The REALL News - May 2003

<body> <div id="main-title"><img src="/images/main-title.gif" width="329" height="81" alt=""></div> <div id="global-navbar"> <ul> <li><a href="/">Home</a></li> <li><a href="/about/">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="/newsletter/">Newsletter</a></li> <li><a href="/letters/">Letters</a></li> <li><a href="/calendar.html">Calendar</a></li> <li><a href="/links.html">Links</a></li> <li><a href="/search.html">Search</a></li> <li><a href="/email.html">E-Mail</a></li> </ul> </div> <table border="1" width="100%" cellspacing="0" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td><font size="2"><a href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html"><i><img alt="Get Acrobat Reader (712 bytes)" border="0" src="../../../images/logos/getacrobat.gif" align="right" width="88" height="31"></i></a><a href="reall-news-v11-n05.pdf" target="_top">Also available as an Acrobat PDF file</a> (8 pages, 150K file)<br> <i>You can download this issue as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. You will need the free <a href="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html">Acrobat Reader software</a>, available from <a href="http://www.adobe.com/">Adobe's web site</a>, to view it.</i></font></td> </tr> </table> <p align="center"><font size="2"><i>(<a href="index.html">Toggle Frames</a>)</i></font></p> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top"><b>Volume 11<br> Number 5</b></td> <td> <h1 align="center">The REALL News</h1> <i> <p align="center">"It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense."<br> -- James Randi<br> <br> </i></td> <td align="right" valign="top"><b>May 2003</b></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" width="80%" align="center"> <tr> <th align="left">Features</th> <th align="left">Departments</th> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="50%"> <ul> <li><a href="psychic-secrets.html">NBC Reveals Psychic Secrets</a>, by David Bloomberg</li> <li><a href="skeptic-in-washington.html">A Skeptic in Washington</a>, by Bob Ladendorf</li> <li><a href="reallity-check.html">REALLity Check</a>, by Bob Ladendorf</li> </ul> </td> <td valign="top" width="50%"> <ul> <li><a href="chairman.html">From the Chairman</a> - David Bloomberg</li> <li><a href="masthead.html">Masthead</a></li> </ul> </td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" width="80%" align="center"> <tr> <td width="100%"> <h2 class="articlehead">NBC Reveals Psychic Secrets</h2> <p class="byline">by David Bloomberg</p> <p>As you may already know, I write about skeptical topics for this newsletter and elsewhere, and reality TV for other venues. In April, the two came together as a veteran reality TV producer put together a show on NBC that unmasked "psychic" tricks. <i>Secrets of the Psychics Revealed </i>reached over nine million viewers according to early returns, and was the second-place ratings finisher in the coveted young adult age group. In other words, it got the word out to a lot of people!</p> <p>If you saw those Fox shows with the "Masked Magician" a little while back where he exposed magician's secrets, you kind of understand the concept here - except that this one was much, much better, and it exposed magic tricks that "psychics" claim are much more than that.</p> <p>Several different "psychics" performed tricks - either in front of a live studio audience who thought they were at a "real" psychic show, or in one case in a location that mimicked a street-corner psychic "shop." The show jumped from one to the other, first showing the performance and then explaining how it was done.<a href="psychic-secrets.html"><img alt="More" border="0" hspace="2" src="/images/anthony/hpoint_right.gif" width="33" height="14">More</a> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </body>