James Randi Foundation

I did read Mr Randi's biography and he got his start debunking when he saw faith healers doing simple acts of conjuring to pretend to cure people.

I do think psychic and other abilities do exist. To what extent is another matter, but there is one person who has shown to me he might be the real deal. Wolf Messing is the name, and there are a few books out there about him.

I agree - I do find Mr. Randi to be dead on about a few of them. I am not saying they are all frauds and since there are only a few videos of him doing the tests on the psychic subjects I am not entirely sure of what or how they are being monitored. I did read where Allison Dubois had all those tests ran on her to prove she was psychic. I am not clear on all of it. I did try to take some of those for fun myself but it was always inconclusive.

I have to reread the biography about Wolf Messing as he was able to do mind reading and had the ability of making someone think he was someone else. He got past Mr Joseph Stalin's guards doing that and also read the mind of Gandhi and others in a room.

I do love the video of Johnny Carson with Uri Geller trying to do his act. Mr Carson called Mr Randi up and asked his advice so Uri couldn't cheat. Mr Randi told him to isolate the items Uri would use and not let him or his staff near them before the show. Mr Geller was not able to perform any tricks and told Mr Carson his powers were turned off.

I think the Silvia Brown interview with Larry King and Randi was funny. She agreed to the test but never did it.

There are so many videos out there of Uri Geller doing his schtick. I have noticed he performs them like a magician would. The tricks he does can be done by any conjuror, yet people believe he is the real deal.

I find it interesting there are also videos stating Criss Angel being exposed, but he is an illusionist and does not claim powers. His levitation trick is just that, but apparently some believe he is the real deal also.

Speaking of people with abilities and the like have any of you spyed "Long Island Medium?"

Not sure what to think she doesnt' appear to be Phishing for information but she does cold readings and crowd readings nothing as broad as John Edwards although she does do a few things I disagree with..

She thinks she is the real deal and that is fine. It is difficult to say whether or not she has any real abilities.

I'd love to see her get dissected by Randi..

Tethys13 wrote:

I'd love to see her get dissected by Randi..

If she charges people to see dead people I would too. I also hate it when they use a person's pain to make a financial gain.

Randi would have fun with her, but I figured the South Park episode where John Edwards gets the douchebag of the year award from the Galaxy.

i read an article about him and I never knew that they edited the readings .. I guess I should have figured as much.. but they basically took him off air because of it.

Tethys13 wrote:

i read an article about him and I never knew that they edited the readings .. I guess I should have figured as much.. but they basically took him off air because of it.

Edwards spent much of the time fishing for names and when he reached the right one he would go from there. He also used common names like Mike, Mary James and John.

They would edit the show to get a half hour of "psychic phenomena". I think TLC does the same thing with the woman, but they do that with all reality shows.

I have had numerous arguments with my boyfriend about it. He thinks it is guess work with people that just pick up on tiny details better than anyone else. There was an episode of Long Island Medium where she went up to a table at a restaurant of what appeared to be a son and his elderly mother. She said what to me seemed obvious.. son and mother and no father. That was a bit much for me because she only said "Your father is very happy you are taking care of you mother.."

seriously wtf? Then on another occasion she picked up on someone in a crowd that it seemed like phishing but she told this kid some things about his dead father. So who knows with her. Still pretty entertaining even though her accent gets on my nerves.

Most of the ones I have seen seem to be phishing to me.

But then I watched some series where they consult psychics on cold cases and they have had some really stunning results with these folks.

I think from a scientific perspective I picture the "good" psychics as having a gift like imprinting on someone or getting electric energy almost like taking a photo. Then others are really good at reading by using stereotyping like the way someone is dressed etc. I have a good friend that is gifted so I see how she does it as opposed to the "magicians."

I believe some people are more aware, more intuitive and observant, but I also think some people do have special abilities, so if you couple that with some of these other traits, there you go!

We have a wide spectrum of people in the world, those who are as dumb as rocks and then Einstein, Tesla and Vonnegut on the other end. Really some great thinkers.

There is Sylvia Brown who informed the parents their son was dead but in truth he had been kidnapped by the pedophile.

Luckily they were reunited with the boy after the man tried to kidnap a second child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKyzBe0CA2Q

love your photo LostInThought...=0)

And I do remember seeing the video on that Silvia Brown - there is a man that has an entire website debunking her. I think he may be a little coo coo for cocoa puffs but he raises some good points.

I like how she is so insistent on the man drowning on 9/11 and the poor girl getting shot when she collapsed and died at home.

I just think her appearances debunk themselves, no need for an entire site.

Jean Dixon was another psychic who got many more wrong than right.

I think I saw and advertisement for Jean Dixon long time ago.

Jean Dixon would do predictions for the National Enquirer. Her claim to fame was she predicted the JFK assassination, but she only did so after the fact. Not one thing has been found dating before the event of her predicting it. She did make tons of money selling books.