Phactum sampling

Meeting Report

-- by Craig Olsen

PhACT Council member Eric Krieg presented "The High Cost of Free Energy" at our September meeting. Eric's program focussed on the free energy claims of Dennis Lee. Eric related that last year he and a few other PhACT members went to see Lee's presentation at the CoreStates Center. Eric videotaped part of the presentation and used this tape as part of his program, to give us an inside look at a huckster in action.

Dennis Lee is certainly good at what he does. After observing the video clip one of the audience members stated, "He sounds like a used car salesman!" Lee is so good at what he does that he was able to rent the CoreStates Center for a reported $50,000 and to spend another $50,000 on an advertising campaign to bring people to the facility. His show consisted of demonstrating (or talking about) a host of machines which are purported to make one energy self-sufficient. Full working demonstrations of these machines were either non-existent or lasted for a few seconds, using pressurized gas. At the end of the show Lee invited audience members to pay $10,000 to become a dealer in his contraptions. When it turns out that there is no machine yet or that it does not work, the dealer is stuck! The audience at the Center was estimated by the PhACT observers at about 3,000 (Lee claimed an audience of 10,000). If only ten people became dealers, Lee's costs were covered! How many signed up is unknown.

Eric mentioned other free energy promoters such as Robert Stewart, Arnold Burke and Joseph Newman. One thing they all have in common is that they tend to focus on farmers and groups on the political right such as militia members and religious fundamentalists. Many free energy promoters use the anti- government mentality to their advantage. For example, Eric related how Dennis Lee promised to show the CoreStates audience a Radiation Neutralization Machine but claimed that the CIA would arrest him if he tried! [Unlikely, since the CIA has no jurisdiction within the USA. - note: as of 7/98, Eric has been told this is not the case] Paranoid conspiracies worked on this crowd as many responded to Lee's plight. Lee also made frequent references to God during his show which endeared him to the fundamentalists.

As Eric neared the end of his program, many wondered how people like Dennis Lee could get away with such a scheme. Eric explained that few people who were duped are willing to admit it. Many were still being taken in by promises by Lee and others that a machine could not be shown because, "It will be ready soon, just give me a few months," or "Government agents took it."

Fortunately, Dennis Lee and others of his ilk have been prosecuted, although Lee's legal battles are still in progress. Thanks to people like Eric Krieg, those who stop to listen to the voice of reason will save themselves much heart and head ache.

[ In September 1996 Lee was promising to have "free energy" machines installed in people's homes "before this year is out." We are still waiting. Tom ]

"Do you think the search for perpetual motion ended in failure long ago? You're half right. Failure is perpetual, but the search never ended."
-- Robert Schadewald, 1989

Note: More information is available at http://www.phact.org