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Natasha Lulova is showing off again. She picks up a book and starts reading. She recognizes numbers without
 even pausing. Finally, she flips through a pile of colored paper and identifies each sheet.

None of this would be very impressive from an 11-year-old -- except that this particular 11-year-old is wearing
 a blindfold.

A psychic miracle…in Midwood? That depends on whom you ask. To Mark Komissarov, her coach, Natasha Lulova is
 undertaking the greatest advance in human evolution since Mankind started walking erect and communicating with
 words. But to James Randi, a part-time magician, full-time psychic debunker, Lulova is a fraud.

And the best part, sports fans, is that these conflicting visions of Natasha Lulova are on a collision course
 this summer in what will be one of the greatest rematches since Ali-Frazier (or, at least, "Boom Boom"
 Mancini-Livingston Bramble).

Here's why: Last year, Lulova failed Randi's longstanding, $1-million "Psychic Challenge" in which the magician
 puts a would-be mentalist through his or her paces. It started so well: With her own blindfold, Natasha
 identified colors and read passages. But when Randi switched to aluminum-foil-covered, sponge-filled swim
 goggles of his own making -- and then covered them with an additional layer of duct tape -- Lulova folded like
 a Uri Geller spoon. Game, set and match, Randi.

"He is a bastard," Komissarov says of Randi. "He covered her up with too many barriers for her brain to see
 through."

Natasha's "failure" last year has not diminished Komissarov's belief in the power of the paranormal. " We will
 use our brains to evolve into supermen," said the man who, professionally at least, has devolved from chemical
 engineer to cab driver. "If we can develop our innate psychic skills, we can improve Mankind."

Randi remains a skeptic. "It's the old 'Blindfold Act' that I first saw done in Montreal nightclubs back in the
 forties," he said.

While awaiting her date with destiny, Lulova practices her skills in Komissarov's twice-weekly classes, along
 with other would-be paranormals ranging in age from 7 to 71. Natasha is clearly the diva, but 8 ˝-year-old
 Dasha Vasilenko impressed me the most.

With the blindfold on, she read from a book. I suspected memorization, so I handed her a copy of an infinitely
 more detailed, though slightly more obscure, book. She immediately read the front page: "Hair!" she said,
 "Mankind's Historic Quest to End Baldness, by Gersh Kuntzman."

To test Randi's theory that the blindfold is see-through, I put it on myself, but all I saw was the inside of
 my eyelids. Randi says that with practice, anyone can do it, but in this blindfold, I couldn't even hold a tin
 cup and sell pencils.

But paranormal ability is not a sure thing. With their trusty blindfolds off, both Natasha and Dasha had
 trouble finding a dollar bill that Komissarov had hidden under a plastic cup. And later, when I put a potato
 on the table, Natasha thought it was a book while Dasha guessed remote control.

But Komissarov is convinced that Natasha is on target: "She will get rid of the dirty spot on her reputation
 that Randi put there. He is the charlatan not her."

So will the rematch be called "The Falsehood in Midwood" or the "The Dispel of Avenue L"? Stay tuned.

--30--

gersh.kuntzman@verizon.net