========================================================================== The Question of RSPK Versus Fraud in the Case of Tina Resch William G. Roll Psychical Research Foundation and Parapsychological Services Institute Atlanta, Georgia Copyright (C) 1993 William G. Roll ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This upload is done with the permission of William G. Roll whose kindness in granting permission is gratefully acknowledged. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract Five hundred and eighty-five occurrences were reported in the home of Tina Resch in Columbus, Ohio and in six locations in North Carolina when she was there for reseach and counseling. 159 of the events are presented as suggestive of RSPK because they occurred in another area than Tina was in at the time (34 events) or took place when she was observed (125 events). The incidents are divided according to who reported them and, for those where Tina was observed, whether the movement was seen in full, in part, or not at all. Before concluding that the evidence for RSPK is compelling, the author brings in the hypothesis by James Randi and Paul Kurtz that the incidents resulted from Tina throwing or pulling the objects. Randi and Kurtz reached this conclusion mainly on the basis of Tina having pulled down a lamp and on the basis of their examination of the pictures taken by press photographer Fred Shannon, but without taking account of the circumstances under which he said he took the pictures. Randi also does not discuss the reports by the other witnesses, except Roll's which he distorts. The author concludes that if the reports by the observers are taking into account, the fraud hypothesis does not account for the phenomena. In March, 1984, ostensible RSPK disturbances were reported in a home in Columbus, Ohio. The family consisted of John and Joan Resch, their adopted daughter, Tina, 14, their biological son, Craig, 24, their foster daughter, Lisa (not her real name), who was nearly six, and three other foster children, ages a few months to two-and-a-half years. The incidents brought reporters and TV news crews into the home, and one evening Tina was filmed pulling down a lamp with her hand. Eyewitness reports by two newsmen, reporter Mike Harden and photographer Fred Shannon, nevertheless suggested that some of the incidents might be RSPK and I decided to go to Columbus. During a six-day investigation, I interviewed six members of the Resch family and eight visitors about the incidents and observed some myself. Kelly Powers, a clinical psychologist and teacher of psychic development, assisted in the investigation and counseled Tina. I then brought Tina to North Carolina for research and for further counseling with Dr. Rebecca Zinn. PK tests at FRNM were insignificant, and those at Spring Creek Institute ambiguous. There were no RSPK incidents during the first two weeks of Tina's stay. They started up again in Zinn's office and home, and in my home. Tina then broke her leg, and the phenomena and research came to a halt for several months. In August, I chaired a panel on the case at the PA where magician James Randi, Fred Shannon and I presented. Harden, Zinn and Bruce Claggett, an electrician who had witnessed some of the events, sent written reports. In October, Tina returned to NC for PK testing at Spring Creek Institute (Baumann, Stewart and Roll, 1986). The incidents resumed, following hypnotic suggestions, at Spring Creek (Stewart, Roll and Baumann, 1987), at the office of Dr. Jim Carpenter and in my home. Carpenter had Tina play a PK computer game and gave her the Rorschach and TAT. Baumann (Baumann and Roll, 1988) did an auditory evoked potential study of Tina's brainstem and, in 1991, an MRI. This was recently analyzed by Dr. Michael Persinger along with other neurophysiological data. Aside from newspaper stories and popular articles, the only published accounts of the incidents in the Resch home were Randi's (1985) dismissal of the case in the Skeptical Inquirer, and shorter treatments to the same effect by Paul Kurtz (1984, 1985). Randi (1985) focused on the pictures Shannon had taken in the house, however without discussing his report, and also brought in my accounts of what I had seen. He said he would take up the reports by Claggett and Shannon in a second paper, but then thought it unnecessary because, "The story is now essentially dead" (Randi, 1988, p. 91). Randi's announcement of the death of the Resch case of RSPK is premature. I think this will become clear when the witnesses' reports and the tendentious treatment by Kurtz and Randi are known. In this paper I give an overview of the incidents that witnesses reported in the Resch home, March 2-16, together with the occurrences that took place later that month in the home and office of Dr. Rebecca Zinn in Chapel Hill, in my home in Durham, and, in October, in the office of Dr. Jim Carpenter in Chapel Hill. This unpublished material will be combined with the events at Spring Creek Institute previously reported at the PA (Stewart, Roll and Baumann, 1986). I give an overview of the case in Table 1, present the case for RSPK and then the case for fraud. Table 1 Outline of Case March, 1983-January, 1984: Tina sees apparition of her best friend and namesake who had died in a car crash, in February, 1983. The dead Tina appears "when I need her." The apparition is seen at the end of February, 1984, on or about the anniversary of her death, and occasionally thereafter. Friday, March 2: Malfunction of the baby's heart monitor in the afternoon and evening and of Tina's clock-radio. 8 reported occurrences. Saturday, March 3: Disturbances of electrical appliances and clocks, TV, stereo and ceiling lights in the morning. Tina is suspected, but when incidents take place in other rooms, the family attributes them to power surges. Two men from Columbus and Southern find nothing wrong, and the family calls electrician Bruce Claggett. The ceiling lights turns on in his presence and he tapes the switches down with Scotch tape to prevent tampering. While Tina and other family members are away from the switches, these repeatedly turn on and the tape disappears. Small objects and then chairs start moving in the afternoon, and the Resches complain to the police. Two officers respond but offer no solution. The Resches suspect a spiritual cause and call their Lutheran minister. 203 reported occurrences. Sunday, March 4: While Tina is in church, the mattresses in the bedrooms come offaaa the beds. The minister arrives and prays that evil leave the home. A couch moves in his presence and objects hit Tina after he departs. Joyce Beaumont, a friend of the family, witnesses several occurrences. The three younger foster children are sent away. Craig entertains his friends with the moving objects. Another son, a Mormon, arranges an exorcism. During this the kitchen chairs and a couch move. 75 reported occurrences. Monday, March 5: Joan Resch phones Mike Harden, a columnist at the Columbus Dispatch who had written up her work with foster children, and asks if he knows someone who can help. When he comes, he sees a doll's cradle flip into the air and other occurrences when Tina is not near. He requests a photographer. Fred Shannon takes several pictures of phones flying across Tina's lap, one of them appearing in newspapers worldwide. Kathy Geoff and Lee Arnold, of the Franklin County Children's Services, witness some of the phone incidents. Harden phones Roll in North Carolina and asks his opinion. Roll says this could be a case of RSPK and suggests neurological examination of Tina. After the newsmen Ieave, the couch, chairs and tables in the living room are repeatedly upset. Lisa is sent away, and John, Joan and Tina go to a motel for two days to escape the turmoil. Craig stays with friends. 72 reported occurrences. Wednesday, March 7: Tina sees a neurologist and a neuropsychiatrist before returning home. The disturbances resume when she enters the house and are witnessed by Barbara Hughes, a friend of the family, her husband and foster son, TJ. Two Ohio TV stations phone Roll and he calls Harden asking about developments. The media inundate the family with requests for interviews and the Resches call a press conference for I p.m. the next day. 25 reported occurrences. Thursday, March 8: Barbara Hughes is hit by kitchen chairs, TJ by the phone, and they witness other occurences. Peggy Grouvert, a nurse and one of the Resches' daughters, sees some of the incidents. Forty reporters and TV camera people attend the press conference. Some of the reporters, intent on filming flying objects, are still in the house at 9:30, when Tina pulls down a lamp, not knowing one of the cameras is on. She does it, she says, to get the reporters off her back. Tina stays with friends until Saturday. 17 reported occurrences. Friday, March 9: Roll phones Joan Resch and offers to make an investigation. She accepts. Two reporters call Roll. Paul Kurtz, CSICOP chairman, tells reporters he plans an investigation by magician James Randi and two astronomy professors. 0 reported occurences. Saturday, March 10: The disturbances resume when Tina returns. Barbara Hughes and TJ watch the kitchen table, chairs and other obJects move. 17 reported occurrences. Sunday, March 11: Roll and Powers arrive in the afternoon. The disturbances decrease. Powers reports an incident in one room while he is with Tina in another. The others Tina could have caused normally. Roll interviews family and visitors who have witnessed the occurrences during the next days. Powers conducts counseling sessions with Tina. 7 reported occurrences. Monday, March 12: A few occurences take place that Tina could have caused normally. James Randi, in a press interview, says he is coming to Columbus with an open mind. He compares people who report flying objects to believers in Santa Claus. 14 reported occurrences. Tuesday, March 13: Roll and Powers leave for a short period hoping this will stimulate occurrences. While they are gone, Joan reports being pushed against the refrigerator, the mattress coming off Craig's bed and other incidents while Tina is with her. Roll suggests to John and Joan that Tina come to North Carolina to continue the research and counseling. They respond positively. Randi arrives with astronomers Steven Shore and Nick Seduleak to make an investigation. He shows news photographers a S10,000 check and says he will give it to the Resches if they can show him flying objects. Joan Resch says she is offended by the offer of money and does not want a magic show in the house, but that the two scientists can come after Roll and Powers have left. They decline her invitation. 5 reported occurrences. Wednesday, Marcb 14: Powers takes Tina for a neurological examination. After a few occurrences, when Roll is not present, there are 18 during an hour he is with Tina, some when he is watching her. Roll sounds Tina out about going to North Carolina. She likes the idea. Roll makes a floor plan of the house to show where incidents are reported. 23 reported occurrences. Thursday, March 15: A few events occur, none observed by Roll. His son, Tertius, an undergraduate at nearby Denison Vniversity, arrives. They and Tina set up a camcorder in her room to use next day. 3 reported occurrences. Friday, March 16: Powers leaves. Roll places cups and glasses as RSPK targets in Tina's room and is preparing to film her wben two objects, including a target glass, fall. There are no incidents during an hour-and-a-half of video recording but when Tina and Roll go out of camera range, into the hallway and master bedroom, there are 20 occurrences in 20 minutes, some of which she apparently could not have caused normally. Hoping a different room and cameraman will improve matters, Roll asks Tertius to film Tina in the master bedroom, with no success. Tina, Tertius and Roll leave for North Carolina. 26 reported occurrences. Thursday, March 17-Saturday, March 21: Tina at Roll's home in Durham. She spends time with Dr. Rebecca Zinn, a psychotherapist who volunteers to counsel her. 0 occurrences. Tuesday, March 22-Saturday, March 26: Tina, Powers, Tertius and Roll go to Key West, Florida for research/recreation as the guests of Emmy Chetkin. Mary Rossi, a psychic with apparent PK abilities, and Powers work with Tina to help activate and control her PK abilities. No success. Tina has a vision of her friend during a boating trip. 0 occurrences. Sunday, March 27: Tina at Roll's home. 0 occurrences. Monday, March 28: Tina visits Spring Creek Institute, Chapel Hill, where Dr. Steve Baumann is building a PK apparatus to test a person's ability to affect nerve cells (neurons from a sea snail). Tina's results are promising but may be due to artifacts. Baumann hopes to test her again when these can be excluded. She has a counseling session with Zinn. 0 occurrences. Tuesday, March 29: Tina visits the Institute of Parapsychology, Durham, in the morning and plays the "POINK" PK game with Dr. Richard Broughton. The results are insignificant. She spends the afternoon with Zinn who reports 16 incidents at her office and home, several of which occur when she is observing Tina. Tina sees apparition of her friend. 16 reported occurrences. Wednesday, March 30: Two occurrences in Roll's home when Tina is not observed. 2 reported occurrences. Thursday, March 31: Several occurrences in Roll's home, two when Tina is observed by him. She visits Jim Carpenter's home and plays ESP and PK computer games with his daughter, Ferrell. She borrows Ferrell's three-wheel motorbike, hits a tree and breaks her left leg. Jim brings her to Duke Medical center. 6 reported occurrences. Friday, April l-Saturday, April 9: Tina in bed, most of the time under pain medication, in Roll's home, or at hospital (April 1-5, in Roll's home; April 6-7, at Durham General Hospital; April 7-9, in Roll's home.) 0 occurrences. Saturday, April 9: Reporter Joel Achenbach interviews Tina in Roll's home. Tina sees apparition of her friend. Joan and Craig Resch arrive to consult with Roll and Zinn and to bring Tina back to Columbus. The family, including Tina, stay in a motel. 0 occurrences. Sunday, April 1-Monday, April 11: Discussions with Resch family about RSPK and how to help Tina when she is back home. 0 occurrences. Tuesday, April 12: Resch family returns to Ohio. They report a phone incident the same night. 1 occurrence. Wednesday, April 13-Wednesday, October 17: No incidents until October when the Resches report a spontaneous spoon bending by Tina and four intentional bendings. Thursday, October 18: Tina returns to North Carolina for PK tests by Baumann at Spring Creek Institute. 0 occurrences. Friday, October 19: Following a hypnosis session by Jeannie Stewart to reactivate Tina's RSPK, four movements of objects observed at Roll's home and ten at Spring Creek. 14 reported occurrences. Saturday, October 20: Tina spends the day at Roll's home and Carpenter's office. Ten incidents there and 11 at Roll's home. Carpenter administers TAT and Rorschach. 21 reported occurrences. Sunday, October 21: Tina tested for PK at Spring Creek. Nine occurrences there. Baumann conducts evoked potential study of Tina's brainstem. She visits Ann Poole and family. They report two incidents. 11 reported occurrences. Monday, October 22: Tina tested for PK at Spring Creek. Several occurrences there and two at Roll's home. Tina returns to Columbus. 14 reported occurrences. THE CASE FOR RSPK Occurrences that Tina Could not Have Caused Normally according to Witnesses Witnesses: I have divided the witnesses into four groups: (i) Members of the Resch family: John and Joan Resch, their 25 year old son, Craig, and their married daughter, Peggy Grouvert. John had recently retired as supervisor in a sheet metal firm, Joan was a foster mother, Craig was working temporarily as assistant manager of a fast food shop (before returning to school for an MA in psychology), and Grouvert was a hospital nurse. (ii) Friends of the family who came to offer moral support or to clean up broken objects and spilled food: Joyce Beaumont worked in the payroll department of a corporation, Kathy Goeff and Lee Arnold were at the County Children's Services, Barbara Hughes was a foster mother, and TJ was her 14- year-old foster son. (iii) Local investigators: Bruce Claggett was the owner of an electric firm, Mike Harden was a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch, and Fred Shannon a photographer at the same paper. (iv) Psychologists and parapsychologists: Drs. Jim Carpenter and Rebecca Zinn, psychotherapists in Chapel Hill, NC, Jim being also a parapsychologist, Jeannie Lagle Stewart, a psycho-therapist in Kentucky, and myself, who worked for the Psychical Research Foundation in Chapel Hill. Some of the witnesses indicated their beliefs about psychic occurrences. John Resch was probably the most skeptical and the most convinced that Tina was causing them normally and that it was only a matter of time before he figured out how. Joan Resch at first also suspected Tina. But when the electrical appliances, TV, stereo and house lights came on when the girl was not near the switches, Joan thought something else was going on. Craig assumed Tina was fooling his parents. "I just thought she was doing it because she seemed to be around most of the stuff," he said. His married sister, Peggy Grouvert arrived a skeptic in spite of what her parents had told her. "I didn't expect to see anything," she said. Bruce Claggett said he suspected someone of "playing games" with the light switches. "Paranormal occurrences were the furthest thing from my mind," he said. Mike Harden described himself as the "ultimate skeptic of the paranormal." But he told Shannon what he had seen, and Shannon "was quite afraid of what I might encounter." As for my own attitude, having heard Harden's account, I supposed there might have been genuine occurrences in the past, but I was dubious of the later incidents because of the lamp throwing incident. When there were no convincing occurrences the first days I spent in the house, I thought Tina staged the incidents whatever had happened before. The incidents where throwing or sleight of hand could apparently be ruled out were of two main types: Incidents when Tina was not in the room where the event took place nor in an adjacent room from where she might have thrown the object (see Table 2), and incidents when she was observed. I have divided these into three subgroups: (a) incidents where the witness saw the object begin to move from a stationary position, (b) incidents where the witness saw an object after it had begun moving, and (c) incidents where the witness only saw the object after it had come to rest (see Table 3). Table 2 Tina not in Area Where Incident Occurred Occurrences Described by Resch Family Dryer Door (Event #3:17): Joan Resch was setting her hair in the bathroom downstairs when she heard the door to the clothes dryer slam shut and the engine start up. The dryer was in thc dining room. She went in and turned it off by opening the door. She had returned to the bathroom when the event was repeated. She thought Tina was doing it and asked her to sit by the open bathroom door so she could watch her, when the same thing happened. Faucets and Drains (Events #3:166-169): John Resch heard the sound of running water upstairs and found the faucets open and the drains closed in the children's bathroom. He had gone downstairs when the events recurred. This time he watched the stairs to make sure no one went up, "The second time, I knew there hadn't been anyone upstairs except myself, and so I couldn't understand how it could possibly happen because it takes quite a bit to turn the lever to stop the drain, and I made sure the water spigots were all shut off tight before I came down the first time." Candles (Events #3:201-203): Craig Resch was watching TV in his room with a girlfriend when three candles hit his door in short succession. During this period, Joan Resch said that Tina was with her in the family room downstairs. Mattresses (Events #4:1-63: John Resch had taken Tina to church, and Joan was in the family room with the four foster children when rumbling noises came from upstairs. She was afraid to check on her own and asked John to do so when he returned after dropping Tina off. He found the mattresses in all four bedroom off the beds. Living Room Furnlture (Events #4:7-18): After Tina came back from church and while she and Joan were in the family room, the furniture in the living room was "rearranged" when no one was there, according to Joan. They put the furniture back, and the same thing happened. Again they straightened things out. Craig came home and looked in before going to his room, finding everything in order. When he came back, tbe furniture was rearranged a third time. "I'd just checked it," he said, "And it couldn't have been more than two minutes and I came back down and three or four things were moved. And these are decently heavy things." Among other occurrences, a large terrarium had moved from the floor to the top of the coffer. Joan said that Tina was in the family room watching TV with her. Occurrence Described by Visitor Glasses (Events #4:42-43): Several wine glasses had broken in the dining room when Tina was there attending to the baby and Joyce Beaumont was in the family room. Tina then went into the family room when a couple of more glasses broke in the empty dining room, according to Beaumont. Occurrence Described by Local Investigator Candlestick (Event #5:32): Fred Shannon was in the kitchen with Mike Harden and Tina, when "We heard a loud, unnerving sound, as if a cannon had gone off," from the family room. A heavy, bronze candlestick, 10 inches long, had hit the door to the back yard, leaving two dents in tbe metal. Occurrences Described by Psychologists and Parapsychologists: Spoon ( Target; Event #19:3): After two target objects had moved from a table on the patio at Roll's home, Jeannie Stewart had Tina walk ahead of her into the kitchen, when they heard a sound from the patio and Stewart found a target spoon on the cement, about three feet from the table. She was watching Tina when this incident took place and there was a wall between Tina and the patio. Coins (Event #19:7): Stewart watched Tina place a screwdriver in a drawer at Spring Creek Institute, when she heard a sound from Steve Baumann's office across the hall. Five coins Baumann had left on his desk had moved about 11 feet into the room. Stewart was sitting between Tina and the door to the room and there were two walls between Tina and Baumann's desk. Gold Colored Stone (Event #20:17): When Tina was in the offices of Jim Carpenter, playing a computer game with his daughter, Ferrell, he heard a sound from his room and found that a gold-colored stone had moved from his bookcase to a spot near the couch. When this happened, Carpenter was watching Tina from the doorway to his office, Ferrell was sitting between her father and Tina, and Tina was seated at the end of the computer cubicle. Hose Clamp (Target; Event #21:4): When Stewart was facing Tina in the hallway at Spring Creek Institute, she heard a sound from Steve Baumann's office and found a hose clamp on the floor. It was one of the RSPK targets that Baumann had placed on a table in the conference room. Roll was seated at the table and Tina had not had access to this. The clamp had apparently taken two left turns and moved 35 feet. Spool of Wlre (Event # 21:5): While Stewart was standing next to Tina in the doorway of the experimental room, talking to Baumann, who was in the room, they heard a noise from his of office, across the hallway. A spool of wire had moved about eight feet into the room from a table. Stewart was standing betwcen Tina and the door to Baumann's office, and Tina had her back to the office, with both hands on the door frame of the experirnental room. Table 3 Tina Observed when Object Moved (a) Full Movement Seen Occurrence Described by Family Celling Light (Event #4:79): Craig had brought two friends to the house to show them the moving objects. When the three were on the porch, saying goodbye to Joan Resch and Tina, Craig saw the ceiling light swing back and forth while Tina had her hand on the open door. "It's a pretty decent way behind her, not to mention she had to reach up and do something, and we were watching that, and it just started by itself...going back and forth. Behind Tina and mom." Occurrences Described by Visitors Side Table (Event #4:53): Joyce Beaumont and Tina went into the family room and sat down on the large couch, when Tina touched the side table and it flew to the middle of the floor. Beaumont thought Tina had pushed it and watched her when the table scooted out again, "She did not touch it this time because I was really watching her." Tina went to push the table back, but ended up underneath. "It fell over on her," said Beaumont, "It like pinned her down." Coasters (Event #7:17-20): Shortly after Barbara Hughes came, "Tina and I were standing in the doorway [to the dining room] looking at the bar. She said, watch out! Those [coasters] have been flying around all morning.' And just like that, they took off, one, two, three, four. The first one I saw in the air and then the others took off. One coaster stayed. I saw them do that. One at a time they just lifled off the pile and went around the room like someone was playing frisbee." Table Lamp (Event #8:1): Hughes was sitting at one end of the large couch in the family room talking to Tina and looking at her, when the lamp on the end table next to the girl flew up. "The lamp just picked up," she said, "smashed in her lap and smashed to the floor. It went straight up and right down on her lap." Placemat and Kleenex Boxs (Events 8:3-6; Incidents described in separate interviews by two witnesses): Barbara Hughes was seated at one end of the large couch in the family room talking to Tina, who was seated at the other end, when "That mat on that end table, the Kleenex box and some other papers that were Iying there, shot straight off the table. And then, like a paper airplane flies, it just glided down to the floor. We'd pick it up and put it back and make jokes and say, 'Stay there!' and whoosh, down it would go, just sail straight off." This happened about five times, Hughes said. After the first, she watched Tina. The things moved while Tina sat with her hands together, according to Hughes. Peggy Grouvert said that the things came down when Tina put her arm on thc couch. "Every time she put her arm on the couch, the placemat and the box of Kleenex would shoot out two to three feet and fall to the floor. She'd pick it back up and we'd be sitting there talking and all at once it would just fly off the table again." This happened at least three times, she said. Chair (Event #10:7): Barbara Hughes, TJ and Tina were present when Joan Resch was on the kitchen phone. She needed to write a note and put the handpiece down while she fetched a pad and paper from the counter. As she returned to the phone, one of the chairs turned around behind her and followed her. "That brown chair," said Hughes, "turned around and followed her, back first, to the phone. It turned around before it started to follow her. We all said, 'Don't turn around, you'll fall over the chair." TJ saw the chair, "It was just sliding along following." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================= Freezer Door (Events #10:10-11): Hughes said that Tina had twice been "dumped" off her chair to the kitchen floor and was leaning against the cooler unit of the refrigerator, hugging her knees, when the freezer door flung open and hit the side of the pantry. Hughes pulled at the door to see how much effort it took to open. "You have to really pull, " she said, "and Tina was sitting on the floor with her arms holding her knees." After Hughes had experimented with the door, the incident was repeated. Occurrences Described by Local Investigators Things on End Table (Event #5:1): Mike Harden said that shortly after his arrival, "I was standing in the kitchen looking into the family room. There were papers and things on the end table. They just kind of shot out from the table. Tina was nowhere near the stand." Lovseat (Event #5:18): Fred Shannon was in the kitchen and Tina was in the family room seated on the arm of the recliner opposite the loveseat, when this moved. "I was in the kitchen area looking at her," he said, "when I saw the loveseat move about 18 inches towards her. I saw this with my own eyes." Sharmon took two pictures, the first, just after the loveseat had come to rest, shows Tina raising herself from the armrest and leaning back, her hands stretched out as if to ward off the couch. The second picture, taken a moment later, shows her loose balance and fall backwards into the recliner. (b) Middle or End of Movement Seen Occurrences Described by Visitors Loveseat (Event #4:35): Joyce Beaumont was present when Tina was hit by a candle holder and then by the wall clock while seated on the loveseat in the family room. She jumped off the loveseat and cowered on the floor next to it when Beaumont said the loveseat itself moved a couple of inches. Tina got back up on the couch when Beaumont saw this move out about six inches with Tina on it. "It just really moved," Beaumont said. Princess Phone (Event #4:36-37): After the loveseat had moved, Tina sat down on the recliner. The side table with the phone was on her left. Joyce Beaumont was on the long couch opposite Tina, when she said the phone moved across the girl's lap. "She wasn't touching anything. She was sitting there with her arms crossed." This happened two or three times. Phone Base and Handset (Events #5:34-36; one incident is described in separate interviews by three witnesses): Kathy Goeff and Lee Arnold arrived while Harden and Shannon were in the home. By that time Shannan had got several shots of the Princess phone moving across Tina's lap. Then there were three phone incidents with the other phone. It did not move when Goeff was watching it, but it moved when she was watching Tina. "AII of a sudden it was in mid air, and it was with such a force," said Goeff. "Three different times I saw it. It was really interesting. Every time l saw it, it moved in the same position, the receiver part, the cord and then the back." The phone hit the loveseat each time. During the first incident, no one was there, Goeff said, the second time Joan Resch was perched on the arm and was almost hit. "The third time, Lee was sitting on the couch and it almost hit her head." Shannon said he warned Arnold not to sit at the end of the loveseat because that was where the phone had hit before. "Just as she moved over and started to sit down," he said, "the phone went soaring to the spot I had told her to vacate. If she were still sitting there, it would have landed in her lap." He snapped a picture that showed the phone, handset and base, falling to the floor by the end of the couch and Arnold pulling away. She said, "I wasn't there more than thirty seconds when I saw it come. It hit the cushion by the end with such force...Tina was facing me and I saw her hands." Arnold said that the phone was partway behind the girl when it started its movement. Phone Handset and Base (Events #8:7-8; incident described in separate interviews by two witnesses): Peggy Grouvert was in the family room cleaning juice from a wall and door wben she said she saw tbe phone hit Tina and TJ. "I turned around to go put the rag in the bucket to rinse it out and Tina and this little boy, TJ, went to walk out into the kitchen and this telephone jumped out and hit both of them. The phone came up, then towards them and hit one of them in the leg and the other somewhere else. They were almost into the kitchen and it was as if the phone followed them. It was fast, like it had a lot of force behind it." At its highest, she said, the phone was two to three feet from the floor. Only the three were in the room. TJ said, "Me and Tina were walking right out of the room into the kitchen and the next thing I knew I was Iying down there and my knee was hurting and Tina was crying. The bottom part of the phone hit my leg and the receiver hit her. She was carrying a couple of cups and a plate to the kitchen." (It is possible that this is a single event, the receiver hitting Tina, and that TJ was hit because the receiver pulled the base along.) Log of Firewood (Event #10:17): Tina had gone out on the porch to greet TJ, and was returning to the house, when TJ said a log of firewood slid between her legs. He was watching her reach up to get the mail from the mailbox when "...it just picked up and flew at her and flew right between her legs. And she went 'ahhh,' like that, and then she looked out, and it's still sliding and then it stopped." It came from a stack about two feet to the right of the door and moved about 15 feet. Occurrences Described by Local Investigators Toy Cradle (Event #5:2): Mike Harden was sitting on the large couch in the family room opposite Tina, who was in the recliner by the phone, when a toy cradle about six feet from the girl moved. "As I sat chatting with Tina and her mother, a small toy cradle near the fireplace flipped into the air, perhaps two feet and dropped to the carpeting. There was a six-year-old sitting on the floor playing with dolls, but she had her back turned when it happened." Princess Phone (Event #5:22-28): When Tina was sitting in the recliner, with the table and phone on her left, and Fred Shannon was on the large couch across the room, he saw the phone fly across her lap. "Each time the receiver flew like a projectile, rapidly and with great force, from Tina's left to her right." He estimated the flights at a tenth of a second. He thought there were at least seven incidents. A couple of times the phone struck Tina's left side, without making it across. Princess Phone (Event #5:32; incident described by two witnesses in separate interviews): Shannon atempted to get a picture of the moving phone, but nothing happened when he held the camera up. After about 20 minutes he put it down, when the phone flew. "It occurred to me that perhaps...the 'force'... was tricky and I would have to be tricky if I was to capture it on film." He put the camera down, with his finger on the shutter and turned his face towards the kitchcn, "But kept my eye peripherally fixed on Tina and the table beside her." Within seconds, "I saw a white blur and I hit the trigger." The picture showed the phone in the air, six or seven feet form the table. Mike Harden, who was seated on Shannon's left, said, "I was seated across the room facing Tina. She was right aaoss the room from me. I saw it in motion without it being aided in any way on her part. It moved on a level trajectory from Tina's left to right." Kleenex Box (Event #5:37): Shannon said he saw a large Kleenex box move from the table between the two recliners in the family room to the end table across the room. "It went fast as a bullet, but when it hit the table across the way, it acted as if it had landed in glue. It just stopped cold...When it took flight, the box was only about 20 inches from my right leg." Tina was on his right, about four feet from the box. Occurrences Reported by Psychologists and Parapsychologists Pencil (Event #29:5): After two pens had dropped to the floor in the office of Dr. Becca Zinn in Chapel Hill, "[Tina] deliberately placed a pencil on the bookcase, and we laughingly told it to stay put. We hugged each other and then out of the corner of my eye, I saw that same pencil land on the floor across the room. We looked at the book shelf, and the pencil was no longer there." Bottle Top (Event #29:6): While Zinn was still facing Tina, she saw a twist- off bottle top which had been on the desk behind where she was standing, land on the floor across the room close to where the pencil had hit. When this happened, Zinn was standing between Tina and the desk. Phone. (Event #29:7): "I took Tina by her lef hand" Zina said, " and began leading her out of my office. I was maybe half a step ahead of her. We were headed away from my desk and towards the door. The next thing I saw - again, out of the corner of my eye - was the telephone hitting Tina in the back. There is no way that anyone could have touched it since we were the only ones in the office, and since it flew at Tina from behind both of us." Toothpaste (Event #29-9): Zinn's report continues. "We drove to my house. As she got out of my car, I was standing beside her. A tube of toopaste..flew out of my car and hit Tina in the chest. Again I saw only the end phases of the movement." Zinn was standing between Tina and the open door to the passenger's side. The toothpaste had been on a shelf below the dashboard. Door (Event #29:12): After a lamp and phone incident in Zinn's bedroom (#29:10-11), she brought Tina downstairs when Tina asked her to phone her mother and tell her what had happened. "As I finished the call to her mother, the front door slammed into Tina, knocking her onto her back on the front porch. Again, I did not see the door as it initiated its movement, but I did see it hit Tina. There is no physical way that she could have been in front of the door and slammed it from behind with that amount of force. Also, I heard, felt, and saw the force of her impact when she fell; it was a powerful fall." Candle (Event #31:3): Roll was in his living room, standing about five feet from Tina and facing her, when a candle from a table on her left and behind hit a wall about nine feet away. Roll saw it move on the floor. Tina was standing quietly, both hands in view, and about three feet from the table, which was in Roll's peripheral visions. Fork (Target; Event #19:4): Lagle was watching Tina enter Roll's house from the patio when she saw something hit the back of Tina's head. It was the target fork that had been on the patio table about ten feet behind Tina. Pen (Event #19:10): Lagle was standing in a doorway at Spring Creek Institute with Tina on her left, and talking to Robert, a technician, in the next room, when she caught a movement out of the corner of her left eye. Turning, she saw a pen fall to the floor after hitting the wall behind them. Robert said it was his pen and that it had been on a work cart close to where he was standing, about four feet from Tina. The pen had apparently moved between Tina and Lagle for a distance of about 15 feet. Candlestick (Event #20:2): While Lagle and Tina were in Tina's bedroom in Roll's house, a candlestick fell to the floor from a dresser. Lagle had replaced it, when she saw it in midair and then drop to the bed about 12 feet from the dresser. Lagle was standing between the dresser and Tina and was facing her when she saw the candlestick in the air behind Tina. Unicorn and Pencil Sharpener (Events #20:12-13): When Tina was in Carpenter's suite of offices, playing a computer game with his daughter Ferrel, and he was watching from the doorway to his office, a plastic pencil sharpener and a metal unicorn from his office hit Tina. "The plastic pencil sharpener showed up and Tina yelled 'ouch,' and doubled up and then a kind of lead- alloy unicorn that sits on my bookcase fell down and hit Tina first and then the floor." The objects apparently turned twice to reach Tuna from the adjacent of office, "[They] would have to go at an angle to get out of the door and then come over here to get to the computer." Wallet (Event #22:8): When Lagle was sittung next to Tina on Baumann's desk, she saw his wallet hit the left side of Tina's head. Baumann said the wallet had been on his desk about two feet behind Tina and Lagle. (c) Movement not Seen Occurrences Described by Family Paring Knife (Event #4:89): Craig said he was in the family room, watching Tina enter from the kitchen, when a paring knife came towards her from the kitchen. "I heard something come from behind her like it was thrown...She moved and made a startled noise as it went past her. I knew she couldn't have done that." The knife hit the fireplace. Mail Caddy (Event #15:3): Tina was seated in the recliner by the bookcase in the family room, looking at a photo album, when the mail caddy on the filing cabinet on her right fell to the floor. "I was just starting to walk out of the room, and I was watching her," said Joan Resch, explaining, "I walk out of rooms halfway backwards anymore...l do that all the time anymore...and she wasn't touching it." Occurrences Described by Visitors Candle (Event #4:32): When Beaumont first came to the house, she said that a candle moved across the room while Tina was sitting on the loveseat. "I was watching her because I was wondering if she really was throwing things, and as I was watching her, I heard a crash and there was the candle." It came from a holder on the wall two-and-a-half feet above the loveseat and hit the opposite wall, about 18 feet behind Beaumont. Phone (Event #4:55): When Tina was "pinned" underneatb the side table in the family room, Beaumont said she tried to pick the table up, but at first could not. The phone then hit Beaumont in the back. "The phone was coming out from behind and hitting me while Tina was underneath the table." When the phone hit Beaumont, this seemed to release the table. "Once the phone hit me, I was able to get it up." Only she and Tina were in the room. Occurrences Described by Local Investigators Switches to Garbage Disposal and Ligbt over Sink (Events #3:58-59): Bruce Claggett was in the kitchen of the Resch home, facing Joan and Tina, who were standing in front of the sink, wben the switches behind Tina that controlled the garbage disposal and the sink light came on. "I'm practically looking at these switches as they come on. I had to bend my head around Tina but there was no way that she or anybody else could have turned those switches on." Switches to Kitchen Light and Scotch Tape (Events 3:61-63): Claggett taped the switches that controlled the overhead lights in the kitchen down with Scotch tape. "I stood where I could see four switches at once and I said to myself... 'This isn't going to happen, nobody can touch those switches without breaking the tape or making a concerted effort. And the overhead lights in the kitchen came on...l knew then in my own heart and my own mind that nobody was playing tricks then because I personally saw it. When the lights came on, my eye immediately went to the switches to see which set was coming on. The tape on the two in the family room that controlled the kitchen light was gone. It just wasn't there. And the switches were in the up position. Those were the switches that had turned on the lights. And nobody had been near the switches." Light Switches and Scotch Tape In Rooms Downstalrs (Events #3: 99-146): After John and Joan Resch had gone on an errand and Claggett was alone in the house with Tina and the foster children, he walked through the downstairs, from the hall to the living room, dining room, kitchen and back to the hall, turning off lights and taping down switches, and then finding the switches on and the tape gone. "I insisted ITina] stay right beside me...and not get ahead of me. She did this, and I can't remember a time she was out of my sight during the next three or four circuits we made," Claggett said "As fast as I'd tape lights down, I'd look over my shoulder and see the lights come on. I'd look at the switch that controlled that particular light, and there's no tape there, and there's no one in the house except Tina and I, and four little foster kids who were playing in the family room and sort of oblivious to what was going on at that time." All the switches downstairs were involved except the two by the dining room, which remained in the up position. Claggett never saw a switch move. "At one point I decided to try to catcb one in motion. I sat in the living room with my eye on a switch for 15 minutes and nothing occurred." Occurrences Described hy Psychologists and Parapsychologists Cup (Event #14:8): There had been three incidents upstairs, when Roll was in the Resch home, the last as Tina and he were going downstairs. He decided to go back up since this was where the activity was. They went into Tina's room and Roll finished a cup of tea, placing the cup on the night stand between the two beds. He was watching Tina clean up her bookcase, when there was a sound behind him and he found his cup among Tina's clothes on the floor of her open closet. When the cup moved. Tina was in full view, both hands occupied, on the other side of the bed from the night stand and six feet from it. Roll had touched the cup last. It moved about 15 feet. Box of Candy (Event #14:12): Roll was watching Tina arrange her things on the bookcase when, out of the corner of his right eye, he saw the window curtain move. A box of Tic Tac candy had hit the curtain and landed on the floor. Both of Tina's hand were occupied when this happened. Bottle of Deodorant (Event ~14:15): Roll asked Tina to check for objects under her bed, when a bottle of Secret deodorant hit the rug behind him with a crashing sound, but without breaking. When this happened. Tina was Iying flat on her stomach and was reaching under the bed wilh both hands. The bottle had apparently come from the adjacent room which Tina was using while Powers and Roll occupied her's. The sound seemed louder than a bottle hitting carpeting without breaking. Painting and Nail (Event ~14:17): Roll had followed Tina to her parents' bathroom, so she could return some cleaning rags. They were leaving when a piece of soap from the shower stall fell to the floor behind them. Roll brought Tina back in and was discussing the incident with her, when there was a loud bang behind them. A painting on the wall in the master bedroom had hit the floor along with its nail. When this happened Tina was at least four feet from the painting. Roll had been with her continuously for 30 minutes before this incident so she could not have prepared it during this period. The sound seemed louder than could be accounted for by the painting hitting the carpeting. Bottle and Jar (Events #14:18-19): As Roll watched Tina pick up the nail to the painting that had just come off the wall, there was a loud crash from the other end of the master bedroom and Roll found a jar and a bottle by the closet door. He had not checked the floor beforehand so the sound might have been produced by one or none of the two objects. Tape Recorder (Event #14:21): Tina said she was worried that her mother was going to be upset because the painting was her favorite, so Roll offered to rehang it. He used a large pair of pliers, which he found on John Resch's dresser, as a hammer. Placing his tape recorder where the pliers had been, he proceeded to hammer in the nail, when there was a thud behind him. The tape recorder was on the floor near the door to the hallway, about seven feet from where it had been. The dresser was two feet behind Tina. When Roll heard the sound, Tina was standing quietly on his left, her left hand flat on the wall and her right arm by her side. Pliers (Event #14:22): Roll placed the pliers on the dresser where the tape recorder had been and went to retrieve this, keeping Tina next to him and in view. As he was sitting on his haunches in front of her, with the recorder in his hands, there was a loud crash from the other end of the room. The pliers had moved from the dresser and hit the headboard of the bed, a distance of about six feet. When this happened. Tina was standing quietly in front of Roll, her hands by her sides, about eight feet from where the pliers had been. As a visual record, Roll asked Powers take a series of photographs of Tina and Roll in the positions they occupied when the tape recorder and pliers moved. Glass (Target; Event #16:2): Roll was setting up a camcorder in Tina's room and had placed six cups and glasses as RSPK targets on her bedside table and two dressers. While he was fixing the camera and Tina was standing next to him, a target glass on the dresser by the door broke on the floor. Roll had handled the glass last, and Tina had her back to it and was about five foet from it when it fell. Floor Lamp (Event #29:10): After the toothpaste incident outside Zinn's home, Tina wanted to call her mother and asked Zinn to speak to her too. They went to the bedroom, Tina seating herself in an easy chair and Zinn on the ottoman in front. "As I talked to Joan, Tina began hugging me. She had both arms wrapped aroumd me when at the exact same moment the phone disconnected and the lamp fell over.~ The lamp was about two feet on Tina's right. Wooden Mallet (Event #31:2): While Roll was on the phone un his dining room, he watched Tina come in from the living room, when a small wooden mallet fell to the floor behind her. It came from a Japanese bell about six feet to her right. Roll was alert to the possibility that something might move because there had been an incident shortly before. When the mallet fell, Roll had Tina in viev, including both hands. Deodorant Stick (Target; Event #19:2): After Lagle had conducted a hypnosis session with Tina on the patio outside Roll's home, an RSPK target spoon fell to the cement floor from the table. Lagle put it back among the other targets. Keeping Tina away from the table, she had her walk ahead of her to the house, so she could see her hands, when Lagle again heard a sound behind them. A deodorant stick from the table was on the ground about six feet away. Hairbrush (Event #19:8): Lagle had taken Tina outside Spring Creek Institute during a break in the PK testing, and was sitting next to her on a flight of concrete steps, when she heard a sound behind them and found Tina's hairbrush on the walkway above the steps. The brush belonged in Tina's purse which she had placed between herself and Lagle. When the incident took place, Lagle was talking to and looking at Tina and saw her with a cigarette in her left hand and her right hand on her knee. Crescent Wrench (Event #19:13): Robert, the technician at Spring Creek Institute, had come into the hallway and was facing Tina, wben a crescent wrench, which he had left on his worlk cart in the room he had just left, hit the floor behind him, about eight feet from the cart. Lagle was standing next to Robert and was looking at Tina. Light Fixture (Target; Event #20:8): Before Tina's arrival at his offices, Carpenter put out two objects as RSPK targets, including a light fixture which he placed on a shelf above the computer. As he watched Tina play a computer game with his daughter, Ferrell, he heard a sound from an adjacant officce and found the fixture on a bookcase there. The office belonged to a colleague who was away at the time. He noted that the object had landed at "a very odd angle from where we all were." Ferrell said, "I saw it right when I started that game, and then we heard the bang. We looked up and saw it wasn't there and then went into Martha's office and looked." Farell was sitting between Tina and the open door to Martha's office. She was certain that Tina had not thrown the light fixture, "Because I would have seen her or she would have hit me...To get it around me and around the door, [it would have to move at an] angle to go extremely left and then a sharp right turn. You can't throw it like that." Socket Wrencb (Target; Event #21:6): Lagle and Baumann were standing at the end of the target table, facing Tina who was between them and the door to the hallway when they heard a loud noise from the hallway behind Tina. A 12-inch socket wrench from the target table had hit the open door to the storage room and landed inside, a distance of about 22 feet. Plastic Level (Target; Event #22:2): Lagle and Tina were standing by the desk in the computer room, looking in Tina's purse for her plane ticket, when there was a sound behind them. Lagle turned and saw the paper on the printer moving and found a plastic Ievel on the floor. It had come from the target table and had apparently made a turn to the left and then to the right before hitting the paper, a distance of about 38 feet. Tina had both hands in her purse when Lagle heard the noise. Roll was seated at the target table and Tina had had no access to this. Pocket Knife (Event #22:5): When Tina and Lagle were sitting on Baumann's desk, Lagle talking on the phone and Tina holding her free hand with both of hers, there was a loud noise across the room. Baumann's pocket knife, which had been on the desk about two feet behind Tina and Lagle, had moved about 10 feet into the room. Metal Bracket (Event #22:6): When Lagle was on the phone in Baumann's office, and Tina was holding her free hand with both of hers, there was a sound from the hallway. Baumann, who was in the experimental room, heard the sound and found a metal bracket in the hallway. It came from a drawer in the computer room. Battery and "L" Bracket (Targets; Events #22:10-11): Roll was seated by the target table watching Tina sit down by the window, when a battery from the target table hit the window above her head. Lagle was sitting opposite Tina and also had her in view when this happened. A minute ]ater, wben they were in the same positions, an "L" bracket from the target table hit the window. Drill Bit (Target; Event #22:12): When Tina was standing in the doorway to the conference room, facing the hallway, Roll and Lagle heard a sound and found a drill bit from the target table on the floor about 10 feet from the table. When this happened Roll was looking at Tina and saw her standing quietly, her hands resting on either side of the door frame. The number of occurrences in each of these categories are shown in Table 4. There were Table 4 Occurrences That Tina Could not Have Caused Normally According to Witnesses Witnesses: Family Visitors Local Psychologists Totals Investigators and Para- psychologists Tina not in Area Where Event 26 2 1 5 34 Occurred ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Subtotal 26 2 1 5 34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Tina Observed when Full Movement Object Moved Seen 1 13 2 0 16 Middle or End of Movement Seen 1 8 10 12 31 Movement not 1 2 53 22 78 Seen ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- Subtotal 3 23 65 34 125 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- Total 29 25 66 39 159 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- 34 incidents when the witnesses stated that Tina was not present in the room where the occurrence took place. In 26 of these, the witnesses were members of the Resch family, but five were reported by the parapsychologists and psychologists who investigated the case. Among the incidents when Tina was observed at the time, in the majority, 78, the object was only seen after it had come to rest. But there were 31, where part of the movement was observed, 12 by the psychologists and parapsychologists. The latter never saw the full movement of an object, but 13 were reported by visitors to the Resch home. DISCUSSION The family, visitors and investigators reported a total of 585 ostensible RSPK occurrences, 159 of these under conditions where throwing and similar activities were apparently ruled out. Could the statements be attributed to faulty memory? My interviews with the witnesses in Columbus were conducted between one and twelve days after the events, when their memories seemed fresh. In the case of the reports by Carpenter and Zinn, these were recorded the same day, while the observations by Stewart and myself were tape-recorded at the time of the occurrences. Before we conclude that this was a case of RSPK, we need to review the arguments by James Randi and Paul Kurtz that Tina produced the effects by normal means. THE CASE FOR FRAUD "The story is now essentially dead. The parapsychologists - most of those I have spoken to - have accepted the probable scenario that Tina Resch was a publicity-seeking teenager who used simple deception and considerable guile to create a story that an incautious and rather uncaring newspaper staff snapped up and used for as much mileage as they could get." (James Randi, 1988, p. 91) There is no doubt that Tina used trickery. The incident when she was filmed by WTVN-TV pulling down a lamp makes that clear. This event is interesting not only because it shows her willing to deceive when she thought it was to her advantage (the press conference had gone from 1 p.m. to 9:30 and she wanted to get the reporters "off her back" she said). The incident is also important as an illustration of how she performed the trick. The segment shown on the news was part of a longer sequence. Randi (1985) described the unedited version (later erased): 'The missing portion ofthe videotape showed Tina Resch carefully and obviously setting up the trick. She edged around the sofa, glancing about her to be sure she was not being observed - not knowing the video camera on the floor was still connected, of course - and reaching up to test the height of the lamp shade. A moment later, thinking that she was safely unobserved she is seen yanking at the shade and jumping away simultaneously, putting on her frightened act." But, "The lamp on the first try, did not fall...the girl then repeated the performance. This time the lamp toppled to the floor." (pp. 228-229) Randi (1985) and Kurtz (1985) suggest that the other incidents were ofthe same kind: "Carefully observe the people nearby. As soon as they are not looking, quickly shoot an object into the air. If you tell them it is a poltergeist, and they can't easily see how it could have taken off, then they may accept the claim as genuine. If there is a disposition to believe and the situation is charged with drama and emotion, it is more likely to arouse an affirmative response. This would explain Roll's misperception and that of other reporters in the house." (Kurtz, 1985, p. 221) This explanation may account for incidents near Tina when she was unobserved. But the careful preparation and clumsy execution of the lamp trick is very different from the 34 occurrences when Tina was reported to be in a different room, or the 125 occurrences when she was observed at the time the object moved. Kurtz claimed that "under careful questioning no one could testify to having seen an object first standing at rest and then take off; they had seen the objects only after they were airbome." (p. 221) In fact there were 16 events where people said they were looking at an object when it took off. Randi gave other examples of trickery. The day of the eight hour "press conference," a TV technician told him that he had seen Tina move the kitchen table with her foot, "had accused her of it, and got only a horse-laugh for his trouble." (p. 229) This would not be unlike Tina I have often been with her when she did "table-tilting" and I have heard her peal of laughter when her audience seemed to be taken in. When she stayed in my house I had to ask her to desist because it interfered with our meals. Randi also said that a reporter had suspected her of taking an object from one place to another to give the impression it had moved there by itself (p. 229). This too seemed plausible. The second day Powers and I were in the home, he found my gloves and his teacup tucked into his suitcase. I assumed Tina had done this as a way to engage Powers. (The same day, when he and I were resting, knocks from Tina's room told us she wanted attention. I smacked one of my slippers against the wall to get some quiet and the knocks stopped.) Kurtz ( 1985) mentioned four other examples of "chicanery." After Tina had broken her leg and was recuperating in my home, Joel Achenbach (1984), a reporter who came to interview her, found her "supine on the bed, fidgeting." Her plastic hospital wristband that she was still wearing, then "shot through the air... Tina quickly apologized: She said she had been...tugging and stretching [it], and it snapped offher wrist and went flying." A little later, a bottle of nail polish "bounced off a table next to the bed... lncredible? Naw. Tina just threw it, by accident, while nervously juggling it in her hand. 'Sorry,' Tina said, smiling." But according to Kurtz (1985), Achenbach saw Tina "hurl" the two objects through the room, and that when she was "confronted with this, she simply giggled and apologized." (p. 221) I was present during Achenbach's interview and remember Tina snapping off the wristband and dropping something else. I did not think Achenbach regarded these incidents as attempts to simulate the phenomena but that he mentioned them to add color to his story. Tina, always active, was especially fidgety after ten days in bed. Kurtz ( 1985) made another subtle change in the description of the two events, presumably to add weight to the chicanery theory. He placed Achenbach and Tina, not in my home and presence, but in Tina's hospital room, where, by implication, Achenbach was alone with the girl. But the interview was in my home, as is evident from Achenbach's article (he makes frequent mention of me, talks about my dog, the house, etc.) In the two other examples of Tina's supposed trickery, Kurtz (1985) also made additions or omissions that support the cheating theme. A photograph of a chandelier by Shannon, he said, shows "a hand striking it - though it is not clear if the hand is Tina's or that of a collaborator." (p. 221) One of Shannon's pictures (#10) shows the chandelier off the vertical with no one touching it, while a second picture (#11) shows it in a normal position, held by a hand which is reaching down from the stairs. If the arm was striking the lamp to set it in motion, Kurtz must have wondered why the photo of the swinging lamp came before the photo where it was "struck." The offending arm ended in a white T-shirt so it was not Tina's, who was wearing a red T-shirt, as Kurtz must have known from the other photos. The arm belonged to Tina's brother. Craig had told Shannon about having seen the lamp swing above Tina's head the night before, and Shannon asked him to set it in motion so he could take a picture. Craig did so from the stairs and then stopped the lamp after Shannon had got his photo. (Shannon later saw the lamp swing on its own, but did not take a picture since he already had one.) Randi plays up another non-event as an example of Shannon's credulity. Shannon, it will be recalled, had found that to catch the phone in flight he had to put his camera down and look away, watching for movement out of the corner of his eye. Sometimes he only got a picture of Tina squirrning in the recliner. One such time, the footrest popped out and Shannon snapped a picture (# 26). This shows Tina holding the arrnrests and leaning back, which would have released the footrest. There was no indication Shannon regarded this as anything other than an ordinary occurrence, but Randi implied that he did, "While he snapped frame number 26, photographer Shannon, as he looked elsewhere awaiting a miracle, must have believed that something 'psychic' was happening." There was an incident where I believe Randi's explanation was closer to the truth than Shannon's. Before the photographer's arrival, a lithograph had come off a wall and the glass had cracked. He asked Tina to hold it up so he could take a picture (#17). When he did so, he heard a crash and snapped another photo (#18) as the picture fell to the floor. Tina said she had not dropped it but that something knocked it out of her hands. This too was Shannon's interpretation since the crash sounded before the picture hit the floor. A simpler explanation is that the glass, which was already cracked, broke further from its own weight. This would account for the sound, for its falling out of Tina's hands and for her conviction she had not dropped it. Randi believed Tina was deliberately "tilting [the picture] forward to dump the glass." (p. 230) If this was in fact what she did, then the crash should have sounded, not when Tina was still holding the broken picture but when it hit the floor. The incident has a common explanation, as Randi says, but not that Tina deliberately caused it. Now for Kurtz final example of Tina's cheating. Fred Shannon said he was in the kitchen looking at Tina, who was seated on the arm of the recliner across from the loveseat, when he saw this move about 18 inches towards her. He snapped a picture (#21) when the couch had stopped. On this the couch was out from the wall and Tina was getting up from the recliner and leaning back, her arms stretched out against the couch as if to ward it off. The incident is one of those where a witness reported seeing a stationary object move. According to Kurtz there were no such occurrences so how did he deal with Shannon's report and photoglaph? "A close inspection of the photograph.. clearly shows Tina's foot under the couch and apparently responsible for lifting it." (p. 221) The picture shows neither. On Shannon's photo the couch is clearly on the carpeting and Tina's feet are on the floor by the recliner. How did her foot then get under the couch? Fast footwork, not by Tina but by Kurtz. Nineteen frarnes back in Shannon's roll, in fact the first picture (#2) he took, shows Tina posing with a candleholder that had been on the wall over the couch, and shows her right foot under it. Two pictures, perhaps taken an hour apart, were telescoped by Kurtz into one as evidence of Tina "lifting" the couch with her foot. Even if Tina's foot had been under the couch, it is doubtful that she could have pulled it out. The couch contained a hideaway bed, was heavy and stood on wooden legs. But Randi (1985), in his telling of the event, transformed it to a "rollaway" which Tina could "easily" pull out with her foot (p. 232). In another collage of Shannon's pictures, Randi suggested that one photo (#24) shows Tina in the process of picking up the phone with her right hand, while the next (#25, the published one) shows her after she has just thrown it. The photo by itself does not say how the phone got in the air and Shannon, who had followed the strategy of looking away when he snapped the picture, was not a good eyewitness. But Harden said he was looking at the girl when he saw the phone move "from Tina's left to right" and "without it being aided in any way on her part." This description is clearly at odds with Randi's thesis that she picked up and threw the phone to the right with her right hand. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================================ In all other instances, Randi proposed, Tina threw the phone from "camera right to camera left." (p. 226) This wording nicely conceals a flaw in Randi's theory, namely that Tina, who was right-handed, threw the phone with her left. This proposition strikes me as implausible. Assuming Tina intended to throw the phone in the presence of two or three witnesses, she would need to be as fast and inconspicuous as she could. It would have made much better sense for her to sit in the recliner on the other side of the table with the phone, so she could throw it with her right hand. There is additional evidence, Randi said, that Tina used trickery. His theory, it will be recalled, was that Tina had pulled one phone (#25) up in the air (with her right hand) while she threw the others horizontally (with her left). Shannon's photographs, according to Randi, show "transverse blurring" of the cord attached to the former and "longitudinal blurring" of the cord attached to the latter. Randi has performed an interesting move. The decision about throwing now hinges on a measurement of 'blurredness." Had Randi measured it? How does one? Do the cords show statistically significant differences? Etc. As the reader ponders these technical questions, he or she may overlook a simpler one: Why had not Randi spoken to any of the people who said they saw the phone in the air? Before Shannon attempted to photograph the phone, he said he was watching Tina on at least seven occasions (Events #5:22-28) when he saw the phone fly past her. Randi had Shannon's report, why did he not discuss these incidents? Aside from a few of the journalists who were there the day of the news conference, it turns out that Randi had spoken to hardly anyone who was in the home during the disturbances. Kurtz (1985) claimed the CSICOP men "were able to question many of the key witnesses." (p. 219) But Randi said, "Witnesses we could identify were less than cooperative." (p. 232) He was either unable to reach them, or when he did, they would not speak to him. He said that "the major witness," (p. 227) Lee Arnold, would not tell him what she had seen because her employer threatened to fire her if she did. Drew Hadwal, whose team had taken the video of the lamp, was reported to have seen three chairs in the kitchen move by themselves. But when Randi gave his name over the telephone, "I was told that he was not going to be at work that day." (p. 232) Mike Harden was "'out'" to us when we tried to call on him." (p. 232) and the Dispatch "gave endless excuses why we could not meet Fred Shannon." Electrician Bruce Claggett "failed to return our calls," and "no one will inform us how we may contact [Lisa]." (p. 237). Barbara Hughes would not meet with Randi, he said, but had told Steven Shore on the phone she had seen one phenomenon and then "fled in terror." (p. 232). Randi (1985) promised a second article where he would discuss the reports by Shannon, "the most important witness of the phenomena" and by Claggett "who gave strange and contradictory accounts of the wonders in the Resch household." (p. 235) But he later (1988) retracted the offer because, "The story is now essentially dead." (p.91) Randi discussed only one eyewitness report, mine. In my statement (1984) for the 1984 PA panel, of which Randi had a copy, I said I had been upstairs with Tina for about half an hour when 18 incidents took place in my presence. He ignored my description of the teacup event where I was watching Tina, who was standing on one side of her bed, as my cup took off from the other side (Event #14:8). This is what he said about the other incidents I mentioned. "Immediately prior to the rush of phenomena, Tina had spent some 30 minutes upstairs, alone... Then she appeared at the top of the stairs screaming for him to rush up there and see miracles. A bar of soap, he reported, fell into the bathtub." (It fell out of a shower stall, there was no bathtub.) ''Next, while they both were standing four feet from it, facing away, a picture fell from the wall. The nail had been pulled out of the wall. Roll and Tina rushed to it." What I had actually said was that Tina and I spent 30 minutes upstairs together before the events. By placing Tina upstairs by herself, Randi had her prepare the soap and painting incidents. The scene where Tina screamed for me to rush upstairs Randi created out of thin air. I was already upstairs and she did not scream for me, we were in the same room. Randi continued, "Roll hammered the nail back with a pair of pliers. During this process, his small tape-recorder, which had been placed nearby on a dresser, flew to a position seven feet away. Roll and Tina went to it, Roll leaving the pliers behind. The pliers 'moved from the dresser' to hit the wall near him." The pliers did not hit the wall near me, and therefore near Tina. but the headboard of the Resches' bed across the room from where we were. Randi next had me say that I was observing the "possessed" girl as well as the tape-recorder which was "directly behind him." I never said or thought that Tina was possessed nor did I make the ludicrous statement that I saw something behind my back. By making me say something this silly, Randi cast doubt on the rest of my account and made it seem plausible that Tina could have thrown the tape recorder and pliers without my noticing. Having reduced my accounts to inanities, Randi dispatched me with a coup de grace, "Roll is myopic and wears thick glasses; he is a poor observer." (p. 233) What can I say to this? One thing I can say is that I am not myopic, nearsighted, but farsighted. Randi should have been able to make out what kind of glasses I was wearing. A news photo showed us facing each other in the Resch driveway, no more than three feet apart, and we had been on the same panel at the PA convention. The two types of lenses are distinctly different, and it's easy to tell them apart. It amused me that Randi judged me a poor observer and at the same time demonstrated he could not make out what kind of glasses I was wearing standing that close. I wondered what he would have seen, and not seen, if he been in the Resch home. Why had Randi not been in the home so he could directly observe the phenomena instead of relying on dubious inferences from Shannon's pictures? Randi made sure that the Resches would not let him in. In a phone interview with Steve Berry ( 1984) of The Columbus Dispatch that appeared March 13, the same day Randi came to the house, he compared people who reported paranormal events to believers in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. But, he said, he was coming to Columbus "with an open mind...I'm always ready for a soot-covered fat man in a red suit to bounce down the chimney." He was photographed with a $10,000 check he said he would hand the Resches if they could show him convincing evidence of paranormal events. When Randi came to the house, Joan would not let him in. David Yost (1984) quoted her in the Columbus Citizen as saying, "It's been rough on us. We've had a circus, now we have a magic show....No. Not here." Randi was companied by two astronomers from Case Western Reserve University, Steven Shore and Nick Seduleak. The scientists, she said could come in after Powers and I had left. But they turned down her invitation. They would not work in the house without Randi. I was surprised that the men did not trust themselves enough to reveal the supposed tricks of a 14 year-old. But the CSICOP men laid the blame on Joan. Shore complained to reporter Yost, "She refuses to cooperate in the spirit of scientific inquiry." Randi (1984) said, "We were barred from the house..." (p. 232) and Kurtz (1984) that "they were denied admittance," (p. 219), both neglecting to point out that Joan had told the two scientists they could come in, though this would have to be after Tina returned from North Carolina. In one of his other parapsychological investigations, Randi's undercover assistants came in his place. He could have arranged the same here. Randi's jokes and show-business approach not only served to keep him out of the house, they also ensured that none of the witnesses, who claimed to have been present when things moved that Tina could not have thrown, would speak to him. Without the distraction of these reports, Randi could now weave Shannon's pictures together in a tale of the teenager who had succeeded, by simple throwing, pushing or pulling, to fool four members of her family and ten visitors for almost two weeks. DISCUSSION In RSPK research the question is not if there is evidence for fraud but if there is evidence for RSPK. I do not think you can hold RSPK agents to the standards of ethics you may expect of laboratory subjects. RSPK occurrences seem to be expressions of strong needs and these needs may also find more commonplace outlets. It seems clear that Tina at times had the intention to deceive those present but that she lacked the skill to perform the occurrences that many witnesses reported. The occurrences which took place in ydistant rooms or when people were watching her, would not only require advanced skills at sleight of hand but also devices that would enable her to reach or activate the objects. There was no evidence of such. If we suppose that she was assisted by an accomplice, the fraud theory obviously would accommodate more occurrences but still a large residue remain, including many at her home and all of those that took place when she was in North Carolina. I think we are justified in moving from the issue of proof in this case of RSPK to the issue of process. REFERENCES Achenbach, J. (1984). The teen-ager and the poltergeist. The Buffalo Magazine (Buffalo News Sunday Edition, Oct. 28).18-23. Baumann, S., Stewart, J.L., and Roll, W.G. (1986). Preliminary results from the use of two novel detectors for psychokinesis. In D.H. Weiner and D.L. Radin (Eds.) Research in Parapsychology 1985 (pp. 59-62). Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press. Baumann, S. and Roll, W.G. (1988). Upper brainstem abnormalities in an RSPK subject. Unpublished manuscript. Berry, S. (1984). Magician out top test 'force.' The Columbus Dispatch, March 13. Kurtz, P. (1984). The Columbus 'poltergeist' case. The Skeptical Inquirer. 8, 294-295. Kurtz, P. (1985). Spiritualists, mediurns, and psychics. In P. Kurtz (Ed.), A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (pp. 210-223). Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Randi, I. (1985). The Columbus poltergeist case: Part 1. The Skeptical Inquirer, 9, 221-235. Randi, J. (1988). Columbus poltergeist case: An update. The Skeptical Inquirer, 13, 91. Roll, W.G. (1984). Report of observations by W.G.Roll. Unpublished manuscript. Stewart, J.L., Roll, W.G., and Baumann, S. (1987). Hypnotic suggestion and RSPK. In D.H. Weiner and R.D. Nelson (Eds.) Research in Parapsychology 1986 (pp. 30-30-35). Metuchen, N.l.: The Scarecrow Press. Yost, D. ( 1984). Resch family refuses to let team of skeptics into house. The Columbus Citizen, March 14.