WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Good morning. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Happy to see so many fine folks out here 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.000 and so many smiling faces. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.000 I have a very peculiar 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:13.000 background, attitude and approach 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.000 to the real world 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.000 because I am a conjurer. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Now, I prefer that term over magician, 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.000 because if I were a magician, that would mean 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.000 that I use spells and incantations 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.000 and weird gestures 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.000 in order to accomplish real magic. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 No, I don't do that; I'm a conjurer, 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.000 who is someone who pretends to be 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 a real magician. (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Now, how do we go about that sort of thing? 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:43.000 We depend on the fact 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:45.000 that audiences, such as yourselves, 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.000 will make assumptions. 00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:49.000 For example, when I walked up here 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:51.000 and I took the microphone from the stand 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.000 and switched it on, 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000 you assumed this was a microphone, which it is not. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.000 (Laughter) 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.000 As a matter of fact, this is something 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 that about half of you, more than half of you will not be familiar with. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 It's a beard trimmer, you see? 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:07.000 And it makes a very bad microphone; 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 I've tried it many times. (Laughter) 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 The other assumption that you made -- 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:13.000 and this little lesson is to show you 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:15.000 that you will make assumptions. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Not only that you can, but that you will 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.000 when they are properly suggested to you. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:21.000 You believe I'm looking at you. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.000 Wrong. I'm not looking at you. I can't see you. 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. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000 I know you're there because I can hear you, 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.000 but I can't see you because I normally wear glasses. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 These are not glasses, these are empty frames. (Laughter) 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Quite empty frames. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:39.000 Now why would a grown man appear before you 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 wearing empty frames on his face? 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.000 To fool you, ladies and gentlemen, 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.000 to deceive you, to show that you, too, 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:48.000 can make assumptions. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Don't you ever forget that. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Now, I have to do something -- first of all, switch to real glasses 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.000 so I can actually see you, 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.000 which would probably be a convenience. I don't know. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:01:59.000 I haven't had a good look. Well, it's not that great a convenience. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 I have to do something now, which seems 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 a little bit strange for a magician. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.000 But I'm going to take some medication. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.000 This is a full bottle of 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:11.000 Calms Forte. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.000 I'll explain that in just a moment. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:15.000 Ignore the instructions, 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.000 that's what the government has to put in there 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.000 to confuse you, I'm sure. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.000 I will take enough of these. Mm. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.000 Indeed, the whole container. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 Thirty-two tablets of Calms Forte. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.000 Now that I've done that -- I'll explain it in a moment -- 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.000 I must tell you that 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:42.000 I am an actor. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 I'm an actor who plays a specific part. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 I play the part of a magician, 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:50.000 a wizard, if you will, a real wizard. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.000 If someone were to appear on this stage in front of me 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 and actually claim to be 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.000 an ancient prince of Denmark named Hamlet, 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.000 you would be insulted 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.000 and rightly so. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.000 Why would a man assume that you would believe 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.000 something bizarre like this? 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.000 But there exists out there 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.000 a very large population 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.000 of people who will tell you 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:15.000 that they have psychic, magical powers 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.000 that they can predict the future, 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.000 that they can make contact with the deceased. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:21.000 Oh, they also say 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 they will sell you astrology 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 or other fortunetelling methods. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:27.000 Oh, they gladly sell you that, yes. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.000 And they also say 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:31.000 that they can give you perpetual motion machines 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.000 and free energy systems. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.000 They claim to be psychics, 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.000 or sensitives, whatever they can. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 But the one thing that has made a big comeback 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.000 just recently 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.000 is this business of 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.000 speaking with the dead. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:49.000 Now, to my innocent mind, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:52.000 dead implies 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.000 incapable of communicating. (Laughter) 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:57.000 You might agree with me on that. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.000 But these people, they tend to tell you that 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:02.000 not only can they communicate with the dead -- 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.000 "Hi, there" -- 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 but they can hear the dead as well, 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 and they can relay this information back to the living. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.000 I wonder if that's true. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 I don't think so, because 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:15.000 this subculture of people 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 use exactly the same gimmicks that we magicians do, 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 exactly the same -- 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:23.000 the same physical methods, the same psychological methods -- 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:26.000 and they effectively and profoundly 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.000 deceive millions of people around the earth, 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000 to their detriment. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.000 They deceive these people, 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.000 costs them a lot of money, 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.000 cost them a lot of emotional anguish. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:38.000 Billions of dollars are spent 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:41.000 every year, all over the globe, 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:43.000 on these charlatans. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Now, I have two questions 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.000 I would like to ask these people 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.000 if I had the opportunity to do so. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.000 First question: If I want to ask them to call up -- 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 because they do hear them through the ear. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 They listen to the spirits like this -- 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 I'm going to ask you to call up the ghost of my grandmother 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.000 because, when she died, she had the family will, 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:03.000 and she secreted it someplace. We don't know where it is, 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:06.000 so we ask Granny, "Where is the will, Granny?" 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.000 What does Granny say? She says, "I'm in heaven and it's wonderful. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.000 I'm here with all my old friends, my deceased friends, 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.000 and my family 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. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 And I love you, and I'll always be with you. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:21.000 Good bye." 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.000 And she didn't answer the damn question! 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.000 Where is the will? 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Now, she could easily have said, 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.000 "Oh, it's in the library on the second shelf, behind the encyclopedia," 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.000 but she doesn't say that. No, she doesn't. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 She doesn't bring any useful information to us. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.000 We paid a lot of money for that information, 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:39.000 be we didn't get it. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.000 The second question that I'd like to ask, rather simple: 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 Suppose I ask them to contact 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.000 the spirit of my deceased father-in-law, as an example. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:49.000 Why do they insist on saying -- 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.000 remember, they speak into this ear -- 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:55.000 why do they say, "My name starts with J or M?" 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Is this a hunting game? 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:00.000 Hunting and fishing? What is it? 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Is it 20 questions? No, it's more like 120 questions. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 But it is a cruel, vicious, 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:10.000 absolutely conscienceless -- 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:13.000 I'll be all right, keep your seats (Laughter) -- 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:15.000 game that these people play. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 And they take advantage of the innocent, the naive, 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000 the grieving, the needy people out there. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Now, this is a process 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:26.000 that is called cold reading. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.000 There's one fellow out there, 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Van Praagh is his name, James Van Praagh. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 He's one of the big practitioners of this sort of thing. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:37.000 John Edward, Sylvia Browne 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 and Rosemary Altea, they are other operators. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 There are hundreds of them all over the earth, but in this country, 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 James Van Praagh is very big. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 And what does he do? He likes to tell you 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:49.000 how the deceased got deceased, 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:52.000 the people he's talking to through his ear, you see? 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.000 So what he says is, very often, is like this: he says, 00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:58.000 "He tells me, he tells me, before he passed, 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.000 that he had trouble breathing." 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.000 Folks, that's what dying is all about! 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:05.000 (Laughter) 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.000 You stop breathing, and then you're dead. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.000 It's that simple. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000 And that's the kind of information they're going to bring back to you? 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:14.000 I don't think so. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 Now, these people will make guesses, they'll say things like, 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 "Why am I getting electricity? 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.000 He's saying to me, 'Electricity.' 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.000 Was he an electrician?" "No." 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:25.000 "Did he ever have an electric razor?" "No." 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.000 It was a game of hunting questions like this. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 This is what they go through. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.000 Now, folks often ask us 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.000 at the James Randi Educational Foundation, 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.000 they call me, they say, "Why are you so concerned about this, Mr. Randi? 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.000 Isn't it just a lot of fun?" 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.000 No, it is not fun. It is a cruel farce. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.000 Now, it may bring a certain amount of comfort, 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.000 but that comfort lasts 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:48.000 only about 20 minutes or so. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 And then the people look in the mirror, and they say, 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.000 I just paid a lot of money for that reading. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 And what did she say to me? 'I love you!'" 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.000 They always say that. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 They don't get any information, 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.000 they don't get any value for what they spend. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.000 Now, Sylvia Browne is the big operator. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.000 We call her "The Talons." 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Sylvia Browne -- thank you -- 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Sylvia Browne is the big operator 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.000 in this field at this very moment. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:15.000 Now, Sylvia Browne -- just to show you -- 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.000 she actually gets 700 dollars 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.000 for a 20 minute reading over the telephone, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.000 she doesn't even go there in person, 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:25.000 and you have to wait up to two years because 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.000 she's booked ahead that amount of time. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.000 You pay by credit card or whatever, 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 and then she will call you 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.000 sometime in the next two years. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:35.000 You can tell it's her. "Hello, this is Sylvia Browne." 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:37.000 That's her, you can tell right away. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.000 Now, Montel Williams is an intelligent man. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.000 We all know who he is on television. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.000 He's well educated, he's smart, 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:49.000 he knows what Sylvia Browne is doing 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.000 but he doesn't give a damn. 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.000 He just doesn't care. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Because, the bottom line is, the sponsors love it, 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.000 and he will expose her 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.000 to television publicity all the time. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:05.000 Now, what does Sylvia Browne give you for that 700 dollars? 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.000 She gives you the names of your guardian angels, that's first. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Now, without that, how could we possibly function? (Laughter) 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.000 She gives you the names of previous lives, 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:16.000 who you were in previous lives. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 Duh. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.000 It turns out that the women 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.000 that she gives readings for 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.000 were all Babylonian princesses, or something like that. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:27.000 And the men were all Grecian warriors 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:30.000 fighting with Agamemnon. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:32.000 Nothing is ever said about 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 a 14 year-old bootblack in the streets of London 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.000 who died of consumption. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.000 He isn't worth bringing back, obviously. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.000 And the strange thing -- folks, you may have noticed this too. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.000 You see these folks on television -- 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000 they never call anybody back from hell. (Laughter) 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Everyone comes back from heaven, but never from hell. 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:54.000 If they call back any of my friends, 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:56.000 they're not going to... Well, you see the story. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.000 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000 Now, Sylvia Browne is an exception, 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.000 an exception in one way, 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.000 because the James Randi Educational Foundation, my foundation, 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:10.000 offers a one million dollar prize in negotiable bonds. 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 Very simply won. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.000 All you have to do is prove any paranormal, occult 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.000 or supernatural event or power of any kind 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 under proper observing conditions. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.000 It's very easy, win the million dollars. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Sylvia Browne is an exception in that 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.000 she's the only professional psychic 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000 in the whole world 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.000 that has accepted our challenge. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.000 She did this on the "Larry King Live" show on CNN 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000 six and a half years ago. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 And we haven't heard from her since. Strange. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 She said that, first of all, that she didn't know how to contact me. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Duh. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:46.000 A professional psychic who speaks to dead people, 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 she can't reach me? 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:51.000 (Laughter) 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:53.000 I'm alive, you may have noticed. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.000 Well, pretty well anyway. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 She couldn't reach me. Now she says she doesn't want to reach me 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:02.000 because I'm a godless person. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.000 All the more reason to take the million dollars, 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:06.000 wouldn't you think, Sylvia? NOTE Paragraph 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:09.000 Now these people need to be stopped, seriously now. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.000 They need to be stopped because this is a cruel farce. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:14.000 We get people coming to the foundation all the time. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:17.000 They're ruined financially and emotionally 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:19.000 because they've given their money and their faith 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.000 to these people. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:23.000 Now, I popped some pills earlier. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.000 I have to explain that to you. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:28.000 Homeopathy, let's find out what that's all about. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Hmm. You've heard of it. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.000 It's an alternative form of healing, right? 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.000 Homeopathy actually consists -- and that's what this is. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.000 This is Calms Forte, 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 32 caplets of sleeping pills! I forgot to tell you that. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.000 I just ingested 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.000 six and a half days worth of sleeping pills. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:49.000 (Laughter) 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.000 Six and a half days, that certainly is a fatal dose. 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 It says right on the back here, 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.000 "In case of overdose, 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.000 contact your poison control center immediately," 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:59.000 and it gives an 800 number. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.000 Keep your seats -- it's going to be okay. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.000 I don't really need it 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.000 because I've been doing this stunt 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.000 for audiences all over the world 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.000 for the last eight or 10 years, 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:13.000 taking fatal doses of homeopathic sleeping pills. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.000 Why don't they affect me? 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:17.000 (Laughter) 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:20.000 (Applause) 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:22.000 The answer may surprise you. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.000 What is homeopathy? 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.000 It's taking a medicine that really works 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.000 and diluting it down 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.000 well beyond Avogadro's limit. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.000 Diluting it down to the point 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 where there's none of it left. (Laughter) 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Now folks, this is not 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:40.000 just a metaphor I'm going to give you now, it's true. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.000 It's exactly equivalent to taking 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:46.000 one 325 milligram aspirin tablet, 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:49.000 throwing it into the middle of Lake Tahoe, 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:52.000 and then stirring it up, obviously with a very big stick, 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.000 and waiting two years or so 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.000 until the solution is homogeneous. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.000 Then, when you get a headache, 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:02.000 you take a sip of this water, and -- voila! -- it is gone. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.000 (Laughter) 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.000 Now that is true. That is what homeopathy is all about. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.000 And another claim that they make -- you'll love this one -- 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.000 the more dilute the medicine is, they say, 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.000 the more powerful it is. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Now wait a minute, we heard about a guy in Florida. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.000 The poor man, he was on homeopathic medicine. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.000 He died of an overdose. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:24.000 He forgot to take his pill. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:26.000 (Laughter) 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.000 Work on it. Work on it. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 It's a ridiculous thing. It is absolutely ridiculous. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:35.000 I don't know what we're doing, 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:38.000 believing in all this nonsense over all these years. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.000 Now, let me tell you, 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.000 The James Randi Educational Foundation 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.000 is waving this very big carrot, 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 but I must say, the fact that nobody 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.000 has taken us up on this offer 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:51.000 doesn't mean that the powers don't exist. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:13:54.000 They might, some place out there. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Maybe these people are just independently wealthy. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.000 Well, with Sylvia Browne I would think so. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:01.000 You know, 700 dollars for a 20 minute reading 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:03.000 over the telephone -- 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.000 that's more than lawyers make! 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.000 I mean that's a fabulous amount of money. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.000 These people don't need the million dollars perhaps, 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.000 but wouldn't you think they'd like to take it 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.000 just to make me look silly? 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Just to get rid of this godless person out there 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.000 that Sylvia Browne talks about all the time? NOTE Paragraph 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:23.000 I think that something needs to be done about this. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:26.000 We really would love to have suggestions from you folks 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.000 on how to contact federal, state 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:31.000 and local authorities 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:33.000 to get them to do something. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.000 If you find out -- now I understand. 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.000 We've seen people, even today, speaking to us 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.000 about AIDS epidemics 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 and starving kids around the world 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.000 and impure water supplies that people have to suffer with. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.000 Those are very important, 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.000 critically important to us. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:52.000 And we must do something about those problems. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.000 But at the same time, 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 as Arthur C. Clarke said, 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:58.000 The rotting of the human mind, 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.000 the business of believing in the paranormal and the occult 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:02.000 and the supernatural -- 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.000 all of this total nonsense, 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.000 this medieval thinking -- 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.000 I think something should be done about that, 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.000 and it all lies in education. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:12.000 Largely, it's the media 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.000 who are to blame for this sort of thing. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.000 They shamelessly promote 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.000 all kinds of nonsense of this sort 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:21.000 because it pleases the sponsors. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.000 It's the bottom line, the dollar line. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.000 That's what they're looking at. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.000 We really must do something about this. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:30.000 I'm willing to take your suggestions, 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.000 and I'm willing to have you 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.000 tune in to our webpage. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:38.000 It's www.randi.org. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Go in there and look at the archives, 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:42.000 and you will begin to understand much more 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:44.000 of what I've been talking about today. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.000 You will see the records that we have. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.000 There's nothing like sitting in that library 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.000 and having a family appear there 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:53.000 and say that Mum gave away all the family fortune. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.000 She cashed in the CDs, 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:58.000 she gave away the stocks and the certificates. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.000 That's really sad to hear, 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.000 and it hasn't helped them one bit, 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.000 hasn't solved any of their problems. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Yes, there could be a rotting of the American mind, 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.000 and of the minds all the way around the earth, 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.000 if we don't start to think sensibly about these things. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:16.000 Now, we've offered this carrot, 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.000 as I say, we've dangled the carrot. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.000 We're waiting for the psychics to come forth and snap at it. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.000 Oh, we get lots of them, 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.000 hundreds of them every year come by. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.000 These are dowsers and people 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:28.000 who think that they can talk to the dead as well, 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:30.000 but they're amateurs; they don't know how to evaluate 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.000 their own so-called powers. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.000 The professionals never come near us, 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.000 except in that case of Sylvia Browne 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.000 that I told you about a moment ago. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.000 She did accept and then backed away. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.000 Ladies and gentlemen, 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.000 I'm James Randi, 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.000 and I'm waiting. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.000 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:57.000 (Applause)