The Amazing Randi
A Life Story
Childhood
Investigations
Debunking and Challenges
Another notorious case was that of the television evangelist Peter Popoff, who claimed to have God-given mind-reading powers; Randi revealed Popoff's hidden methods in 1986. Randi saw a small plastic piece in his ear. Randi thought that a person that “heals people” and knows there illnesses should not need a hearing aid. Randi suspected that someone was reading Popoff the answers. He had an expert come in to try and interfere with the signal between the Popoff and the other person, there was a low chance but he did it . He heard Popoff's wife telling him Hello, Petey. I love you! I'm talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can't you're in trouble, 'cause I'm talking as well as I can!(see photo under the text to see Peter Popoff "healing" a man). He later went on to expose a crystal healer with rat poison,(see him do it with this link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApN8veicPI) and the magnetic man with baby powder,(see him do it with this link,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enpQzPOorVM). Randi had something called the million dollar challenge, any psychic that claimed to have mystical powers could come to him he would run a test on them with the help of his friend Stevie Shaw professionally known as Banachek to either witness real mystical powers or debunk yet another. Randi was the founder of CSICOP, The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Randi is one of the best known and most succesful "investigator" of the paranormal. Randi said"I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date." James Randi created something called Project Alpha. It was an elaborate hoax that began in 1979 and ended with its disclosure in 1981. It involved planting two fake psychics, Steve Shaw (now better known as Banachek) and Michael Edwards, into a paranormal research project. In spite the tight conditions of the tests the scientists found them to be real psychics even though they were just two kids that were excellent at what they did.
Controversy
Vocab (people)
Peter Popoff, Peter Popoff is a German American televangelist, self-proclaimed prophet and faith healer. He conducts revival meetings and once hosted a national television program. He initially rose to prominence in the 1980s.
Steve Shaw (Banachek), Steven Shaw, known professionally as Banachek, is a mentalist. He has written books on mentalism and has invented various magic and mentalism effects, including the Penn & Teller bullet catch and the original "buried alive" stunt.
Michael Edwards, Michael Edwards was one of the fake psychics in project alpha who was accompanied by Steven Shaw
Fun Facts
- In 1978 he received the garden state magicians award
- In 1977 he was awarded “best visiting magician of the year” by the academy of magical arts and sciences at the Magic Castle Hollywood.
- In 1975 he by special request by first lady Betty Ford performed at the white house to entertain the children of foreign diplomats for the holidays.
- In 1981 he received the certificate of appreciation from the MIT club of Boston and the designation master of magic from Hocus pocus magazine.
Books and Publications
The Magic of Uri Geller (1975)
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions (1982)
The Mask of Nostradamus (1990)
Conjuring (1992)
- Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (1995).
(take note he has written more books than this, this is just a small selection of some of his more famous books)
Quotes
- "Feeling better is not actually being better", James Randi
- "A quick example of that is a woman who said she'd been healed of throat cancer where the faith healer admitted he touched her on the forehead.", James Randi
- "The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment.", James Randi