James Randi

James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7,1928 in Toronto, Canada), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, and an opponent of pseudoscience (including homeopathy). He is perhaps most known for the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, in which his James Randi Educational Foundation will award a prize of one million USD to anyone who is able to show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event, under test conditions agreed to by both parties. He is also a regular on a television program called Bullshit!, which is hosted by noted skeptics Penn & Teller.

Randi's caustic style

Parapsychologists generally try to downplay the Randi challenge because of these attacks on Randi's character, and also because of his harsh, uncompromising style of writing and presentation, which has won him enemies among those who claim to be paranormal experts. Randi's supporters note that there are other skeptical organizations that have their own similar standing offers to prove the existence of paranormal abilities, and anyone claiming to be an expert in their field of the paranormal can apply for any of these other prizes, avoiding Randi altogether. In his weekly commentary, Randi often gives examples of the sort of nonsense he has to deal with every day, to explain his lack of patience.

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Although some find Randi abrasive or even aggressive, the book The Faith Healers explains his anger and relentlessness arising out of compassion for the helpless victims of frauds. Also, in his weekly commentary, Randi often expresses dismay that he has to frequently expose various frauds due to no one else doing it.

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Recently, Randi has accused Sylvia Browne — a well-known, self-proclaimed psychic medium and author of numerous books on spirituality, who has performed thousands of one-on-one readings and assignments with a wide variety of groups and individuals — of avoiding the $1,000,000 challenge despite agreeing on Larry King Live in September 2001 to take it. Randi keeps a clock on his website recording the number of weeks that have passed since Sylvia accepted the challenge without following through.

Related Topics:
Sylvia Browne - Psychic - Spirituality - Larry King Live - September 2001

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