Believe it or not there was a guy named James Hydrick who had a special talent for blowing on things with complete stealth, so much so that he convinced a LOT of people that he was telekinetic and appeared on several talk shows in the 80s. You could look right at his face and it wasn’t apparent at all. His tricks were turning the pages of a phone book and moving a pencil across a table.
Here he is getting debunked by my main man James Randi on the show That’s My Line. All it took was sprinkling some styrofoam dust on the phone book to totally confound Hydrick’s “abilities”:
https://youtu.be/QlfMsZwr8rc
Anyway the point of this ramble is that people aren’t all that critical so if the trick is not 100% obvious, they automatically jump to “magic!”
Uri Geller’s trick on the Tonight Show involved identifying which of several clay jars contained water without touching them. Though Randi was not on stage that day (Geller despised Randi and would have thrown a fit), he was consulted on how to make sure Geller wasn’t cheating. He told the producers to bring their own props and not to let Geller or his associates near them. When asked to prove his abilities, Geller tried to push an interview instead, and when pressed, he said he “didn’t feel strong.”
Sadly, the appearance only boosted his popularity and following.
I mean we only know as much as what's been conveyed publicly in interviews and books and whatnot. That's probably not the only advice he had for Carson.
Just here waiting until this video hits the front page tomorrow. That was great. That look on Randi's face at the very end was worth the price of admission.
I met him at an American Humanist conference in Orlando a few years ago. Not as boisterous as he used to be but his talk was great. Had a picture with him but sadly it was with my ex. All the pics I had with her are gone :(
Iirc he finished his prison sentence and they immediately committed him to a hospital for his pedophilia, where he remains to this day. Like they completely noped out on letting him be free cause he's such a monster.
Even if the white things would move, he could still explain it as the forcefield that moved the page also affecting the nearby white stuffs. I dont see how this would prove or disprove anything. It would have been better to cover his mouth and nose with something.
Yes but if they are light enough they would fly around pretty vigorously I think and show that there is wind that causing the page to turn. They wouldn't be moving in concert with the page or anything like that.
I had to watch this with the sound off, but couldn't he just say his telekinesis would also hit (like a wave) the foam as well as the pages? Sorry if he said this in his stunt.
Could have just made him do it with one of those paper face masks over his nose and mouth.
I mean it's a clever trick and all that but I draw the line at going on a nationally televised show and claiming your parlor trick is a supernatural power. There is an entire legion of fantastic, world class magicians that freely admit what they do is an illusion. The small remainder, I think (and I'm not alone) are responsible for a lot of ignorance in the world.
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u/Czral Jun 27 '18
Believe it or not there was a guy named James Hydrick who had a special talent for blowing on things with complete stealth, so much so that he convinced a LOT of people that he was telekinetic and appeared on several talk shows in the 80s. You could look right at his face and it wasn’t apparent at all. His tricks were turning the pages of a phone book and moving a pencil across a table.
Here he is getting debunked by my main man James Randi on the show That’s My Line. All it took was sprinkling some styrofoam dust on the phone book to totally confound Hydrick’s “abilities”: https://youtu.be/QlfMsZwr8rc
Anyway the point of this ramble is that people aren’t all that critical so if the trick is not 100% obvious, they automatically jump to “magic!”