stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

302 STRIPPING THE GURUS
Lady Wonder was equally feted by the New York World in
1927, as allegedly being able to “read minds, predict the future and
converse in Chinese.” Yet, that did not stop her from being conclusively
debunked by Milbourne Christopher in 1956:
As a test, Christopher gave Lady’s trainer, Mrs. Claudia
Fonda, a false name, “John Banks”.... When Christopher subsequently
inquired of Lady, “What is my name?,” the mare
obligingly nudged the levers [of the horse’s large “typewriter”]
to spell out B-A-N-K-S....
Mrs. Fonda gave a “slight movement” of her training rod
whenever Lady’s head was at the correct letter (Nickell,
2002).
Further experimentation by Christopher disclosed that Fonda
had herself been deceptively utilizing the mentalists’ trick of “pencil
reading”—in visually following the movements of the free end of
a pencil, to discern what number had been written down by a questioner.
She was then cueing Lady Wonder with that information,
thus allowing the horse to fake “telepathy” well enough to fool the
credulous parapsychologist J. B. Rhine.
Earlier in the twentieth century, Clever Hans had fared no
better when tested by Oskar Pfungst:
Pfungst’s study revealed that the horse could give a correct
answer only if the questioner knew it. When Pfungst shielded
the eyes of the animal, the hoof remained still. It was reasonable
to suppose at this point that [Hans’ owner] was cueing
Hans subconsciously. Further study ruled out signals by
touch or sound. Pfungst now centered his observations on the
questioner. He discovered that Hans started stamping when
the questioner leaned forward ever so slightly to see the hoof
in action. Hans stopped when the man relaxed even a fraction....
Then Pfungst played horse himself. He rapped with his
right hand as friends posed queries. Twenty-three out of
twenty-five questioners gave the starting and stopping cue
without realizing it. Pfungst’s answers were as baffling to
them as the horse’s had been (Christopher, 1970).
“Not so clever now, eh, Hans?” Nor such a Clever Paramahansa.
For, while “thinking” dogs, pigs, goats and geese have all
been exhibited over the course of the past few centuries, ordinary