Mind Games Read online

  What if I'd wound up in the origami club like I originally planned? Somehow Mr. Ennis knew we belonged in Mad Science. Maybe we should give him a Zener card test someday.

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  Sources

  Benjamin D. Lloyd

  Bender, David L., and Bruno Leone, ed. Paranormal Phenomena: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1991.

  Cassill, Kay. Twins: Nature's Amazing Mystery. New York: Atheneum, 1984.

  Cobb, Vicki. Chemically Active! Experiments You Can Do at Home. New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1985.

  Deem, James M. How to Read Your Mother's Mind. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.*

  Duncan, Lois, and William Roll, Ph.D. Psychic Connections: A Journey into the Mysterious World of Psi. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1995.

  Miller, Kenneth, and Steve Wewerka. "Together Forever." Life 19, no. 5, [>], 1996.

  Psychic Powers. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1987.

  Randi, James. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988.

  Van Cleave, Janice. Janice Van Cleave's Guide to the Best Science Fair Projects. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

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  Acknowledgments

  THANKS TO OUR MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND GRANDparents for assistance with transportation and transcription and for their helpfulness in general. To Mrs. Gershwin for keeping things interesting. Special thanks to Grandma/Mrs. Mathews and Mom/Mrs. Robles for the interest they have shown in Mad Science as it concerns us. And of course to Mr. Ennis, a true scientist who can do magic with chemistry.

  Thanks also to our friends who were brave enough to take the Zener card test:

  Kamala Roy, Florence Hui, Maritza Delgado, Amy Love, Tyler Falcone, Cami Rayfield, Jaime Puente, Hosea Whittaker, Michael Whittaker, Justin McNamara, Rachael Myers, Rebecca Schwartz, Alison Ng, Ashleigh Banneker, Ezra Edelman, Kate Nelson, Katie Baird, Kaitlynn Neff, Jasmine Vines, Malaika Young, Christin Colman, Brian Murtaugh, Jenna VanderVat, Remy St. John, Paul Keegan, and Emily Sisk-Parrot.

  Pizza and ice cream on us when we win the science fair!

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  Exhibit H

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  Exhibit I

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  Exhibit J

  Dear Mom,

  Please insert state science fair article here.

  Yours truly,

  Ben

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  1 NOTE TO JUDGES: Paranormal Pursuits were originally intended for Mr. Ennis's edification and not for inclusion in the final project report. Please accept my apologies for their failure to conform to formatting specifications, which I delineated carefully for my fellow group members when they were apparently not listening.—BDL

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  1 Except in those cases of fraud, of course, which appears rampant in this field of research.

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  2 I.e., identical (although this is a highly misleading term when it comes to Claire and Kathleen).

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  3 Identical twins provide good evidence because they have identical genes. Therefore, if they were raised in different families, their degree of similarity as adults is due totally to their genetic makeup.

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  4 This is a made-up story, but you get the idea. It is a fairly typical example.

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  5 That's a step below GT—Gifted and Talented—which I'm in.

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  6 Having cooked several such unpalatable meals since my mother moved out, I can attest that this pain is quite intense.

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  7 This is a quirky behavior that Kathleen is known to perpetrate to this day.

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  8 As the owner of the hair in question, I was so traumatized as to nearly become a kindergarten dropout, except that my mother refused to let my father home-school me. Too bad. I could be in college now.

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  9 Determined after extensive questioning to be a dog.

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  10 Do not mention this incident to her. She will cry.

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  11 Besides winning the lottery—see below.

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  * NOTE: The opinions contained herein are those of the writer and do not reflect in the least those of the transcriptionist!

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  1 Although there was a time when, she would have perceived this as thrilling news.

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  1 Actually, it's a rectangle, and thus not so equilateral as it appears.—BDL

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  * Despite the (highly) misleading title, an excellent source of information.

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