How to expose 'moiracles'?

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">CHANDIGARH : A boy is invited to the dais to cut a thin rope into two parts from the middle. The rope is cut and the two ends are tied together. <br /><br />The man performing the trick engulfs the rope in his palms and in a moment it becomes whole again. Supernatural powers, one may say. <br /><br />Except that the man is no godman, but a rationalist, Narendra Nayak, who is out to debunk the so called miracles performed by sundry godmen and others.<br /><br />And the performance was made possible through a sleight of the hand. The rope was held in such a way that the boy did not cut it from the middle but only a small portion from one of the ends.<br /><br />"The trick was being used a godman to find solution to problems related to marital discord. These are all tools to exploit the unsuspecting masses. Anything that goes against basic laws of science cannot hold its ground," says Nayak, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the Centre for Basic Sciences in Kasturba Medical College Mangalore. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section2"><div class="Normal"><br />Nayak was delivering a lecture cum demonstration on `Myths and Miracles : The Scientific Basis'' at the Science for School Children at Imtech. <br /><br />He also demonstrated his `powers'' to turn your hands sweet. During the demonstration, he washed his hands with plain water and afterwards shook hands with the members of the audience. <br /><br />And children found a sweet taste from there hands after the contact. Only this time around Nayak was holding small tablets of a sweetener between his fingers while washing the hands. <br /><br />"The godmen take advantage of the gullibility of the people. These tricks are quite simple to explain," he told said. <br /><br />And he demonstrated the simplicity of it all by performing a card trick - a miracle that was being used by a Godman in Karnataka to demonstrate the powers of Shani'' vested in him. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section3"><div class="Normal"><br />One is asked to pick a card from a card pack. The card is put back and the pack is shuffled. And within seconds the card is identified and placed back in your hands. <br /><br />Explaination: Being a special pack, one could identify the cards by reading the unique pattern at the back. <br /><br />Nayak has been exposing the godmen and their ilk on the `miracles''. From performing operations with bare hands, burning lamps without oil, to producing <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">vibhuti </span>out of thin air, he has presented the technique behind them. <br /><br />He says that the performance of `miracles'' involves either a sleight of hands, chemicals, mental suggestions or use of special apparatus he says. <br /><br />Among others, areas like astrology, homeopathy and some of the healing processes have been found to lack any scientific basis. <br /><br /></div> </div><div class="section4"><div class="Normal"><br />"Astrology is mostly soothsaying." He has been challenging astrologers to come up with specific predictions on election outcome. <br /><br />"The challenge will hold for the ensuing elections as well," he says. <br /><br />About the proliferation of godmen and belief in myths and miracles in the society, he says: "A majority of the teachers are superstitious themselves. The children are not taught to question," adding that it is the insecurities faced by people that drive them to the godmen. <br /><br />He added that the rationalist movement was picking up and people were now coming forward to question the supernatural phenomenon. </div> </div>