3 ms·

> Or why the non-muslim American inventor believed he had created a working detector. Did he?

• DanBC 13y ago
  It's possible. That's what someone quoted by the article suggests. People can be stupid without being malicious. > Although Kelly is unequivocal about the Quadro principals’ fraudulent intent—“They were con artists,” he says—Murray feels that Quattlebaum, at least, genuinely had faith in it. “I think he did believe in it—it was his invention,” he says. Quattlebaum could have fallen victim to the ideomotor effect, the same psychological phenomenon that convinces users of dowsing rods and Ouija boards that they are witnessing the results of a powerful yet inexplicable force. In response to suggestion or expectation, the body can produce unconscious movements, causing a sensitive, free-swinging mechanism to respond in sympathy. “It’s very compelling, if you’re not aware of what’s causing it,” Murray says. Some of the people peddling homeopathy really do believe it works, and that's just as clearly nonsense.
  • VMG 13y ago
    Thanks, I didn't know that there was an incarnation that was not based off a novelty toy golf ball finder. James McCormick himself clearly knew that the tool didn't work.
  • Cthulhu_ 13y ago
    > Some of the people peddling homeopathy really do believe it works, and that's just as clearly nonsense. And yet, if believing in homeopathy cures the ailments that homeopathy claims to cure, doesn't that in itself mean homeopathy works? Perhaps not in the way it's advertised, but still.