James Randi

James Randi
Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge
(1928-08-07) August 7, 1928
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality Canadian
American (naturalized)
Occupation Magician, illusionist, writer, skeptic
Spouse(s) Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga (m. 2013)[1]
Website www.randi.org
Signature

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928) is a Canadian-American retired stage magician and a scientific skeptic[2][3][4] who has extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.[5] Randi is the co-founder of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) and the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF). He began his career as a magician under the stage name The Amazing Randi and later chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo".[6] Randi retired from practicing magic aged 60, and from the JREF aged 87.

Although often referred to as a "debunker", Randi has said he dislikes the term's connotations and prefers to describe himself as an "investigator".[7] He has written about paranormal phenomena, skepticism, and the history of magic. He was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was occasionally featured on the television program Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Prior to Randi's retirement, JREF sponsored the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which offered a prize of US$1,000,000 to eligible applicants who could demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event under test conditions agreed to by both parties.[8] The paranormal challenge was officially terminated by the JREF in 2015.[9] The foundation continues to make grants to non-profit groups that encourage critical thinking and a fact-based world view.

Early life

Randi was born on August 7, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,[10] the son of Marie Alice (née Paradis) and George Randall Zwinge.[10] He has a younger brother and sister.[11] He took up magic after seeing Harry Blackstone Sr.[12] and reading conjuring books while spending 13 months in a body cast following a bicycle accident. He confounded doctors who expected he would never walk again.[13] Randi often skipped classes and, at 17, dropped out of high school to perform as a conjurer in a carnival roadshow.[14] He practised as a mentalist in local nightclubs and at Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition and wrote for Montreal's tabloid press.[15]

In his twenties, Randi posed as an astrologer to establish that they were actually doing simple tricks and briefly wrote an astrological column in the Canadian tabloid Midnight under the name "Zo-ran" by simply shuffling up items from newspaper astrology columns and pasting them randomly into a column.[16][17] In his thirties, Randi worked in the UK, Europe, and Philippine nightclubs and all across Japan.[18] He witnessed many tricks that were presented as being supernatural. One of his earliest reported experiences is that of seeing an evangelist using a version of the "one-ahead"[19] technique to convince churchgoers of his divine powers.[20]

Career

Magician

Fork bent by Randi

Though defining himself as a conjuror, Randi began a career as a professional stage magician[21] and escapologist in 1946. Initially, he presented himself under his real name, Randall Zwinge, which he later dropped in favor of "The Amazing Randi". Early in his career, he performed numerous escape acts from jail cells and safes around the world. On February 7, 1956, he appeared live on NBC's Today show, where he remained for 104 minutes in a sealed metal coffin that had been submerged in a hotel swimming pool, breaking what was said to be Harry Houdini's record of 93 minutes, though Randi calls attention to the fact that he was very much younger than Houdini when the original record was established.[22][23]

In 1967–68, Randi hosted The Amazing Randi Show on New York radio station WOR.[24] This radio show, which filled Long John Nebel's old slot with similar content after Nebel went to WNBC in 1962, often invited guests who defended paranormal claims, among them Randi's then-friend James W. Moseley. Randi, in turn, spoke at Moseley's 1967 Fourth Congress of Scientific Ufologists in New York City,[25] stating, "Let's not fool ourselves. There are some garden variety liars involved in all this. But in among all the trash and nonsense perpetrated in the name of Ufology, I think there is a small grain of truth."[26]

Randi also hosted numerous television specials and went on several world tours. As "The Amazing Randi" he appeared regularly on the New York-based children's television series Wonderama from 1959 to 1967.[27] He also auditioned for a revival of the 1950s children's show The Magic Clown in 1970, which showed briefly in Detroit and in Kenya, but was never picked up.[28] In the February 2, 1974, issue of the British conjuring magazine Abracadabra, Randi, defining the community of magicians, stated: "I know of no calling which depends so much upon mutual trust and faith as does ours." In the December 2003 issue of The Linking Ring, the monthly publication of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, it is stated: "Perhaps Randi's ethics are what make him Amazing" and "The Amazing Randi not only talks the talk, he walks the walk."[29]

During Alice Cooper's 1973–1974 Billion Dollar Babies tour, Randi performed on stage both as a mad dentist and as Alice's executioner.[30] He also built several of the stage props, including the guillotine.[31] Shortly after that, in a 1976 performance for the Canadian TV special World of Wizards, Randi escaped from a straitjacket while suspended upside-down over Niagara Falls.[32]

Randi has been accused of actually using "psychic powers" to perform acts such as spoon bending. According to James Alcock, at a meeting where Randi was duplicating the performances of Uri Geller, a professor from the University at Buffalo shouted out that Randi was a fraud. Randi said: "Yes, indeed, I'm a trickster, I'm a cheat, I'm a charlatan, that's what I do for a living. Everything I've done here was by trickery." The professor shouted back: "That's not what I mean. You're a fraud because you're pretending to do these things through trickery, but you're actually using psychic powers and misleading us by not admitting it."[33] A similar event involved Senator Claiborne Pell, a believer in psychic phenomena. When Randi personally demonstrated to Pell that he could reveal—by simple trickery—a concealed drawing that had been secretly made by the senator, Pell refused to believe that it was a trick, saying: "I think Randi may be a psychic and doesn't realize it." Randi has consistently denied having any paranormal powers or abilities.[34]

Randi is a member of the Society of American Magicians (SAM), the International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM), and The Magic Circle in the UK, holding the rank of "Member of the Inner Magic Circle with Gold Star."[35]

Randi said the hardest people to fool are not the highly educated, but children, because they are not sophisticated enough to be fooled, as they have not learned the body cues that adults have learned and magicians take advantage of.[36]

Author

Randi is the author of ten books, among them Conjuring (1992), a biographical history of noted magicians. The book is subtitled Being a Definitive History of the Venerable Arts of Sorcery, Prestidigitation, Wizardry, Deception, & Chicanery and of the Mountebanks & Scoundrels Who have Perpetrated these Subterfuges on a Bewildered Public, in short, MAGIC! The book's cover says that it is by "James Randi, Esq., A Contrite Rascal Once Dedicated to these Wicked Practices but Now Almost Totally Reformed". The book selects the most influential magicians and tells some of their history, often in the context of strange deaths and careers on the road. This work expanded on Randi's second book titled Houdini, His Life and Art.[37] This illustrated work was published in 1976 and was co-authored with Bert Sugar. It focuses on the professional and private life of Houdini.[38]

Randi also wrote a children's book in 1989 titled The Magic World of the Amazing Randi, which introduced children to magic tricks. In addition to his magic books, he has written several educational works about paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. These include biographies of Uri Geller and Nostradamus as well as reference material on other major paranormal figures. He is currently working on A Magician in the Laboratory, which recounts his application of skepticism to science.[39][40] He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of his good friend Isaac Asimov's fictional group of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers.[41]

Other books are Flim-Flam! (1982), The Faith Healers (1987), James Randi, Psychic Investigator (1991), Test Your ESP Potential (1982) and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (1995).

Randi is a regular contributor to Skeptic magazine, penning the regular "'Twas Brillig…" column, and also serves on its editorial board. He is also a frequent contributor to Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which is published by CSI, of which he is also a fellow.

Skeptic

Randi entered the international spotlight in 1972 when he publicly challenged the claims of Uri Geller. He accused Geller of being nothing more than a charlatan and a fraud who used standard magic tricks to accomplish his allegedly paranormal feats, and he presented his claims in the book The Truth About Uri Geller (1982).[20][42][43]

In 1976, Randi, Martin Gardner and Ray Hyman founded the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), using donations and sales of their magazine, Skeptical Inquirer. They and secular humanist philosopher Paul Kurtz took seats on the executive board, with Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan joining as founding members. Randi traveled the world on behalf of CSICOP, becoming its public face, and according to Ray Hyman, the face of the skeptical movement.[44]

András G. Pintér called Randi the grandfather of European skepticism by virtue of Randi "playing a role in kickstarting several European organizations."[45]

Geller sued Randi and CSICOP for $15 million in 1991 and lost.[44][46] Geller's suit against the CSICOP was thrown out in 1995, and he was ordered to pay $120,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.[47] The legal costs Randi incurred ate through almost all of a $272,000 MacArthur Foundation grant awarded to Randi in 1986 for his work.[44] Randi also dismissed Uri Geller's claims that he was capable of the kind of psychic photography made famous by the case of Ted Serios. It is a matter, Randi argues, of trick photography using a simple hand-held optical device.[48] During the period of Geller's legal dispute, CSICOP's leadership, wanting to avoid becoming a target of Geller's litigation, demanded that Randi refrain from commenting on Geller. Randi refused and resigned, though he maintained a respectful relationship with the group, which in 2006 changed its name to the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). In 2010, Randi was one of 16 new CSI fellows elected by its board.[44][49]

Randi has gone on to write many articles criticizing beliefs and claims regarding the paranormal.[50] He has also demonstrated flaws in studies suggesting the existence of paranormal phenomena; in his Project Alpha hoax, Randi successfully planted two fake psychics in a privately funded psychic research experiment.[51] The hoax became a scandal and demonstrated the shortcomings of many paranormal research projects at the university level.

Randi has appeared on numerous TV shows, sometimes to directly debunk the claimed abilities of fellow guests. In a 1981 appearance on That's My Line, Randi appeared opposite claimed psychic James Hydrick, who said that he could move objects with his mind and appeared to demonstrate this claim on live television by turning a page in a telephone book without touching it.[52] Randi, having determined that Hydrick was surreptitiously blowing on the book, arranged foam packaging peanuts on the table in front of the telephone book for the demonstration. This prevented Hydrick from demonstrating his abilities, which would have been exposed when the blowing moved the packaging.[53] Randi writes that, eventually, Hydrick "confessed everything".[52]

Randi speaks at the 1983 CSICOP Conference in Buffalo, NY

Randi was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1986. The fellowship's five-year $272,000 grant helped support Randi's investigations of faith healers, including W. V. Grant, Ernest Angley, and Peter Popoff, whom Randi first exposed on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in February 1986. Hearing about his investigation of Popoff, Carson invited Randi onto his late-night TV show without seeing the evidence he was going to reveal. Carson appeared stunned after Randi showed a brief video segment from one of Popoff's broadcasts showing him calling out a woman in the audience, revealed personal information about her that he claimed came from God, and then performed a laying-on-of-hands healing to drive the devil from her body. Randi then replayed the video, but with some of the sound dubbed in that he and his investigating team captured during the event using a radio scanner and recorder. Their scanner had detected the radio frequency Popoff's wife Elizabeth was using backstage to broadcast directions and information to a miniature radio receiver hidden in Popoff's left ear. That information had been gathered by Popoff's assistants, who had handed out "prayer cards" to the audience before the show, instructing them to write down all the information Popoff would need to pray for them.[54][55][56]

The news coverage generated by Randi's exposé on The Tonight Show led to many TV stations dropping Popoff's TV show, eventually forcing him into bankruptcy in September 1987.[57] However, the televangelist returned to the airwaves soon after with faith healing infomercials that reportedly pulled in more than $23 million in 2005, from viewers sending in money for promised healing and prosperity. The Canadian Centre for Inquiry's Think Again! TV documented one of Popoff's more recent performances before a large audience who gathered in Toronto on May 26, 2011, hoping to be saved from illness and poverty.[58]

In February 1988, Randi tested the gullibility of the media by perpetrating a hoax of his own. By teaming up with Australia's 60 Minutes program and by releasing a fake press package, he built up publicity for a "spirit channeler" named Carlos[44] who was actually artist Jose Alvarez, a.k.a. Deyvi Peña, whom Randi described as a "friend". Randi would tell him what to say through sophisticated radio equipment. According to the 60 Minutes program on the Carlos hoax, "it was claimed that Alvarez would not have had the audience he did at the Opera House (and the potential sales therefrom) had the media coverage been more aggressive (and factual)", though an analysis by The Skeptic's Tim Mendham concluded that, while the media coverage of Alvarez's appearances was not credulous, "it [the hoax] at least showed that they could benefit by being a touch more sceptical".[59] The hoax was exposed on 60 Minutes Australia; "Carlos" and Randi explained how they had pulled it off.[60][61]

In his book The Faith Healers, Randi wrote that his anger and relentlessness arises out of compassion for the victims of fraud. Randi has also been critical of João de Deus (John of God), a self-proclaimed psychic surgeon who has received international attention.[62] Randi observed, referring to psychic surgery, "To any experienced conjurer, the methods by which these seeming miracles are produced are very obvious."[63]

Randi with (from left) Pip Smith, Dick Smith, Philip J. Klass (standing), Robert Sheaffer and John Merrell, at the 1983 CSICOP Conference in Buffalo, NY

In 1982, Randi verified the abilities of Arthur Lintgen, a Philadelphia physician who was able to identify the classical music recorded on a vinyl LP solely by examining the grooves on the record. However, Lintgen did not claim to have any paranormal ability, merely knowledge of the way that the groove forms patterns on particular recordings.[64]

In 1988, John Maddox, editor of the prominent UK science journal Nature asked Randi to join the supervision and observation of the homeopathy experiments conducted by Jacques Benveniste's team. Once Randi's stricter protocol concerning the experiment was in place, the positive results could not be reproduced.

James Randi stated that Daniel Dunglas Home, who could allegedly play an accordion that was locked in a cage without touching it, was caught cheating on a few occasions, but the incidents were never made public. He also stated that the actual instrument in use was a one-octave mouth organ concealed under Home's large moustache and that other one-octave mouth organs were found in Home's belongings after his death.[65] According to Randi, William Lindsay Gresham told Randi "around 1960" that he had seen these mouth organs in the Home collection at the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Eric J. Dingwall, who catalogued Home's collection on its arrival at the SPR does not record the presence of the mouth organs. According to Peter Lamont, the author of an extensive Home biography, "It is unlikely Dingwall would have missed these or did not make them public."[66]

Randi distinguishes between pseudoscience and crackpot science. He regards most of parapsychology as pseudoscience because of the way in which it is approached and conducted, but nonetheless sees it as a legitimate science that "must be pursued", and from which real scientific discoveries may develop.[67] Randi regards crackpot science as being as "equally wrong" as pseudoscience, but with no scientific pretensions.[68]

Exploring Psychic Powers... Live television show

Exploring Psychic Powers... Live was a television show aired live on June 7, 1989, wherein Randi examined several people claiming psychic powers. The show offered $100,000 (Randi's then $10,000 prize plus $90,000 put up by the show's syndicator, LBS Communications, Inc.[69]) to anyone who could demonstrate genuine psychic powers.

James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF)

In 1996, Randi established the James Randi Educational Foundation. Randi and his colleagues update JREF's blog, Swift. Topics have included the interesting mathematics of the one-seventh area triangle. In his weekly commentary, Randi often gives examples of what he considers the nonsense that he deals with every day.[71] Randi retired from active participation from the foundation in early 2015.[72]

2010s

James Randi with Skull Cane 2014

Randi has been regularly featured on many podcasts, including The Skeptics Society's official podcast Skepticality[73][74] and the Center for Inquiry's official podcast Point of Inquiry.[75] From September 2006 onwards, he has occasionally contributed to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast with a column titled "Randi Speaks."[76] In addition, The Amazing Show is a podcast in which Randi shares various anecdotes in an interview format.[77]

In 2014 Part2Filmworks released An Honest Liar, a feature film documentary, written by Tyler Measom and Greg O'Toole, and directed and produced by Measom and Justin Weinstein.[78] The film, which was funded through Kickstarter,[79] focuses on Randi's life, his investigations, and his relationship with longtime partner José Alvarez, a.k.a. Deyvi Peña.[78] The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival,[80] at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival,[81] and at the June 2014 AFI Docs Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature. It has since been captioned in eight different languages, shown worldwide, and was also positively received by critics.[82][83] The film was featured on the PBS Independent Lens series, shown in the U.S. and Canada, on March 28, 2016.[84]

Views on religion

Randi's parents were members of the Anglican Church but rarely attended services. He went to Sunday School a few times as a child but decided to stop going when he persisted in asking for proof of the teachings of the Church.[85]

In his essay "Why I Deny Religion, How Silly and Fantastic It Is, and Why I'm a Dedicated and Vociferous Bright," Randi, who identifies himself as an atheist,[86] has stated that many accounts in religious texts, including the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus Christ, and the parting of the Red Sea by Moses, are not believable. For example, Randi refers to the Virgin Mary as being "impregnated by a ghost of some sort, and as a result produced a son who could walk on water, raise the dead, turn water into wine, and multiply loaves of bread and fishes" and questions how Adam and Eve "could have two sons, one of whom killed the other, and yet managed to populate the earth without committing incest." He writes that, compared to the Bible, "The Wizard of Oz is more believable. And much more fun."[87]

However, he also highlights: "I’ve said it before: there are two sorts of atheists. One sort claims that there is no deity, the other claims that there is no evidence that proves the existence of a deity; I belong to the latter group, because if I were to claim that no god exists, I would have to produce evidence to establish that claim, and I cannot. Religious persons have by far the easier position; they say they believe in a deity because that’s their preference, and they’ve read it in a book. That’s their right."[86]

In An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (1995), he looks at a variety of spiritual practices skeptically. Of the meditation techniques of Guru Maharaj Ji he writes: "Only the very naive were convinced that they had been let in on some sort of celestial secret."[88] In 2003, he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.[89]

One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) offered a prize of US$1,000,000 to anyone able to demonstrate a supernatural ability under scientific testing criteria agreed to by both sides. Based on the paranormal challenges of John Nevil Maskelyne and Houdini, the foundation began in 1964, when Randi put up $1,000 of his own money payable to anyone who could provide objective proof of the paranormal.[90] The prize money grew to $1,000,000, and had formal published rules. No one progressed past the preliminary test, which was set up with parameters agreed to by both Randi and the applicant. He refused to accept any challengers who might suffer serious injury or death as a result of the testing.[91]

On April 1, 2007, it was ruled that only persons with an established, nationally recognized media profile and the backing of a reputable academic were allowed to apply for the challenge, in order to avoid wasting JREF resources on spurious claimants.[90]

On Larry King Live, March 6, 2001, Larry King asked Sylvia Browne if she would take the challenge and she agreed.[92] Randi appeared with Browne on Larry King Live six months later, and she again appeared to accept his challenge.[93] However, according to Randi, she ultimately refused to be tested, and the Randi Foundation kept a clock on its website recording the number of weeks since Browne allegedly accepted the challenge without following through, until Browne's death in November 2013.[94]

During another appearance on Larry King Live on June 5, 2001, Randi challenged Rosemary Altea to undergo testing for the million dollars, but Altea refused to address the question.[95] Instead Altea replied only, "I agree with what he says, that there are many, many people who claim to be spiritual mediums, they claim to talk to the dead. There are many people, we all know this. There are cheats and charlatans everywhere."[95] On January 26, 2007, Altea and Randi again appeared on the show, and Altea again refused to answer whether or not she would take the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.[96]

In October 2007, claimed psychic John Edward appeared on Headline Prime, hosted by Glenn Beck. When asked if he would take Randi's challenge, Edward responded, "It's funny. I was on Larry King Live once, and they asked me the same question. And I made a joke [then], and I'll say the same thing here: Why would I allow myself to be tested by somebody who's got an adjective as a first name?"[97]

Randi asked British businessman Jim McCormick, the inventor of the bogus ADE 651 bomb detector, to take the challenge in October 2008.[98] Randi called the ADE 651 "a useless quack device which cannot perform any other function than separating naive persons from their money. It's a fake, a scam, a swindle, and a blatant fraud. Prove me wrong and take the million dollars."[99] There was no response from McCormick.[100] According to Iraqi investigators, the ADE 651, which was corruptly sold to the Baghdad bomb squad, was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians who died as a result of terrorist bombs which were not detected at checkpoints. On April 23, 2013, McCormick was convicted of three counts of fraud at the Old Bailey in London,[101] and was subsequently sentenced to ten years imprisonment for his part in the ADE 651 scandal.[102]

A public log of past participants in the Million Dollar Challenge exists.[103] In 2015, the James Randi paranormal challenge was officially terminated.[104]

Randi has been involved in a variety of legal disputes but says that he has "never paid even one dollar or even one cent to anyone who ever sued me."[6] However, he says, he has paid out large sums to personally defend himself in these suits.

Uri Geller

Randi met magician Uri Geller in the early 1970s, and found Geller to be “Very charming. Likable, beautiful, affectionate, genuine, forward-going, handsome — everything!”[2] But Randi viewed Geller as a con-man, and began a long effort to expose him as a fraud.[2] According to Randi, Geller tried to sue him several times, accusing him of libel. Geller never won, save for a ruling in a Japanese court that ordered Randi to pay Geller one third of one percent of what Geller had requested. This ruling was canceled, and the matter dropped, when Geller decided to concentrate on another legal matter.[6][105]

In 1991, Randi commented that Uri Geller's public performances were of the same quality as those found on the backs of cereal boxes. Geller sued both Randi and CSICOP. CSICOP argued that the organization was not responsible for Randi's statements. The court agreed that including CSICOP was frivolous and dropped them from the action, leaving Randi to face the action alone, along with the legal costs. Geller was ordered to pay substantial damages, but only to CSICOP.[106][107] The matter was subsequently settled out of court, and the details of the settlement have been kept confidential. The settlement also included an agreement that Geller would not pursue Randi for the award in the Japanese case or other outstanding cases.

Other cases

In 1993, a jury in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore found Randi liable for defaming Eldon Byrd for calling him a child molester in a magazine story and a "shopping market molester" in a 1988 speech. However, the jury found that Byrd was not entitled to any monetary damages after hearing testimony that he had sexually molested and later married his sister-in-law. The jury also cleared the other defendant in the case, CSICOP.[108][109]

Late in 1996, Randi launched a libel suit against a Toronto-area psychic named Earl Gordon Curley.[110] Curley had made multiple objectionable comments about Randi on Usenet. Despite suggesting to Randi on Usenet that Randi should sue – Curley's comments implying that if Randi did not sue, then his allegations must be true – Curley seemed entirely surprised when Randi actually retained Toronto's largest law firm and initiated legal proceedings. The suit was eventually dropped in 1998 when Earl Curley died at the age of 51 of "alcohol toxicity."[111]

Allison DuBois, on whose life the television series Medium was based, threatened Randi with legal action for using a photo of her from her website in his December 17, 2004, commentary without her permission.[112] Randi removed the photo and subsequently used a caricature of DuBois when mentioning her on his site, beginning with his December 23, 2005, commentary.[113]

Sniffex, producer of a dowsing bomb detection device, sued Randi and the JREF in 2007 and lost.[114] Sniffex sued Randi for his comments regarding a government test in which the Sniffex device failed. The company was later investigated and charged with fraud.[114]

Personal life

When he hosted his own radio show in the 1960s, Randi lived in a small house in Rumson, New Jersey, that featured a sign on the premises that read: "Randi — charlatan". In 1986, Randi, who had recently relocated to Florida, met Venezuelan artist Deyvi Peña – who lived for many years under the assumed name José Alvarez, which is now his artist name – in a Fort Lauderdale public library. The two men eventually moved in together,[44] were married in Washington on July 2, 2013, with Randi turning 85 the next month[44][115][116][117] and today live in Plantation, Florida.[44][118]

In 1987, Randi became a naturalized citizen of the United States.[119] Randi has said that one reason he became an American citizen was an incident while he was on tour with Alice Cooper where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched the band's lockers during a performance. Nothing illicit or illegal was found, yet the RCMP trashed the room.[120]

In February 2006, Randi underwent coronary artery bypass surgery.[121] In early February 2006, he was declared to be in stable condition and "receiving excellent care" with his recovery proceeding well. The weekly commentary updates to his Web site were made by guests while he was hospitalized.[122] Randi recovered after his surgery and was able to help organize and attend the 2007 Amaz!ng Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, an annual convention of scientists, magicians, skeptics, atheists and freethinkers.[123]

Randi was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in June 2009.[124] He had a series of small tumors removed from his intestines during laparoscopic surgery. He announced the diagnosis a week later at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, as well as the fact that he was scheduled to begin chemotherapy in the following weeks.[125] He also said at the conference: "One day, I'm gonna die. That's all there is to it. Hey, it's too bad, but I've got to make room. I'm using a lot of oxygen and such — I think it's good use of oxygen myself, but of course, I'm a little prejudiced on the matter."[125]

Randi also said that, after his death he does not want his fans to bother with a museum of magic named after him or burying him in a fancy tomb. Instead, he said, "I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes blown in Uri Geller's eyes."[125] Randi underwent his final chemotherapy session on December 31, 2009, as he explained in a January 12, 2010, video in which he related that his chemotherapy experience was not as unpleasant as he had imagined it might be.[124] In a video posted April 12, 2010, Randi stated that he has been given a clean bill of health.[126]

In a March 21, 2010, blog entry, Randi came out as gay, a move he explained was inspired by seeing the 2008 biographical drama film Milk.[127][128]

Randi has never smoked, taken narcotics or become inebriated, because, as he has explained, "that can easily just fuzz the edges of my rationality, fuzz the edges of my reasoning powers, and I want to be as aware as I possibly can. That means giving up a lot of fantasies that might be comforting in some ways, but I'm willing to give that up in order to live in an actually real world."[44]

Political views

Randi is a registered Democrat. He proudly and openly wept when Barack Obama took office as President of the United States. He saw it as a large step forward for the United States to elect a Black man and electing a woman would be another such step.[45]

Comments on illegal drugs and Social Darwinism

On April 28, 2009, Randi stated on the James Randi Educational Foundation website that he wanted illegal drugs to be legalized so that users could kill themselves.[129]

In the book The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (2013), author Will Storr brought up Randi's comments on illegal drugs during an interview. In the interview, Randi stated that he thinks "exactly the same thing about smoking" and that smokers "should be allowed to smoke themselves to death and die."[130] Randi proceeded to call himself "a believer in Social Darwinism."[130] These comments evoked unrest in parts of the Skeptic community.[131][132]

On 1 March 2013, the website DoubtfulNews.com published a news story in which Randi claimed to have been misquoted:

The statement “I’m a believer in social Darwinism,” did not come from me. In fact, I had to look up the expression to learn what was being referred to. This attack appears to be calling me a Nazi, nothing less. I demand that Mr. Storr refer me to the original sources to which we assume he has referred. Until then, I’ll only say that he has carefully selected phrases and statements out of context, not the sort of referencing that I would have expected from him.[133]

On 2 March 2013, Randi posted an elaborative comment on that same news story, maintaining that he would never have called himself a Social Darwinist, since he "only recently learned in detail what that term really means" and was "quite ignorant of the history of the movement organized around that false idea."[134] However, Randi accepted "that the conversation with Mr. Storr went just as described" and conceded that he "sometimes speaks on things about which [he knows] very little":

I’m well aware that I sometimes “shoot from the hip” and speak on things about which I know very little. In this present situation, I published my personal opinions about drug addiction without knowing very much about the neuroscience behind addiction, or the addiction recovery field. Not only did I say some deeply regrettable and insensitive things, but as I’ve learned more about the questions and issues at hand, I accept that I have been wrongheaded on a number of topics related to these issues. Even at 84, I’m still learning. Please bear with me, folks.[134]

Awards and honors

The James Randi Beard Photo, taken at The JREF Amaz!ng Meeting 9 ("TAM 9 From Outer Space") July 16, 2011

World records

The following are Guinness World Records:

Bibliography

Television and film

Actor

Himself

Other media

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Phillip Valys (26 March 2015). "Now you see them: The tricky world of the Amazing Randi and Jose Alvarez". Southflorida.com. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Adam Higginbotham (November 7, 2014). "The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi". The New York Times. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ Sullivan, Walter (July 27, 1988). "Water That Has a Memory? Skeptics Win Second Round". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
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