By James RandiOur Price: $20.95 Our Item Code: uri Postage Code: book1
234 Pages, Cover Size: 6 x 9 inches |
| Our Review | Opinion of the webmaster, subject to debate |
(Skeptical.) Professional magician James Randi analyses the feats of famed psychic Uri Geller, who Randi argues is little more than a crafty illusionist. The difference between Geller and a stage magician, Randi says, is that the magician acknowledges he is a trickster. Geller performs the same tricks but never admits them, instead using them to defraud wealthy benefactors. Randi provides how-to instructions on spoon-bending, clairvoyance, psychic photography and "teleportation." Gellers psychic feats only seem to happen when people look away momentarily or when his low-key assistant, who you rarely hear about, is lurking nearby. Randi can't prove that everything Geller does is phony, because he can't be everywhere Geller is. What Randi does prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, is that Geller cannot be trusted. Randi is at his best when explaining magical illusions and the art of misdirecting attention; he is weaker when attempting to debunk remote viewing experiments at SRI, where Geller earned a qualified endorsement. (Randi only speculates that some sort of fraud must have occurred.) Written at the height of Geller's popularity in 1975, this book still stands as a fascinating exercise in healthy skepticism. -- Glenn Campbell
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