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The JR Syndrome

Posted by May Belt (M) on November 1, 2005 at 10:06:18

There is one thing I can agree with John Atkinson about and that is that James Randi seems to like peppering his articles with untruths. One of the latest being "I have news. Mr Belt is getting rich."
Wow ! That's news to me. How could I have missed that major event, seeing as how I have been married to Peter for the past 51 years ?
Randi goes on to further say that "we sell to naive audiophiles." I think calling our customers naive couldn't be further from the truth. I personally would place them in the category of braver than brave after witnessing the amount of mockery and ridicule which is aimed at them from all sides !

I would also counsel John not to be jerked around by James Randi as though he (John) was a puppet on a string. There are a multitude of things which Randi can chose from to be constantly challenging from within the world of audio and from within the pages of Stereophile. When he gets bored with one thing, he can easily find another to jump on and he can just go on and on. I am presuming he has already become bored with the Shakti Stone and when he becomes bored with Peter Belt, he can chose from numerous other things. One of them might be the painting the edge of CDs with the Green Pen - which you described, John, as improving the sound but, ended your description with 'don't anyone ask you for an explanation'. Or maybe another thing for Randi to cast his eye on could be Dr. Chow's cable jacket. Or maybe another thing could be cables themselves - or (probably your worst nightmare John) - cryogenic freezing - the list could be endless.
I see you are quite keen to find proof of how you have "poured scorn on Belt devices". I personally would have thought you would have been far more cautious than that. I appreciate your wish is to show proof that James Randi has lied about such matters but in the long term you might find yourself in the position of the proverbial "between a rock and a hard place". Because history is a far harsher judge than any of the James Randis of this world. You are most likely to find yourself linked more with what I call the "Dr Hughes Bennett syndrome" From the history of Joseph Lister around 100 years ago when Dr Hughes Bennett is quoted as saying "Where are the germs ? Show them to us and we will believe. Has anybody seen these germs ?" And many of Lister's fellow doctors and surgeons were quoted as mockingly saying "Shut the door quickly, or Professor Lister's germs will get in".
To quote from the 1882, 3rd annual meeting of the American Surgical Association - "the anti-listerians were in the majority, some publicly rejecting the germ theory". - some 15 years after Lister performed his first antiseptic treatments !!!

I don't know if you will have the courage to re-print Alvin Gold's 1987 article in a similar archive form as you have re-printed J Gordon Holt's article on Peter Belt but I can let you have a copy of Alvin's article if you can't find yours !
Regards,
May Belt.

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