... magician and investigator of psychic phenomena.
Don't laugh; this is science.
For 25 years, Randi has explored the world of the
paranormal and tested claims of supernatural powers.
Now, Randi journeys to Russia to challenge psychics never
before seen in the west.
After decades of research, can we finally discover
the secrets of the psychics?
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From the earliest days, man has believed that
dreams and the supernatural are in some way real.
All over the world psychics demonstrate
powers that their followers accept as
modern-day miracles.
Here, in Moscow, psychic healers treat the sick
with chants and incantations.
And, in the Philippines, psychic surgeons perform
operations without knives.
A metal spoon turns liquid in the hands of a psychic
performing in Britain.
This is happening.
Nearly everywhere, fortune-tellers find the
future in cards, crystal balls, and palms.
Three out of four Americans say
they've had a psychic experience.
Today, you can even find a psychic at the mall.
Purveyors of the supernatural have created
a multi-million dollar industry.
But, are psychic phenomena what they appear to be?
My name is James Randi, the Amazing Randi.
I'm a magician.
Okay, I have here a pen...
For the past 25 years, I've been investigating
the claims of psychics.
A psychokinetic demonstration of a
supernatural nature.
Watch this.
Psychics often say that an object can be moved using
only the power of the mind.
And it moves in a miracle fashion like that.
Isn't that amazing stuff?
Stop!
Magicians can produce the same effect.
Of course, I was just blowing on the pen.
But, a little suggestion and a little distraction
go a long way.
As a magician, there's nothing I like more than a
well-executed illusion.
Just look at what my friend Jamy Ian Swiss can do.
There are those who use magic tricks for more than
entertainment; they convince people that what
they do is real, that they have special powers.
Magical thinking, you know, is a slippery slope.
Sometimes it's harmless enough, but other times
it's quite dangerous.
Personally, I'm opposed to that kind of fakery, so I
have no reservations at all about exposing these
people and their illusions for what they really are.
I've investigated the claims of hundreds of
psychics.
People aren't always happy with my conclusions, but I
do have my supporters.
In 1986, I was honored with a MacArthur Award.
Unfortunately, most of the prize money went into defending myself
against a series of libel suits related to one of my
earliest and most controversial investigations.
The subject was Uri Geller, a young Israeli
who claimed to have supernatural powers.
His remarkable affinity for metal and his psychic
abilities are well documented all over the world.
In the early 1970s, Geller became a superstar,
the most famous psychic in the world.
Okay, just a second, look at me.
Visualize everything that you drew once more.
He claimed to read people's minds.
I'm going to show what I got.
Anything wrong, then I'm wrong, but it really came very strongly.
It could be two mountains with a round thing on or
two people - I , uh, I...
Can I show?
Yeah.
Am I wrong?
You're right.
I'm right.
Good.
That's what I got.
He claimed to bend keys with his mind.
I know you're going to think this is a set-up, friends,
and old Tom has never conned you on anything.
This - this guy is bending this key by rubbing it.
It was bent at about, uh, a one-degree angle when
you started out, and it's coming up on 45 degrees now.
It's still moving.
Are you thinking, "Bend?"
Is that what you're doing?
Yes, I'm saying, "bend."
Hard, soft?
I'm saying, "Bend, bend, bend!"
And sometimes I say, "Bend, baby!"
But, Geller was best known for his way with spoons.
Hold the tip of this spoon very, very gently.
Okay.
What I'm doing is I'm trying to melt the metal down.
It's like feeling...
It's going...
Yeah.
I did not force it at all in my hands....
There's no force at all.
Look.
The whole...
You see it's becoming...
... fall off.
It's - touch it here where I'm stroking it.
There is absolutely no...
That is eerie!
I have a wisdom tooth...
As you can see, the metal is beginning to crack here.
It's breaking.
Yeah.
Look, it's becoming - it's like putty wax.
You see?
Look.
And keep - keep stroking it here.
You see - don't, don't you see, the crack is becoming bigger?
Yep.
I melt the metal down so - so...
I want it to bend. I just say, "Bend."
You melted it.
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Keep stroking your keys more and people at home,
want your watches to start working, or if there is a
radio that is broken, want it to start working.
Television broken - just want it - all those broken things.
Now...
What Geller was saying, effectively, was that
wanting things could make them so.
I felt that claim had to be challenged.
The media, even some scientists, were taking
the Geller phenomenon seriously, so I decided to
show, for starters, that I could at least duplicate
these effects using trickery.
Now, a key can be displayed in such a way
that it looks like it's bending.
For example, just by stroking it,
you'd swear that it's bending right up before your eyes.
Magicians call this process ratcheting.
But, to do this, the key has to be bent in advance.
The hard part, of course, is how to go about bending
the key without letting them catch you.
Now, there's several ways.
I could, for example, take it and press the tip
against the top of the table.
That would do it.
Or, in shifting my chair backwards or forwards, as
I just did, I could've taken it and dropped it
below the level of the table and pressed the tip
on the chair I'm sitting on,
which is exactly what I just did.
Did I fool ya?
Mentalists have duplicating hidden
drawings for years.
If Mr. Geller had chosen to use trickery,
he could've used any of a number of techniques.
One favorite involves turning your back and
covering your eyes while the drawing is being made.
Now, I've always wondered why you would cover your
eyes while your back is turned.
But, melting metal is something else again.
It's done something like this, and it gets soft.
So, I say to it, "Bend, bend, bend," and it bends.
Of course, it does take a little preparation.
In fact, it takes a lot of preparation.
Now, this isn't proof positive that other
demonstrations aren't the result of supernatural power,
but isn't this a more reasonable explanation?
And then, of course, there was Mr. Geller's
appearance on The Tonight Show.
I got a call after they booked him to appear.
Will you welcome, please, Uri Geller.
Johnny had been a magician himself and was skeptical.
I was asked to help prevent any trickery.
Nice to see you.