View source for Spoon bending

{{Short description|Apparent deformation of objects using magic tricks}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{redirect|Bending spoons|the technology company|Bending Spoons}}
[[File:Bavli.in.denmark.2010.jpg|thumb|alt=Guy Bavli holds up a bent spoon in front of a small audience|Illusionist [[Guy Bavli]] demonstrates spoon bending]]

'''Spoon bending''' is the deformation of objects, especially metal [[cutlery]], purportedly by [[paranormal]] means. It is a common theme for [[magic trick]]s, which use a variety of methods to produce the effect. Performers commonly use [[Misdirection (magic)|misdirection]] to draw their audience's attention away while the spoon is manually bent. Another method uses a metal spoon that has been prepared by repeatedly bending the spoon back and forth, [[Fatigue (material)|weakening the material]]. Applying light pressure will then cause it to bend or break.

Spoon bending attracted considerable media attention in the 1970s when a number of individuals claimed to have the ability to cause such effects by [[psychic]] means. The most famous was [[Uri Geller]], who performed on television bending metal spoons, [[key (lock)|key]]s, and other objects. Geller's performances were revealed to be tricks due to the work of magician and investigator [[James Randi]] and others.{{r|Regal}}

Despite hundreds of experiments by [[parapsychologist]]s to determine whether spoon bending is a genuine psychic phenomenon, spoon bending by psychic powers has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the [[scientific community]].

==History==
Spoon bending was popularized in the 1970s by magician and self-described psychic [[Uri Geller]], who claimed to have [[paranormal]] powers and appeared on television performing purportedly [[psychokinetic]] feats such as causing spoons, nails, and keys to bend using the power of his mind. Geller's actual methods were revealed to be trickery largely due to the work of magician and investigator [[James Randi]].<ref name="Regal">{{cite book |last1=Regal |first1=Brian |title=Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia |date=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |isbn=978-0-313-35508-0 |pages=153–154 |chapter=Spoon Bending}}</ref><ref name="Hurley 2010">{{cite book |first=Patrick J. |last=Hurley |date=2010 |title=A Concise Introduction to Logic |edition=12th |publisher=Cengage Learning |location=Boston, Mass. |page=626 |isbn=978-1-285-19654-1}}</ref> {{crossref|(See {{section link||Methods}}, below.)}}

While many individuals have claimed the [[paranormal]] or [[psychokinesis|psychokinetic]] ability to bend spoons or manipulate other objects, spoon bending by psychic powers has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the [[scientific community]]. Randi offered [[One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge|a prize of one million dollars]] to any person who was able to demonstrate paranormal abilities, such as spoon bending.<ref name="Revamps">{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff author(s), no byline--> |url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72482 |title=Skeptic Revamps $1M Psychic Prize |date=12 January 2007 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |url-access=limited}}</ref>

===Scientific testing===
[[Parapsychologist]]s have conducted hundreds of experiments to determine whether spoon bending is a genuine psychic phenomenon.<ref>{{cite web |title=Metal Bending |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/metal-bending |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=1 August 2021}}</ref>
Physicist [[John Hasted]] believed that children could paranormally bend [[paper clips]] inside a glass sphere, provided the sphere had a hole in it and they were allowed to take the sphere into a room unobserved. Science writer and skeptic [[Martin Gardner]] wrote that Hasted was incapable of devising simple controls such as videotaping the children secretly.<ref name="Gardner 1991">{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Martin |year=1991 |title=The New Age: Notes of a Fringe-Watcher |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |pages=28–29 |isbn=0-87975-644-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/newagenotesof00gard/page/28/mode/1up |url-access=limited}}</ref> Stephen North, a British psychic, was tested by Hasted in the late 1970s. Hasted claimed North had the psychokinetic ability to bend spoons and [[teleportation|teleport]] objects in and out of sealed containers.<ref name="Hasted">{{cite book |last1=Hasted |first1=John Barrett |title=The Metal-Benders |date=1981 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=London |isbn=0-7100-0597-0}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2021}} According to James Randi, during a test conducted by Hasted at [[Birkbeck College]], North was observed to have bent a metal sample with his bare hands.<ref name="Randi p221">{{cite book |last1=Randi |first1=James |title=Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions |date=1982 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |isbn=978-0-87975-198-2 |page=221 |url=https://archive.org/details/flimflampsychics0000rand/page/221/mode/1up?view=theater |url-access=registration}}</ref> North was tested in [[Grenoble]] on 19 December 1977 in scientific conditions and the results were negative.<ref name="Blanc 1978">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rTTswrb4YRMC&pg=PA431 |journal=New Scientist |date=1978-02-16 |last1=Blanc |first1=Marcel |title=Fading Spoon Bender |volume=77 |issue=1090 |page=431 |issn=0262-4079}}</ref>

Jean-Pierre Girard, a French psychic, has claimed he can bend metal bars by psychokinesis. Girard was tested in the 1970s but failed to produce any paranormal effects in scientifically controlled conditions.<ref name="Blanc 1978"/> He was tested on January 19, 1977 during a two-hour experiment in a [[Paris]] laboratory. The experiment was directed by physicist Yves Farge with a magician also present. All of the experiments were negative as Girard failed to make any of the objects move paranormally. He failed two tests in [[Grenoble]] in June 1977 with Randi.<ref name="Blanc 1978"/> He was also tested on September 24, 1977 at a laboratory at the Nuclear Research Centre. Girard failed to bend any bars or change the structure of the metals. Other experiments into spoon bending were also negative and witnesses described his feats as fraudulent. Girard later admitted that he would sometimes cheat to avoid disappointing the public but insisted he still had genuine psychic power.<ref name="Blanc 1978"/> Magicians and scientists have written that he produced all his alleged psychokinetic feats through fraudulent means.<ref name="Zusne">{{cite book |last1=Zusne |first1=Leonard |last2=Jones |first2=Warren |title=Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking |date=1989 |publisher=Lawrence Erlbaum Associates |location=Hillsdale, N.J. |isbn=0-8058-0508-7 |edition=2nd}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2021}}

Between 1979 and 1981, the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University reported a series of experiments they named [[Project Alpha (hoax)|Project Alpha]], in which two teenaged male subjects had demonstrated psychokinesis phenomena, including metal-bending and causing images to appear on film, under less than stringent laboratory conditions. Randi eventually revealed that the subjects were two of his associates, amateur conjurers [[Banachek|Steve Shaw]] and Michael Edwards. The pair had created the effects by standard trickery, but the researchers, being unfamiliar with magic techniques, interpreted them as proof of psychokinesis.<ref name="Colman">{{cite book |last=Colman |first=Andrew |title=Facts, Fallacies and Frauds in Psychology |location=London |publisher=Unwin Hyman |year=1987 |pages=195–6 |isbn=978-0-09-173041-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/factsfallaciesfr0000colm_r0x3/page/195/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}</ref>

[[John G. Taylor|John Taylor]] had tested children in metal bending. According to Gardner, the controls were inadequate as the children would put paper clips in their pockets and later take one out twisted or be left with metal rods unobserved. Randi managed to bend an aluminum bar when Taylor was not looking and scratch on it "Bent by Randi". In other experiments, two scientists from the [[University of Bath]] examined metal bending with children in a room which was secretly being videotaped through a one-way mirror. The film revealed that the children bent the objects with their hands and feet. Due to the evidence of trickery, Taylor concluded metal bending had no paranormal basis.<ref name="Gardner 1983">{{cite book |last=Gardner |first=Martin |year=1983 |title=Science: Good, Bad and Bogus |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=179–184 |isbn=0-1928-6037-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencegoodbadbo00gard/page/179/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In an experimental study (Wiseman and Greening, 2005) two groups of participants were shown a [[videotape]] in which a fake psychic placed a bent [[key (lock)|key]] on a table. Participants in the first group heard the fake psychic suggest that the key was continuing to bend when it had remained stationary, while those in the second group did not. The results revealed that participants from the first group reported significantly more movement of the key than the second group.
The findings were replicated in another study. The experiments had demonstrated that "testimony for PKMB [psychokinetic metal bending] after effects can be created by verbal suggestion, and therefore the testimony from individuals who have observed allegedly genuine demonstrations of such effects should not be seen as strong evidence in support of the paranormal".<ref name=Wiseman>[[Richard Wiseman|Wiseman, Richard]]; Greening, Emma. (2005). [http://www.richardwiseman.com/resources/BJP-key.pdf ''It's still bending': verbal suggestion and alleged psychokinetic ability'']. British Journal of Psychology 96: 115–127. {{doi|10.1348/000712604X15428}}</ref>

==Methods==
[[Image:Ray Hyman Spoon Bending CFI.jpg|thumb|200px|right|alt=Elderly man in black shirt and glasses holding up a bent spoon by the neck|Psychologist [[Ray Hyman]] demonstrating Geller's spoon bending feats at a [[Center for Inquiry]] lecture in 2012]]

Stage magicians use several methods of creating the [[illusion]] of a spoon bending spontaneously. Most common is the practice of [[misdirection (magic)|misdirection]], an underlying principle of many stage magic tricks;<ref name="Jones 2002">{{cite book |first=Simon |last=Jones |date=2002 |chapter=Geller, Uri |editor-first=Michael |editor-last=Shermer |title=The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience, Volume 1 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |pages=113–14 |isbn=1-57607-654-7}}</ref> 
the performer draws the audience's attention away from the spoon for the brief moment during which the spoon is manually bent. The magician then gradually reveals the bend.{{r|Emery}}
At a 1998 [[Skeptics Society]] conference, investigator James Randi showed clips of Geller appearing on the Italian television channel [[Rai 3]] and the BBC programme ''[[Noel's House Party]]'', in which he apparently manually bent various metal objects before displaying them to his audience.<ref name="Skeptics Society">{{cite AV media |title=James Randi's Solved Mysteries Workshop |year=1998 |publisher=The Skeptics Society |location=Altadena, Calif. |oclc=71299799 |type=DVD video}}</ref>{{Time needed|date=July 2021}}

When a spoon is physically bent or broken, it is usually at the point where the object would be easiest to bend by hand. The typical bend, where the bowl meets the handle, requires relatively little force.<ref name="Emery">{{cite news
 | last = Emery
 | first = C. Eugene Jr.
 | title = Catching Geller in the Act
 | work = [[The Providence Journal|The Providence Sunday Journal]]
 | format = Reprint, hosted by permission
 | year = 1987
 | url = http://psychicinvestigator.com/demo/GELRSKP.htm
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110716144427/http://psychicinvestigator.com/demo/GELRSKP.htm
 | archive-date = 2011-07-16
 
 | via = Psychicinvestigator.com
 }}</ref> 
Another method uses a metal spoon that has been prepared by repeatedly bending the spoon back and forth, [[Fatigue (material)|weakening the material]]. Applying light pressure will then cause it to bend or break.{{r|Hurley 2010|Jones 2002}} The magician then holds together the two halves of the spoon as if it were unbroken, then slowly relaxes their grip, making the spoon appear to bend before splitting in two.<ref name="Secrets">{{cite episode
 | people     = Randi, James
 | date       = October 19, 1993
 | title      = [[Secrets of the Psychics]]
 | series     = [[Nova (American TV program)|NOVA]]
 | medium     = Documentary
 | time       = 8:58
 | location   = Boston, Mass.
 | publisher  = WGBH Educational Foundation
 | oclc       = 965134014 
}}</ref>

If a magician has control over the viewing angle, the trick can be done by using a spoon that is already bent at the start of the trick. The spoon is initially held with the bend along the viewing angle, making it invisible. The magician then turns the spoon slowly to reveal the bend. The magician Ben Harris published step-by-step photographs and text showing how to bend keys and cutlery by trick methods.<ref name="Harris">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Ben |title=Gellerism Revealed: The Psychology and Methodology Behind the Geller Effect |date=1985 |publisher=Mickey Hades International |location=Calgary |isbn=0-9192-3092-X}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2021}}
Some [[Novelty item|novelty]] or magic shops sell self-bending spoons (utilizing the physical properties of 
a [[shape-memory alloy]]) which can be used by amateur and stage magicians to demonstrate "psychic" powers or as a practical joke.  Such "self-bending" spoons will bend themselves when used to stir tea, coffee, or any other warm liquid, or even when warmed by body heat.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}
Simply holding a spoon by its neck and rapidly whirling it back and forth can also create the illusion that the spoon is bending, due to the way that the human eye perceives the rocking motion.<ref name="Carey">{{cite news |title=While a Magician Works, the Mind Does the Tricks |work=The New York Times |first=Benedict |last=Carey |date=August 12, 2008 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12magic.html?em |author-link=Benedict Carey |page=F1 |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Bent Spoon Award]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Henry Gordon (magician)|Gordon, Henry]]. (1988). ''Extrasensory Deception: ESP, Psychics, Shirley MacLaine, Ghosts, UFOs''. Macmillan of Canada. {{ISBN|0-7715-9539-5}} 
* {{cite book |last=Hines |first=Terence |author-link=Terence Hines |year=1988 |title=Pseudoscience and the Paranormal |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |isbn=0-8797-5419-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/pseudosciencepar00hine/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* [[David Marks (psychologist)|Marks, David]]. (2000). ''[[The Psychology of the Psychic]]'' (2nd Edition). Prometheus Books. {{ISBN|1-57392-798-8}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Nickell |first=Joe |author-link=Joe Nickell |date=2013 |title=Mind Over Metal |magazine=Skeptical Inquirer |url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/2013/07/mind-over-metal/ |volume=37 |issue=4 |issn=0194-6730}}
* {{cite book |last1=Randi |first1=James |title=[[The Truth About Uri Geller]] |date=1982 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Buffalo, N.Y. |isbn=0-87975-199-1 |edition=Revised}}

==External links==
*[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/aug/11/anomalistic-psychology-paranormal-parapsychology Spoon-bending for beginners: Teaching anomalistic psychology to teenagers] by Chris French.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20141004023718/http://www.sisyfos.cz/sisyfos/geller.htm Uri Geller Caught Red-Handed] by Massimo Polidoro.
*[http://www.jackhouck.com/pkmf.shtml PK (spoon-bending) Party: format and materials] by Jack Houck 1982

{{Magic and Illusion}}
{{Parapsychology}}

[[Category:Magic tricks]]
[[Category:Parapsychology]]
[[Category:Paranormal terminology]]