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Yesterday, I brought up the heartwarming (or heart wrenching) story of the man who was in a coma for 23 years, but a PET scan revealed that he had normal brain function and is now able to communicate with a special keyboard. It made me think of The British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings, who is able to communicate brilliantly via computer even though his body is non-functioning due to Lew Gerhig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).
I did not see photos of this nor did I see a video, but skeptic guru and magician extraordinare James Randi saw Dr. Nancy Snyderman of MSNBC’s video, and it was apparent to him, as well as anyone who looked closely, that the man’s finger was being used as a “Ouija” pointer to type whatever the person handling him wanted him to type. This is called “Facilitator Communication” and is no more true than dowsing or spirit writing.
Randi’s article says:
The “facilitated communication” process consists of the “facilitator” actually holding the hand of the subject over the keyboard, moving the hand to the key, then drawing the hand back from the keyboard! This very intimate participatory action lends itself very easily to transferring the intended information to the computer screen. In the video you have just viewed, it is very evident that (a) the “facilitator” is looking directly at the keyboard and the screen, and (b) is moving the subject’s hand. The video editing is also biased, giving angles that line up the head of the subject with the screen, as if the subject were watching the screen.
This man in the msnbc.com piece is not seeing the screen. He is not aware of what is going on. He is an unknowing victim of these charlatans.
Why do these people do this? This is haunting, especially since my husband and I had to remove life support from our own little son, who died at nearly two and a half months of age. Our son was an ECMO-treated (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) baby who developed complications and finally it became obvious that we were only prolonging the inevitable. To this day, I sometimes dream he is alive, even though we have his ashes in a small urn in our kitchen, because we never were able to take him home when he was with us.
Tonight a bunch of us are going to see The Room at Plaza Theater in Atlanta. Be there if you want to be on the podcast.
Music today is “Desert Woman” from Mather Louth and Radio Noir from their album The Swamp Jazz Sessions. I found it on MusicAlley by Mevio.
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