Project Alpha

Record summary

Project Alpha was a staged demonstration in which magician James Randi arranged for two young men to deceive researchers at Washington University’s McDonnell Laboratory during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The case became a major controversy about experimental controls, researcher expectations, and the vulnerability of parapsychology laboratories to conjuring techniques. It is especially valuable for comparing occult claims with performance expertise. Researchers should separate the participants’ admitted deceptions, the laboratory’s responses, and later polemics about what the episode actually demonstrated.