American magician and debunker of people who claim to be psychic, James Randi, has passed away at the age of 92. His foundation, The James Randi Educational Foundation, reports that he has succumbed to aging ailments. In recent years he has been treated for cancer and heart problems, among other things.
Randall James Zwinge started his long career in his teens in Canada as a magician and king of cuffs. He was best known internationally as a skeptic of all things paranormal. “Everything you’ve seen here is tricks,” he always emphasized after his spectacular magic shows with Houdini-esque escapes. “Nothing supernatural is involved.”
He also forced his transparency about his own arts on fellow magicians, who sometimes pretended to have superhuman abilities. “I see people being ripped off daily by medical quackery, fraud, and mediums,” Randi said years ago of his debunking work. “I know they are being cheated because I know what methods are being used”.
Uri Geller
Randi’s most famous target was the Israeli “mentalist” Uri Geller, who was a guest of 1972 The Tonight Show. Geller was famous at the time for the psychic abilities he said he possessed. One of his regular tricks was to bend spoons, he says with his mind. Randi thought he was a con man and was determined to expose him on camera.
This was achieved by keeping Geller away from his spoons behind the scenes until the beginning of the TV program. The ‘mentalist’ was therefore unable to tamper with the spoons beforehand, with the result that all of Geller’s tricks on TV failed that evening.
Million dollars
For more than sixty years, Randi offered a million dollars to be the first to convince him of the paranormal or pseudoscientific. That never worked, and it frustrated him that some of his peers nevertheless insisted on being psychic.
He remained negative about Uri Geller. This became apparent, for example, when he was asked before his death what his last wishes were and what should be done with his ashes. “My best friend has been instructed to sprinkle the ashes in Uri Gellers’ eyes. That seems appropriate,” he said.
–
