

The Demystifying Adventures of the Amazing Randi - amichail
http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-08-26/news/the-demystifying-adventures-of-the-amazing-randi/

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Hexstream
"Randi, of course, has offered to test Geller and to give him $1 million if he
can prove his claims. But Geller has always declined, saying anything that
would quiet skeptics — and by extension make him less controversial — would
hurt his career. "If someone wants to stay in the business of being a
psychic," he says, "they should simply ignore the skeptics.""

That's got to be the most obnoxious bullshit I ever read. _Ever_.

~~~
flatline
This is actually the best quote I've heard from Geller, he speaks very frankly
that the publicity has, in the long run, helped more than hurt him. Normally
he just pretends to be serious about being a psychic and, true to his
statement here, ignores skeptics. It looked like Randi had shut down his
career for a while but I understand he's recently had quite a healthy
resurgence in popularity.

The maddening thing is, the way that the MSM covers these types of things, I
really used to believe all of this stuff as a kid. I really thought that
Geller had people bending spoons all over the UK when I was like 11. Randi
sometimes comes across as harsh and I don't necessarily buy the rosy picture
that is painted of him by his fans, but I think his work and that of others
like him is incredibly important. I'm sorry to hear of his cancer, he will be
missed when he passes.

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zck
Wow, I hadn't heard that Randi has cancer. I can't seem to find any more
detail than is in the article, but this is obviously very bad news.

~~~
zck
The reddit comments for this article pointed to a letter Randi wrote regarding
his cancer. It's light on details, but hopeful.
[http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-
news/663-announceme...](http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/jref-
news/663-announcement-about-upcoming-meetings.html)

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wallflower
I saw this amazing mentalist on 60 Minutes. Marc Paul is a UK-based mentalist
who does not claim to be a mind reader or psychic, and he can do extraordinary
things with his people-reading skills.

In his book, he said from a very early age he was able to correctly intuit if
and _where_ his family was going to go on vacation.

"However, there is one spectator left who he can’t quite read..

The performer then claims that he suspected something like this would happen,
and out of a pocket he removes a sealed envelope that he opens and reads."

"There was nothing too difficult to do from a sleight point of view in his
lecture notes, however to sell the effects as well as he does is a real art
and it was fascinating to watch him at work.

I have outlined the effects he demonstrated below, but for me it wasn’t the
actual effects that was important last night, it was watching his presentation
skills. His performance skills. In short it was watching his skills as one of
the best mentalists."

<http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2903>

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mynameishere
Geller's probably right about the promotional aspect of skeptics.

~~~
zck
I'm not sure that he is. How many times are psychics booked on shows to prove
that they are psychic? Instead, they appear on shows like Montel Williams to
tell parents of missing children what has happened to their child. They get a
lot of publicity without skeptics; skeptics appearing on such shows does
convince a few people.

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edw519
I'm too ignorant to be skeptical.

