As Randi clearly details, parapsychology is complete bunkum. Absolutely no replicable results, in fact very few actual results at all. And yet Randi has a respect for two men he met who have been practicing for over 30 years – he tells you why here.
James Randi on parapsychology
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Sharp as a button as ever. Read James Randi’s book ‘Flim Flam’ if you get the chance.
I used to go to parapsychology classes in Grimsby With Dr Robin Furman. We managed to repeat a number of interesting experiments; table tapping etc. The most interesting was done out of class with fellow students and was a repeatable summoning and then possession of another person. Not enough characters left to describe but suffice to say we repeated the process a number of times and carried out as many checks n balances as we could think of, including depriving the possessed person of any visual or audio clues and they still passed out as the entity entered their body. A variety of things happened and it was a thoroughly fascinating time in my life. Cant explain it but definitely very interesting. It just left me with a sense that the world is most definitely not as we perceive it and more wondrous than I can possibly ever say.
I totally agree with Randy and the scientists. I also do not believe in the parapsychology/paranormal and I can not prove a negative. So scientists who use scientific protocol and double blind tests testing “apparent” paranormal phenomenon do deserve respect. I can imagine that it must be a very very frustrating job for these scientists.
I absolutely adore that man both as a performer and as a skeptic.
Randy is the best ambassador for science and skepticism!
Perfect! Love it! But I didn’t remember Randi as white-haired. Nor so conciliatory. Learn something new every day.
He makes a good point, certain attitudes are needed for scientific discoveries so we should respect then no matter how absurd someones beliefs are to some extent at least.
..lol, ‘randi.org’, lol…
Im sorry but does this not condradict everything for which he stands for and talks about.
In the video he pretty much says if you believe something you should pursue it even if there are no tests to prove that it can be true.
Then why does he talk so affluently about how physics etc are not real when there is no proof…….yet
maybe i have just misunderstood what he meant
Randi quite clearly gives everbody the finger @ 25 seconds in.
Stefan: He’s not saying you should believe something without proof, he’s saying that it’s commendable to pursue proof of a phenomenon you feel should be provable. These parapsychologists weren’t faking proof, they were hoping to find it, which is legitimate science. And who knows, they may yet find something — I’m not putting my money on it, but stranger things have happened.
Randi isn’t against the investigation of ‘psychic’ phenomena — he’s against the uncritical assumption, WITHOUT SCIENTIFIC PROOF, that these phenomena exist. So I see why he finds it admirable that these two men keep searching for proof.
great guy james randi, love his view on people, if you believe in something strong enough, pursue it. respect for others, and what they do even if in our world theres no scientific proof or foundation.
if I could, he would be one of the people i would invite for dinner, also including ,winston churchill, groucho marx, ray mears,ralph walda emerson,greg baterson, my wife and of course derren brown. it would make such an intresting after dinner discussion.lol