Spoon bending

Okay, a bit of “history” first. In the past (let’s say before the year 2000) spoon bending was something I just equated with Uri Geller. Him being an entertainer/magician and a bizarre fellow, it seemed like a cool trick, you know, something you could almost believe in. Later, learning of Jack Houck and “PK parties”, especially the one held at the RV conference in May 2000, got me to think it may be a real phenomenon. Valtra here told about her bent spoon and Dick posted a pic of his and said: “Here is my spoon from the party. I don’t know what to make of it. Although it did feel sort of soft, I want to see one fold over without any physical pressure added. Glenn says he saw Gen. Stubblebine do it.” Seems like I don’t have that pic in my archives, but I remember the spoon sure looked quite impressive the way it was curled. After that, I just had to try it for myself. I picked one sturdy tea spoon and spent a lot of time and energy trying to bend it. It just wouldn’t budge, not even a little bit. I even took it to bed with me, and actually had a dream where I bent it :) While that was cool, I was bummed to see no change in the physical one.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was just looking for a suitable pic of an alien (from the Alien movies) for a photoshopping idea, and happened to see an interesting pic of a weird-looking, spiky bug and clicked on it to find out what it was. The link landed me to paranormal.about.com, and there I spotted a link to a spoon bending video at Youtube.com. The video was kind of neat, but I was skeptical. I checked out the source, www.mind-energy.net/ and did not think much of it. I got curious however to see how many hits Google and Youtube would return with keywords like “spoon bending” and “spoonbending”. Soon I was browsing the site at www.fork-you.com/ and felt like maybe I should try the spoon bending thing again. I went to the kitchen, opened the appropriate drawer and picked a big sturdy spoon. Tried to bend it for a while, but no, it stayed hard as, well, metal. I had a headache anyways, and went to bed.

After I had woken up, brushed my teeth, eaten some breakfast and done some chores, I continued to look for spoon bending videos at Youtube. After a couple of stupid ones, I saw one from “zensightprocess”, which was quite similar to the one from “grayprog” (mind-energy.net). Not to mention, featured a nice looking lady with a kind, soft voice. At the end of the video she says that she would also post a how to video, so I look at her profile and there it is. As I began to watch it, I picked up my spoon thinking what the heck, I’ll give it one more go..

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Need to go to bed soon, so I’ll post more later.

Looking forward to part two of your posting. I was at the spoon bending party at the conference back in 99 and it was actually a lot of fun. Houck was giving instructions and although I didn’t participate (I was too busy trying to catch people forcing their spoons), I did see several instances where a fork or spoon became very pliable. I watched Valtra wrap her spoon perhaps 3 times around itself without stress fracturing the surface of the metal. While not the classic “watch the spoon bend unassisted” it was quite a feat as Houck’s silverware was perhaps the cheapest I had ever seen. We had much better spoons in the orphanage. Understanding that something had to occur to make the spoon pliable to the extent that it will react to pressure and not show any cracks in the surface is important. Whether a feat of mind or biophysics it was still a bit of a puzzle. The body is electric and I can imagine with cheap metal that perhaps enough heat could build up in the narrow spoon neck for it to become less structural and more conducive to manipulation. It stands to reason in the Stubblebine spoon that he was able to generate enough heat to weaken the neck so that the weight of the spoon bowl in its reaction to gravity allowed it to fall forward thus deforming the spoon design.

Now reasoning that out the new dilemma is to figure out how much heat is needed to weaken the spoon structurally and can the human in holding or touching the spoon generate and pass on to the spoon that much heat. I don’t remember the specific temps needed but the conclusion was that “No” the human could not in a reasonable expanse of time build up, and transfer to the spoon enough heat to cause it to bend. The next question was could a human heat the spoon biophysically and with the addition of applied force bend the spoon without cracking the surface of the metal? The answer to that was also “NO”. The heat dissipation was just too great for there to be a build up and concentration of the required heat to bend the spoon without cracking the surface of the metal.

So the answer cannot be just heat passed on by handling the spoon. The large surface area and heat sink qualities of shaped metal such as a spoon or fork preclude contact heat from being a major variable in the bending.

So what really causes the spoon to bend or become pliable?

Glenn

Okay, so here’s the rest of the “story”. The How to Bend a Spoon video is eight minutes 48 seconds long. The first half of it is sort of an introduction to the actual “how to” part, with the woman, Carol Ann, setting the mood with her relaxed presence and matter-of-fact talk. At least for me it was quite easy to believe that she knows what she is talking about. She then begins with the instructions; it is about visualizing a flow of energy coming in through the forehead and going down to the hands and into the spoon. You just focus on this flow and let the energy build up in the spoon. I had no trouble with this, since I’ve done similar visualizations before in various meditations. It is very difficult to describe this imaginary energy; you just sort of feel these fuzzy waves (that you control) moving inside your body.

Very quickly I started to feel some sort of jitter (don’t want to use the word ‘vibration’ here) in the spoon, as if it really was charging up with the energy. I was quite surprised, I just had not expected that. As that happened, I thought (“knew”) that this time the spoon would bend, and somehow I believed it. With the jitter going on, I had to resist the urge to go ahead before Carol Ann would say the magic word. I tried to relax and just continued to focus on the flow of energy. When she said BEND, I lifted my hands, opened my eyes, and with a steady motion bent the spoon (in a second and a half or so). I did not have to force it, as the thing really was pliable. It felt weird. I freaked out a bit actually and threw the spoon out of my hands. My heart started racing and there was a strong tingling sensation in my hands and fingers (probably at least in part due to my heart racing) for half a minute or so. After that I mostly felt elated.

Now, about the spoon.. It is a big spoon, made in Finland, probably in the 70s (or 60s even). The handle is just a little under 2 mm thick, and really did not feel like it would bend as easily as it did. Today I tried bending another spoon (a South Korean one with a thinner handle) by force, and sure it bent a bit, but required so much more effort that it hurt my fingers.

For those who don’t know anything about me, I’m just a (pathetic) little nerd with practically no muscle at all. I often have trouble opening cans and bottles. I believe this has very little to do with physical strength. Beyond that I can only theorize (but not now).

Here are the Youtube video links.

Shannan (“grayprog”) bending a spoon:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O11PE-NrXSM

Carol Ann (“zensightprocess”) bending a spoon:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSfJjdnqfOo

Lucid,
I do believe a person CAN bend spoons, but I won’t go into the “how”. So I’m saying this can be done with the mind or whatever, so I’m not a disbeliever.

BUT I would also do a search on magic tricks having to do with bending spoons. There are several books out there on how the magicians do it, which looks just as real, as when the pro spoonbenders do it. I’m not sure if you can get the behind the scenes info on how to bend spoons like the magicians from the Internet, but maybe you can, I haven’t done extensive searches. The Amazing Randi is great at this trick.

I’ve seen several magicians bend spoons over the years, so I know it can be done… their way too.

I also had the great good luck to attend one of Jack Houck’s spoon bending parties and no one there was much successful aside from the woman sitting next to me with big arms who bend her spoon with brute strength… and I smiled at her and said… gosh your so psychic!…lol. Jack’s PK parties are a bit vague is you ask me.

Anyhow…it’s good to look into these things, direct experience is the way to go.

J.P.

Glenn said:

>I was at the spoon bending party at the conference back in 99 and it was actually a lot of fun. Houck was giving instructions and although I didn’t participate (I was too busy trying to catch people forcing their spoons),
HAHAHAHA!!!!!< Leave it to Glenn(:-)

I really wanted to hear you say you bent their favorite silverware!(:-)

OK. If this can be done then anyone can do it. I was skeptical before I took the HRVG course and I am skeptical now about spoon bending. However, I believe I am in good company here and believe if YOU can do it I CAN do it without any.

Robert

Lucid, seeing is believing, i don’t believe you are a pathetic little nerd. Please post picture of you opening a bottle. Wink just kidding. It’s the sketic in me i guess.

“For those who don’t know anything about me, I’m just a (pathetic) little nerd with practically no muscle at all. I often have trouble opening cans and bottles. I believe this has very little to do with physical strength. Beyond that I can only theorize (but not now).” lucid wrote

More.. details to follow.

The top two pics right above show the same spoon (a South Korean one). Actually I intended to bend the bowl part of it, like Dean Radin has done, but that did not seem to work (the bowl did not “soften”), so I just went with a couple of loops on the handle.

After I had done that one, I went and showed the two spoons to my parents. I explained to them what had occurred, and they were a bit bewildered. My dad asked me for a demonstration, but I wanted him to do it himself (he’s almost 70, by the way). So I told him how to do it and he tried. I could see that he was unsure about the whole thing, and he said it would not bend. I took the spoon from his hands and tried it a bit, it felt quite warm and a little soft. I gave the spoon back and encouraged him to continue. He did for a while, but again said the spoon would not bend. Once more I took it from his hands, and feeling it was quite soft, I just bent it. It did require more force than the previous ones (I guess it wasn’t quite “ready” yet), and broke as well.

Dean Radin’s comments re: spoon bending:

deanradin.blogspot.com/2006/06/doesnt-like-bent-spoon.html

I left the spoons on the kitchen table, and while I was away, my brother “fixed” the pretty South Korean one:

Said it required some strength to do it, but that it wasn’t too difficult. You should know, though, that my brother is a lot stronger than I am. He does physical labour on a regular basis and is used to working with his hands.

It is quite interesting that the spoon shows no signs of “stress” on the surface, it is simply malformed.

A couple of hours ago I took the above spoon and bent the handle to a kind of an S shape, with some force and without any concentration. So I started thinking maybe some residual energy had remained in the spoon. Then I took the first spoon and again quite easily made a tight loop on the handle. Hmm. Could it be that I have simply fooled myself? That is, by believing that the metal spoon is hard to bend – when in reality it isn’t – my body just doesn’t do it, or finds it hard. And then, when I really really intend to bend the spoon (with the help of “mental energy”), it is actually quite easy. Mind-body reflection. Now, this doesn’t explain why “bending with energy” doesn’t cause discomfort or leave red marks in hands, but I’m quite sure it plays a part in the phenomenon. Some (most?) bendings, like mine, may not really be anomalous at all.

A triple bend

I am still skeptical of this. But here is the other side of the spoon I did.

Dick

So when the spoon starts bending is it under a study applied pressure (slight without alot of force)? Is there a point where the “feeling” of the movement changes – abruptly or is it gradual? Curious about direct experiences when the spoon bends. How would one guage the amount to pressure as it bends, as much as…itt takes to bend a large paper clip? or more. I think it would be good if there were devise that mesured that like grip strength so as to see what averages of amt of force applied might be – but then i guess the spoons themselves would need to be standardized somehow, .

It sounds like some folks are saying the utensile during the attempted bend starts oput feeling stiff resistsance then feels warer aND OR “SOFTER” THEN NOT MUCH RESISTENCE PLIABLE FOR SHORT WINDOW OF TIME , THEN FEELS HARDER AGAIN.

sO lUCID YOU ARE SAYING THAT YOU CONSIDER THERE MUIGHT BE SOME “ENTERGETIC RESIDE” ?? OR CHANGE OF STATE IN THE BENDED ONE THAT STILL EFFECTS BENDABILITY OVER A PERIOD OF TIME. ? oh noo i hit caps as i too often accidently do, please forgive i dont erase and do over.

Excuse for my laziness ..I just got back from camping in mts though i’m like the spoons maybe the heat and fatigue have me a bit soft and bendable and my fingers are loopy .. oh ok Not! grin-i think its me brain not the fingers that are twisted. Celebrating pagan holidays aint for sissies. On second think i guess it is for all . It mother nature the red ants and hot sun and steep climbs. the icy showers and hours of dancing that aint for sissies. The sun is up and i’ll go crawl to the cornor shop for coffee now, I’ll have a go at the plastic spoons if they got any.

LUCID Maybe just for the sake of science you should post also a picture of your well exercised brother, eh? (she said her nerdly but girlie eyelashes a flutter blink blink)

I’d like to invent a devise rather like a themonetor or dip stick to test folks to see if the have much sense of humor, or maybe something less invasive i suppose..back to drawing board.

As a clarification to my previous message, here is how I now believe spoon bending (of the type I have done) works:

1. You start out with the belief that bending loops on a relatively thick, stainless steel spoon or fork requires a lot of force and may indeed be beyond your physical ability.

2. This false belief is further enforced by the person who is going to tell you how to do it with the help of “channeled” energy/mind power/whatever.

3. When it is time to do the bending, your subconscious mind feeds you the sensations that you are expecting (ie. the spoon feeling softer), which enables your conscious mind and body to carry out the feat.

That is the gist of it. Power of intention, indeed. However, you are not really using any “extra” energy to do the bending, but instead just breaking the mental block that kept you from doing it in the first place.

So I also realized (once again) that you cannot really trust sensory information, since it is always (pre)processed by some unconscious/subconscious processes. There is no point in trying to subjectively “measure” the amount of force used, either.

In short, bending the handle of a spoon really does not require as much force as you *may* think (if you’ve bought into the “spoon bending meme”). Just go ahead and try it, if you don’t mind destroying a spoon or two. Just observe the proper technique from the Youtube videos, and when you do the bending, don’t be afraid to use a bit of force.

(Dean Radin’s spoon with the bent bowl, though, is a different story..)