Episode 133: The Amazing Randi
Happy Pride! To celebrate we are going to discuss the magical and fabulous life of James Randi. One of the greatest magicians of the twentieth century, and a skeptical investigator without equal. From precocious beginnings in Canada, to the television screen, he battled misinformation and scammer "hoo-ha peddlers". And along the way he will test the boundaries of what it takes to bring honesty to a world of lies. So grab a few spoons, some strong rope, and your skepticals. Things are about to become AMAZING!
As always, please come join the episode discussion on the Least Haunted Discord!
Enjoy the images and videos below!
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928) Seen here at age 26 breaking Houdini's record on time spent in a submerged coffin.
Performing as The Amazing Randi, he specialized in escapism, that is, he would escape from things.
Uri Geller, (born 20 December 1946) an Israeli "Psychic" and master of "psychokinesis" who claimed he could bend and break metal with his mind. His preferred medium was spoons. He fooled researchers at Stanford University with his tricks, namely the bending of spoons, and gained minor celebrity.
The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson was one of the most important shows in American pop culture for decades. In 1972, Carson arranged to have Uri Geller on as a guest. Unbeknownst to Geller, was that Carson was good friends with James Randi, and called him up for advice before the show...
Using tips the James Randi gave, Johnny was able to prevent Uri Geller from displaying any form of psychic powers. This would lead to a lifelong nemesis battle between Geller and Randi.
For his next trick, Randi teamed up with two young and very talented men who were very skilled self taught spoon benders and magicians. This was Project Alpha, where Randi would place his two ringers in the center of a 4 year experiment into Psychical Phenomena at the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research (Mac Lab).
For nearly four years, with his secret coaching, the duo of Steve Shaw, and Mike Edwards, fooled scientists in a laboratory type setting. This was easy to achieve, as Randi had tried to warn the Mac Lab in advance and gave them a list of 11 things that could be done to prevent magicians from falsifying psychic powers. None of which were vigorously implemented by the lab. The whole ruse was revealed in a televised press conference. Project Alpha led to much criticism of Randi and his methods, with debate of how ethical the ruse was. Randi maintained that the deception was for the greater good, and justifiable.
Cody even learned spoon bending!
Peter Popoff, a televangelist and faith healer was James Randi's next target.
With the help of Steve Shaw (from Project Alpha) and a retired cop, Randi was able to figure out that Popoff was using an ear piece and radio to receive information about people in the audience that they themselves had provided in prayer cards.
As part of the scam, Popoff encouraged people to throw away life saving medications and instead give him money to be cured. After Randi exposed Popoff (with help from Johnny Carson again), Popoff briefly went bankrupt. But he would claw his way back to the top and continue to scam millions of dollars for decades through infomercials where he sold "Miracle Spring Water" from Chernobyl.
For his next trick, Randi would set out to perpetrate a hoax that could help disprove so called, "Channelers." Channelers claimed that they were being possessed by ancient human spirits tens of thousands of years old. So, Randi created "Carlos". Carlos was an ancient spirit who possessed the body of 19 year old José Alvarez.
Using Peter Popoff's radio trick, Randi fed lines and information to "Carlos" The hoax was created with the help of 60 Minutes Australia, and Randi and Alvarez went to Australia on a media tour with Carlos before revealing the whole scam on Australian TV.
In reality, Carlos was José Alvarez, a Puerto Rican artist, and James Randi's romantic partner. The two met at the Library in 1986, when Alvarez was 18, and Randi was nearing 60. Randi hid the fact publicly that he was gay until 2010 at the age of 81. He and José married in 2014.
However there was one thing, José was not really José. His real name was Davy, and he came from Venezuela. He had fled his home country for fear of his life due to his homosexuality, and had assumed the identity of José Alvarez. When this came to light in 2013, he was arrested and spent nine months in jail. He pled guilty, and was sentenced to "Time Served", 150 hours of community service, probation, house arrest, and a fine. He was also ineligible for legal citizenship.
The two stayed together until Randi's death at age 92 in 2020.
James Radni was an original founding member of CSI, The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
As well as a founder of CSI's affiliated magazine, Skeptical Inquirer.
He also founded The James Randi Educational Foundation, which promotes skeptical inquiry, scientific literacy, and science education. The JREF also famously offered the "James Randi $1million Prize" to anyone who could prove psychic abilities in a laboratory environment and to terms agreed upon by both parties. The Prize was never won, and the challenge was eventually retired with the prize money being donated to various charities and organizations.
