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James Randi
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James Randi (born August 7, 1928) (stage name The Amazing Randi) is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician, but when he retired at age 60, he switched to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims. Although often referred to as a "debunker," Randi rejects that title, describing himself as an "investigator." He has written about the paranormal, skepticism, and the history of magic.
He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and is occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
The JREF sponsors the famous million dollar challenge offering a prize of US $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties.
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Encyclopedia
James Randi (born August 7, 1928) (stage name The Amazing Randi) is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge,
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi began his career as a magician, but when he retired at age 60, he switched to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims. Although often referred to as a "debunker," Randi rejects that title, describing himself as an "investigator." He has written about the paranormal, skepticism, and the history of magic.
He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and is occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
The JREF sponsors the famous million dollar challenge offering a prize of US $1,000,000 to anyone who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. As of this time, no one has claimed this prize, which is to be discontinued on March 6, 2010. The prize money held by the Foundation will be used for other projects, the nature of which will be announced at that time.
Early and personal life
Randi is the oldest of three children, having a younger brother and sister. He took up magic after reading magic books while spending 13 months in a body cast due to a bicycle accident. His doctors expected Randi would never walk again, but he did. At 17, he dropped out of high school to perform as a conjurer in a carnival roadshow. In his thirties, Randi worked in Philippine night clubs. He witnessed many tricks that were presented as being supernatural. One of his earliest reported experiences is that of seeing an evangelist using the "one-ahead" routine to convince churchgoers of his divine powers.
In 1987, Randi became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Randi has said that one reason he became an American citizen was an incident while on tour with Alice Cooper where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched the band's lockers during a performance, holding Randi at gunpoint when he objected.
In February 2006, Randi underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. In early February 2006, he was declared to be in stable condition and "receiving excellent care" with his recovery proceeding well. The weekly commentary updates to his website were made by guests while he was hospitalized. Randi recovered after his surgery and was able to help organize and attend the 2007 Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada (an annual convention of scientists, magicians, skeptics, atheists and free thinkers).
Randi for many years has been an amateur astronomer, influenced by his friend Carl Sagan. In 1981 asteroid 3163 Randi was named for him.
Career as a magician
Randi worked as a professional stage magician and escapologist beginning in 1946, initially under his birth name, Randall Zwinge. Early in his career, Randi was part of numerous stunts involving his escape from jail cells and safes. On February 7 1956, he appeared live on The Today Show remaining in a sealed metal coffin submerged in a hotel swimming pool for 104 minutes, breaking what was said to be Houdini's record of 93 minutes.
Randi was the host of The Amazing Randi Show on New York radio station WOR in the mid-1960s. He also hosted numerous television specials and went on several world tours. Then Randi appeared as "The Amazing Randi" on a television show titled Wonderama from 1967 to 1972 and as host of a revival of the 1950s children's show The Magic Clown in 1970. In the February 2, 1974 issue of Abracadabra (a British conjuring magazine), Randi defined the magic community saying, "I know of no calling which depends so much upon mutual trust and faith as does ours." In the December 2003 issue of the The Linking Ring, the monthly publication of The International Brotherhood of Magicians, Points to Ponder: Another Matter of Ethics, p. 97, it is stated, "Perhaps Randi's ethics are what make him Amazing" and "The Amazing Randi not only talks the talk, he walks the walk."
During Alice Cooper's 1973-1974 tour, Randi performed as the dentist and executioner on stage. Also, Randi had designed and built several of the stage props, including the guillotine. Shortly after, in February 1975, Randi escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside-down over Niagara Falls in the winter on the Canadian TV program World of Wizards.
Early in his career, Randi was sent a contract for a tour in Florida. His friends in New York mentioned to him that he’d certainly be working before audiences segregated by race, so before he signed the agreement, he wrote in a clause specifying that the promoters could not deny tickets to blacks or segregate the audiences in any way. Upon arriving on scene, he found that the concert promoter had ignored this stipulation in his contract. He discovered that blacks were forced to watch the show from the balcony, and he immediately walked away from the tour. Appealing to the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), he was paid in full for the balance of the tour.
Randi was once accused of actually using 'psychic powers' to perform acts such as spoon bending. James Alcock relates this incident which occurred at a meeting where Randi was duplicating the performances of Uri Geller: A professor from the University at Buffalo shouted out that Randi was a fraud. Randi said, "Yes indeed, I'm a trickster, I'm a cheat, I'm a charlatan, that's what I do for a living. Everything I've done here was by trickery." The professor shouted back: "That's not what I mean. You're a fraud because you're pretending to do these things through trickery, but you're actually using psychic powers and misleading us by not admitting it." The famous author and believer in spiritualism Arthur Conan Doyle had years earlier made a similar accusation against the magician Harry Houdini.
Author
Randi is author of Conjuring (1992), a biographical history of noted magicians. The book is subtitled: Being a Definitive History of the Venerable Arts of Sorcery, Prestidigitation, Wizardry, Deception, & Chicanery and of the Mountebanks & Scoundrels Who have Perpetrated these Subterfuges on a Bewildered Public, in short, MAGIC!. The book selects the most influential magicians, and explains their history in the context of strange deaths and career on the road. This work expanded on his 1976 book Houdini, His Life and Art, which focused on Houdini and his cohorts. Randi also wrote a children's book in 1989 titled The Magic World of the Amazing Randi, which introduced children to magic tricks. In addition to his magic books, he has written several educational works about the paranormal and pseudoscientific. These include biographies of Uri Geller and Nostradamus as well as reference material on other major paranormal figures. He is currently working on A Magician in the Laboratory, which recounts his application of skepticism to science. He is a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.
Career as a skeptic
Randi entered the international spotlight in 1972 when he publicly challenged the claims of Uri Geller. Randi accused Geller of being nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud, who used standard magic tricks to accomplish his allegedly paranormal feats, and he supported his claims in the book The Truth About Uri Geller.
Geller sued Randi for $15 million in 1991.
Geller's suit against the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) was thrown out in 1995, and he was ordered to pay $120,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.
Randi was a founding fellow and prominent member of CSICOP. During the period when Geller was filing numerous civil suits against him, CSICOP's leadership, wanting to avoid becoming a target of Geller's litigation, requested that Randi refrain from commenting on Geller. Randi refused and resigned. However, he still maintains a respectful relationship with the group and frequently writes articles for its magazine.
Randi has gone on to write several books criticizing beliefs and claims regarding the paranormal.
He has also demonstrated flaws in studies suggesting the existence of paranormal phenomena; in his Project Alpha hoax, Randi revealed that he had been able to orchestrate a three year-long compromise of a privately-funded psychic research experiment. The hoax became a scandal and demonstrated the shortcomings of many paranormal research projects at the university level. Some said that the hoax was unethical, while others saw his actions as a legitimate exercise in exposing poor research techniques.
Randi has appeared on numerous TV shows, sometimes to directly debunk the claimed abilities of fellow guests. In a 1981 appearance on a show called That's My Line, Randi appeared opposite psychic James Hydrick, who claimed that he could move things with his mind, and demonstrated this ability on live television by apparently turning a page in a telephone book without touching it. Randi, having determined that the trick was most likely based on Hydrick surreptitiously blowing, arranged packaging peanuts on the table in front of the telephone book for the demonstration, preventing Hydrick from demonstrating his abilities which would have been exposed when the blowing moved the packaging. Many years later, Hydrick admitted his fraud.
Randi was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" award in 1986. The money was used for Randi's comprehensive exposé of faith healers including Peter Popoff, W. V. Grant and Ernest Angley. During the course of the investigation Randi was "healed" by these ministers. When Popoff was exposed, he was forced to declare bankruptcy within the year.
In 1988, Randi showed how gullible the media are by perpetrating a "fraud" of his own. By teaming up with Australia's 60 Minutes program and by releasing a fake press package he built up publicity for a spirit channeler named Carlos, who was actually an artist named Jose Alvares, a friend of Randi. Randi would tell him what to say through sophisticated radio equipment. The media and the public were taken in, as no reporter bothered to check Carlos' credentials and history, which were all made up. The hoax was exposed on 60 Minutes; Carlos and Randi explained how they pulled it off.
In the book The Faith Healers, Randi explains his anger and relentlessness as arising out of compassion for the helpless victims of frauds. Randi has also been critical of João de Deus (John of God) a self-proclaimed psychic surgeon who has received international attention. Randi observed, referring to psychic surgery, "To any experienced conjurer, the methods by which these seeming miracles are produced are very obvious."
In 1982, Randi verified the abilities of Arthur Lintgen, a Philadelphia physician who is able to determine the classical music recorded on a vinyl LP solely by examining the grooves on the record. However, Lintgen does not claim to have any paranormal ability, merely knowledge of the way that the grooves form patterns on particular recordings.
James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)
In 1996, Randi established the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). Randi updates the JREF's website on Fridays with a written commentary titled Swift: Online Newsletter of the JREF. Topics have included the mathematics of the one-seventh area triangle. Randi also contributes a regular column, titled "'Twas Brillig," to The Skeptics Society's Skeptic Magazine. In his weekly commentary, Randi often gives examples of what he considers the nonsense that he deals with every day.
He has regularly featured on many podcasts that can be found online, including The Skeptics Society's official podcast Skepticality and the Center for Inquiry's official podcast Point of Inquiry . From September 2006 onwards, he occasionally contributes to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast with a column titled "Randi Speaks." In addition, "The Amazing Show" is a podcast in which Randi shares various anecdotes in an interview format.
Randi on religion
In his essay "Why I Deny Religion, How Silly and Fantastic It Is, and Why I'm a Dedicated and Vociferous Bright," Randi has stated that many accounts in religious texts, including the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus Christ, and the parting of the Red Sea by Moses, are not believable. For example, Randi refers to the Virgin Mary as being "impregnated by a ghost of some sort, and as a result produced a son who could walk on water, raise the dead, turn water into wine, and multiply loaves of bread and fishes", and questions how Adam and Eve could have two sons, one of whom klilled the other, and yet managed to populate the earth without committing incest. He writes that, compared to the Bible, "The Wizard of Oz is more believable. And more fun." In An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural he looks at a variety of spiritual practices sceptically. Of the meditation techniques of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) he writes that, "Only the very naive were convinced that they had been let in on some sort of celestial secret."
The $1 million challenge
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) currently offers a prize of one million U.S. dollars to anyone who can demonstrate a supernatural ability under agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. Similar to the paranormal challenges of John Nevil Maskelyne and Houdini, in 1964, Randi put up $1,000 of his own money payable to the first person who could provide objective proof of the paranormal.
Since then, the prize money has grown to the current $1,000,000, and has formal published rules. No one has progressed past the preliminary test which is set up with parameters agreed to by both Randi and the applicant. He refuses to accept any challengers who might suffer serious injury or death as a result of the testing.
On Larry King Live March 6 2001, Larry King asked Sylvia Browne if she would take the challenge and she agreed. Then Randi appeared with Browne on Larry King Live on September 3, 2001 and she again accepted the challenge. However, she has refused to be tested and Randi keeps a clock on his website recording the number of weeks that have passed since Browne accepted the challenge without following through. During Larry King Live on June 5 2001, Randi challenged Rosemary Altea to undergo testing for the million dollars. However, Altea would not even address the question. Instead Altea, in part, replied "I agree with what he says, that there are many, many people who claim to be spiritual mediums, they claim to talk to the dead. There are many, people, we all know this. There are cheats and charlatans everywhere." Then on January 26 2007 Altea and Randi again appeared on Larry King Live. Once again, she refused to answer whether or not she would take the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.
Starting on April 1 2007, only those with an already existing media profile and the backing of a reputable academic would be allowed to apply for the challenge. The resources freed up by not having to test obscure and possibly mentally ill claimants will then be used to more aggressively challenge notorious high-profile alleged psychics and mediums such as Sylvia Browne, Allison DuBois and John Edward with a campaign in the media.
On January 4 2008 it was announced that the million dollar challenge would be discontinued on March 6 2010 in order to free up the money and resources for other uses.
JREF maintains a public log of past participants in the Million Dollar Challenge.
Legal disputes
Randi has been involved in a variety of legal disputes, but claims to have "never paid even one dollar or even one cent to anyone who ever sued me."
Eldon Byrd
In an interview with Twilight Zone Magazine, Randi accused Uri Geller and Eldon Byrd of being the ringleaders in a criminal blackmail plot aimed at destroying Randi. Byrd sued Randi when he was accused by the magician of being a convicted child molester. Following the trial a press release from Randi said "Testimony adduced at the trial revealed that, in fact, Mr. Byrd had not been convicted of the crime of child molestation as suggested by Mr. Randi, but instead had been arrested for possession with intent to distribute obscene materials involving children, and had pled guilty to a reduced charge of possession with intent to distribute obscene materials." The jury also heard testimony that Byrd had sexually molested, and later married, his sister-in-law. Despite this, Byrd won the case, but received no monetary judgment.
Uri Geller
In a 1989 interview with a Japanese newspaper, Randi was quoted as saying that Uri Geller had driven a metallurgist named Wilbur Franklin to "shoot himself in the head," after the scientist realized that Geller had tricked him. This statement was incorrect—Franklin had died of natural causes. In the same Japanese newspaper interview, Randi also called Geller a "sociopath." In 1990, Geller sued Randi in a Japanese court over the statements Randi had made in the Japanese newspaper. Randi did not participate in the trial, but in March 1993, the judge ruled against Randi, and awarded Geller 500,000 yen (at the time about US$4400). Randi initially refused to pay the amount. Geller later agreed not to pursue Randi for the money in a subsequent settlement with CSICOP. The newspaper did not escape so lightly, since it was forced to settle out of court for an amount reported as "a high six figure sum - in Dollars not Yen."
Randi later claimed that the phrase "shot himself in the head" was a metaphor lost in translation. However, Randi had made the same statement in English three years earlier in a Toronto newspaper: "The scientist shot himself after I showed him how the key bending trick was done."
In 1991, Randi commented that Uri Geller's public performances were of the same quality as those found on the backs of cereal boxes. Geller sued both Randi and CSICOP. CSICOP argued that the organization was not responsible for Randi's statements. The court agreed that including CSICOP was frivolous and dropped them from the action, leaving Randi to face the action alone. Geller was ordered to pay substantial damages to CSICOP. Randi and Geller subsequently settled their dispute out of court, the details of which have been kept confidential. The settlement also included an agreement that Geller would not pursue Randi for the award in the Japanese case, or other outstanding cases.
Other
Allison DuBois, on whose life the television series Medium was based, threatened Randi with legal action for using a photo of her from her website in his December 17, 2004 commentary without her permission. Randi removed the photo, and now uses a caricature of DuBois when mentioning her on his site, beginning with his December 23, 2005 commentary.
Late in 1996 Randi launched a libel suit against a Toronto-area psychic named Earl Gordon Curley. Curley had made multiple objectionable comments about Randi on Usenet. Despite prodding Randi via Usenet to sue (Curley's comments had implied that if Randi did not sue then his allegations must be true), Curley seemed entirely surprised when Randi actually retained Toronto's largest law firm and initiated legal proceedings. The suit was eventually dropped in 1998 when Earl Curley died suddenly at the age of 51.
Sniffex, producer of a dowsing bomb detection device, unsuccessfully sued Randi and the JREF in 2007. Sniffex sued Randi for his comments regarding a failed government test and the company was later investigated and charged with fraud.
Awards
World records
The following are Guinness records.
- Randi was in a sealed casket for an hour and 44 minutes, which broke Harry Houdini's record of one hour and 31 minutes set on August 5, 1926.
- Randi was encased in a block of ice for 55 minutes.
Bibliography
- A Magician in the Laboratory. (Forthcoming)
- An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, 1995, St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-15119-5 ()
- Conjuring, 1992 St. Martin's Press ISBN 0312097719
- Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions, 1982, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-198-3
- Houdini, His Life and Art. Putnam Pub Group (November 1976) ISBN 0448125528
- James Randi: Psychic Investigator, 1991, ISBN 1-85283-144-8
- Test Your ESP Potential. Dover Publications Inc. (31 Dec 1982) ISBN 0486242692
- The Faith Healers, 1987, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-369-2. (ISBN 0-87975-535-0 1989 edition) (Foreword by Carl Sagan)
- The Magic of Uri Geller, 1982, ISBN 0-345-24796-5 (later renamed The Truth About Uri Geller ISBN 0-87975-199-1)
- The Magic World of the Amazing Randi. Adams Media Corporation (September 1989) ISBN 1558509828
- The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer, 1990, Charles Scribner's Sons ISBN 0-684-19056-7 or ISBN 0-87975-830-9.
- Wrong! (Forthcoming)
TV and film
Actor
- Beyond Desire (1994) as the Coroner
- Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) .... 3rd Rope Holder ... aka Dead Funny
- Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread (1987) (TV)
- Ragtime (1981) (stunt coordinator: Houdini)
- Happy Days - "The Magic Show" (1978) as the Amazing Randi
- Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper (1974) as the Dentist/Executioner
- Wonderama (1955) (TV) as The Amazing Randi
Himself
- 20/20 ABC TV (May 11, 2007)
- A Question of Miracles (HBO) (1999)
- Anderson Cooper 360, CNN (January 19, 2007 and January 30, 2007)
- CBS This Morning (1990s)
- Exploring Psychic Powers Live (June 7 1989) (Hosted by Bill Bixby)
- Extraordinary People - The Million Dollar Mind Reader (September 2008).
- Fornemmelse for snyd (2003) TV Series (also archive footage)
- Houdini Dead Men Talking (Biography Channel)
- Horizon - (2002) TV Episode
- Inside Edition- (1991, 2006, and 2007) TV
- James Randi Budapesten - Hungarian documentary ()
- James Randi: Psychic Investigator (1991) (Open Media series for the ITV network)
- Larry King Live of CNN (June 5, 2001, September 3, 2001, and January 26, 2007)
- Magic (2004) (mini) TV Series
- Magic or Miracle (1983)
- Midday Show (Australia)(1990s)
- Mitä ihmettä? (2003) TV Series
- NOVA: Secrets of the Psychics (1993)
- Oprah Winfrey
- Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
- - Signs from Heaven (2005) TV Episode
- - ESP (2003) TV Episode
- - End of the World (2003) TV Episode
- Raitre TV Italy (1991)
- Scams, Schemes, and Scoundrels (A&E Special) (March 30, 1997)
- Secrets of the Super Psychics (Channel 4/The Learning Channel), produced by Open Media, 1997/8
- Spotlight on James Randi (2002) (TV)
- (Discovery Channel/Channel 4) (2003)
- The Art of Magic (1998) (TV)
- The Dave Patterson Show (1970s)
- The People are Talking (1980s)
- The Power of Belief (October 6, 1998) (ABC News Special) (TV)
- The Secret Cabaret (produced by Open Media for Channel 4 in the UK)
- The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (32 appearances between 1973 and 1993)
- The View ABC TV (1999)
- That's My Line (1980) (Appeared with James Hydrick)
- The Don Lane Show (1980)
- Today on NBC (1980s)
- Welt der Wunder – Kraft der Gedanken (January 2008)
- West 57th Street (1980s)
- Wild Wild Web (1999)
- ZDF German TV (2007)
- Zembla, 'De trucs van Char' (The tricks Char uses). (March 2008.)
See also
Footnotes
Books
External links
Official
Supportive
Media
- (November, 2007) from the BSAlert.com radio show where Mr. Randi discusses the TV show "Phenomenon," the current status of Uri Geller and his thoughts about whether society is becoming more or less superstitious.*
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- from ABC News
- from the James Randi Educational Foundation
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Transcripts
Criticism
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