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we had a big reaction to our story last

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week on a bracelet said to give anyone

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who wears it power and balance the

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distributor's website went into meltdown

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others felt it was no more than a circus

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tent magician's trick so who's right

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Frank Bangalow has been back for another

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look and conclusive tests and here's

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what he found okay here we go so I'm

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gonna press now I'm putting a fair

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degree in fact I'll put two hands and I

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will do everything I can to push you

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straight dan is it a mind-blowing

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scientific marvel that was that was or

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merely the mind playing games with

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reality it just sounds like a lot of

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science works we'll put into a hat and

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hair brought out and and used it to

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promote something promoters of the Power

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Balance bracelet claim it can do amazing

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things to your body when you're wearing

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one things that defy logic or science

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can increase strength balance stability

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and core power so and flexibility as

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well so there's a lot of things that can

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actually do and the secret is supposed

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to be locked up in that hologram says

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Tom O'Dowd whose company sells them for

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$60 in Australia it's a frequency that's

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been embedded in the Amala technology in

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the in the hologram what it does it

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reacts with the electrical field of your

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body that's plain nonsense

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according to Richard Saunders from the

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Australian skeptic Society now I'm not

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convinced not yet I mean I can be

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convinced we'll see what what happens

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with Richard looking on we asked Tom to

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put the claims to a blind test using six

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volunteers more on that shortly what is

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an in dispute is the effect its had on

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almost all the people who've tried it

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like 80 year-old Joyce Washington I

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don't know that it gives more energy but

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it seems to make one more alert

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Melbourne chiropractor dr. Matt Bateman

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has tried it on hundreds of his patients

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even staking his reputation on it hold

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now do you feel stronger

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I'm putting a lot more pressure there's

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only so much you can fake I'm not faking

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500% increased strength and stability

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which is what I felt when I first did

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the test I can't fake that dr. Bateman

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then demonstrated it on one of our

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skeptical reporters Jonathan Creek can

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you think any more out of that yeah

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they're just gonna bring it now put on

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your forehead just for something

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different can you go any further

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well I take another two or three inches

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we take that away again it'll be harder

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for you to hold and sustain that's

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afraid so onto our tests Tom carried out

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his usual balance and strength routines

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using a card embedded with that hologram

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then with the bracelet all six reported

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a positive reaction that is when they

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could see it yeah that was working all

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right

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and yet okay feel the difference Richard

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thinks it might have more to do with

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physics or the angles which tom is

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exerting his force

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it's actually you're controlling whether

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the person is weak or strong not not

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dependent next a series of blind tests I

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randomly place six cards in their

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pockets only one the fifth in line had

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the card with a hologram it was up to

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Tom to detect who had it well I'm gonna

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take a real standard it gonna say you've

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got it

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so let's look in your pockets there you

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go I came here a little bit skeptical

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and I'm still a little bit skeptical

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who's got the card we did the test again

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and still tom lockdown okay all right

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well my guess is John see this time

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there you go and the people who

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sincerely had it were weak so that would

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show that the hologram has no effect on

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anybody strength then the same blind and

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random experiment using the bracelets

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Tom bombed again when Tom knew who had a

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hologram we got positive or negative

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results 100% of the time as soon as Tom

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didn't know where the hologram was

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then I'm afraid it was only failure so I

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suspect it was Tom even if he didn't

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realize that altering the tests

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mind over matter perhaps the human brain

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is a powerful tool capable of

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extraordinary things says professor

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David powers who runs the artificial

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intelligence unit at Flinders University

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if you tell a person that it's going to

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do something and then you show it to a

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person what you can find is the first of

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all a placebo effect which means that

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whatever you say they at to the extent

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that they believe it will happen the

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power of positive thinking take American

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Nick Harris this week he turns Superman

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when he lifted a car off a six year old

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girl he tried to do it again a few times

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since without success it would be very

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hard for me to fool that many people and

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people that I haven't even come in

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contact with who bought this product and

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they got it out there and they've tried

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it on themselves and they try it on

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their friends and they've done the tests

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they've devised their own tests and they

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come up the conclusion that it works

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professor powers would like to do more

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research on the placebo effect of the

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power bracelet while Richard Saunders

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and his skeptics maintain it's up there

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with snake oil regardless of all that

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one thing it will do is make you the

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life of a party if it's a trick it's a

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bloody good one it's probably worth the

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$60 that you pay for the band Mego

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Frank Piniella was our reporter and if

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you have a point of view or any evidence