In January 2010, I went on a binge of every James Randi video I could find on YouTube. Him debunking psychics, talking about religion and faith, talking about magic, the works. I got so obsessed with him, that I found his website, and sent a very generic "fan email" to him, saying that I respect what he did, and think that he should keep up the good work.
Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!" message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!
We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.
RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.
Yeah, I was definitely lucky, I must have caught him in a good mood or maybe he's just really affable. I was super fortunate to have met him though, a class act all the way. He will always be someone that I admire and respect.
That's awesome! When I was in my early teens I went through a similar stint and also emailed him with my thoughts, kudos and thanks. Also to my surprise he wrote back with a genuine message and note.
Yeah, he was one of the first "heroes" I've ever reached out to; I thought it was pretty awesome that he was willing to chat with his fans, and never got to a point of feeling "too good" to do something like that.
Since then, I pretty much email everyone on the internet that I have any respect for; I don't know how annoying I am because of that but I think we can thank Randi for giving me the courage to do so.
My short anecdote. As a kid in 1984 in NJ I went to a high school where an english teacher claimed to have psychic abilities. At first I was enthralled but as I leaned toward scientific thought I grew skeptical. In english class with that teacher we ended up having debates as a project. I chose to debate the non-existence of ESP. James Randi lived in NJ at the time and I wrote or called (I don't remember) him to learn more to debunk these abilities. To my surprise, he invited me (and my father) to visit him at his home. He shared with me his thoughts, taught me an illusion (to use in my debate), and even shared that he had a file on my teacher who had claimed psychic abilities publicly and that he had failed Mr. Randi's tests. Thank you James Randi for your time, patience, education, and encouragement to pursue scientific thought.
The setup in this case was so well designed and explained that the participants themselves praised it:
James Randi: “The tests that were done, were they adequate to the purpose?”
Participant: “The testing, as far as I was concerned, and I think as far as the rest of the diviners were concerned, was done as fair and as square as could be.”
Harold Puthoff, one of the SRI researchers who studied Geller, was in the news somewhat recently. He was involved in that "navy UFO" business. He co-founded the "To The Stars Academy", which produced a History Channel documentary about the videos and the findings of the "Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program" which Senator Harry Reid had spearheaded. Incidentally, he was also involved in the "research" conducted under that program (including some real goofy stuff[1]). It's always sad to learn the government funded pseudoscience, but at least they only wasted $22 million.
I wish I could have heard Randi's thoughts on it all, given he was familiar with some of the people.
> When he was still a young man appearing in Toronto nightclubs and pretending to predict the future, Randall Zwinge created what he hoped would be his greatest trick. Each night before he went to bed, he wrote the date on the back of a business card along with the words “I, Randall Zwinge, will die today.” Then he signed it and placed it in his wallet. That way, if he were knocked down in the street or killed by a freak accident, whoever went through his effects would discover the most shocking prophecy he ever made. Zwinge kept at it for years. Each night, he tore up one card and wrote out a new one for the next day. But nothing fatal befell him; in the end, having wasted hundreds of business cards, he gave up in frustration. “I never got lucky,” he told me.
RIP. I remember going to The Amazing Meeting (skeptics convention) years ago and running into a coworker there. It was his second time attending and he spotted James Randi and told me, let's go say hello and that he's super friendly and will chat with anyone. We went over and lo and behold he was super friendly and welcomed me to the con warmly.
I was familiar with his debunking work, but not much beyond that. I watched the documentary about him, An Honest Liar, later on and was impressed with him as a human. Worth checking out to learn more.
He made fighting disinformation something for others to strive for, or at least that was my view of him. "Critical thinking is as to friendly fire isn't"
"Critical thinking is as friendly fire isn't" works.
"Critical thinking is; friendly fire isn't" works better (along the same lines as "Variables don't; constants aren't.")
I met James Randi around 2007 when he came to campus at UBC to give a talk. He told the following story about a magic trick that he worked on for years, which concerned guessing the timing of his death. I haven't heard him tell that story elsewhere, so now seems like a good time to share it.
He said that for a good number of years, every time before going to bed, he would write on a little card that he predicted he would die that night during his sleep. In the morning, he got up and happily threw away the little card. Every day. For many years. His concept was that, on the rare chance that this actually happened to be last day, people would think that he pulled the ultimate magic trick. People would not suspect that he wrote this on a little card every day because, well, nobody does that.
Well, I guess he stopped doing it at some date before 2007. That's why he told an audience of 500 people about it. He sorta "cashed out" by making it a fun story about him being clever, instead of a last magic trick. He must have simply gotten tired of doing this every day and seeing all those cards in the waste basket (or burning them?).
If he had indeed tried to pull that trick in 2020, a lot of people would have remembered that he said he was setting it up.
Who is the successor to Randi's tenacity, wit, and intellect?
I used to hope Shermer or someone born out of Skeptic would take up the mantle (and I appreciate comedians like Gervais who take a swing at it) but I don't see anyone who hits as hard and succinctly as Randi did. I think it was also his showmanship that made it all work so perfectly.
P&T are a bit too much about being "in your face". Penn just loves to yell to get his point across, where as Randi was tactful and calm. I also had in issue with them grossly misrepresenting several issues, specifically their PETA debacle. They're a bit too scattershot IMHO.
I'm a huge Captain Disillusion fan. For anyone that doesn't know, he does "debunkings" of viral videos featuring something supposedly supernatural.
I don't know if I would categorize hims as the same as Randi, tbh. But if anyone hasn't had the pleasure of seeing his videos, look them up on YouTube! He is one of my favorite content creators, and probably the least well known one. He deserves to be watched by anyone with even a moderate interest in skepticism, visual effects, or science.
I would vote for yes, Captain Disillusion. See for example videos like [0]. He's great because he follows in the spirit of people like Randi while being at the same time original and appropriate to his era by focusing on dishonest visual effects and editing.
There are bad, regular, and good people. Randi was in the smallest group of all, the truly great people. They're the ones whose work benefit us all and who do it because it was something they loved to do. Losing people like him makes our world a little sadder and colder place.
What strikes me about his presentation is the way he expresses skepticism without arrogance or superiority. It's easy for skeptics to sour their message that way ("how could you believe that?") but this mellow avuncular style seems much more effective.
I first learned about him through some things Martin Gardner wrote, I believe. But I felt like I came to know him a lot better from watching the movie An Honest Liar [0].
I feel this one. I'm trying to remember what I read most about him. I watched old episodes of his skeptic TV show, exposing fraud after fraud (who never once repented) and I remember an article about him continuing to trade magic tricks with other magicians.
Effective 9/1/2015 the JREF has made major changes including converting to a grant making foundation and no longer accepting applications for the Million Dollar Prize from the general public.
I'm imagining James Randi finding himself in an afterlife. He is more than surprised and investigates it deeply, very happy to finally get an answer to many questions.
One day, he hears a distorted voice, coming out of nothing - it's a psychic, asking him if he is worrying about the money.
Jokes aside, the world has lost a great man. All the stories you guys posted here are more than amazing. The dedication and selflessness is hard to come by today, I hope someone can continue his mentality. If there were more James Randi's in the world, maybe my grandma would stop believing Uri Geller bend her key she place on the TV 20 years ago.
RIP The Amazing Randi. Reading and watching Martin Gardner and James Randi has taught me so much. Gardner was already dead when I first heard of him and I've looked upto Randi ever since. From magic to religion and pseudoscience, I have always enjoyed their views. You will be missed.
He was one of the greatest magicians to ever live, but wanted to teach the audience how magic is just deception
He made it his life's work to disprove all people abusing the art of magic to con others into believing something that isn't real... Rest in Piece Randi
I wonder if he left behind a secret phrase, like Houdini, so some trusted people could know for sure if it was him communicating with them from beyond the dead, or not. I hope he did.
What's especially interesting, to me, is that he published his take on thermodynamics without running it past a physicist. I'm not sure what to make of that.
I'm a fan of Randi up to a point. Some of his investigations were culturally relevant, such as Popoff's prayer cards. But also some of his work was decidedly low stakes, such as Uri Geller's spoon bending (though Geller escalated with potentially ruinous lawsuits).
Ultimately the skeptic movement left us with tame establishment defenders such as Michael Shermer, and a complete disregard for the positive roles Christianity plays in our Western heritage, culture, and communities.
That all said, James Randi was a very impressive and entertaining man. And I love that he was an ambassador for sobriety which is rare, and I think fitting of the scientific mindset.
Much to my surprise, he responded with a very quick "thank you!" message. I told my dad about this, and since we lived in Orlando at the time, and Randi was in Fort Lauderdale, he suggested we ask to buy Randi lunch. I figured there was no harm in sending the email, and much to my surprise, Randi agreed!
We drove over to Fort Lauderdale, and he actually spent the whole damn day with us, talking about psychics, doing magic tricks for us, talking about science fiction novels, etc. He was an incredibly awesome guy, and I thought it was beyond cool that he decided to hang out with some dorky fans from the internet.
RIP Randi. You made the world a better place, and you will always be missed.