Psychic buster sees some unbelievable times ahead

Date

October 27, 2012

”ONE of the weirdest claims,” says international psychic-buster James Randi, ”was the woman who said she had the power to make men urinate when she willed it. One of our employees volunteered for the job and downed a lot of water … he sat there for something like three hours and nothing happened. The woman was so surprised and said: ‘You know it’s never failed before’.”

Randi, the burr under the seers’ saddle, the fly in psychics’ ointment, has long offered $1 million to anyone who can conclusively prove paranormal powers. It has remained unclaimed. Now 84, he is heading for Melbourne, the star speaker at the annual convention of the Australian Skeptics in Carlton next month.

He is no stranger Down Under. In 1980 he teamed with entrepreneur Dick Smith to dangle a $40,000 prize before a group of self-proclaimed water diviners – but their dowsing rods ran dry. The same year, in one of Australian TV’s classic moments (now on YouTube), pro-psychic TV host Don Lane told Randi to ”piss off” during his variety show. In 1988, assisted by some dodgy media releases, Randi teamed with 60 Minutes to fool the Australian media with a hoax about Carlos, a supposed spirit channeller.

From Los Angeles yesterday, Randi said he had calls from all over the world after Lane died in 2009. In the past six years he has undergone a coronary bypass and surgery for cancer. ”I told them: no acupuncture, no witchdoctors, no chanting. They used that thing you might have heard about over there – medical science.”

Randi heads the James Randi Educational Foundation in LA and is the subject of a documentary, An Honest Liar, being filmed in California. The movie, and a smaller TV version, will detail the fate of Jose Alvarez, the man who played ”Carlos” in the Australian hoax.

Venezuelan-born Alvarez was arrested late last year. ”He has an immigration problem,” said Randi. ”He is a gay person and had taken the identity of an American citizen to escape bad treatment by police and family back home.” Randi said Alvarez was jailed for a short time and is awaiting a decision on his fate from homeland security.

Randi said people were still gullible, just as they were in 1980 when he and Smith tested the water diviners. ”They all failed miserably, not one had a significant result, but afterwards all said they still believed they had dowsing powers.”

Victorian Skeptics president Terry Kelly said the Australian convention would run over three days. He said people’s claims to the paranormal were not only unproven, but often pointless. ”Even if you could bend spoons,” Kelly says, ”what’s the use of it?”