That cranky pathological skeptibunkie Amazing Randi and psychic spoon bender Uri Geller have been at each other for years. They’ve sued, they’ve fought, they’ve accused each other of all kinds of things. And they’re still at it.
This time it’s Randi in this latest round. In his newsletter Randi once again annoys Uri and pokes at him. Christ almighty, doesn’t he have anything else to do?
Anyway, here Randi proudly recounts the famous Johnny Carson Tonight Show episode where Uri failed. (I’ve seen Uri not fail, including a very interesting experience with myself and a guy I was dating at the time, when Geller was on the Tom Snyder program. But I digress . . .)
In short, Uri failed due to Randi’s premeditated efforts, along with the support of the Tonight show’s producers. (Carson was a magician himself and a skeptic.)
Before we get to that however, note Randi’s paranoid claim of what (allegedly) always happened to him before Geller appeared on TV:
I explained to Fred that I’d just received one of the “hang up” calls that frequently preceded a Geller appearance, the sort of calls that seemed to be determining whether I was – as hoped – in New Jersey, and not waiting around the corner in a faraway TV studio to jump out and surprise Uri. I also knew that Geller would abort any appearance if I were there, and I saw a way of making it impossible – by remote control – for him to pull his usual tricks.
Then Randi directs the show’s staff to help set-up Geller:
I also saw the opportunity of showing that anyone who was simply instructed by an expert could avoid allowing trickery to be used. I asked to speak to Paul – the prop man on the show whose last name now escapes me – and by phone I told him exactly what to do with the props so that Geller would be foiled.
The thing about Geller is his long, colorful, interesting and weird life. The road that led him from there to here is full of “high strangeness” and it’s a moot point if he’s really psychic, or a charlatan, etc. As usual, the pathological skepticism mentality refuses to look at anything in context, any history, any background, any “big picture” stuff. Geller’s life is full of intrigue, mind control, government ops, UFOs, and all kinds of juicy Fortean stuff that leaves one -- anyone truly curious and thinking that is -- to go “WTF?!” This doesn’t say that Geller is a medium or not full of crap; in fact, I think a lot of the time he is certainly full of crap. In a good hearted way. Heh.
As usual, all that has been missed by the bull headed world view of the randibots, and Geller’s weird and odd journey is utterly ignored.
Sources:
Hat tip to the Daily Grail
http://www.dailygrail.com/
JREF
http://www.randi.org/joom/swift/swift/swift-may-23-2008.html
1 comment:
I don't think he can, can he? If he does, his slippery slide begins, he comes undone intellectually, and his air castle falls to the ground. He has to remain correct every single time with regard to every single paranormal occurrence.
You, one the other hand have to be correct in your presumptions only once. Any idiot would put their money on you, you know?
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