An Honest Liar and why we believe weird things

James Randi, a magician who dedicated his life to debunking claims of paranormal powers, has died at 92.

So I watched his movie yesterday night. “Fantastic Randi” tricked the tricksters all his life.

Fake channelers, healers, psychokinesis, telepathy and spoon benders

It’s a good one to watch and entertaining to see him catch Peter Popoff, a television famous self proclaimed “channeler” who delivers messages and healings from God actually gets them from an earpiece and his wife talking in it. The film also features Uri Geller who claimed and “demonstrated” he could bend spoons with his mind.

“Fantastic Randi” thought the best way to prove they were fakes was to do the same as them so he “created” a fake channeler and “sold it” to TV hosts in Australia using fake newspaper stories that they did not bother fact checking. He then did the same with magicians using the same tricks as Uri to bend spoons and went on TV himself to reveal how they cheated.

Randi was the ultimate skeptic of any paranormal activity and said that no matter how smart or conscious you are you can be tricked.

Indigenous or not, I have been more and more in touch with people and friends believing in something else than the eyes can see or what science can prove so it’s good for me to research the skeptic side.

Life is magical. Giving birth is magical, what our brain can do is magical and there is so much we can’t explain or understand yet. What’s before birth and death? What’s a lie and what’s not?

How can one decide what to believe?

I am grateful to have friends on both sides, between “if science cannot explain it then it does not exist” to Faith in God, religion or supernatural forces… The human beliefs are as large as the Ocean.

Politics is a constant lie. Businesses lie all the time promising you how their product will be more amazing than it really is. Lies are everywhere, not only with magicians.

Here is a book on my list to read “Why people believe weird things. Pseudoscience, superstition and other confusions of our time.”

How do you decide to believe what you believe in?