James Alan Hydrick (born February 28, 1959) was an American performer and self-described
psychicParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
. Hydrick claimed to be able to perform acts of telekinesis, such as his trademark trick involving the movement of a pencil resting at the edge of a table. Following a nationally televised demonstration of his abilities at
That's Incredible!That's Incredible! is a reality television show that ran on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
, he was unable to prove his supernatural abilities on a subsequent show called
That's My LineThat's My Line was a summer CBS reality show developed by Mark Goodson, one of the creators of What's My Line? The show highlighted the unusual occupations of ordinary people, but unlike What's My Line? it had no panel or game components; the show was rather along the same lines as NBC's Real...
, and Hydrick subsequently confessed the fraud to an investigative reporter.
By the early 1980s in
Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. Salt Lake City has a population of 181,698 as of July 1, 2008, making it the 125th largest city in the United States...
, Hydrick developed a
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
-like following.
James Alan Hydrick (born February 28, 1959) was an American performer and self-described
psychicParapsychology is a controversial discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes of psychic abilities and life after death using the scientific method...
. Hydrick claimed to be able to perform acts of telekinesis, such as his trademark trick involving the movement of a pencil resting at the edge of a table. Following a nationally televised demonstration of his abilities at
That's Incredible!That's Incredible! is a reality television show that ran on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
, he was unable to prove his supernatural abilities on a subsequent show called
That's My LineThat's My Line was a summer CBS reality show developed by Mark Goodson, one of the creators of What's My Line? The show highlighted the unusual occupations of ordinary people, but unlike What's My Line? it had no panel or game components; the show was rather along the same lines as NBC's Real...
, and Hydrick subsequently confessed the fraud to an investigative reporter.
Rise to fame
By the early 1980s in
Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. Salt Lake City has a population of 181,698 as of July 1, 2008, making it the 125th largest city in the United States...
, Hydrick developed a
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
-like following. He claimed he was able to use
psychokinesisThe term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by publisher Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence...
to turn the pages of books and make pencils spin around while placed on the edge of a desk, among other feats. Hydrick had also set up martial arts classes and claimed he could pass on the gift of
psychokinesisThe term psychokinesis , also known as telekinesis , sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by publisher Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence...
to youngsters through special training techniques.
Hydrick rose to international attention through his demonstration of these skills on the American television show,
That's Incredible!That's Incredible! is a reality television show that ran on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984.-Synopsis:In the tradition of You Asked For It, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events...
. The episode originally aired in December 1980 and was later repeated in 1981. He performed the pencil-spinning trick with the skeptical host's hand on his mouth to block possible air blowing (after the host suggested that he could hear Hydrick blowing). However, Hydrick deliberately readjusted the pencil beforehand so that it was as precarious as possible and so would move with the slight disturbance caused by his hands. He also caused a page from a telephone book to turn over, again, allegedly by telekinesis. James Randi awarded the program a 1980 Uri Award, later renamed the
Pigasus AwardThe Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek honor recognized by noted skeptic James Randi. The awards seek to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year...
, "for declaring a simple magic trick to be genuine."
Fraud exposed
Magician and paranormal skeptic
James RandiJames Randi is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
demonstrated the pencil trick on the television program
That's My LineThat's My Line was a summer CBS reality show developed by Mark Goodson, one of the creators of What's My Line? The show highlighted the unusual occupations of ordinary people, but unlike What's My Line? it had no panel or game components; the show was rather along the same lines as NBC's Real...
, hosted by
Bob BarkerRobert William "Bob" Barker is an American former television game show host. He is best known for hosting CBS' The Price Is Right from 1972-2007, making it the longest-running daytime game show in North American television history...
. In a follow-up episode, Randi and Hydrick both appeared. When Randi performed the simple control of placing small pieces of expanded polystyrene on the table around the phone book (to show if Hydrick was actually turning the pages by blowing on them), Hydrick's "powers" suddenly failed him. Hydrick attempted to explain that when the foam was heated by the stage lights they developed a
static electricStatic electricity refers to the buildup of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge...
charge which, when added to the weight of the page, required more force than he was able to generate to turn the page. Randi and the judges, though, declared that this theory had no scientific basis.
After an hour and a half of Hydrick staring at the pages (the show was edited for time) without any results, and indignantly claiming that his powers were real, he finally admitted being unable to complete the challenge. The judging panel (which included a parapsychologist) stated that, in their opinion, no supernatural phenomenon had taken place. The failed stunt resulted in the television show
That's Incredible receiving a
Pigasus AwardThe Pigasus Award is the name of an annual tongue-in-cheek honor recognized by noted skeptic James Randi. The awards seek to expose parapsychological, paranormal or psychic frauds that Randi has noted over the previous year...
, and effectively ended Hydrick's television career (following Hydrick's concession, Randi himself performed the same trick using the techniques that Hydrick perfected).
In 1981, Hydrick's psychic powers were definitively exposed as being fraudulent by investigative journalist Dan Korem. Hydrick confessed his fraud to Korem and admitted that he had developed his unique talent while he was in prison, and did not learn it from a Chinese master as he had originally claimed.
Present day
James Hydrick was convicted as a sex offender (forced oral copulation), and was incarcerated in a California prison. Currently, he is in violation of sex offender registration requirements.
External links