<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

"Generous funding doesn’t make scientists smart . . . Nor are they able to detect trickery without help."

—James Randi

Project Alpha came about after the announcement in 1979 that noted engineer James S. McDonnell, board chairman of McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft and devotee of the paranormal, had awarded a $500,000 grant to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for the establishment of the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research.

James Randi and parapsychologist Trevor Finch decided to introduce magicians into the testing under the guise of being real psychics.

Steve "Banachek" Shaw, an English immigrant hospital employee in Washington, PA, and part-time mentalist, and Michael Edwards, a student in Marion, Iowa, and well known there as a magician, were the only McDonnell lab subjects chosen from the rather large group of applicants. They were 18 and 17 years old, respectively, when they began the project.

Both Mike and Banachek established at the beginning of Project Alpha that at a suitable date they would reveal the deception. Also, the subjects agreed that, if they were ever asked directly by an experimenter if they were using tricks, they would immediately answer, "Yes, and we were sent here by James Randi." They would then answer any and all questions concerning their involvement.

Four months of grueling psychic testing followed. Banachek and Mike used standard conjuring methods to fake spoon bending, ESP, mind over matter movement, teleportation, and a host of other phenomena. During a press conference, Banachek and Mike came clean and shocked the science community as they told how they had hoodwinked the science community and faked psychic abilities the whole time.

External Links

• Banachek Project Alpha Link