Does James Randi claim to be a parapsychologist?

Question

Someone mentioned this on an answer to another question.

Edit ...I DON'T LIKE THIS NEW WAY YAHOO HAS COME UP WITH TO POST QUESTIONS. YUK!

Answer 1

No, he just claims that everyone that has paranormal experiences is either crazy or stupid.  

Answer 2

I agree with psiexploration, you cant prove anything through one test.

James Randi is a nobody who saw an easy way to get attention. That would be the only place his expertise lies. First class attention seeking.

Sadly this kind of work seems to attract many frauds and I totally support stopping anyone who preys on innocent grief stricken people. It is con artists like them who make my work so much harder.

Mediumship and Psychic readers first and foremost have to have the right intention... and proving themselves just for the sake of proving themselves would come from the ego. When ego walks in spirit walks out.

Answer 3

No- he's a true scientist.  So am I.  It's time for you people to realize this is all pretend - just for fun.  Like I'm trying to teach my kids - there are no spirits, ghosts or messages from the other side.  It is all FAKE.  Modern c**p on TV like "America's Most Haunted" (or whatever) and the criminally insane John Edward's trash, are really destroying the brains of today's youth.  I see it in my nieces - they can't tell what's fiction and what is real anymore.  

When I was growing up we had intelligent Sci-Fi shows like "The Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits" , that fictionalized (as it should rightly be) so-called paranormal phenomenon.  Some good stories, made you think, but in the end you know you're back in the real world, _this_ reality.  

Answer 4

No.  He's a magician.  He doesn't do research; he has a challenge which is scientific in the sense that the results are as free from manipulation as possible and do not require judging of any kind - you did what you said you could do or you didn't.  He doesn't have a degree in psychology.

Answer 5

Also as I'm sure Skep knows, Randi has offered the prize for some non-paranormal claims. If I recall reading, some company made claims that their super expensive stereo speaker wires were vastly superior to ordinary wires. Randi offered the prize to the owners but was turned down.

Answer 6

No, he makes no claims to be a scientist either.  By profession he is (or was) a magician/illusionist...with a particular specialty in escapes, a la Harry Houdini.  One thing about his schtick was that he always told the audience he was fooling them, that he was a cheat, a liar and a trickster. (That actually inspired Penn&Teller to use that type of patter as well, and they often reveal the trick to the audience..sort of)

He first became interested in debunking paranormal phenomena when Uri Geller came to do his tour of America in the early 70's.  Randi recognized that what Geller claimed to do by PK powers were obviously standard magicians tricks...sleight of hand, misdirection etc.(and Geller is actually quite clumsy at them too)  He got angry when Geller was studied by people at the Stanford Research Institute who declared Geller genuine.  He realized that naive scientists weren't trained to spot or prevent the sort of tricks that Geller used, and that other tricksters (magicians) really needed to be consulted to help prevent cheating.  This led to a series of confrontations, most famously on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, where James gave Johnny some tips on how to prevent Uri from using any magicians tricks (eg, not letting him have access to the spoons ahead of time)  He wrote a book exposing him for the fraud he was, and there have been a series of lawsuits by Geller....all but one he lost. (Randi did lose one in Japan where he had to admit he insulted Geller..which is illegal in Japan, and paid a token fine)

He also took an interest in "psychic surgery" which at the time was practiced by Phillipino shamans among others. (Comedian Andy Kaufmann was "cured" of his metastatic lung cancer by a Filipino psychic surgeon....about a month before he died...)  Randi famously went on Johnny Carson again to demonstrate the trick.  It was so graphic, a woman in the audience passed out.

He became interested in faith healers, and wrote an expose on them as well.  And...once again on Johnny Carson showed a clip of Peter Popoff "miraculously" working a crowd..knowing peoples ailments....except he was getting instructions from his wife off stage through a receiver in his ear who had prayer cards filled out by the faithful before the crusade.

The $1,000,000 Psychic Challenge is a bit of a publicity stunt, true.  But, all they are asking is for people who claim they have some psychic power to state what it is, what would be a fair test of that power, then have them demonstrate it under controlled conditions.  Nobody who has applied has ever managed to do what they claim to be able to do when they are prevented from cheating.  

The JREF will be shutting down the Million Dollar Challenge in 2010 as it has served its purpose...drawing attention to psychic phenomena, and how gullible people and the media and even scientists are about it.

EDIT: I agree that proving/disproving spirits is a difficult one to do, but remember..it the the paranormalists who are making the claims, not skeptics.  It usually amounts to doing something that a magician is unable to do by trickery....so far it turns out there isn't anything that can't be duplicated.  A common "excuse" from paranormalists is that their powers are suppressed by the "negative energy" from skeptics (which is why Mr Randi is never personally involved in the challenge FYI) , or the "spirits aren't cooperating" or "I'm wearing the wrong color socks".  

How conveeeeeeenient.  All the folks who tried for the money agreed in advance what a fair test of their powers would be, and that they could perform under controls also agreed to in advance.  Watch some of his old vids of dowsers...they are quite revealing.

Sorry, but if the spirits won't talk to you when there are mechanisms in place to prevent you from cheating, then you really haven't convinced me you can talk to spirits.  Maybe you should hang out with more cooperative ghosts.  People like Sylvia Browne, James van Praagh and John Edward are the worst kind of sleazy criminals, conmen preying on vulnerable people.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof"  Carl Sagan

Answer 7

Not that I know of. He describes himself as a "retired professional magician ('The Amazing Randi'), author, lecturer, amateur archaeologist/astronomer. "

Answer 8

No he does not nor could he since he has no training or education in any field of science.

He does have an offer out to prove psychic/paranormal phenomena but he has said himself "I always have an out" and there are so many biased obstacles that allow him to dismiss a contestant long before any protocols are agreed upon that the challenge can't be taken seriously by anyone.

Almost anyone in any field of science including many skeptics consider this reward nothing more than a publicity stunt.

"But as a leading Fellow of CSICOP, Ray Hyman, has pointed out, this "prize" cannot be taken seriously from a scientific point of view: "Scientists don't settle issues with a single test, so even if someone does win a big cash prize in a demonstration, this isn't going to convince anyone. Proof in science happens through replication, not through single experiments."

(link below)

Edit: I agree I don't like the new YA either every update seems to make it a worse service,

Psiexploration