The Amazing Randi

[BikerDude]

Cool old dude.

https://nerdist.com/nerdist-podcast-the-amazing-randi/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_I8aXrRAVA

[DigitalBuddha]

I like when he takes on people claiming to read minds!

[BikerDude]

I like when he takes on people claiming to read minds!

And televangelists.
Some who are still doing their thing.
I love how he calls Popoff an "unsinkable rubber duck".
It's really amazing. Popoff still has a national TV show where he continues to sell "magic water" and other nonsense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7BQKu0YP8Y

Shameless absolutely shameless. Still going strong capitalizing on people's sad pathetic trust.
I wouldn't mind if somebody called in an air strike.
https://peterpopoff.org/

And of course it's classic to watch Uri Geller squirm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9w7jHYriFo

[Reverend Al]

I first heard of James Randi when he toured and performed with Alice Cooper in 1973, and designed and built the guillotine (and other props) used in Alice's show.  He has always been upfront and very candid about the fact that what he does is nothing more than illusion and trickery, and I think it's brilliant that he uses his skills to expose those who are less-than-honest about being charlatans.  Fabulous stuff, man.

[Intwenathor]

I really enjoyed the documentatry on this guy that was on Storyville (part of BBC4) Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds. Interesting to see that the centre of the guy's life was a deception. It would seem for the right reasons, but somewhat ironic.

I have played around with card tricks to no great level, but I used to get some amusing reactions. Just used to stroll out with a deck of cards and see who i would bump into in bars. I stopped doing it because I was coming across some very undude behaviour. A lot of people can't get their head around the concept of taking enjoyment from making a stranger laugh, and so I got tired of the human paraquat.

Derren Brown in the Uk has done a lot of very similar stuff, particularly with a program called Messiah, where he seemed to combined the exposure of someone like Popof with the psychic fraud he pulled off with Banachek by creating his own fake evangelist.

[Sean_McDude1988]

I don't know man. There has been some pretty interesting success in terms of "psychic" activity in the mind. Lots of experiences and actually lots of scientifically validated studies. "The Conscious Universe" goes over some of that stuff which I found fucking interesting. I'm not into Randi's undudeness because he's extremely uptight about condemning people who believe in psychics etc. I don't think the argument for a particular psychic's validity really matters. What matters to me is how Randi goes about it and he can be pretty vicious. Same with Richard Dawkins in my experience. Very uptight folks.  Sometimes downright reactionaries.

[Reverend Al]

I don't know man. There has been some pretty interesting success in terms of "psychic" activity in the mind. Lots of experiences and actually lots of scientifically validated studies. "The Conscious Universe" goes over some of that stuff which I found fucking interesting. I'm not into Randi's undudeness because he's extremely uptight about condemning people who believe in psychics etc. I don't think the argument for a particular psychic's validity really matters. What matters to me is how Randi goes about it and he can be pretty vicious. Same with Richard Dawkins in my experience. Very uptight folks.  Sometimes downright reactionaries.

The thing is, Randi isn't just a non-believer, he's a dis-believer.  Like Harry Houdini, and others like him, Randi is convinced there is no such thing as psychic abilities and has made it his mission to prove he's right.  So far he's "targeted" people who are making a lot of money from their "psychic" abilities, and I think he believes he's doing it for the "greater good" to protect people from being taken in and getting ripped of by "psychics" who truly are nothing more than charlatans.  What his root motivations are and why he's so dogged about his quest I have no idea, but it's pretty clear that he hasn't yet encountered anyone whose abilities he couldn't explain.

That said, in my nearly 54 years on this planet I've met two people in my life who I believe have valid psychic abilities, one of whom has been a very close friend to my wife and I for a little more than 20 years now.  I won't bore you with long detailed anecdotes because I'm not trying to convince anyone else that psychic abilities exist.  I'm simply saying I believe there are some people who are somehow plugged into the universe, and I can say from personal experience that their "predictions" are rarely about true love and financial gain.