To: Dan Kettler <dan@psicounsel.com>
Subject: [Fwd: your letter]

=====================================================

Return-Path: <bdj10@cam.ac.uk>
Delivered-To: gian@cyberhighway.net

Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2000 12:44:33 +0100
From: Brian Josephson <bdj10@cam.ac.uk>
To: randi@randi.org
cc: park@aps.org, John Benneth <gian@cyberhighway.net>
Subject: your letter

Message-ID: <4485292.3174986673@bohm.phy.cam.ac.uk>

Dear James,

 Thank your for your letter which has just arrived.  I can only urge both
you and Dr. Park to be patient.  Dr. Benvensite considers he is in a kind
of situation wished upon him by the scientific community where
'extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence', and he is taking
steps to provide that 'extraordinary evidence'.  This, however, takes time
and, as I say, one must be patient.

 I must also make it clear that the idea of some official test such as one
under the auspices of the APS was always my idea and not his, and he has
always made his preference for going instead along the conventional
scientific path involving submitting the evidence to a referreed scientific
journal clear.  Given the way a past editor of Nature exploited his
editorial privilege to publish a seriously flawed (on scientific grounds)
denunciation of his experimental work, this rather negative attitude to
'investigations' can perhaps be understood.

 I have a suggestion for you, however, namely that you try out the claims
of John Benneth, since he at least appears eager to submit his method to a
test at this time; indeed, I am very surprised that you have not already
done this.  Agreed, his use of biological samples may be a problem (though
Benveniste's method also requires a biological component) but if you are
unwilling to wait for Benveniste to make his process as free from possible
objections as possible then examining Benneth's claims would seem to be the
obvious way to go.

Yours sincerely,
 

 Brian Josephson
 

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