Mr. Howard Sidman
Chief Executive Manager
DKL, 1901 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 1005
Washington, DC 20006-3303

May 13, 1998

Dear Mr. Sidman:

The LifeGuard device, as I've written you before, interests us for two reasons: first, we feelthat if the device can do what you says it does, it represents a radical advancement in technology. Second, if it works in the way claimed, it proposes a dramatic challenge to what we know about how the world around us functions. And, we understand that you feel the function of your device falls within the confines of science.

It appears that all of you to whom this letter is being sent, honestly believe that the LifeGuard actually works as advertised. This letter is to tell you what is actually happening, as opposed to the notions you are entertaining. The description that follows is based upon my considerable expertise, earned over decades of investigating very similar claims. Please understand -- I imply no wrongdoing on your part (except for the few instances where you have somewhat misrepresented the situation, not unlike several other equally well-meaning persons have done in my past experience) and I do not in any way suggest that you are unintelligent, but merely the victims of your own enthusiasm and your insufficient experience of what is known as the "ideomotor" effect.

The ideomotor effect is insidious. It can and does afflict most people, regardless of their educational preparation or intelligence. It is the psychological effect by which the victim is unaware that he is performing subtle movements in order to cause the direct movement (rotation, slope, oscillation) of a device, which often consists of an unbalanced physical system that reacts to a very slight impetus. In other words, gentlemen, you are the powering force behind the LifeGuard, not some esoteric electronically-initiated electromagnetic source.

Experiments have shown, many times over, that the victim of an ideomotor effect cannot be dissuaded from the belief that he/she is not providing the motive force. Just last month, a report appeared in the journal, "Psychological Science," Vol. 9, NO. 1, January 1998, on a series of experiments designed to determine if those convinced of this delusion, could be shown that it was not true. The ideomotor effect, which is what you are exhibiting, involved "automatic writing" (in which the victim is actually moving his hand, though he believes it is being moved by another force) and "facilitated communication," (a similar phenomenon in which the deluded person holds another person's hand, and is unaware that he is actually providing the moving force). I quote from the summary of that paper:

At this point, the argument will be made that the ideomotor effect is not present, as it might be in such devices as the "Quadro Detector,"* since there are electronics in your device, and there were none in the Quadro. It will be said that certain little-known and not-well-understood forces are responsible for the movement of the device. And you will refer me to the copious scientific references to certain established physical realities, none of which have anything whatsoever to do with the LifeGuard. I ask you, for the moment, to set aside the scientific theories and rationalities that you believe explain the device, and concentrate of a much more fundamental question: does the device work when tested under adequately double-blind testing? As I mentioned to you previously, if the answer to that question is "yes," I am prepared to pay you the James Randi Educational Foundation prize of US$1.1 million.

Your "inventor," Thomas Afilani, has two other instruments he is selling, the Electroscope and the Trackman, and I will venture to guess that these, too, are dowsing sticks. And where does Mr. Afilani get his expertise to design such complex circuitry as the LifeGuard is said to have? Has anyone else but Mr. Afilani ever examined the actual circuitry to see if it functions and holding the LifeGuard while it swivels in your hand is not the same thing, at all. I urge you to ask and answer that question.

I will point out to you that when Ronald G. Wallace of NASA was given a demonstration of the LifeGuard, the tests done in the hotel room failed, and the excuse was given that there was interference present from nearby TV receivers. The test was moved to the basement of the building, and failed there, too; the excuse this time was that the ignition systems of automobiles nearby were interfering. However, when I asked Dr. George Johnson, your scientific advisor, whether ambient EM "noise" could cause interference with the device, he told me that the LifeGuard was well shielded and protected against such effects. You simply can't have it both ways.

The Washington Post said that Joe Dougherty a genuine scientist had operated the LifeGuard. That was untrue. Until recently, he'd never even seen it.

Dr. Johnson's idea of a "double-blind" test using the six zones in a truck, was naive. Unless the "referee" in such a test were kept absolutely ignorant of the performance or "call" of the subject using the LifeGuard, that test would not be valid. I was shocked to hear Dr. Johnson tell me, when I asked, that the device would "track" a target when clamped down to a tripod, but only if the operator held his hand on the handle! Since Dr. Johnson told me that the unit was powered by the EM field of the target a minuscule signal! and that the operator held the handle only to be a part of the "antenna circuit," I suggested that an extension antenna would certainly replace the operator, and the unit would track the target without being held. But not if the unit is merely a dowsing device, which it assuredly is, in spite of Dr. Johnson's firm declaration to me, "I can assure you that [the device] is not a dowsing rod!"

Dr. Johnson told me that he was convinced the device was legitimate, because he himself had operated it, many, many, times. I say to Dr. Johnson that he has experienced the ideomotor effect, and only a truly double-blind test will determine whether that is true. And I'm betting my US$1.1 million on that test.

There's an obvious problem with the matter of a tuned antenna, as well. Even if you work with a tuned ¬-wave system, the antenna would be 56,000 miles long; the antenna you are using appears to be about 10" long. The "working" circuits are passive unpowered and cannot possibly enter into the operation. In any case, the EM force exerted by the human heart is so infinitesimally small, even over a distance of only two feet, let alone the 500 meters claimed, that it cannot serve to rotate the body of the LifeGuard, no matter how smooth and well-lubricated the swivel may be. The energy simply is not there.

A physicist friend of mine at the American Physical Society (for which group I have spoken, twice) expressed his opinion that the LifeGuard would need to be attached to the dish antenna at Arecibo in order to pick up enough energy to move the thing, and that opinion was reflected by another colleague (also a physicist) at the National Science Foundation. Incidentally, both these gentlemen and Leon Jaroff, a science editor of TIME Magazine are more than willing to witness a demonstration of the LifeGuard, on short notice, and both physicists are in the Washington, D.C., area, while Jaroff can be there within a few hours.

At one point, Mr. Sidman and I had an agreement to meet with Leon Jaroff to witness a demonstration. Dr. Johnson was interested enough in this possibility that he checked up on my reference by calling TIME Magazine, and found that Jaroff was indeed interested. Then your offer suddenly evaporated, and I was informed that "expansion" of your operation was underway, and no tests would be possible. That was not true, because several tests were conducted, quite recently tests that failed when they were double-blinded.

I cannot believe that your scientific advisor, or anyone else with DKL, has actually examined and understood whatever circuitry is inside the LifeGuard. I believe that George Johnson is convinced of its efficacy only because he has experienced the ideomotor effect while operating the device, and cannot accept that he has deceived himself, as all the others have who have had "success" with the device. It is a simple matter, though increasingly difficult after a certain point, to make excuses for the fact that every double-blind test of the device fails. And I cannot understand how you explain your refusal to collect my prize, if you are genuinely convinced that it works. Yes, the offer is a "stunt," to a certain extent, but one that can cost me more than a million, if your claim is valid, and it was initiated because I was challenged to "put [my] money where [my] mouth is." Well, the money's there. Think about that.

Gentlemen, the LifeGuard does not work. You are deluded. As with so many persons who have re-invented the dowsing rod, you are trying to apply the scientific nomenclature and cosmetics of physics to a purely psychological phenomenon that has deceived you. The effect of the ideomotor reaction is very strong, very persuasive, and almost impossible to defeat except by a proper experiment.

I stand prepared to visit with you at my own cost and demonstrate to you convincingly that you have fallen victim to this phenomenon, but if my past experience is any indicator, you will ignore that offer and continue in your delusion. I have found that no amount of contrary evidence, no matter of how great quality it might be, will ever convince the believer that he or she has been self-deluded. The need to continue in the delusion is so strong, it's almost unbelievable. I have written you this letter so that I go on record as having made you the offer that I make to all persons who re-invent this device.

Who am I to tell you all this, without academic credentials? I suggest that you take a look at my web page, http://www.randi.org, and note that I am a recognized authority in my field. I have published extensively in scientific journals and I have addressed prestigious academic organizations all over the world. I know what I am writing you about, make no mistake about that.

And no, your device is not different from all the others out there. This kind of thing is invented every few months, somewhere in the world, It is by far the most common and persistent crackpot invention we experience in my profession. No amount of scientific claptrap will validate the LifeGuard, only a proper test will. That is where the truth lies. If you persist in your delusion, you will have all the greater disappointment when, as will certainly happen, you are forced to admit that you were wrong. I sincerely advise you to stop and back out now, while knowing that you will not. Your financial losses and your deep dismay could be lessened if you were to act now, but I think you will not do so. You will continue to pour money into an ever-larger money-pit of fallacy. That is a disappointment, indeed. But it is probably inevitable.

The "inventors" of the Quadro Detector ignored my earnest and sincere attempts to warn them away from their folly, and even wrote me a sarcastic letter refusing my advice.

A few weeks later, they were closed down by the FBI, and shortly after that they went on trial for fraud. This need not happen, if you will listen now. I sincerely urge you to do so.

Now, you may choose to merely put this letter aside, or you may choose to summon your lawyer and have him issue a demand that I no longer try to contact you. That's your choice, but I beg you to consider this well-intentioned letter carefully. There is no shame in being wrong, only in persisting in the error.

Sincerely,

James Randi PRESIDENT

copies: George H. Johnson Thomas Afilani Robert W. VanDine

*exposed as a delusion and taken off the market last year as a result of our investigations.