1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,000
Good morning.

2
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,000
Happy to see so many fine folks out here

3
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,000
and so many smiling faces.

4
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,000
I have a very peculiar

5
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,000
background, attitude and approach

6
00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:15,000
to the real world

7
00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:17,000
because I am a conjurer.

8
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,000
Now, I prefer that term over magician,

9
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:22,000
because if I were a magician, that would mean

10
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000
that I use spells and incantations

11
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,000
and weird gestures

12
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000
in order to accomplish real magic.

13
00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,000
No, I don't do that; I'm a conjurer,

14
00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000
who is someone who pretends to be

15
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000
a real magician. (Laughter)

16
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000
Now, how do we go about that sort of thing?

17
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000
We depend on the fact

18
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,000
that audiences, such as yourselves,

19
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000
will make assumptions.

20
00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000
For example, when I walked up here

21
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,000
and I took the microphone from the stand

22
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000
and switched it on,

23
00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,000
you assumed this was a microphone, which it is not.

24
00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,000
(Laughter)

25
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,000
As a matter of fact, this is something

26
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:02,000
that about half of you, more than half of you will not be familiar with.

27
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,000
It's a beard trimmer, you see?

28
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:07,000
And it makes a very bad microphone;

29
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,000
I've tried it many times. (Laughter)

30
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:11,000
The other assumption that you made --

31
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,000
and this little lesson is to show you

32
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,000
that you will make assumptions.

33
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000
Not only that you can, but that you will

34
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:19,000
when they are properly suggested to you.

35
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,000
You believe I'm looking at you.

36
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:24,000
Wrong. I'm not looking at you. I can't see you.

37
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:27,000
I know you're out there, they told me backstage, it's a full house and such.

38
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:29,000
I know you're there because I can hear you,

39
00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:32,000
but I can't see you because I normally wear glasses.

40
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,000
These are not glasses, these are empty frames. (Laughter)

41
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000
Quite empty frames.

42
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,000
Now why would a grown man appear before you

43
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:41,000
wearing empty frames on his face?

44
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,000
To fool you, ladies and gentlemen,

45
00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,000
to deceive you, to show that you, too,

46
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,000
can make assumptions.

47
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000
Don't you ever forget that.

48
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000
Now, I have to do something -- first of all, switch to real glasses

49
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,000
so I can actually see you,

50
00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,000
which would probably be a convenience. I don't know.

51
00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000
I haven't had a good look. Well, it's not that great a convenience.

52
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,000
(Laughter)

53
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:03,000
I have to do something now, which seems

54
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,000
a little bit strange for a magician.

55
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000
But I'm going to take some medication.

56
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000
This is a full bottle of

57
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,000
Calms Forte.

58
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000
I'll explain that in just a moment.

59
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,000
Ignore the instructions,

60
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,000
that's what the government has to put in there

61
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000
to confuse you, I'm sure.

62
00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:22,000
I will take enough of these. Mm.

63
00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,000
Indeed, the whole container.

64
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,000
Thirty-two tablets of Calms Forte.

65
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,000
Now that I've done that -- I'll explain it in a moment --

66
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000
I must tell you that

67
00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000
I am an actor.

68
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,000
I'm an actor who plays a specific part.

69
00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:47,000
I play the part of a magician,

70
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000
a wizard, if you will, a real wizard.

71
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000
If someone were to appear on this stage in front of me

72
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,000
and actually claim to be

73
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,000
an ancient prince of Denmark named Hamlet,

74
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000
you would be insulted

75
00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:02,000
and rightly so.

76
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,000
Why would a man assume that you would believe

77
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000
something bizarre like this?

78
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,000
But there exists out there

79
00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000
a very large population

80
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,000
of people who will tell you

81
00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,000
that they have psychic, magical powers

82
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,000
that they can predict the future,

83
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000
that they can make contact with the deceased.

84
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,000
Oh, they also say

85
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000
they will sell you astrology

86
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000
or other fortunetelling methods.

87
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:27,000
Oh, they gladly sell you that, yes.

88
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,000
And they also say

89
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:31,000
that they can give you perpetual motion machines

90
00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000
and free energy systems.

91
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000
They claim to be psychics,

92
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:37,000
or sensitives, whatever they can.

93
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,000
But the one thing that has made a big comeback

94
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:42,000
just recently

95
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,000
is this business of

96
00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,000
speaking with the dead.

97
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,000
Now, to my innocent mind,

98
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,000
dead implies

99
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,000
incapable of communicating. (Laughter)

100
00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:57,000
You might agree with me on that.

101
00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,000
But these people, they tend to tell you that

102
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,000
not only can they communicate with the dead --

103
00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,000
"Hi, there" --

104
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000
but they can hear the dead as well,

105
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,000
and they can relay this information back to the living.

106
00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,000
I wonder if that's true.

107
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,000
I don't think so, because

108
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:15,000
this subculture of people

109
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,000
use exactly the same gimmicks that we magicians do,

110
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,000
exactly the same --

111
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:23,000
the same physical methods, the same psychological methods --

112
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:26,000
and they effectively and profoundly

113
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,000
deceive millions of people around the earth,

114
00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:30,000
to their detriment.

115
00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:32,000
They deceive these people,

116
00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:34,000
costs them a lot of money,

117
00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,000
cost them a lot of emotional anguish.

118
00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,000
Billions of dollars are spent

119
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,000
every year, all over the globe,

120
00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,000
on these charlatans.

121
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,000
Now, I have two questions

122
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,000
I would like to ask these people

123
00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:49,000
if I had the opportunity to do so.

124
00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,000
First question: If I want to ask them to call up --

125
00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,000
because they do hear them through the ear.

126
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,000
They listen to the spirits like this --

127
00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000
I'm going to ask you to call up the ghost of my grandmother

128
00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:01,000
because, when she died, she had the family will,

129
00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,000
and she secreted it someplace. We don't know where it is,

130
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:06,000
so we ask Granny, "Where is the will, Granny?"

131
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,000
What does Granny say? She says, "I'm in heaven and it's wonderful.

132
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,000
I'm here with all my old friends, my deceased friends,

133
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000
and my family

134
00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,000
and all the puppy dogs and the kittens that I used to have when I was a little girl.

135
00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,000
And I love you, and I'll always be with you.

136
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000
Good bye."

137
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000
And she didn't answer the damn question!

138
00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:25,000
Where is the will?

139
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,000
Now, she could easily have said,

140
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:29,000
"Oh, it's in the library on the second shelf, behind the encyclopedia,"

141
00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:32,000
but she doesn't say that. No, she doesn't.

142
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,000
She doesn't bring any useful information to us.

143
00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,000
We paid a lot of money for that information,

144
00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,000
be we didn't get it.

145
00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:42,000
The second question that I'd like to ask, rather simple:

146
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,000
Suppose I ask them to contact

147
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,000
the spirit of my deceased father-in-law, as an example.

148
00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,000
Why do they insist on saying --

149
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,000
remember, they speak into this ear --

150
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,000
why do they say, "My name starts with J or M?"

151
00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:58,000
Is this a hunting game?

152
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,000
Hunting and fishing? What is it?

153
00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,000
Is it 20 questions? No, it's more like 120 questions.

154
00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,000
But it is a cruel, vicious,

155
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,000
absolutely conscienceless --

156
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:13,000
I'll be all right, keep your seats (Laughter) --

157
00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:15,000
game that these people play.

158
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000
And they take advantage of the innocent, the naive,

159
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:21,000
the grieving, the needy people out there.

160
00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000
Now, this is a process

161
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:26,000
that is called cold reading.

162
00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,000
There's one fellow out there,

163
00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,000
Van Praagh is his name, James Van Praagh.

164
00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,000
He's one of the big practitioners of this sort of thing.

165
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:37,000
John Edward, Sylvia Browne

166
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:40,000
and Rosemary Altea, they are other operators.

167
00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,000
There are hundreds of them all over the earth, but in this country,

168
00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,000
James Van Praagh is very big.

169
00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,000
And what does he do? He likes to tell you

170
00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:49,000
how the deceased got deceased,

171
00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:52,000
the people he's talking to through his ear, you see?

172
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:55,000
So what he says is, very often, is like this: he says,

173
00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:58,000
"He tells me, he tells me, before he passed,

174
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:01,000
that he had trouble breathing."

175
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,000
Folks, that's what dying is all about!

176
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000
(Laughter)

177
00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,000
You stop breathing, and then you're dead.

178
00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:09,000
It's that simple.

179
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000
And that's the kind of information they're going to bring back to you?

180
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,000
I don't think so.

181
00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,000
Now, these people will make guesses, they'll say things like,

182
00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,000
"Why am I getting electricity?

183
00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:21,000
He's saying to me, 'Electricity.'

184
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,000
Was he an electrician?" "No."

185
00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,000
"Did he ever have an electric razor?" "No."

186
00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:27,000
It was a game of hunting questions like this.

187
00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,000
This is what they go through.

188
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,000
Now, folks often ask us

189
00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:33,000
at the James Randi Educational Foundation,

190
00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,000
they call me, they say, "Why are you so concerned about this, Mr. Randi?

191
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,000
Isn't it just a lot of fun?"

192
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:41,000
No, it is not fun. It is a cruel farce.

193
00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,000
Now, it may bring a certain amount of comfort,

194
00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,000
but that comfort lasts

195
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,000
only about 20 minutes or so.

196
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,000
And then the people look in the mirror, and they say,

197
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,000
I just paid a lot of money for that reading.

198
00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,000
And what did she say to me? 'I love you!'"

199
00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,000
They always say that.

200
00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,000
They don't get any information,

201
00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:01,000
they don't get any value for what they spend.

202
00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:03,000
Now, Sylvia Browne is the big operator.

203
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:05,000
We call her "The Talons."

204
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,000
Sylvia Browne -- thank you --

205
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,000
Sylvia Browne is the big operator

206
00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000
in this field at this very moment.

207
00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:15,000
Now, Sylvia Browne -- just to show you --

208
00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,000
she actually gets 700 dollars

209
00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,000
for a 20 minute reading over the telephone,

210
00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,000
she doesn't even go there in person,

211
00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,000
and you have to wait up to two years because

212
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,000
she's booked ahead that amount of time.

213
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,000
You pay by credit card or whatever,

214
00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:31,000
and then she will call you

215
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:33,000
sometime in the next two years.

216
00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,000
You can tell it's her. "Hello, this is Sylvia Browne."

217
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000
That's her, you can tell right away.

218
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,000
Now, Montel Williams is an intelligent man.

219
00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,000
We all know who he is on television.

220
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:47,000
He's well educated, he's smart,

221
00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,000
he knows what Sylvia Browne is doing

222
00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,000
but he doesn't give a damn.

223
00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,000
He just doesn't care.

224
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,000
Because, the bottom line is, the sponsors love it,

225
00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000
and he will expose her

226
00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,000
to television publicity all the time.

227
00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:05,000
Now, what does Sylvia Browne give you for that 700 dollars?

228
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:08,000
She gives you the names of your guardian angels, that's first.

229
00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,000
Now, without that, how could we possibly function? (Laughter)

230
00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:14,000
She gives you the names of previous lives,

231
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:16,000
who you were in previous lives.

232
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:18,000
Duh.

233
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,000
It turns out that the women

234
00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000
that she gives readings for

235
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:25,000
were all Babylonian princesses, or something like that.

236
00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:27,000
And the men were all Grecian warriors

237
00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,000
fighting with Agamemnon.

238
00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,000
Nothing is ever said about

239
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,000
a 14 year-old bootblack in the streets of London

240
00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:36,000
who died of consumption.

241
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:39,000
He isn't worth bringing back, obviously.

242
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,000
And the strange thing -- folks, you may have noticed this too.

243
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,000
You see these folks on television --

244
00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:48,000
they never call anybody back from hell. (Laughter)

245
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,000
Everyone comes back from heaven, but never from hell.

246
00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,000
If they call back any of my friends,

247
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:56,000
they're not going to... Well, you see the story.

248
00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,000
(Laughter)

249
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,000
Now, Sylvia Browne is an exception,

250
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,000
an exception in one way,

251
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,000
because the James Randi Educational Foundation, my foundation,

252
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,000
offers a one million dollar prize in negotiable bonds.

253
00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,000
Very simply won.

254
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,000
All you have to do is prove any paranormal, occult

255
00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:16,000
or supernatural event or power of any kind

256
00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,000
under proper observing conditions.

257
00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,000
It's very easy, win the million dollars.

258
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,000
Sylvia Browne is an exception in that

259
00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,000
she's the only professional psychic

260
00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,000
in the whole world

261
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,000
that has accepted our challenge.

262
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,000
She did this on the "Larry King Live" show on CNN

263
00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:36,000
six and a half years ago.

264
00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:39,000
And we haven't heard from her since. Strange.

265
00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,000
She said that, first of all, that she didn't know how to contact me.

266
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,000
Duh.

267
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,000
A professional psychic who speaks to dead people,

268
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,000
she can't reach me?

269
00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,000
(Laughter)

270
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,000
I'm alive, you may have noticed.

271
00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,000
Well, pretty well anyway.

272
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:59,000
She couldn't reach me. Now she says she doesn't want to reach me

273
00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,000
because I'm a godless person.

274
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:04,000
All the more reason to take the million dollars,

275
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,000
wouldn't you think, Sylvia?

276
00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,000
Now these people need to be stopped, seriously now.

277
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,000
They need to be stopped because this is a cruel farce.

278
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000
We get people coming to the foundation all the time.

279
00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:17,000
They're ruined financially and emotionally

280
00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,000
because they've given their money and their faith

281
00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:21,000
to these people.

282
00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:23,000
Now, I popped some pills earlier.

283
00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,000
I have to explain that to you.

284
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,000
Homeopathy, let's find out what that's all about.

285
00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:30,000
Hmm. You've heard of it.

286
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:33,000
It's an alternative form of healing, right?

287
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000
Homeopathy actually consists -- and that's what this is.

288
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:39,000
This is Calms Forte,

289
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:42,000
32 caplets of sleeping pills! I forgot to tell you that.

290
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,000
I just ingested

291
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000
six and a half days worth of sleeping pills.

292
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,000
(Laughter)

293
00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000
Six and a half days, that certainly is a fatal dose.

294
00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:53,000
It says right on the back here,

295
00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,000
"In case of overdose,

296
00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:57,000
contact your poison control center immediately,"

297
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,000
and it gives an 800 number.

298
00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,000
Keep your seats -- it's going to be okay.

299
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,000
I don't really need it

300
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,000
because I've been doing this stunt

301
00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,000
for audiences all over the world

302
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,000
for the last eight or 10 years,

303
00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,000
taking fatal doses of homeopathic sleeping pills.

304
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,000
Why don't they affect me?

305
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,000
(Laughter)

306
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:20,000
(Applause)

307
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,000
The answer may surprise you.

308
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,000
What is homeopathy?

309
00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,000
It's taking a medicine that really works

310
00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,000
and diluting it down

311
00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,000
well beyond Avogadro's limit.

312
00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,000
Diluting it down to the point

313
00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,000
where there's none of it left. (Laughter)

314
00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:37,000
Now folks, this is not

315
00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,000
just a metaphor I'm going to give you now, it's true.

316
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,000
It's exactly equivalent to taking

317
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,000
one 325 milligram aspirin tablet,

318
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000
throwing it into the middle of Lake Tahoe,

319
00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,000
and then stirring it up, obviously with a very big stick,

320
00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:54,000
and waiting two years or so

321
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,000
until the solution is homogeneous.

322
00:12:57,000 --> 00:12:59,000
Then, when you get a headache,

323
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,000
you take a sip of this water, and -- voila! -- it is gone.

324
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,000
(Laughter)

325
00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:07,000
Now that is true. That is what homeopathy is all about.

326
00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,000
And another claim that they make -- you'll love this one --

327
00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:13,000
the more dilute the medicine is, they say,

328
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,000
the more powerful it is.

329
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,000
Now wait a minute, we heard about a guy in Florida.

330
00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:20,000
The poor man, he was on homeopathic medicine.

331
00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:22,000
He died of an overdose.

332
00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:24,000
He forgot to take his pill.

333
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,000
(Laughter)

334
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,000
Work on it. Work on it.

335
00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,000
It's a ridiculous thing. It is absolutely ridiculous.

336
00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,000
I don't know what we're doing,

337
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,000
believing in all this nonsense over all these years.

338
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:40,000
Now, let me tell you,

339
00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,000
The James Randi Educational Foundation

340
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,000
is waving this very big carrot,

341
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:47,000
but I must say, the fact that nobody

342
00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,000
has taken us up on this offer

343
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:51,000
doesn't mean that the powers don't exist.

344
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,000
They might, some place out there.

345
00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,000
Maybe these people are just independently wealthy.

346
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,000
Well, with Sylvia Browne I would think so.

347
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:01,000
You know, 700 dollars for a 20 minute reading

348
00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:03,000
over the telephone --

349
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,000
that's more than lawyers make!

350
00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:08,000
I mean that's a fabulous amount of money.

351
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,000
These people don't need the million dollars perhaps,

352
00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:13,000
but wouldn't you think they'd like to take it

353
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,000
just to make me look silly?

354
00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,000
Just to get rid of this godless person out there

355
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,000
that Sylvia Browne talks about all the time?

356
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,000
I think that something needs to be done about this.

357
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000
We really would love to have suggestions from you folks

358
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,000
on how to contact federal, state

359
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,000
and local authorities

360
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000
to get them to do something.

361
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,000
If you find out -- now I understand.

362
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,000
We've seen people, even today, speaking to us

363
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,000
about AIDS epidemics

364
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,000
and starving kids around the world

365
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000
and impure water supplies that people have to suffer with.

366
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000
Those are very important,

367
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,000
critically important to us.

368
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,000
And we must do something about those problems.

369
00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:54,000
But at the same time,

370
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,000
as Arthur C. Clarke said,

371
00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:58,000
The rotting of the human mind,

372
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,000
the business of believing in the paranormal and the occult

373
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,000
and the supernatural --

374
00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:04,000
all of this total nonsense,

375
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:06,000
this medieval thinking --

376
00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:08,000
I think something should be done about that,

377
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000
and it all lies in education.

378
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,000
Largely, it's the media

379
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,000
who are to blame for this sort of thing.

380
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000
They shamelessly promote

381
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:18,000
all kinds of nonsense of this sort

382
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,000
because it pleases the sponsors.

383
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:24,000
It's the bottom line, the dollar line.

384
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,000
That's what they're looking at.

385
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:28,000
We really must do something about this.

386
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,000
I'm willing to take your suggestions,

387
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:32,000
and I'm willing to have you

388
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,000
tune in to our webpage.

389
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,000
It's www.randi.org.

390
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,000
Go in there and look at the archives,

391
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,000
and you will begin to understand much more

392
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,000
of what I've been talking about today.

393
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,000
You will see the records that we have.

394
00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:48,000
There's nothing like sitting in that library

395
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000
and having a family appear there

396
00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:53,000
and say that Mum gave away all the family fortune.

397
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,000
She cashed in the CDs,

398
00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,000
she gave away the stocks and the certificates.

399
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:00,000
That's really sad to hear,

400
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:03,000
and it hasn't helped them one bit,

401
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,000
hasn't solved any of their problems.

402
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,000
Yes, there could be a rotting of the American mind,

403
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,000
and of the minds all the way around the earth,

404
00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,000
if we don't start to think sensibly about these things.

405
00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:16,000
Now, we've offered this carrot,

406
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000
as I say, we've dangled the carrot.

407
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,000
We're waiting for the psychics to come forth and snap at it.

408
00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Oh, we get lots of them,

409
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,000
hundreds of them every year come by.

410
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,000
These are dowsers and people

411
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,000
who think that they can talk to the dead as well,

412
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,000
but they're amateurs; they don't know how to evaluate

413
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000
their own so-called powers.

414
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,000
The professionals never come near us,

415
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,000
except in that case of Sylvia Browne

416
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,000
that I told you about a moment ago.

417
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,000
She did accept and then backed away.

418
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,000
Ladies and gentlemen,

419
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,000
I'm James Randi,

420
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,000
and I'm waiting.

421
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,000
Thank you.

422
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000
(Applause)