Well, no reply from the President of Psi Tech to the email I sent her. As I reported on Tuesday, I asked if they could help “remote view” the whereabouts of a missing girl:
Joni:
I wondered if anyone had tried to remote view the location and fate of Natalee Holloway, the teen who recently went missing in Aruba.
Perhaps they’re too busy trying to find the missing girl to reply. Must be that. Couldn’t be because remote viewing doesn’t work. No, couldn’t be. Mind you, inquiring minds could always send their own emails to Joni to find out, I suppose.
Psi Tech has a sterling history of success in addition to the Elizabeth Smart debacle. For example, they remote viewed Flight 587 that crashed in New York on November 12th 2001, fingering terrorism as the cause:
The cause of the crash was a series of explosions caused by an intentionally damaged fuel injection pump. During take-off procedures, the engines of a jet aircraft are operated at full throttle. The fuel boost pump on Flight 587 was tampered with so that during take-off, the extreme vibration would create a rupture and a fuel spill that would cause the engine to explode. Massive fuel spilled into the engines while at full throttle. The left engine exploded breaking off from the wing and hitting the tail section shearing it off and causing the plane to spiral into the ground.
The most disturbing aspects of the data suggests "mechanical infiltration". The aircraft was tampered with by someone with sufficient mechanical knowledge knowing the specific stress caused by the vibration during take-off would result in rupturing the fuel pump system causing a fuel spill and resulting explosion.
(My bold.)
Wow, a month after 9/11 and they guessed terrorism. Who would have thought?
Unfortunately, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board concluded it was poor rudder design and co-pilot error:
American Airlines Flight 587 lost its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighborhood in November 2001, killing 265 people, because the co-pilot improperly used the rudder to try to steady the plane, federal safety investigators ruled Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board also said a poorly designed rudder system on the Airbus A300-600 and inadequate pilot training by American were contributing factors.
(My bold.)
Funny thing - I also emailed them when that report came out, asking for an explanation then. No reply that time either. No hint of these failures on their site, nor any explanation for why remote viewing doesn’t work.
The fact that some "psychic readings" turned out to be total bogosity does not logically infer that all "psychic readings" are bogus.
While I have no idea whether psychic "remote viewing" works or doesn't, it is not possible to completely dismiss (or validate) the technique based on a small number of examples, especially given the large amount of scammery and general buffoonorousness associated with the psychics and their supposed supernatural abilities.
That's the basic problem with the whole genre of psychic phenomena. Because they are generally untestable, it is generally impossible to have a logically consistent but absolute opinion about them one way or another.
Posted by: CW | June 25, 2005 at 08:14 PM
Oh yes, please disregard the taxi driver sitting at the light watching the plane take off that saw and heard the explosion before the plane went down.
The reason? It was a lesson to the people in that area not to talk about what they saw at WTC. The area where the plane went down was also the area that lost the most police and firefighters. You know the ones that said that fire doors were locked and that they heard explosions coming from inside and below them while they were in the stair wells.
Uh, huh. You're a bunch of slow learners just like the people in Pennsylvania. There was all the talk of the white aircraft just before flight 91 was "shot" down. Well they had that little incident only 10 miles away where those fellows were stuck underground until the "government" showed them where to drill. Never mind that there was an mp3 file on an official FFA site in Michigan that had the voice recording of the two other pilots that saw fight 91 get shot down.
Don't discount the truth because it is too hard to accept. Yes remote viewing is real. It is the only true threat to the US government and the local alien population.
Posted by: LaughingAtYou | July 20, 2005 at 09:22 AM
Oh wow, and unverifiable anecdote. Of course, if a taxi driver heard a bang then psi must be real. You have totally convinced me.
One question still nags me, Mr You. Since the government developed this amazing remote viewing technology before they gave it away to PsiTech, how come they can’t use it to find bin Laden?
Posted by: Skeptico | July 20, 2005 at 09:51 AM
Since the government developed this amazing remote viewing technology before they gave it away to PsiTech, how come they can’t use it to find bin Laden?
Careful, he might find your lack of faith disturbing. *chokes*
Posted by: BronzeDog | September 15, 2005 at 01:56 PM
How come you don't do a piece on 9/11. There are so many conspiracy theories going around...why not take a side and investigate your view on things?
Posted by: Plansor | February 24, 2006 at 01:11 PM