Why Uri Geller hasn't been debunked and James Randi is wrong - See these links and videosOctober 15, 2008 1 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you've been brainwashed by James Randi that Uri Geller has never performed under controlled conditions or that no scientist or magician thinks that Geller is real, which he declared on various news interviews that you can see on YouTube, see this video and the links below to get educated on the REAL facts that Randi has hidden from you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzKiODWx1gc
In this video, psychic spoon bender Uri Geller performs successfully under controlled conditions at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), conducted by scientists Hal Puthoff and Russell Targ back in 1973.
The results were published in Nature, the most highly accredited scientific journal, which concluded that Uri Geller did in fact pass controlled psychic tests that were double blinded.
You can see a copy of the report in Nature yourself here:
Here is what the scientists at SRI told the public media about the Geller experiments:
"We have observed certain phenomena with the subjects [including Geller] for which we have no scientific explanation. " "As a result of Geller's success in this experimental period, we consider that he has demonstrated his paranormal, perceptual ability in a convincing and unambiguous manner."(The results of these experiments were published in the respected British journal Nature,Vol. 251, No. 5). Dr Harold Puthoff and Russell Targ (Stanford Research Institute - California, U.S.A.)
"Laser physicists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff of Menlo Park's Stanford Research Institute admit their kind of research invites chicanery and trickery. They have taken special precautions, they said, to conduct the Stanford Research experiments under doubly strict laboratory conditions." "Under these conditions, they said, no magician has beenable to duplicate through trickery the psychic feat performed by Geller and others. Some won't even try." Los Angeles Times, Monday July 28, 1975
Remember folks, Puthoff and Targ were there and conducted the double blind controlled experiments. Randi wasn't, so he can only guess and remain in denial.
Regarding Randi, Puthoff himself told me this:
"Again, these claims of inadequate controls are generally just repeats of what Randi says. The truth of the matter is that none of Randi's claimed suspected inadequate controls actually had anything to do with the experiments, which of course Randi was not there to know of. This has been independently reported by Scott Rogo somewhere in the literature, who came out specifically to check each of Randi's guesses about inadequate controls and found them inapplicable under the conditions in which the tests were conducted. In fact, all of Randi's suggestions were amateurish compared to the sophisticated steps we took, suspecting as we did everything from magician's tricks to an Israeli intelligence scam."
To see a long list of quotes from REAL scientists who tested Geller and testify that he is for real, see here:
So you see, Randi's claim on "This Morning" that no scientist considers Uri Geller to be psychic was flat out wrong. The evidence in these quotes is overwhelming and impressive.
And to see what magicians have said about Uri Geller, click here:
So you see, Randi's claim in his Town Meeting speech that no magicians consider Geller to be real, was false again.
Thank you for watching, and I hope I've enlightened you on the facts vs. Randi's misinformation.
I have been a researcher, explorer and debater of the paranormal for years. To see my full treatise debunking the major arguments used by paranormal skeptics and debunkers, go to this link on my home page:
BOOK AHEAD OF ITS TIME!September 7, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
JAMES RANDI has a knack for presenting his case. He proves/disproves soo many well accepted Myths easily and rationally. His humor in doing so makes this book easier to read and I recommend it to anyone interested in the curious.
Prometheus Gave Us Fire, Randi Gave Us Common SenseAugust 17, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
So many situations have arisen in popular Western culture that drag normally intelligent people into improbable beliefs and inane superstition. Thankfully, there are a paths to the truth along the way that can steer us clear of hoax and paranoia. "Flim-Flam" is one of many books by James Randi that lights the path to the willing who wish to use critical thought rather than supernatural explanation in the face of phonies. The Amazing Randi, a trained magician and entertainer, analyzes one hoax after another throughout the book, scientifically explaining the most probable cause of the "phenomena" in question. And the most probable cause is never paranormal. This is a great book for anyone who wishes to use critical thought and review to arrive at the most logical answer to a question. It exposes the reader to the fact that masses are often misled or defrauded by charlatans and deludes and ultimately teaches how to apply reason and logic to a situation. Randi is a great American and humanitarian and "Flim-Flam" is a marvelous book for any scholar or casual reader.
Out of TimeJanuary 7, 2008 5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Having been born in the 80's and relatively insulated from the majority of the claims presented in the book, I can honestly say that Randi's book is still useful today, if only as a guidebook to the past. If those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, then those who do not read Randi's book are doomed to fall prey to such nonsense as fake fairies and aliens who provide blueprints on rocks of open-heart surgery.
Randi has been blasted for his hectoring tone and disdain for the believers he deals with. I am sympathetic to both points, but fall more on the side of Randi than the dissenters. I cannot believe that I would be any more polite than Randi, faced with the sheer, uncomprehending stupidity he assaults on a daily basis. Consider all the followers who believe Randi to be the 'real thing' because he can duplicate the tricks of the psychics - even in the face of his insistence that he is no psychic, no messiah. How frustrating that would be! Or read his Faith Healers book and see the hundreds of people he has watched go off their medications on the say so of some charlatan, only to die weeks later. How can he NOT be angry, frustrated, furious at the charlatans who steal and lie and kill, and - yes - even against their uncritical followers who provide them the necessary media attention to perform more and more damage to the human race as a whole. Randi is no saint or angel, but a saint or angel is not needed or wanted here. What is needed is a man wielding the two sledgehammers of logic and stage-magic, and Randi provides this, superbly. We owe him, if nothing else, a great debt of gratitude, for unveiling those tricks that your eyes or mine could not on their own pierce.
Crazy this woo-woo stuff still live on!November 23, 2007 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an 'old' book, especially in the internet information age. The biggest surprise for me, is that most of the things James Randi describes are still around. People are still misled, some of them as 'victims', some actually believing they have special powers, knowledge or insights. There is way more information available than when this book was written, but that does not seem to help people to become any smarter.
The best reason to read this book, is because it shows the compasion and motivations of a skeptic. Not being a sour debunker for the sake of it, but someone who wishes people get their power and life assurrances from the wonderful world we live in, instead of an imagined one that should exist next to it. And someone who will not let people make fools of others, and especially when that is done to gain vast amounts of money. Or not-earned grandure.An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
