PROFILE: JAMES RANDI SQ1 I antibodies. Then there are maruey eons and Martin Fleischmann's pronounce- sion and John E. Approved For Rer@e 2fi03/0_b/ 6: CIA-RDP96-00791 FVYMA Aut-versity, who con- cludes that some adolescents really A Skepticafly Inquiring Mind were abducted by UFOs. Some suspicious assertions, though, ou communist pervert creep. by mind alone, Randi sprh-ilded bits of Breakfast at the San Jose Holiday Styrofoarn around the book, figuring Y Inn restaurant has continued for that the trickster was actually flipping more than three hours now, and it be- the pages by exhaling discreetly. A comes dear why such letter salutations breath would disturb the Styrofoam. are common for James "The Amazing" Sure enough, the man balked. "You carft Randi. Despite a kindly appearance- slip a trick by Randi," observes Barry he resembles a trimmer and shorter Karr, the executive director of CSICOP. Santa Claus-sacks full of hate mail ar- Despite exposing charlatans, Randi rive at his door routinely. "Really vitri- does not hesitate to practice some flum- olic stuff," he comments, "and then mery. In explaining the art of decep- they're signed, 'Yours in Christ."' tion, he is all too ready to bend a couple Threats of death only make him testy, of spoons and to make sugar packets though. He invited one such letter writ- and crurnpled paper napkins disappear. er to a lecture and punched him in the mouth. "I don't take crap from people. I did for a long time in my life. I'm not the nice little boy anymore." The 66-year-old Randi is an expert on crap. "I lecture on bullshit," he explains by way of indicating his main source of in- come. The former professional magician has become perhaps the world's leading investigator of pseudoscientific and para- normal claims. His targets have included faith healers, psychics, dowsers and other charlatans. He has been drafted to -owek explore 4, homeopathic results and per- petual motion machines. Along the way he helped to found the Cormnittee for the Scientific In- vestigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), a skeptics organization based in Amherst, THE AMAZING RANDI exposes all manner of pseudo- N.Y., which publishes the bi- science and the paranormal. monthly Skeptical Inquirer. Years of performing magic-he has "I'd take that as proof of divinity my- accumulated innumerable television ap- self," he deadpans and suggests I pock- pearances, including more than 30 on et the damaged utensils, in case the du- the Tonight Show-have equipped Ran- tiful waiter who keeps hovering about di with a useful skill: "I have a peculiar notices. expertise that enables me to do two Not that scientists should be taught things very well. I know how people are magic tricks. "But what they should deceived, and I know how people de- know," Randi insists, "is that there are ceive themselves." Unlike scientists, things beyond their expertise." Too Randi points out, magicians are taught many academics think they are too methods of trickery. Scientists think smart to be fooled. "Physicists are most logically, but the swindler does not, and easily deceived, because they deal in a like a magician, "he gives you lots of real world of objects," Randi says, not- very good evidence that's false. A magi- ing that their natural inclination is to cian doesn't say, 'This is an empty box.' take anomalies as discoveries rather He drops the box on the stage, and it than as hoaxes. sounds like an empty box." Of course, scientists fall prey to self- Because Randi understands such mis- delusion as readily as anyone else. direction, he can devise countermea- Jacques Benveniste of the University of sures. To expose a fellow who claimed Paris-South claimed that water could to turn the pages of a telephone book "remember" the molecular structure of cannot be debunked easily. Physicist Robert Jahn of Princeton University has found that people seem to be able to in- fluence the outcomes of a random-num- ber generator by mere thought. Randi suggests that the key to this teleldnetic claim may lie with Brenda Dume, Jahn's chief investigator, who is well known in the parapsychology field. "She's not very cooperative. She won't let people see the program or allow them to inter-' fere with the protocol. I think it raises, certain doubts whether these experi- ments will ever be replicated," Randi opines. "It is such a big experi- ment. Nobody in the skeptics field can afford to do it." Such practical limits might only exacerbate the current re- surg4@fice of belief in the para- normal. "The communications media have made it available to everyone," Randi observes. He cites a self-proclaimed psychic who calls himself "The Great Samaritan." Advertising on Spanish-language television, he asks viewers to dial a 900 num- ber for psychic advice. With caller-identification technology and banks of networked com- puters at their disposal, opera- tors can obtain financial and health records, convincing their unsuspecting callers of their as- trological prowess. The economic cost of such exploitation is difficult to ascer- tain, but Randi believes it amounts to hundreds of mil- lions of dollars in faith healing alone. In rooting through nearby dumpsters after one such show, he found many 5 5 checks-apparently too small a sum to bother depositing, given the suitcases full of cash that had just been loaded into the Limousine. So profitable is the field and so pow- erful is the allure of the paranormal that exposed psychics can easily set up shop again. A case in point is the faith healer Reverend Peter Popoff, whom Randi defrocked in 1986. Randi inter- cepted and taped radio transmissions from Popoffs wife to her husband as he worked the audience and "read" their minds. His wife had previously inter- viewed these people and was directing her husband, who wore a concealed ear- phone. Obscenities, insults and jokes fill the tape. "A guy showed up with tes- 34 Scm=ic AmEmcAN July 1995 Approved For Release@2.oo ticffar cancer, and he' cr OARAudes. "You ARg%yQ,D they're laughing at him," Randi exclaims. a small step. "Theyre both part of the have to be totally dedicated and be a After the California Attorney General's same thing," Randi says, Even so, his little obsessed." Office declined to shut down the min- first investigation, at age 15, got mixed And being such an outspoken critic istry (citing the separation of church results. An evangelist at a local church does have its drawbacks. He has been and state), Randi appealed to a higher was apparently answering sealed re- sued several times for allegedly defam- authority: Johnny Carson. Public expo- quests from his congregation by men- atory comments, the most notorious sure of the tape eventually forced Pop- tally reading the contents. "He was do- about spoon-bender Uri Geller. In an off into bankruptcy. ing the one-ahead method," deduced newspaper interview, Randi claimed "But now Popoff is back in business," Randi, who stormed to the pulpit and that Geller's abilities derived from the Randi laments. "There's no continuing fished out the last opened envelope to kinds of tricks printed on cereal boxes. agency or law that will stop him from show that the preacher was answering Geller sued both Randi and CSICOP. "In doing the same thing all over again." A the previous question, not the one in my opinion, he was getting desperate change in the name of the ministry and the sealed envelope. For his troubles, for funds," Randi remarks. "He thought a new location are all that is needed. he was roundly booed and escorted to he would always be able to make a liv- Many people reject scientific thinking the police station. "At that moment, I ing by bending spoons. A dumb profes- because science deals with probabilities, became determined that I was going to sion if I ever heard of it." The courts not black-and-white answers. Randi spend some time doing this. One of ruled in favor of the skeptics and or- finds that devotees of faith healers these days, they will listen," Randi dered Geller to pay $150,000 in sanc- mostly watch soap operas and pro- tions. This past March, CSICOP an- fessional "wrestling" because those nounced that it had settled with programs provide definitive out- Geller for somewhat less than that comes. "You will be amused at your amount. own expense if in the long run you The legal actior@ however, has had don't take them seriously," he warns. some negative impact. "These law- "These are facts of life for very many suits from psychics have wiped me people." A case in point is his own out financially," Randi complains. brother. "He believes in cuckoo That includes the $272,000 MacAr- stuff," Randi remarks of the sibling W thur fellowship he received in 1986. with whom he has largely lost touch. The lawsuits have also made Randi Randi developed his skepticism more circumspect in his declara- early in life. A child prodigy, Randall tions. "I am being more careful about James Hamilton Zwinge was given what I say," he concedes. "I have a permission at age 12 to study inde- right to an opinion-it just depends pendently out of the classroom. He on how it's phrased." Others seem used the opportunity to his advan- equally cautious: CSICOP relies on tage, wandering the streets of his prepared statements rather than native Toronto and venturing into a any verbal comment. theater where he witnessed magi- 71 Perhaps more disconcerting for cian Harry Blackstone, Sr., levitating Randi are his sour feelings for CSI- a woman. "I remember categorizing COP. "They got wimpy on me," Ran- it," Randi states. "Either it was some di groans. "They essentially forced sort of misperception, or some sort 2 me to resign. They were afraid of of mechanical or physical trick." i my continuing to make statements Trips to the library and mentoring E. about Geller." The official policy of by Blackstone enabled Randi to de- the organization is that individual velop his own conjuring abilities. MAGIC AND DEBUNKING are essentially the members do not speak for the group. Those skills served him well. "I same thing, notes Randi as he levItates some As a result, CSICOP's insurance com- didn't find much point in graduat- dice- at least momentailly. pany has been balking at recouping ing, because I had met several peo- Randi's losses, although he is cur- ple ahead of me at the University of vowed. "And by golly, they are listening." rently tying to recover some cash. Toronto, and they didn't seem to know Debunking occupies most of Randi's Randi is unsure if he wants to rejoin how to think, how to originate materi- time. "Nature abhors a vacuum; Randi CSICOP. "I never heard any kind of ad- 'T," Randi explains. "That was not my a abhors free time," he sums up. "I've got ssion that they had cut me adrift, de- mi idea of an education." Instead a 17-year- a busy life ahead and so many projects serted me when I needed them," Randi old Randi joined a traveling carnival, in under way. The minute before I die, I becomes somewhat philosophical. "Hey, part to overcome his acute shyness: want to be exceedingly annoyed over I'm not complaining, believe me," he "The most difficult thing to do," he rea- the fact that I've got a lot of unfinished says. "I consider CSICOP my baby. I'm soned, "would be to face an audience." projects. That's going to be a happy happy it's in good hands, and I'll al- He became known as Prince Ibis, a time for me." ways do anything for the committee to mentalist who wore "a funny black tur- For Randi, the rewards for a hectic promote it." ban," Randi recalls. "I just about died. It schedule come in the appreciation he It is almost noon. Feeling a bit guilty was a terrible experience, having to walk feels from young people, many of about the damaged flatware, I leave a out in front of a really savage crowd." whom beat a path to his Florida home larger than usual tip. I wonder what to Nevertheless, he stuck with it and soon in the hopes of following in his foot- say to airport security if the bent spoons graduated to the nightclub circuit, even- steps. But the skeptic has not found set off the metal detector. "Do what I tually adopting his stage name and any suitable prot6g6s. "You have to be do," Randi advises. "Tell them it's a legally becoming James RandL a little nuts to fly in the face of what is hobby." -Philip Yam Approved For Release 2003/09/16: CIA-RDP96-OglfflEMaRM&tMOA2y399.5 35