Last month the Word Egg throwing Federation made an appearance on
Russell Howards Good News programme as the mystery guest. Not surprisingly this raised our profile and
we got a fair bit of response. Most of it very positive (a bit like reiki, I
suppose).
However there was a bit of feedback from people who were sceptical of
the use of reiki and auras in the distinction between raw and hard boiled
eggs.
Below is the E mail trail of one set of correspondence. Federation members and/or reiki masters that
wish to take the Sceptics up on their offer should PM me. Caution, this is a long post.....
1st message
Hi there!
I recently watched the episode of Russell Howard's Good News which featured one
of the recent champions in India.
He spoke of using Reiki and Aura reading to determine the state of the eggs. I
wondered if there were any other recognised techniques for working out if eggs
are raw or hard boiled?
Thank you for any details you can provide.
Kind Regards,
D J
Response.
On 10 May 2013, at 17:01, "Admin@eggthrowing.org"
<eggthrowing-federation@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hello David,
There are many of telling boiled eggs from raw in
this sport. Remember that you are not allowed to touch the eggs first. If you
could you could shake them, listening for the sloshing sound, or spin
them. Here are the 8 most commonly used, there are more but we don't list
them all. This list was prepared for a German TV question.
Mo
Method 1.
Reiki. The ancient art of healing by life force manipulation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki It is quite
possible by the trained person to feel the life force of the raw egg.
Method 2.
Aura watching. The life force of the egg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura_(paranormal)
Each living thing has an aura. Uncooked English eggs have a light blue aura,
compared to a lighter blue if cooked. Foreign eggs may be
different.
Method 3.
Dowsing. The ability to detect solids or fluids remotely. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing
First recorded use is in Germany (so you may have an edge here) Does not
necessarily rely upon a "twitch" stick but can be used with the aid
of a pendulum. Now banned by the Catholic Association of American Bishops as
"unchristian" or satanic
Method 4. Mathematical probability theory. Should one chose 1st or 2nd chooser.
Chance of failure ether 6:1, 4:1, 2:1 or Safe, 5:1, 3:1, 1:1
Method 5. Colour differential between cooked and raw eggs.
Method 6. Temperature differential. Tends to work less well as time passes
since cooking process was undertaken.
Method 7. Positioning techniques of the applied subject. research suggests that
some egg positioners do not use a random practice when placing the raw eggs
within a container of 5 cooked eggs.
Method 8.Luck
See More
2nd Email question.
From: D J
Hi Mo,
Thanks for the reply.
A couple of questions
immediately spring to mind! Do you, or many of the teams actually take methods
1,2 & 3 all that seriously? Do you just have them there to throw people off
the scent?
While I don't really
want to enter into a scientific discussion, I've never seen any good evidence
for Reiki, Aura reading or dowsing.
If they are
non-serious methods, now would be the time to admit it!
Kind Regards,
David
Response
Hello again David,
A number of teams practice, with varying degrees of
success, the methods mentioned. Indeed Russell Howard when invited to
feel the life force difference did say he could (despite I hazard a guess no
having attempted this before or received any prior training) but I take it
you don't approve.
Whilst I understand the scepticism displayed I am
unsure of your reason for stating "now would be a good time to admit
it". The systems were listed, in no particular order of effect or
reliability, but I note that in Hertfordshire there are well over 60 practicing
"reiki masters" and indeed even some schools teaching the art.
As for aura viewing, this has been a hotly debated topic over many
years and dismissed by sceptics. The jury’s still out. I too found
some difficulty with dowsing, until I witnessed a rather fine demonstration of
it. that I was unable to explain. Perhaps the American Bishops have
something? I am unable to verify the abilities or belief of others, I
also try not to decry their claims.
Perhaps you might like to attend the World
Championships in June to view the users or even take part. The event will
hopefully raise around £10,000 for more scientifically approved things like
Leukaemia Research, Hospice provision, The Red Cross, LIVES, Sailability etc
etc.
With kindest regards.
Mo
3rd mail
Hi,
Just to start with,
"now would be a good time to admit it" wasn't meant as any kind of
weird threat! This is something I plan to write about and I wanted to give you
the option to admit it was in jest before I do so.
I'd like to cover a
couple of point you've raised.
The amount of Reiki
masters existing in a location doesn't actually make any difference to its
effectiveness. It doesn't even speak to its popularity. It could be the case
that all of those listed have other means of making money due to receiving no
income from Reiki. In properly controlled, blinded tests, reiki is found to
have no effect above placebo.
You say that aura
reading has been "dismissed by sceptics", this isn't a fair
assessment. It's been tested and studied and found that there is no evidence to
suggest is exists. You can have an opinion on this if you want, but it would go
against much scientific literature on the subject.
Dowsing is a fun one
because the visual evidence can appear to be so compelling. I've seen dowsers,
who fully believed in their abilities, put to the test under tightly controlled
circumstances and our left speechless as to explain why they couldn't find the
liquid. Something on Wikipedia for you to look at on this topic is the
Ideomotor Effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_phenomenon
It's important to
remember that unexplained doesn't mean unexplainable and that your experience
doesn't mean there isn't a simple solution.
I do plan on
attending the World Championships in June with P H and I'm very much looking
forward, for some reason I'm yet to fathom, smashing 6 month old raw egg on my
face!
I should also add
that I admire the work you do for charity. Something I will be sure to bring up
when I write about this. What I don't approve of is unscientific methods of
determining the natured state of eggs on national television!
Kind Regards,
David
Response
On 11 May 2013, at 22:44, "Admin@eggthrowing.org"
<eggthrowing-federation@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hey David,
I should perhaps give you some back ground to how
we first discovered that the three methods you doubt first came to our notice.
A few years ago, as we prepared for our inevitable
inclusion in the Olympics, we sought recognition by the English Sports Council
for our sport. We duly submitted the required application (carefully
missing out in case they used health and Safety objections that the targets
used in target throwing and egg trebuchet were human). After several months
of careful consideration they wrote back saying that they could not accept our
application because:
1. We are a World sport body and not just an
English one.
2. We hadn't submitted accounts (despite us already
saying we hadn't got any as we have no money, being sponsored by Swaton Show,
and anyway all money we raise goes direct to charity. We don't even take
expenses.
3. They couldn't accept that Russian Egg Roulette
required any skill, what so ever. (Yeah, I know, unbelievable).
We, of course took all this on board and
immediately changed our organisation title to the "World Egg Throwing
Federation (incorporating the English Egg Throwing Federation)" and looked
for ways that more skill could identified or be incorporated into the game.
Meanwhile we issued press releases stating that the English Sports Council had
accepted that 4 out of 5 of our disciplines were recognised as legitimate
sports. There was, as you can imagine, much "hurumphing"
by other sports fans around the world as this story circulated the globe twice
in a matter of days.
You may not be surprised that we then came across
reiki, auras and dowsing. Some players claimed that these (along with the
other skills mentioned in the list already provided) clearly showed some sort
of difficult to define skill.
Whilst we were over there, again at our own
expense, we did a tad of other stuff as well, inoculating some of the
200,000,000 under 5s that were treated that weekend as National Immunisation
Day with polio vaccines.
Anyhow, we have thought for some time that there is
some scepticism amongst a few people that reiki and other misunderstood process
may or may not work. We would therefore suggest that your group
offer a challenge to reiki masters and others engaged in this type of work (i.e
those that advertise their services for personal profit) to take part in the
games. We could then pit you two against "masters" to see whose
skill (or luck as the case may be) comes out on top.
I had heard of the ideomotor effect (but I didn't
know it was called that). Thanks for the link. To ensure that this
doesn't have any impact I would suggest that your choice of eggs is selected
blind to ensure you arnt affected or secretly and unknowingly using one or more
of the methods you seek to disprove.
How’s that sound?
Mo
4th mail
Hey Adrian,
So if I'm getting
this right, the use of Reiki, Aura reading and Dowsing as a 'difficulty' or
'skill' element to your game, therefore making it more likely to be recognised
as a sport.
If so, that's an
interesting and unique approach to gaining status as a sport! Not one I
necessarily approve of. But I can work on that!
Myself and a couple
of colleagues would be interested in putting together a test in order to verify
some of the claims regarding these practices. If you're interested, we would
like to work with you in order to design a study that we both agree is a fair
test of these claims. As a starting point, we would need volunteers from within
your fold of participants, who believe that reiki, aura reading and dowsing
truly give them an advantage, who are in principal interested in the idea of
being tested.
We would probably
need to design 3 different tests. This would also allow for participants that,
maybe only believe that Aura reading works, without them needing to be tested
in other ways if they don't feel there is anything to them.
Ideally we would seek
to have 2 or 3 volunteers test for each ability. This could mean as few as 2 or
3 people (if they wish to test there abilities in all 3 areas) or as many as 6
to 9. This will of course be conducted as no expense to yourselves.
We would be more than
happy to come to the World Egg Throwing Championships this year to facilitate
this testing.
Kind Regards,
David
Response
David,
Who is Adrian?
You missed an important part of my mail. I said;
"We would therefore suggest that your group offer a challenge to
reiki masters and others engaged in this type of work (i.e those that advertise
their services for personal profit) to take part in the games. We could
then pit you two against "masters" to see whose skill (or luck as the
case may be) comes out on top."
I think also you failed to recognise that our
Russian egg roulette players use one or more of the techniques I described in
one of my earlier mails, the one we did for the Germans. Also they are
other methods in use that I haven't yet described (and nor will I as that may
destroy the mystique).
So, we're happy to have you and your chums along
but you need to gather together your own "Reiki Masters" fo your
test. I hik a challenge by you, via the press, for suitable qualified single
skill reikists (is that a word?) should suffice.
Mo
5th mail
From: D J
Sorry about that! I
was firing off a few emails and for some reason my brain decided you were
called Adrian. A guess Andy would be more accurate?
I do appreciate the
offer to potentially accommodate a test as you described. This, however,
doesn't really address the issue of your organisation promoting and using these
methods.
You are ones who are
promoting the use of Aura reading, reiki and dowsing. As such I would expect
that members of your organisation would be only too willing to offer a
demonstration (under properly conducted trial conditions) of these abilities.
The point that you use other methods doesn't take away from the point that you
do use these.
If I chose a new car
based on the basis of a psychic reading and then also on its fuel consumption,
I would still be using an unscientific method to effect my choice even if I
also use something mathematically based, as well. It is the element of the
unscientific that we are interested in testing and not the statistics.
I will again
reiterate the offer as described in my last email. It would seem only fair to
members of the World Egg Throwing Federation that you allow those who believe
they have these abilities to test them. If they do believe that they can
successfully use either Reiki, Aura reading or dowsing, then a demonstration of
these abilities should be fairly straight forward and there should be no reason
not to extend this offer to them.
Kind Regards,
Daniel ;-)
Response
Danielle,
Look, we use a collection of methods to make full
advantage of the signs and symptoms that are displayed by the egg to differentiate
between the different states. The conjoining of all these different
signs/feeling and stuff enables top class players to in consistently.
Whereas, a true reiki master in a blind test would rely purely to one, reducing
his/her chances dramatically if their reiki skill is not as pronounced.
That's why we suggest you use an independent reiki master for your
test. Seems fair to us.
Meanwhile, if you want any pot holes filled in,
give us a shout.
Adrian
6th mail
Angus,
This is pure
deflection and you must realise that. I made it clear in my last email why
using any area that, in our opinion, isn't evidence based does matter.
I'm confused by your
reluctance in this matter. Surely it would be a fairly simple thing to be
demonstrated by your members? Again I say, your federation are the ones
promoting these methods to determine the state of eggs. Are you able to give me
a reason why you won't allow members of the federation even the option to take
part in a test of the nature previously laced out?
You are leading me to
the concussion that you are worried that such tests would show no efficacy for
these methods. You made the claims, you back them up with evidence. We are
offering you the chance to get this evidence. If your members genuinely believe
they have these abilities it would be straightforward for them to demonstrate
them and would add legitimacy for your claim as a sport.
Daisy
Response
Drew,
You’re missing the point that we use 8 or more
separate skills in conjunction. Reiki forms just a small
part................ some rely upon auras more and others less. Others
use the other 6 entirely and not the 1st two. That's why you need a
specialist reiki master for your test.
Are you sure you have no pot holes you want
filling? You didn't answer.
Erica.
7th Mail
Andy,
You are using methods
as part of your decision making process that are not supported by evidence.
This means that you are allowing these to effect your judgement. By combining
statistical probability and eastern mystical systems of belief you allow for
all appraisal to be impaired and effected. You are basing your decision making
process on incomplete data.
Answer me this. Are
you refusing to open this up to your members to allow them the option to be
tested if they so wish?
David
Response
Of course not, indeed I would welcome your presence
but whether any players agree to the test is up to them, that is why I
suggested you find your own willing volunteer reiki master from the masses that
advertise themselves from your neck of the woods. Seems to me
that a challenge from the Skeptics to a fee charging "master" would
have more draw than a Russian Egg Roulette player that uses many different
skills (or not) to play his or her game.
Entrance fee is £4 per adult. Bring your
mates. There’s a mixed variety of hot food, 400 vintage vehicles,
a real ale beer tent, fun fair and terrier racing. I'll do a
discount is you get a bus load. Have you got a trebuchet? (or a pot
hole that needs fixing?)
Mo
8th mail
Andy,
I totally agree it is
up to them! All I require from you is to ask people if they are up to the
challenge. We wouldn't be able to design a suitable trial without having the
participation of participants in advance. There's no point designing a test
that they turn up to and refuse to take because they don't agree with the
protocols.
Surely the federation
would be interested in promoting the most effective methods and a test of the
three methods you have mentioned would only serve to better the community going
forward.
We would require some
collaboration on your part, as the world federation, in one of a couple of
ways. Either by promoting this offer to test (twitter/website etc) or by
providing details of regional/national federations for us to contact.
As a side, we are
talking to our team about providing either a charitable donation or prize money
to anyone testing well above the statistical range. Obviously the test has yet
to be determined so no offer could be formalised at this time.
Kind Regards,
David
Response
David,
Actually, the Federation has no specific
interest in promoting what some would see as heretical
"investigation" of the beliefs of others. Whilst I appreciate
your interest in the sport, which pits man against man, I fail to see why you
should wish to impose your own, possibly fantastical, views upon
others. The imposition of views onto others or "conversion for their
own good" seems to, throughout recorded history, turned out badly.
Indeed, the concept of Skeptisism was discussed
last night at one of our regular Committee meetings. At that, one of most
esteemed scholars (an expert in the science of astrology) suggested that your
extremist beliefs might actually be a test from a God or Gods.
He went on to explain that religion is a belief and that the God or Gods may be
manipulating your "claimed scientific experiments" to come up with
concepts in order to test your belief in them (the Gods). He went on
to say that you will surely roast in hell as you were clearly in the pay of
Satan. I don't necessarily accept his view but he may have a point? I may
have to hedge my bets.
So before we go any further with this conversation,
all I have is your name and presumed location in Hertfordshire, (a known hot
bed of Reiki practisers). How do I know you are a
legitimate and ordained member of the Skeptic Society. You might be, if
you'll excuse the description, some religious extremist fundamentalist sceptic
nut, unwilling to accept the views of others unless they travel your true
claimed path. Indeed your opening implied threat does give me some cause for
concern.
He suggests some tests of your belief in
skeptisism.
1. What was before the Big Bang?
2. What is the universe in?
3. What stops Neutrons from just drifting randomly
off?
4. Could we are just be a computer programme
running on Gods PC?
5. What happens if he (or she) presses
Control/Alt/Delete?
6. Do you like Star Trek?
I look forward to your responses.
Mo
9th Mail
From: D J
To: "Admin@eggthrowing.org"
Sent: Wednesday, 15 May 2013, 16:47
Subject: Re: Techniques for determining egg states.
Hey,
I'll stick to the
point here. So you are saying that you are not willing to open up the idea of a
scientifically controlled test to your federation? That you are happy to
control your membership's thoughts by not doing the simple task of facilitating
this offer?
I'll address your
other points upon reply.
Kind Regards,
David
Last response today at 17:42
To D J
David,
You're avoiding the points I make. That's a
typical avoidance issue used by those that don't like their beliefs being
questioned and/or fear they will be disproved. But for your first point, the
membership is being fully addressed, why would you doubt otherwise?
Meanwhile, we have thought of some more methods to
determine egg state:
9. Prayer to a particular divine Entity and subsequent
guidance received.
10. Unknowing divine intervention leading
a player to a particular egg overriding all other 9 methods: This
may be a raw egg as the Entity has other plans in mind.
Mo
We await D Js next E
mail……
NB. You’ll see that he still hasn’t mentioned if
he wants a pot hole fixing.
