Steven Shaw was one of two young magicians, along with [[Michael Edwards]], who participated in [[James Randi]]'s hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University in 1983. Shaw and Edwards pretended to be psychics capable of [[Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]], using sleight of hand to simulate feats like spoon bending[^1]. They spent a total of five weeks in the lab over a three-year period. When Randi held a press conference to expose the hoax, Steven Shaw famously walked up to the microphone and said, "I cheat," revealing the deception[^1]. ### Footnotes [^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.