The Debunking Thread

[Pilgrim]

There seem to be a few fake videos being posted on the forum recently which is something I personally find disappointing on a forum like this which takes Alchemy seriously. The presence of such material imo damages the credibility of the forum and plays into the hands of conspiracy theorists. It's not permitted to derail threads with debunking posts so I'm creating this separate thread in which to post debunking explanations for fake material

 

[Pilgrim]

Here's a prime example posted today in THIS THREAD concerning Red Mercury

Here's the video in question which I claim is fake and will now debunk

Let's tackle the alleged magical properties of the pebble one by one.

The Mirror Trick

The video attempts (poorly) to suggest that the pebble is invisible in a mirror. The reality is that the mirror is being held directly above the plate not behind it. Hence the reflection is of a different plate. Note the shadow that the mirror causes on the lower plate when the mirror is held over it.

Note also that in the reflection there is what appears to be a piece of paper to the right of the plate as we look at it. There was no such paper on the table beforehand, go back and check.

Notice also the harsh dark shadow on the reflected plate which is not there on the lower plate.




The Spontaneous Combustion

We move from the mirror trick to a pot containing some kind of liquid and surrounded by 4 candles. However something is off. Look closely at the pebble in the hand before it goes in the water and compare it with the pebble used for the mirror trick. They are clearly different. Take a look below, the top picture is from just before the mirror trick, the lower picture is just before the flame trick and has been rotated left 90 degrees for easy comparison:




Clearly this is NOT the same pebble from the mirror trick. It is obviously a 2nd pebble made of something that is going to react with the liquid in the pot thereby giving off hydrogen or some other combustible gas.


The Garlic and Gold Trick

This is pretty lame TBH. The pebble is obviously magnetic and a magnet is being used beneath the metal plate to move it around. There are 2 people in the room, one holds the garlic/gold the other operates the magnet. How can we tell? Well just take a look at how the pebble in the mirror trick sat on the plate. It sat level, balanced at the middle with the nose above the plate, the pebble even wobbles slightly. Now look at the pebble sitting on the metal plate BEFORE the garlic is used. The pebble is already pointing nose down on the tray because of the magnet below. See here:




Watch how the pebble scuttles across the plate when the garlic and gold are brought near. It stays nose down on the plate both ways. It's pretty crappy TBH. Also look at that pebble again. Where the hell did the 2 engraved symbols go??? Welcome to pebble No 3 !




The Paper Doesn't Burn Trick

The pebble is wrapped in some kind of paper and the paper appears not to burn until the pebble is removed.
But this is true of many things you wrap paper around. Watch these YT clips of people doing the same thing with bottles and glasses:

The object inside the paper absorbs the heat from the lighter so that the paper can not reach ignition temperature. Simple as.


Stop The Watch Trick

Any amateur magician will tell you or show you how to do a trick stopping and starting a watch. You can buy the remote control gimmick for it here:

TEMPUS (Learn to Stop Watches Gimmicks Included) by Menny Lindenfeld

www.dreamlandmagic.com

You might also like to note that just prior to this watch trick, the watch isn't ticking at all. Go back and watch the paper burning trick, you can see the watch on the table to the left of the picture. There's no second hand moving at all throughout that trick. It only starts moving when the watch is picked up (and the remote control is activated).




The Light Bulb Trick

I mean by now it's hardly worth continuing but for goodness sake we all know that you can buy electric plugs and sockets with remote controls. So obviously here they are switching off the power using a remote.


Go back and watch the whole video thing again. At least 3 different "pebbles" are being used. One is magnetic, one is of a substance that reacts with a liquid to generate a flammable gas and so on.

These are cheap parlour tricks that really should have no place on a serious forum imho.

 

[Pilgrim]

The "ORMUS Channeling Trick"

Originally posted HERE

In the posted video the guy claims to "provide information on how to charge ORMUS", to "increase the empathy with the ORMUS" and to "mix it with new fresh life Prana" and make a connection with it. The claimed "proof" of this is the eventual appearance of small wisps of the milky fluid that seem to move and rotate.

Is this real? You have to decide for yourself but I always advise exercising critical thinking with anything like this. We are not remotely looking at something that is being done under controlled conditions and thus you, as the viewer do not have the full information you need to properly assess whether it's genuine or not. For example you can not see what is beneath the table the glass vessel is sitting on. Neither can you see the entire set of the whole thing, you can only see the zoomed in carefully cropped image that just encompasses the astrological backdrop and the area above the table. If you are thinking critically you should be asking why the view you are being given is so restrictive.

If you are thinking critically you should also be asking, quite naturally, whether there are simpler more natural ways in which the effect can be generated.

I believe there are many ways and here are just a couple of them.

First is the simple use of a magnetic stirring device, something which is used in chemistry and pharmacology day in, day out. In fact along side my own coffee machine at home I have a milk frothing device which also uses a magnetic stirrer. You fill a metal jug with milk, pop the magnetic stirrer in the bottom and place the jug on it's motorised unit and that makes the stirrer rotate freely at speed in the milk thereby frothing it.

Here's a video explaining how magnetic stirrers are used in a microbiology lab

So that's just one extremely simple way you could produce the same effect. You would of course conceal the motor part beneath the table and ensure that it only spins the stirrer very slowly to create those gentle wisps.

Here's another option to consider. Imagine that the whole set that you see, the guy, the table, the vessel and backdrop are all positioned on a rotating stage which you can't see because the camera is zoomed in to prevent you seeing it. Then as the demostration proceeds the stage is rotated slowly. You can't see the rotation of the set because the camera is also a part of it and rotates with it, a technique used in countless films over the past 100 years. The most obvious to me would be Stanley Kubrik's amazing 2001 A Space Odyssey.

So, the rotation of the set has a gentle effect on the milky liquid when the speed reaches a certain point just as if someone had physically agitated the vessel itself. Really simple.

Are there any clues that this might be the way the trick was done?

Possibly.

Here are two views of the vessel, one at the start of the piece and one at the end when the effect is being shown. Do you notice the difference?


In the first the milky part is level as you would expect if it had been standing for a while to let it settle.
In the second the milky part is now very much on the lean which means the table or entire set is now no longer level or that the vessel has been subjected to some kind of centrifugal force i.e. the entire set spinning.

Either of the above could be a possible way to achieve the effect.

The reality here is that you just can not tell what is happening without a proper view of the set and controlled conditions being applied.
Hence, I apply critical thinking and take it all with a big pinch of salt unless and untill the guy is willing to provide controlled conditions.

You'll have to decide for yourself.

 

[Lux Natura]

I think you could have a whole forum devoted to debunking and never have a lack of material to cover. Still, for those who believe, no amount of proof of debunking changes their minds. There are plenty of people on youtube who regularly debunk these types of videos, and all the "free energy" stuff as well. It doesn't stop these kinds of videos from being made though, and amassing views, often much more than the debunking videos, because people continue to believe, and the makers of these types of videos continue getting their advertising revenue, or driving traffic towards their shops where they sell their snake oils and related products.

It's all part of the continuum of scamming and grifts, and sadly it suckers in some people. It's rare that someone suckered in will admit to it though - usually they double down or stop responding instead, or make it personal, as a defense mechanism, because by debunking the video they perceive it as an attack on themselves and thus respond in defense.