An Honest Liar

[SummerLite]

I watched this film this evening and think the subject matter will interest members of the forum. A master of deception, the magician James Randy, has devoted much of his life to exposing how people are being deceived by faith healers, psychics and channelers, the New Age is mentioned. I thought the segments on Uri Geller where especially interesting. Randy considered Geller a complete fraud and was appalled he was given verification by the scientific community. He devised a plan to infiltrate scientific studies with fake spoon benders and pulled it off beautifully thus showing how even the scientists where being fooled. Randy is a man passionate about exposing how people are being deceived for he sees it to be very damaging. Wishful thinking and peoples "need to believe" even in lies is touched upon. Showing people the truth or questioning their idols can make people vicious as you see towards the end in one short segment.

I watched a few more clips on youtube about him and he doesn't believe in an afterlife it seems. The main criticism I gathered was he is very closed minded about the existence of phi phenomenon etc. But that doesn't detract from the work he's done exposing the charlatans and the study of how people can so easily be deceived.

The first act of the film follows the early life and professional triumphs of Canadian illusionist, magician, escape artist, and all-around liar James Randi. Many people considered Randi to be the successor of Houdini and he built a career for himself by emulating and recreating many of the master’s famous stunts. He was a regular guest on all the popular 20th century talk shows and toured the nation.

trailer - https://youtu.be/KYaddaNQH5s Seen on Netflix

I see the entire film is on youtube, -https://youtu.be/M9w7jHYriFo

 

[no-mans-land]

James Randi might have some good ideas of how easy people can be deceived, but I think his actions do way more damage than good.

He is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation and he also initiated "The Million Dollar Challenge" that states:

The James Randi Educational Foundation will pay US$1,000,000 (One Million US Dollars) ("The Prize") to any person who demonstrates any psychic, supernatural, or paranormal ability under satisfactory observation. Such demonstration must take place under the rules and limitations described in this document. An applicant can be from or in any part of the world. Gender, race, and educational background are not factors for acceptance. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and legally able to enter into binding agreements.

_http://web.randi.org/the-million-dollar-challenge.html

As you can imagine, a whole lot of people already tried it and, of course, failed. But the point is, the persons are carefully selected and the testing protocol will be arbitrarily modified whenever it suits until the person fails. I followed James Randi in my earlier years and thought he is doing a good job, give those weirdos a hard time. I really believed he is a honest guy who would accept supernatural phenomena if he could prove it under his own criteria. But well, like Michael Prescott said:

Let us see what conclusions Michael Presott could draw from his in-depth investigation. And remember this article only summarize the most important parts of Prescott’s article.
Michael Prescott: ”So what have we learned? Even after an applicant has succeded in qualifying for the challenge – which is clearly no easy task – he can still be rejected at any time for ‘negative behavior.’ Acting as judge and jury, JREF can dismiss any applicant for being ‘rude’ or ‘hostile’ or even for suggesting that JREF itself is misbehaving. Evidently, any criticism of JREF’s procedures can also be grounds for dismissal.”
”At every stage of the process, the applicant finds himself facing long odds – and not just because he may or may have the ability to demonstrate a paranormal phenomenon. The application process is arduous and time-consuming, often requiring multiple resubmissions over a period of months or even years. Applicants can be rejected for virtually any reason, including the ‘incredible’ nature of their claims.”
”Applicants may be placed in the position of trying to prove they are not mentally ill. Applicants are effectively muzzled from criticizing JREF or Randi either publicly or privately, and may be dismissed at any time for a variety of offenses subjectively determined by JREF administrators, including rudeness and ‘sap[ping] JREF resources.’ ”
”JREF is the final authority in all cases; there is no mediator and no appeal. Since no lists of applicants and outcomes have been made available on the Internet by JREF, and since Randi himself does not seem to know the number of claimants who’ve actually been tested, we can only guess at how many people succeed in reaching even the preliminary testing stage. By Randi’s own estimate, the number is small, with the ”vast majority” of applicants failing to negotiate the application process, or dropping out or being dismissed before the test is attempted.”

_http://newsvoice.se/2010/05/02/james-randi-and-his-one-million-dollar-challenge-fraud/

I mean, a simple remote viewing protocol can prove it. If one want more, let a group do a remote viewing session on the same target and you have the proof. There is just no debate possible and even James Randi must be aware of it (since he just reject "remote viewing" as a proof). He is a pure materialistic mind, fighting against everything that might indicate a world above ones perception and his manyfold offshoot organizations (like the "Brights" here in Germany) are magnets for such people who love to hunt the "crackpots" down and destroy their lives. While they indeed find frauds everywhere, it would be wrong to say that they just "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" but they actively destroying and deceive the people just in the same way like the frauds they claim to fight against.

For me, James Randi is a poor man with no connection to the higher realms (higher self?), maybe an op with the rage inside himself that he never will have access to the beautiful and mysterious and so no one else should.

 

[SummerLite]

no-man's-land,

thanks for posting this added insight, certainly says a lot and describes Randi in a very different light. Somehow, I've missed hearing anything about him over the years and was surprised to see how many videos he has on youtube, a ton! What you say here elaborates on the small, quick impression I got while listening to a few others comments on him as mentioned. Much more to his story I see.

One comment that caught my attention, and perhaps this was in the movie, stated by Geller(?) "just because Randi can devise a trick, replicating the results of phi phenomenon, doesn't mean the actual event was false".

I did hear about the million dollar challenge way back, but nothing since and didn't know it came from him. So even though he is a man, so against and into exposing deception, he is actually very much caught in deception himself (and the movie says this in a more off hand way). His conviction that "this is all there is" is a big deception he promotes (if that is his view) and leads people to believe in lies also. Very bad indeed in peoples lives being damaged by him and his followers as you say.

Even so, it seems to me James Randi is presenting some very good information. Here is an example, a clip called "Archeology vs the Bible". Randi speaks of the book "The Myth of Nazareth" by Renee Psalm.(spelling?) This book explains the actual archeological evidence found at Nazareth and how it completely negates the story promoted by the religious fundamentalists. No evidence has ever been discovered that links this town as existing in the time of Jesus but a much later creation. It's stated, artifacts have been planted to prop up the Nazareth myth.

This clip was posted in 2010 and at the time a "Nazareth Village" was planned which does sound very much like a Disneyland enterprise, as Randi states.

I'm sure this is nothing new for the Bible scholars here but new to me.
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxEJHO8KIXY

p.s. One question I was left with after watching this movie is, is Geller a fake or not?

 

[SummerLite]

Another comment.

I watched the lengthy video on the mind reading computer devise invented by a man who it was implied won the $1,000,000,000 prize.

At the end it was shown to be a April Fools joke.... so spare yourself the time on that one if your of the mind to watch. It did have part of me going though, thinking it was real. . So a descent go at pulling people in.

 

[davey72]

This sounds interesting and reminds me of "Kumare" which i found in a thread on the forum. I suppose this phenomenon has a lot to do with projecting.