Colin Fry UK forum

[Temp3st]

some people might be interested in some of Colins comments and attitude towards Mr Randi tonight.

http://www.livingtv.co.uk/ubb/Forum19/HTML/004198.html

it sickens me that one in the pubic eye would behave in such a manner.

...originally posted by Colin Fry
>...and I am afraid Mr Randi does decieve people he presents his >not so accomlished magic act and proclaims it explains >everythink that psychic does ,his behaviour a few years back >when he made the series for British tv "James Randi " >investigates was a total act of deception by him and the tv >company with some of the contributers being conned into >appearing by being given false information of the nature of the >programme and some not even being told until the day Randi >was involved and the being given false protocols for the >experiments they where asked to conduct ,example of this >being the stitch up of Stephen Obrien and Coral Polge and Nella >Jones .

[Dub]

Typical reply by these type of people. They instantly jump on the fact that Randi is a magician and call everything he does a magic act. The call refer to him as "a magician" as if its an insult. A magician is the perfect person to see through con-men trying to pass of cheap magic tricks as genuine. As Randi himself said, a magician is the most honest professional in the world - you know before hand that they are going to decieve you. Just what magic tricks people think Randi is performing I dont know. Is he some how making the medium look like all they are doing is cold reading? Does he some how make the medium agree to the protocols of the test against their will? Does he forge their signature on the protocols?

[Clancie]

As Randi himself said, a magician is the most honest professional in the world
I think that's why I found his rejoinder to the "obese, unattractive woman" who called him a fraud in the hallway so puzzling. Rather than paraphrasing Churchill (and losing the original humor in the process), why not just say what you did? :confused:

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by Dub
A magician is the perfect person to see through con-men trying to pass of cheap magic tricks as genuine.

Magicians are good at tricks and human psychology. However, some magicians are believers. There was even one magician who believed in Transcedental Meditation.

Ultimately, we need scientists, not magicians, to evaluate claims of the paranormal, in academic settings, not stage shows.

[Zep]

Ultimately, we need scientists, not magicians, to evaluate claims of the paranormal, in academic settings, not stage shows.What if the magician was also a scientist, or the scientist a magician in his/her spare time? I'm a scientist who appreciates and has seen many a good "magic show" - so am I disqualified?

Really, you can't eliminate a person from this sort of research purely because of some arbitrary personal attribution of "badness" or inappropriateness on your part. Just as you can't discount psychics simply on the grounds that they are postmen or librarians or dance teachers in real life.

[Dub]

Originally posted by T'ai Chi


Magicians are good at tricks and human psychology. However, some magicians are believers. There was even one magician who believed in Transcedental Meditation.

Ultimately, we need scientists, not magicians, to evaluate claims of the paranormal, in academic settings, not stage shows.

What difference does it make that some magicians are belivers? Some scientisits are also 'believers'.

If the person claiming paranormal abilities is conning people by actually doing a magic trick the perfect person to see through this is another magician. Scientists with no training in magic may not be able to see through even basic magic tricks, whereas a competent magican would see through them straight away. Are you claiming that by having training in magic its impossible for someone to use the scientific method appropirately? Randi also uses proper scientists to test those who claim paranormal abilities. For example, after the homoepathy tests done for Horizon people were spouting that the tests were invalid because they were done by a magician. Infact Randi had very little to do with the test. It was performed by respected scientists.

Randi always seems to be made a strawman - as if he's the only person that controls the entire testing procedure.