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Thursday, January 22, 2015

James Randi

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James Randi
RANDI.jpg
Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge
August 7, 1928 (age 86)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality Canadian
American
Occupation Magician, illusionist, writer, skeptic
Religion None[1]
Spouse(s) Deyvi Peña (married 2013)
Signature JamesRandiSignature.png
Website
www.randi.org

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928) is a Canadian-American retired stage magician and scientific skeptic[2][3][4] best known for his challenges to paranormal claims and pseudoscience.[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 named The Amazing Randi, but after retiring at age 60, he chose to devote most of his time to investigating paranormal, occult, and supernatural claims, which he collectively calls "woo-woo."[6]
Although often referred to as a "debunker," Randi dislikes the term's connotations and prefers to describe himself as an "investigator."[7] He has written about the paranormal, 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! The JREF sponsors the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge offering a prize of US$1,000,000 to eligible applicants[8] who can demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural or occult power or event under test conditions agreed to by both parties.[9]

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 practiced 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 a psychic 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's career as a professional stage magician[21] and escapologist began 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.[22][23]

In the late 1960s, 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.[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 designed and 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 a concealed drawing that had been secretly made by the senator by using simple trickery, 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]

Author

Randi is 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 which was titled Houdini, His Life and Art.[35] This illustrated work was published in 1976 and was co-authored with Bert Sugar. It focuses on the professional and private life of Houdini.[36]

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 the paranormal and pseudoscientific. 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.[37][38] 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.[39]

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

Skeptic

James Randi's The Truth About Uri Geller (1982)

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][40][41]

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.[42]

Geller sued Randi and CSICOP for $15 million in 1991 and lost.[42][43] Geller's suit against the CSICOP was thrown out in 1995, and he was ordered to pay $120,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit.[44] The legal costs Randi incurred ate through almost all of a $272,000 MacArthur Foundation grant awarded to Randi in 1986 for his work.[42] 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.[45] 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. In 2010, Randi was one of 16 new CSI fellows elected by its board.[42][46]

Randi has gone on to write many articles criticizing beliefs and claims regarding the paranormal.[47] 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.[48] 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.[49] 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.[50] Randi writes that, eventually, Hydrick "confessed everything."[49]
Randi speaks at the 1983 CSICOP Conference in Buffalo, NY

Randi was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1986. The fellowship's 5-year 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, revealing personal information about her that he claims comes from God, and then performing 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 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. The information had been gathered by Popoff's assistants, who 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.[51][52][53]

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.[54] 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.[55]

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 who was actually artist Jose Alvarez, whom Randi described as a "friend."[42][56] 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."[57] The hoax was exposed on 60 Minutes Australia; "Carlos" and Randi explained how they had pulled it off.[58][59]

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.[60] Randi observed, referring to psychic surgery, "To any experienced conjurer, the methods by which these seeming miracles are produced are very obvious."[61]
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 is able to determine 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.[62]

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

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.[63] 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 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."[64]

Randi distinguishes between pseudoscience and crackpot science. He regards most of parapsychology as pseudoscience because of the way in which it is approached, but nonetheless sees it as a legitimate science which "must be pursued," and from which real scientific discoveries may develop.[65] Randi regards crackpot science as being as "equally wrong" as pseudoscience, but with no scientific pretensions.[66]

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.[67]) to anyone who could demonstrate genuine psychic powers.
  • An astrologer claimed that he was able to ascertain a person's astrological sign after talking with them for a few minutes. He was presented with twelve people, one at a time, each with a different astrological sign. The people could not tell the astrologer their astrological sign or birth date, nor could they wear anything that would indicate it. After the astrologer talked to the people, he had them sit in front of a sign that the astrologer thought was theirs. By agreement, the astrologer needed to get ten of the 12 correct, to win. He got none correct.
  • The next psychic claimed to be able to read auras around people. The psychic claimed that auras were visible at least five inches from the people. The psychic chose ten people who he said had clearly visible auras. These people were to stand behind screens and the psychic agreed that the aura would be visible above the screens. The screens were numbered 1 through 10, and people were selected whether or not to stand behind their screen at random. The psychic was to tell whether or not a person was standing behind each screen, by seeing the aura above. Since random guessing would be expected to get about five correct, the psychic needed to get eight of the ten right. The psychic stated that she saw an aura over all ten screens, but people were behind only four of the screens.
  • A dowser claimed that he could locate water, even in a bottle inside a sealed cardboard box. He was shown twenty boxes and he was to indicate which boxes contained a water bottle. He indicated that eight of the boxes contained water, but only five did.[clarification needed]
  • A psychometric psychic claimed to be able to receive personal information about the owner of an object from the object. In order to avoid ambiguous statements, the psychic agreed to be presented with a watch and a key from twelve different people. The psychic was to match keys and watches to each owner. According to the prior agreement, the psychic had to match nine out of the twelve sets, but she succeeded in only two of the cases.
  • During the program, another psychic was doing a run of 250 Zener cards, guessing which of the five symbols was on each one. Random guessing should result in about fifty correct predictions, so it was agreed in advance that the psychic had to be right on at least eighty-two cards in order to demonstrate an ability greater than chance. However, she was able to get only fifty predictions correct, which is no better than random guessing.[68]

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. Randi also contributes a regular column, titled "'Twas Brillig," to The Skeptics Society's Skeptic magazine. In his weekly commentary, Randi often gives examples of what he considers the nonsense that he deals with every day.[69]

2010s

Randi has been regularly featured on many podcasts, including The Skeptics Society's official podcast Skepticality[70][71] and the Center for Inquiry's official podcast Point of Inquiry.[72] From September 2006 onwards, he has occasionally contributed to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast with a column titled "Randi Speaks."[73] In addition, The Amazing Show is a podcast in which Randi shares various anecdotes in an interview format.[74]

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.[75] The film, which was funded through Kickstarter,[76] focuses on Randi's life, his investigations, and his relationship with longtime partner José Alvarez.[75] The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival,[77] at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival,[78] 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.[79] It was also positively received by critics.[79][80]

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 was told not to question or doubt the teachings of the church.[81]

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,[1] 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 more fun."[82]

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."[83] In 2003, he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.[84]

One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) offers a prize of US$1,000,000 to eligible applicants who are 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.[85] The prize money has since grown to $1,000,000, and has formal published rules. For example, no one has progressed past the preliminary test, which is set up with parameters agreed to by both Randi and the applicant. He also refuses to accept any challengers who might suffer serious injury or death as a result of the testing.[86] 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,[85] in order to avoid wasting JREF resources on spurious claimants.[85] This requirement has since been revoked due to heavy objections from would-be applicants.
On Larry King Live, March 6, 2001, Larry King asked Sylvia Browne if she would take the challenge and she agreed.[87] Randi appeared with Browne on Larry King Live six months later, and she again appeared to accept his challenge.[88] 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.[89]

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.[90] 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."[90] 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.[91]

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?"[92] Beck simply laughed and changed the subject.

Randi asked British businessman Jim McCormick, the inventor of the bogus ADE 651 bomb detector, to take the challenge in October 2008.[93] 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."[94] There was no response from McCormick.[95] 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,[96] and was subsequently sentenced to ten years imprisonment for his part in the ADE 651 scandal.[97]

JREF maintains a public log of past participants in the Million Dollar Challenge.[98]

Legal disputes

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

According to Randi, Geller tried to sue Randi a number of 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 demanded, but this ruling was canceled, and the matter dropped, when Geller decided to concentrate on another legal matter.[6][99]

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. Geller was ordered to pay substantial damages to CSICOP.[100][101] Randi and Geller subsequently settled their dispute out of court, the details of which 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 1996, Baltimore District Court 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.[102][103]

Late in 1996, Randi launched a libel suit against a Toronto-area psychic named Earl Gordon Curley.[104] 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."[105]

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.[106] Randi removed the photo and subsequently used a caricature of DuBois when mentioning her on his site, beginning with his December 23, 2005, commentary.[107]

Sniffex, producer of a dowsing bomb detection device, sued Randi and the JREF in 2007 and lost.[108] 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.[108]

In 2012, magician Penn Jillette announced that he was working on a biography of Randi.[109]

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 José Alvarez in a Fort Lauderdale public library, where Alvarez, then a 25-year-old student at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, was looking for visual references for a ceramics project, struck up a conversation with Alvarez that lasted the entire afternoon. They moved in together soon afterward.[42]

In 1987, Randi became a naturalized citizen of the United States.[110] Randi has said that one reason he became an American citizen was an incident while on tour with Alice Cooper where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched the band's lockers during a performance. Nothing was found, yet the RCMP trashed the room.[111]

In February 2006, Randi underwent coronary artery bypass surgery.[112] 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.[113] 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).[114]

Randi was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in June 2009.[115] He had a ping pong ball-sized tumor 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.[116] 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."[116] Randi also said that after he is gone 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."[116] 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.[115] In a video posted April 12, 2010, Randi stated that he has been given a clean bill of health.[117]

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, in which Sean Penn portrayed Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.[118][119]

On September 8, 2011, United States Department of State agents arrested José Alvarez, who confessed that his real name was Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga, and that he came to the U.S. on a two-year student visa after fleeing persecution in Venezuela stemming from his homosexuality. After Alvarez began his relationship with Randi, his visa expired, and without any way to renew it, he acquired from a local friend the name and Social Security number of a man named José Alvarez, whom Alvarez believed was deceased, and used it to apply for a passport in 1987. He learned, however, that the real Alvarez was a teacher's aide living in The Bronx. Alvarez was charged with making a false statement in the application and use of a passport and aggravated identity theft, and faced a $250,000 fine, a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and deportation to Venezuela. After six weeks in jail, he was released on a $500,000 bond and he agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of passport fraud. At a sentencing hearing in May 2012, the judge sentenced him to time served, six months' house arrest and 150 hours' community service. Five days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Peña. After two months of incarceration, Peña was released August 2, 2012. The couple were married in a ceremony in Washington[42] on July 2, 2013.[120][121][122] Peña remains on probation and no longer holds any identity documents except a Venezuelan passport with his birth name, and holds no formal immigration status in the United States. While immigration authorities have agreed not to deport him, were he to leave the country, he would be unable to return.
He continues to sign his paintings with "José Alvarez", but now followed by his true initials, D.O.P.A. Randi and Peña live in Plantation, Florida.[42]

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 may mean 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."[42]

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:
  • Randi was in a sealed casket underwater for an hour and 44 minutes, which broke Harry Houdini's record of one hour and 33 minutes set on August 5, 1926.[2][13]
  • Randi was encased in a block of ice for 55 minutes.[2][13]

Bibliography

TV and film

Actor

Himself

Other media

  • One of Martin Gardner's articles about Dr. Irving Joshua Matrix ends with the Doctor's latest scam (a supposedly sentient, but actually remotely controlled robot) being exposed by two investigative reporters with Randi's aid.
  • In 2007, Randi delivered a talk at TED in which he discussed psychic fraud, homeopathy, and his foundation's Million Dollar Challenge.[21]
  • Randi can be heard speaking an introduction on Tommy Finke's song "Poet der Affen/Poet of the Apes," released on the album of the same name in 2010. The message was recorded by Randi and sent to Finke via e-mail.[137]
at

Michael Shermer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer wiki portrait4.jpg
Shermer on the Skeptics Society Geology Tour on June 8, 2007.
Born Michael Brant Shermer
September 8, 1954 (age 60)
Residence Altadena, California, USA
Alma mater Pepperdine University (B.A., 1976)
California State University (M.A., 1978)
Claremont Graduate University (Ph.D., 1991)
Occupation Academic historian of science and editor
Title Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic, Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University and Adjunct Professor at Chapman University
Website
www.michaelshermer.com

Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic,[1] which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members.[2] Shermer also engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism.

Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2001, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. He is also a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).[3]

Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but ceased to believe in the existence of God during his graduate studies. He accepts the labels agnostic,[4] nontheist,[5][6] atheist and others.[7][8] He also describes himself as an advocate for humanist philosophy[9] as well as the science of morality.[10] He has expressed reservations about such labels for his lack of belief in a God, however, as he sees them being used in the service of "pigeonholing", and prefers to simply be called a skeptic.[7]

Early life

Shermer grew up in Southern California.[11][12] His parents divorced when he was four[11] and later remarried, his mother to a man with three children, who became Shermer's stepsiblings, and his father to a woman with whom he had two daughters, Shermer's half-sisters. His father would later die of a heart attack in 1986, and his mother of brain cancer in 2000.[13]

Although Shermer went to Sunday school, he says that neither his biological nor stepparents or siblings were religious nor non-religious, as they did not hold much discussion on the topic, and did not attend church nor pray together. In 1971, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, Shermer announced he was a born again Christian, which came about through the influence of his best friend, George. For the next seven years he would evangelize door-to-door as part of his profoundly held beliefs.[13]

Shermer was raised with guns. His stepfather was a hunter who took Shermer and their black Labrador hunting dogs with him on hunting excursions half a dozen times a year, shooting game such as dove, duck and quail with a 20-gauge and 12-gauge shotguns. They ate everything they killed, for which Shermer's stepfather also displayed culinary skills. Growing up Shermer owned a BB gun, then a pellet gun, then a 20-gauge shotgun, and then a 12-gauge shotgun.[14]

Shermer graduated from Crescenta Valley High School in 1972. He began his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, initially majoring in Christian theology, later switching to psychology.[12][15] He completed his bachelor's degree in psychology/biology at Pepperdine in 1976.[16]

Competitive bicycling

Shermer is a cycling enthusiast and has been involved in the development of cycling gear.

Shermer began competitive bicycling in 1979, and spent a decade as a professional rider. Shermer's best known bicycling is in the very long distance ultramarathon road racing discipline.[17]

During the course of his cycling career, Shermer worked with cycling technologists in developing better products for the sport. During his association with Bell Helmets, a bicycle-race sponsor, Shermer advised them on design issues regarding their development of expanded-polystyrene for use in cycling helmets, which would absorb impact far better than the old leather "hairnet" helmets used by bicyclists for decades. Shermer advised them that if their helmets looked too much like motorcycle helmets, in which polystyrene was already being used, and not like the old hairnet helmets, no serious cyclists or amateur would use them. This suggestion led to their first model, the V1 Pro, which looked like a black leather hairnet, but functioned on the inside like a motorcycle helmet. In 1982, Shermer worked with Wayman Spence, whose small supply company, Spenco Medical, adapted the gel technology Spence developed for bedridden patients with pressure sores into cycling gloves and saddles to alleviate the carpal tunnel syndrome and saddle sores suffered by cyclists.[18]

During the decade in which he raced long distances, he helped to found the 3,000-mile nonstop transcontinental bicycle Race Across America (known as "RAAM", along with Lon Haldeman and John Marino), in which he competed five times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989), was assistant race director for six years, and executive race director for seven years.[19] An acute medical condition is named for him: "Shermer Neck" is pain in and extreme weakness of the neck muscles found among long-distance bicyclists. Shermer suffered the condition during the 1983 Race Across America.[20] Shermer's embrace of scientific skepticism crystallized during his time as a cyclist, explaining, "I became a skeptic on Saturday, August 6, 1983, on the long climbing road to Loveland Pass, Colorado"[21] after months of training under the guidance of a "nutritionist" with an unaccredited Ph.D. After years of practicing acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, negative ions, rolfing, pyramid power, fundamentalist Christianity, and "a host of weird things" (with the exception of drugs) to improve his life and training, Shermer stopped rationalizing the failure of these practices.[22] Shermer would later produce several documentaries on cycling.[19]

Shermer still cycles actively (as of 2012) and participated in the Furnace Creek 508 in October 2011, a qualifying race for RAAM, finishing second in the four man team category.[15][23]

Shermer has written on the subject of pervasive doping in competitive cycling and a game theoretic view of the dynamics driving the problem in several sports. He wrote specifically about r-EPO doping, which he saw as both widespread and well known within the sport, which was later shown to be instrumental in the notorious doping scandal surrounding Lance Armstrong.[24][25][26]

Graduate studies and teaching

Shermer's graduate studies in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton, led to many after-class discussions with professors Bayard Brattstrom and Meg White. These,[27] along with his studies in ethology and cultural anthropology, led him to question his religious beliefs, and by mid-way through his graduate training, he removed the Christian ichthys that he had been wearing around his neck.[13][27] Shermer completed his master's degree from California State University in experimental psychology in 1978.[16]

Shermer earned his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in history of science in 1991 (with his dissertation titled "Heretic-Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Evolution of Man: A Study on the Nature of Historical Change").[16] Shermer later based a full-length, 2002 book on his dissertation: In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History.[28]

Before starting the Skeptics Society, Shermer was an adjunct professor of the history of science at Occidental College, California. Since 2007, Shermer has been a senior research fellow at Claremont Graduate University. Since 2011, Shermer has been also an adjunct professor at Chapman University.[29]

Scientific skepticsm

In 1992 Shermer founded the Skeptics Society, which produces Skeptic magazine and organizes the Caltech Lecture Series. It currently has over 55,000 members.[2][30]

Shermer is also a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH).[31]

Published works

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Michael Shermer
Shermer in 2008.

Shermer is the author of books which attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs, including UFOs, Bigfoot, and paranormal claims. In 1997 he wrote Why People Believe Weird Things, which explores a variety of "weird" ideas and groups (including cults), in the tradition of the skeptical writings of Martin Gardner. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2002. From the Introduction:
So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood and Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It's not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.
— Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997, 2002, Introduction
In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In its introduction Shermer wrote "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."

Since April 2001, he has written the monthly Skeptic column for Scientific American. He has also contributed to Time magazine.[32]

In February 2002, he characterized the position that "God had no part in the process [of the evolution of mankind]" as the "standard scientific theory".[33] this was criticized by fellow scientist Eugenie Scott in January 2006, who commented that science makes no claim about God one way or the other.[34]

In May 2002, Shermer and Alex Grobman published their book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. This book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.

Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown was released in 2005. Then his 2006 book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. This book also argues that science cannot invalidate religion, and that Christians and conservatives can and should accept evolution.

In June 2006, Shermer, who formerly expressed skepticism regarding the mainstream scientific view on global warming, wrote that, in view of the accumulation of evidence, the position of denying global warming is no longer tenable.[35]

The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics was released in 2007. In it Shermer reports on the findings of multiple behavioral and biochemical studies that address evolutionary explanations for modern behavior.

In February 2009, Shermer published The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History, a 25-hour audio lecture.

In May 2011, Shermer published The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies – How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.

Prior to work on science and skepticism, Shermer published books on cycling and others on child education in the math and science disciplines. These include collaborations with Arthur Benjamin.[15]

Media appearances and lectures

Shermer appeared as a guest on Donahue in 1994 to respond to Bradley Smith's and David Cole's Holocaust denial claims, and in 1995 on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims. Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that events in the Bible constitute "mythic storytelling," rather than events described literally. His stance was supported by the show's hosts, who have expressed their own atheism. The episode in question, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, sought to debunk the notion that the Bible is an empirically reliable historical record. Opposing Shermer was Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.[36]

Shermer made several appearances on NBC's daytime paranormal-themed show The Other Side in 1994 and 1995. After getting to know that show's producers, he made a formal pitch to their production company for his own skepticism-oriented reality show whose aim would be to present points of view of both believers and skeptics. His proposals were not fruitful, but several years later, one of the executives of that company went to work for the then-newly formed Fox Family Channel, and impressed with Shermer's show treatment, requested he pitch it to the network. The network picked up the series, Exploring the Unknown, of which Shermer became a producer and cohost. The series, which was budgeted at approximately $200,000USD per episode, was viewed by Shermer as a direct extension of the work done at the Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine, and would enable Shermer to reach more people. The equivocal title was chosen so as to not tip off guests or viewers as to the skeptical nature of the show.[37] Various segments from Exploring the Unknown can be found on Shermer's YouTube channel.[38]

In 1999 Shermer produced and was the co-host for the Fox Family TV series, Exploring the Unknown.

Shermer has been a speaker at all three Beyond Belief events from 2006 to 2008. He also spoke at the 2006 TED Conference on "Why people believe strange things."[39]

Shermer is an occasional guest on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic.[24]

Shermer has debated Deepak Chopra on multiple occasions,[40][41] including during their March 2010 appearance on the ABC News program Nightline.[42] He has named Chopra as his personal favourite debating partner.[15]

On August 21, 2010, Shermer was honored with an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field, from The Independent Investigations Group during its 10th Anniversary Gala.[43]

Personal life

Shermer lives in Altadena, California, on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains atop which Mount Wilson stands.[44]

Politically, Shermer has described himself as a lifelong libertarian. The first President he voted for was Richard Nixon in 1972, which in light of the Watergate scandal, he calls his "most embarrassing vote". In 2000 he voted for Harry Browne in order to "vote his conscience", on the assumption that the winner of the Al Gore-George W. Bush contest would be irrelevant. He later regretted this assumption, believing that Bush's foreign policy made the world more dangerous, and voted for John Kerry in 2004. Shermer names Thomas Jefferson as his favorite President, for his championing of liberty and his application of scientific thinking to the political, economic, and social spheres.
Shermer says of Jefferson, "When he dined alone at the White House there was more intelligence in that room than when John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner there for a roomful of Nobel laureates."[45]

In an early 2013 issue of Skeptic Shermer stated that he opposes gun control measures, primarily because of his beliefs in the principle of increasing individual freedom and decreased government intervention, and also because he has owned guns for most of his life. As an adult, he owned a Ruger .357 Magnum pistol with hollow-tip bullets for a quarter century in order to protect his family, though he eventually took it out of the house when his marriage began to experience problems, and later got rid of it entirely. Though he no longer owns guns, he continues to support the right to own guns to protect one's family.[14] However, in a column he wrote later that October, he indicated that the data on gun homicides, suicides and accidental shootings may make some gun control measures necessary.[46]

He married Jennifer Graf on June 25, 2014.[47]

Bibliography

Books

Articles

Media work

Television

Exploring the Unknown
Other television and film appearances

Radio and Web appearances

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