A while ago I wrote a post about Project Alpha, a ruse concocted by James Randi in which two magicians pretended to be psychics in order to fool some parapsychologists. One of the magicians went on to a professional career, using the stage name Banachek. Today, Banachek wrote to me. He very politely pointed out…

This weekend I got an email from a reader who suggested that my little feud with Victor Zammit has gone on too long, and that I should take to heart the Buddhist saying, "Rise above it." My reply was that while "rise above it" is generally good advice, I felt that Victor was trying to…

One detail of the David Thompson seances that has drawn some comment is a trick involving his cardigan sweater. Before each performance, Thompson has the buttons of the sweater tied into the buttonholes with cable ties. When the performance is over, the sweater is sometimes found to have been "reversed." I originally thought that the…

Just in time for the holidays, Victor Zammit has updated his "Michael Pisspot" post. This time, I’m glad to say, he actually uses my name (in addition to the sarcastic nickname). This is the first time he has ever identified me by name in all of his attacks, so I feel I am making progress.…

Someone at the Spiritualist Chat Room directed my attention to this posting by Victor Zammit. Why, I do believe he’s talking about moi. MICHAEL PISSPOT – He’s not an empiricist, not a scientist, not qualified, knows nothing about scientific method, knows nothing about evidence – but he’s negatively prejudicial against materializastions [sic]. He shows he’s…

I’ve been sadly derelict in following David Thompson’s shenanigans of late, but one noteworthy incident recently came to my attention. Apparently, some time ago, the sitters at a Thompson seance were promised that Harry Houdini, a frequent ectoplasmic visitor, would apport (i.e., materialize) an object he had owned in his lifetime. In a later seance,…

I haven’t said anything about everyone’s favorite materialization medium in a while, because there’s really been nothing to say. But recently, commenters Gaylord Pompledinkler (!) and J Richards pointed me to a discussion about David Thompson at the Spiritualist Chat Room. (To see the thread, you need to register with the site, then click on…

Darryn in comments pointed me to the complete online text of the rare old book Revelations of a Spirit Medium, by "A. Medium." The book, written by a phony 19th century medium, goes into detail about tricks in the seance room. Here are a few excerpts. (In what follows, "A. Medium" is describing the early…

Roslyn Walker, the British escape artist who has said he can duplicate David Thompson’s act, left a comment on this thread. Since not everyone may have seen it, I’m posting it here. It’s clear that Roslyn is more skeptical about psi than I am (and as far as spoon-bending is concerned, I don’t think magic…

As most of you know, for the past year I’ve been engaged in an on-again, off-again online debate with Victor Zammit, a prominent attorney in Sydney, Australia, who has made strong claims for the authenticity of the medium David Thompson. I’m not going to review the whole matter here. Suffice it to say that I…