Hey Slim, why such a mad on for Randi?

I'm guessing (not sure) that Slim at some point has claimed some supernatural powers. Those seem to be the only people who fear Randi and compensate by putting him down.

Slim, would you elaborate on this? What do you mean?

Heck at one point he was claiming to do hypnosis, and really doing mentalism.

Many fear Randi who make false claims.

Hold on, Mentalists aren't magicians? Why would there be a Mentalist section in cataglogs like Tannen's etc if Mentalists weren't in fact fakirs or magicians or just an entertainer?

People that do indeed posess supernatural abilities surely would not discuss them in open forums, in fact they wouldn't discuss them at all. They do not like attention drawn to themselves. Mentalists are just magician/entertainers.

Becouse they are selling to a bunch of guys who think you can buy talent and skill.

Magic shops sell dreams to magicians that if they buy X,Y or Z they can be a mentalist.

This has been an interesting thread.

J ack

H.o.A-X

This was a dead thread.

Do mentalists sell the idea of what is beyond death?

Jim Callahan raised the dead !

Johnny Thompson could never be diminished in my eyes. He is and always will be a legend. I also never realized that anyone took P & T's 'exposures' seriously.
I highly doubt that anyone seeing their act once could duplicate their cups and balls.
It's practically a 'sucker' trick.

Anyone who could really fortell the future would not be an entertainer.

They'd be a day trader.

'nuff said.

And if Santa really knew if you'd been naughty or nice he'd do what when he came down the chimney? Heck, the way you've been behaving I would not be surprised if he was making a special trip, just for you.

That's about as far as I want to take the obvious parallels to protect those who might believe all the astonishing tales they are told.

Why not or more correctly why should they not?

Do not writers, painters, musicians, sculptors, etc?

-Jim

To be perfectly honest, Jim, I don't give a swimming banana-kite what you or your kind do. You bore me.

I love you. A lot. But you bore me.

Lots of love,

-Jeff

Then why ask?

-Jim

Curiosity.

Curiosity killed the cat

(for those that don't get it, Jim likes to use the word cat to refer to some people)

This may be kind of a late post, but I loved Mick's poem.

Hm. I clicked here accidentally but see familiar stuff. I guess I stirred a hornest nest that's been stirred before.

For whatever little its worth... I seem to have a very different perspective then the original poster. In my own ethics lists I would not put Kreskin and Geller on the same list. I would put Kreskin and James Randi on one list and Geller on another.

Maybe my POV is different from many here, or maybe its just wrong *shrug* but but to me Uri Geller was a villain and Kreskin and Randi are both to some extent personal heroes.

The defining difference to me is that Uri Geller claimed to be something other then he was. A magician pretending to possess supernatural powers and trying to profit from others' gullibility on that fact. In my book that's victimization, not entertainment.

Kreskin on the other hand was always very upfront with the fact that he was a magician and hypnotist and had no extra-oridinary powers just some relatively unique training.

Maybe I don't know enough about James Randi, but what I have seen has always been an attempt to expose not the honest working magicians like the Kreskins of the world, but the dishonest victimizers like the Uri Gellers.

And to me, that makes all the difference.

(But I do agree that "I am helping them by exposing them" is hogwash and pretty weak.)

You've made one mistake .. randi HATES The Amazing Kreskin!!!!!

Perhaps because Kreskin keeps jumping back and forth over the line?