From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: psi-missing
Article-I.D.: unc.4767
Posted: Sun Mar 13 18:11:12 1983
Received: Mon Mar 14 02:28:08 1983


A recent article on dowsing mentioned "the `psi-missing' ploy".
This is something that was also mentioned in James Randi's excellent
book "The Magic of Uri Geller" (in which he tells us how Geller
does each of the things he does). Both sources mentioned it in a
derogatory light.

Psi-missing refers to results in psi experiments in which the results
are significantly worse than those expected by pure chance. Misguessing
all cards from a 50 card deck of 5 different cards would be an extreme
example. Randi says that most people have a name for that -- "we call
it losing". This is sheer emotionalism. If the results differ from
chance significantly, then *something* is going on.

I'm not trying to be an apologist. I know of no cases where psi-missing
has been shown in a large enough number of trials to be significant.
What I am trying to do is get people to approach things rationally.

Tim Maroney