A Masterful Reference for Those of Us Who Are Sick of the BULLSHIT

 An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural – James Randi (1997)

            Ahhhhh, yet another dense reference book to flood my mind with data.  I love it!  In this book James Randi details centuries worth of frauds involving the occult and the supernatural.  Everything from the Loch Ness Monster hoaxes to lying mediums faking ectoplasm to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s credulity when shown obviously faked images of fairies is explained and described.  It is amazing stuff.  I am glad that someone collected all these things in one volume, and now it is available for free online with extra illustrations!

            Here is an example from the encyclopedia dealing with the currently popular “ancient astronauts” theories.

            “Ancient Astronauts – There is a theory that thousands of years ago, civilizations from other star systems visited Earth and gave early man information to assist in his development.  The idea seems to be that folks used to be pretty slow-witted and had to have help to develop such clever stuff as the wheel, bricks, and cudgels.

            Evidence has been offered by many writers, particularly by best-seller Von Daniken and none of it is convincing when the actual facts are determined and examined even casually.  The theory is presently promoted by tabloid newspapers, sensationalist journals, UFO periodicals, and other fringe-science entities, but holds little interest for serious researchers.”

Aliens traveled so far to try and teach us such boring stuff

 

            I applaud the efforts of James Randi and hope that more people stop focusing on nonsense and instead use their energy towards endeavors which will actually benefit humanity and the planet Earth in general.

(This book can be read here: http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html )

Nostril-dumbass and his "predictions"

The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World’s Most Famous Seer – James Randi (1993)

            Oh James Randi.  You fight the good fight and the dumb-asses still won’t listen.  Nostradamus is the single most famous prognosticator of recent history.  His obtuse quatrains are so vague and meaningless that they are fodder for every sort of claim the kooks wish to superimpose on them.  This makes it very easy to claim Nostradamus predicted whatever you wish to imagine.

            James Randi has taken up the grand fight to combat the ignorance spread by the lunatic fringe.  Houdini tried 100 years ago and failed.  In this book, Mr. Randi takes on the big dog.  He explores the history of Nostradamus and his quatrains, their creation, and the subsequent hype machine which made everyone believe that Nostradamus was a mystic of the highest order.  Quatrains were altered to suit people’s needs in the centuries after his life.  They were forged outright by the book publishers who needed new volumes to sell to the gullible sheep that ate this crap up but had already exhausted the originals.  James Randi details all of this with humor, righteous indignation, and diligent research.

The Eye of Truth destroys ignorance and wishful thinking

            If only people would read this book.  I know they will not, especially since a whole cottage industry makes serious money off of the name Nostradamus and his nonsense verse.  The worst part is that, as the saying goes, “Hindsight is 20/20.”  Almost no one ever focuses on psychics/seers failures, instead championing the one time out of a hundred where it appears they predicted something correctly.  Theoretical physicists make predictions based on their theories all the time that turn out to be empirically true, but are never given as much attention as a “psychic” predicting the death of a President, or that so-and-so celebrity will be married next year,  These scum are the worst.

Harry Houdini is the GREATEST

Houdini: His Life & Art – James Randi (1976)

            For a long time as a young kid Harry Houdini was my idol.  He may have died decades before I was born but I would read anything I could find about him.  There were some really great children’s books that talked about Harry Houdini’s life and I loved them.  I have read several books about Houdini, but many are full of Mr. Houdini’s disinformation about himself.  He was a self-created man in every way.

            Who better to write a great book about the life of Harry Houdini than a magician?  The Amazing Randi is up to the task.  Not only is James Randi a famous magician and conjurer, he is a magic historian, a professional debunker, and a Houdini fanatic just like me.  The amount of diligence he brings to this book is greatly appreciated by me!

            Randi explores the early life of Harry Houdini, drawing upon his vast personal collection of Houdini memorabilia.  He sheds the persona and myths created by Houdini himself, and shares how much hard work went into Houdini becoming a world-wide sensation.  The book is stuffed full of photos and interesting side notes and it is a hell of an awesome thing.  I learned more about Houdini than I thought possible, and it only made me admire him more.

            Houdini was not just a master showman, but he was a genius at creating new illusions.  So many hacks would steal his tricks and illusions that he was forced to constantly create new ones, or innovate on older ones, so that the fickle public would keep loving him and attending his shows.  Shit don’t change!  The public is always after a new fix.

In the Deep Future, aliens will come looking for Houdini, having become bored of their culture's magicians.

            This book shares everything it can about Harry Houdini, from his triumphs to his failures, and I am glad that James Randi took the time and effort to write it.  I am also very glad for the Inter-Library Loan Department at the Library I work at for allowing me to check this book out from a Library in California!