James Randi

James Randi (1928–2020), known as "The Amazing Randi," was a Canadian-American stage magician, escape artist, and a prominent scientific skeptic. He dedicated much of his life to investigating and debunking paranormal and pseudoscientific claims, often challenging individuals who claimed to possess supernatural abilities¹.

Randi became a vocal critic of Uri Geller, stating, "Geller brings disgrace to the craft I practice... Worse than that, he warps the thinking of a young generation of forming minds. And that is unforgivable." He spent two years writing a 308-page exposé of Geller, arguing that Geller's actions had "done more to destroy what authority Andrija Puharich once held in the scientific community"¹. Randi speculated that Geller's assistant, Shimshon Shtrang, helped him cheat, leading the Central Intelligence Agency to deny Shtrang access to Geller during experiments¹.

Along with Martin Gardner and Ray Hyman, Randi helped found the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) to promote scientific inquiry and combat pseudoscience¹.

In January 1983, Randi orchestrated a hoax against the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research at Washington University, sending two young magicians, Steven Shaw and Michael Edwards, to pretend to be psychics. They used sleight of hand to simulate psychokinetic feats like spoon bending. Randi later held a press conference to expose the hoax, generating significant negative press for the parapsychology community¹.

Randi's actions, while aimed at exposing fraud, sometimes led to controversy. He was involved in libel cases brought by Uri Geller, and his campaign against Geller ultimately cost him his position on CSICOP¹.

In 2011, Randi was involved in a scandal when it was revealed that his Carlos-the-channeler hoax, which involved a young man named Jose Alvarez (Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga) pretending to be a channeler, constituted a federal crime due to identity theft and false statements on a passport application. Despite this, Randi continued to maintain his stance against the paranormal¹.

Publications

• The Magic of Uri Geller (1975)

The Army's Grill Flame Scientific Evaluation Committee recorded in 1979 that Robert Lucky of Bell Labs "once proposed to Targ and Puthoff that they allow a 'debugger' like Randy the Magician to watch an SRI RV session. They refused on the grounds that no one believes them anyhow, and did not feel that permitting an extremely vocal critic to intrude into their lives/work would accomplish anything."⁹⁰⁰