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Years ago, when I was a full-fledged skeptic, atheist, and rationalist, I read James Randi’s 1980 bookFlim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and other Delusions. Randi is an accomplished magician and a professional skeptic, dedicating to disproving any and all claims of what he considers pseudoscience. In line with this agenda, and as its title suggests, Flim-Flam is a concerted attack on miscellaneous purported irrationalities – everything from the pop-culture writings of Erich von Daniken to the more serious investigations of professional parapsychologists. I enjoyed the book, which reinforced my belief system at the time.

Recently I picked up Flim-Flam again. Having changed my mind about many things over the past twenty years, I responded to it much differently this time. I was particularly struck by the book’s hectoring, sarcastic tone. Randi pictures psychic researchers as medieval fools clad in “caps and bells” and likens the delivery of an announcement at a parapsychology conference to the birth of “Rosemary’s Baby.” After debunking all manner of alleged frauds, he opens the book’s epilogue with the words, “The tumbrels now stand empty but ready for another trip to the square” – a reference to the French Revolution, in which carts (“tumbrels”) of victims were driven daily to the guillotine. Randi evidently pictures himself as the executioner who lowers the blade. In passing, two points might be made about this metaphor: the French Revolution was a product of “scientific rationalism” run amok … and most of its victims were innocent.

Still, the tedious nastiness of Flim-Flam does not tell us anything about its accuracy. Intrigued, I decided to check out a few of Randi’s claims in detail.

I chose to focus on Chapter Eight, Randi’s dissection of the experiments of Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, two well-known parapsychologists. Randi calls them “the Laurel and Hardy of psi” and proceeds to argue that their experiments were a tissue of ineptitude, gullibility, and dishonesty.

The first thing I noticed was that Randi never gives any indication that Targ and Puthoff have any scientific credentials or accomplishments. The casual reader could be forgiven for assuming that they are not “real” scientists at all. For the record, Targ is a physicist credited with inventing the FM laser, the high-power gas-tranport laser, and the tunable plasma oscillator. Puthoff, also a physicist, invented the tunable infra-red laser and is widely known for his theoretical work on quantum vacuum states and the zero point field. (see The Field, by Lynne McTaggart, for an overview of Puthoff’s work in quantum phyics.) If these two are “Laurel and Hardy,” at least they come with good résumés. Randi, by contrast, has no scientific training.

Anyway, it goes on from there and I highly recommend reading the whole thing. If you’re totally lazy, I can sum it up by saying that when you look into it, a lot of Randi’s “evidence” essentially comes down to: “I know a guy who was involved that told me there were flaws in the protocols of these experiments, but I’m not going to tell you who this person was.” It’s really that flimsy. Prescott even checked out one of the claims of these mysterious sources personally, at the facilities where the research was conducted and found that it was nonsense. When Randi does quote actual inside sources, Prescott follows up and finds the sources deny ever saying anything close what he attributes to them and aren’t super happy about being misrepresented. Not very compelling “evidence” to say the least. And yet, these materialist weirdoes are continually editing out the reality of Psi research on Wikipedia, which is something that say Russell Targ has griped about rather publicly in recent years. In posting pieces like this, I’m just doing my best to counteract that ignorance. Occultist out.

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-- See more at: http://disinfo.com/2014/08/james-randis-evidence-esp-turns-fabricated/#sthash.GMlpGji9.dpuf

Any staunch Randi supporters care to chime in?  Some of Randi's methodologies seem pretty shady even to me. 

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If you’re totally lazy, I can sum it up by saying that when you look into it, a lot of Randi’s “evidence” essentially comes down to: “I know a guy who was involved that told me there were flaws in the protocols of these experiments, but I’m not going to tell you who this person was.” It’s really that flimsy. Prescott even checked out one of the claims of these mysterious sources personally, at the facilities where the research was conducted and found that it was nonsense. When Randi does quote actual inside sources, Prescott follows up and finds the sources deny ever saying anything close what he attributes to them and aren’t super happy about being misrepresented. Not very compelling “evidence” to say the least. And yet, these materialist weirdoes are continually editing out the reality of Psi research on Wikipedia, which is something that say Russell Targ has griped about rather publicly in recent years.

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I'd be interested in any kind of refutations of these kinds of accusations...

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I'd be interested in any kind of refutations of these kinds of accusations...

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Let me get this straight: you want more here-say to refute here-say? I am certain that will work.

Bottom line: If Randi ever made an error or falsely jumped to a conclusion, then psi is real!

Diploid said:

Doesn't matter. The test methodology is designed BY THE PERSON CLAIMING TO HAVE MAGICAL POWERS, NOT BY JAMES RANDI! The result must be self-evident, not judgef my Rani or anyone elsr. How can this simple fact be so hard for you to get that you still miss it even though I have repeated it to you several times in this thread and countess other times over the years.

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If you’re totally lazy, I can sum it up by saying that when you look into it, a lot of Randi’s “evidence” essentially comes down to: “I know a guy who was involved that told me there were flaws in the protocols of these experiments, but I’m not going to tell you who this person was.” It’s really that flimsy. Prescott even checked out one of the claims of these mysterious sources personally, at the facilities where the research was conducted and found that it was nonsense. When Randi does quote actual inside sources, Prescott follows up and finds the sources deny ever saying anything close what he attributes to them and aren’t super happy about being misrepresented. Not very compelling “evidence” to say the least. And yet, these materialist weirdoes are continually editing out the reality of Psi research on Wikipedia, which is something that say Russell Targ has griped about rather publicly in recent years.

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I'm talking about Randi trying to debunk other people's experiments.  And for the record, I am well familiar with the methodology of the JREF, so I think you are confusing me with someone else when you are saying that you have repeated "it to me countless times over the years." 

Diploid said:

In fact, Radi does not even participate until the claimant passes the pretest designed by the claimant. No one has ever passed their own self-designed test when being carefully watched for cheating so Randi personally is not relevant. He becomes relevant when and if someone passes their own pretest.

One more time since you either don't understand or are deliberately being contrary to win a point of fact that you can't just ignore because it is inconvenient to your argument: James Randi is not relevant.

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Again, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT THE JREF TEST HERE.  Reading comprehension is key here. 

OrgoneConclusion said:

Thanks, DC! Now we all have to pay just because you upset Diploid. 

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Dammit, sorry guys.  I know he's gonna up my vig a few points as a resulta this. 

easyskunkin said:

I've always heard that posting unsubstantiated hearsay in the PSP forum was asking for trouble.

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Icelander said:

link?

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