Magical moments with Randi (3)

The great man has passed. But memories of his escapades and his teachings will always remain.

I wrote about Randi teaching me spoon bending, and about a mindreading trick he pulled on me with ESP cards. I wrote about how he could be thoroughly blindfolded and still walk around, clearly seeing everything around him.

James Randi, famed magician and paranormal skeptic who cofounded the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, shortly before his death at age 92. Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

It was my intention to describe, in this article, further lessons I received from Randi, in his house in Rumson, New Jersey — and describe how charmingly he presented them. But then I decided there was a better way.

As I said before there are thousands of articles on Randi on the Internet, and many hundreds of videos. You can spend hours (or days or weeks) entertaining yourself with his amazing escapades, and learning the ways of skepticism and science. The videos are instructive, eloquent and always highly entertaining. I have chosen a couple where he is talking and teaching in exactly the same way I experienced when I was in his house in New Jersey. And which show you how the brain of a man in his late 80s, suffering from essentially terminal cancer, can remain clear and vibrant in his thoughts and diction. And retain his wonderful sense of humour.

Let me start with this delightful one-hour video of a discussion with another of my favourite skeptics, Matt Dillahunty. Randy was 89 years old at the time, had undergone chemotherapy and suffered a minor stroke less than two years earlier. He is clearly frail in body, but certainly not in mind.

The discussion took place in April 2017 at the Chan Centre For The Performing Arts in Vancouver.

Here’s an entertaining report with Randy produced by Studio 10. My friend was 86 years old at the time, but spoke and explained things exactly as he had done when I visited him in Rumson decades earlier.

Randy explains cold reading, spoon bending — exactly the way he had taught me to do it in the 1980s — and the reason he does not believe there are people who have genuine psychic abilities, in a higher power.

And here is a memorable lecture Randy held at the University of Helsinki, Finnland, in 2010. If the YouTube video works properly it will play all six sections, listed on the right. It is another hour well spent.

Brace your nerves for the section in which he demonstrates how psychic surgery is performed.

Today, decades after my last visit, I still use most of the tricks I picked up from Randy to entertain and educate. And remain thankful for all the things I learn from this great man.

Previous articles on Randi

• Magical Moments with Randi
• Magical moments with Randi (2)
• The great spoon bending scam