterous psychic miracles. he sliced the paper frame on one side, a saint's tomb, the entire breast, includ- Beloff admits that the dearth of powerful slid the foil frame through the slot, then ing the nipple, regenerated. Beloff is not mediums today puzzles him. All they do held the cut between his thumb and in the least troubled by the fact that the now is talk in funny voices. The best finger for ten minutes. The cut mirac- only source for this miracle is a 1745 he can come up with are the Chinese ulously welded together. The author of three-volume work by Carré de Mont- clairvoyant children who are said to be the article claims that several laboratory geron, a French nobleman who did time able to read messages tucked in their technicians have been unable to deter- in the Bastille because his writings armpits. mine how this splendid PPO could have offended the king. The most amusing aspect of this final been produced normally without using Beloffs second example is Joseph of chapter is Beloff's hope that someday a technical equipment, to which Silvio is Cupertino, the third is Margery, and the psychic will produce what he calls a said to have had no access. The object fourth is Indrid Indridason, an Icelandic PPO, or Permanent Paranormal Object. still exists, we are told, and can be medium who died in 1912, age twenty- As an example of a PPO of the past, examined by any scientist. It remains to nine. He produced all the usual absurd he cites the wooden rings that Margery be seen if anyone can come up with an phenomena—raps, levitations, floating would cause to link together. "Unfor- explanation of how Silvio could have luminous forms, strong breezes, voices tunately, with the perversity that is faked it. from the Great Beyond, ectoplasm that typical of extreme phenomena, Beloff is gloomy about the prospect formed human bodies, and what Beloff Margery's linkages regularly (but para- that any psi experiment will soon be calls "unaccountable odors." Why the normally) became unlinked." performed that can be regularly repeated departed would stoop to such trivial It is typical of PPO's that they never on demand. However, if a PPO is pranks, and always in near darkness, is last long enough for scientists to inspect created, "the onus lies with the skeptic something that believers have never them and show how they can be dupli- to show, if he can, that the object in made clear. What most impresses Beloff cated. Beloff does not mention an inside- question is a normal artifact." Such an is that on three occasions Indridason's out tennis ball that occult journalist Lyall object would be irrefutable proof of the left arm vanished. Beloff unwittingly Watson, in his book Lifetide, says a paranormal. "I feel that we would be gives the game away when he adds that psychic girl in Venice produced for him. failing in our duty if we did not continue investigators were never allowed to Watson fails to disclose what happened to pursue the goal—or should I say the undress the medium after his arm dema- to this marvelous artifact. The American grail?—of conclusive evidence." terialized, and that we do not even know parapsychologist Stanley Krippner re- This, with its italics, is the book's final if he wore a coat on these occasions! ported that a European psychic once sentence. To Sir John Galahad Beloff Beloff's fifth example is the medium magnetized some matches in his pres- I can only say, "Lotsa luck!" •

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