The Amazing James Randi – Skepticism & the Singularity!
Magician James Randi (known as ‘The Amazing Randi’) has spent the bulk of his career debunking the claims of self-proclaimed psychics and paranormalists. Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but he is perhaps best known as the world’s most tireless investigator and de-mystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
The Amazing Randi has pursued ‘psychic’ spoon benders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water ‘with a memory,’ and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public’s eyes in the name of the supernatural. Randi is also starring in his own biographical documentary ‘An Honest Liar,’ which will be screened alongside his fireside chat across four Australian cities.
He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship (also known as the ‘MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant’) in 1986. He’s the author of numerous books, including Flim-Flam!: Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions (1982), The Truth About Uri Geller (1982), The Faith Healers (1987), and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural (1995).
In 1996, the James Randi Education Foundation was established to further Randi’s work. Randi’s long-standing challenge to psychics now stands as a $1,000,000 prize administered by the Foundation. It remains unclaimed.
The Amazing Randi brought his unique superheroic brand of sceptic justice to Australia: http://thinkinc.org.au/jamesrandi/
