Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions

Come closer, dear reader. I, the amazing psychic Patriki, will tell you all about yourself. You are a skeptic. You do not believe in the claims of phony psychics (those unlike the great Patriki), spoonbenders or UFO researchers. You do not believe in the powers of the Bermuda Triangle. You are a rational person.
Good for you. James Randi's "Flim Flam!" is a fairly well-written and well-researched expose of some of this century's greatest con artists and their self-deceived cousins. Each chapter focuses on a different case, describing in detail the flim-flammer's case, then picking it apart claim by claim. And herein lies the problem. Randi is a methodical, detailed man, well versed in scientific method. He also seems to like the sound of his own typewriter, never using a single paragraph when five will do.
I underwent the same phenomenon during each chapter I read. At first, I was deeply interested. As I continued reading, I kept flipping to the end of the chapter to see how much more of Randi's grandstanding I had to put up with. "And then I did this!" "And then I did that!" Couple this with his penchant for melodrama and his tendency to address the subjects of his exposes by name ("Yes, Mr. Geller, it means exactly that!")and you have a pretty odd book. I understand his desire to be complete, but if you call your book "Flim Flam!" (with the exclamation point), one assumes you are writing a book to entertain first and inform second. Otherwise, you would call your book "An Investigation into the Validity of Paranormal Claims", so people would expect a book full of dry scientific lab notes.
In the end, of course, I cannot fault Randi for being thorough, as it is this quality that allows him to prove his point. And most of the book is extremely entertaining. It saddens me that the only people who will read it and get anything from it are people like you and I, who are already convinced.

There are two kinds of flim-flam artists, as James Randi points out to us. Those who actually believe they have powers and those who are trying to separate us from our money. To the former group, Randi is unfailingly gentle and instructive. He tries to point out how their mistaken observations might have occurred. He is even forgiving to those frauds who later repent and regret their deeds. To the second group, though he is merciless. It is a pleasure to imagine these charlatans squirming as they are exposed. If you are one of those who has believed in UFOs or ESP or faith healing, this book may be uncomfortable to read, but you really must do it. It could save you from a lifetime of being a chump.

James Randi is a zealot of the religion of Scientific-Materialism. Like all religions, SM seeks to define reality and howit operates; its assumption is that all phenomena are both observable and testable, and it is characterized by an exaggerated faith in the methods of natural science and the conclusions of (some) scientists. Scientific-Materialists are not skeptics - they have a deep and profound faith and examine alternative philosophies not as possibly true but as heresies against modernism.
Randi has made his name in the SM community in the '70's, claiming that all psychic phenomena are fake. This book, written in 1980, is his claim to be Grand Inquisitor of the SM organization, the Committee to Scientifically Investigate Claims Of the Paranormal (CSICOP, pronounced 'psy-cop'.)
Unfortunately for Randi he has learned an expensive and time-consuming lesson: simply being able to demonstrate an alternative explanation for phenomena is not the same as PROVING a psychic claim to be fake. Randi's fanatical assertions that the psychic abilities claimed by some people (Uri Geller for one) were 'fake' was challenged in court in the mid-80's. Randi lost, as any honest scientist could have predicted - without using psychic powers!
As the other reviews indicate, this book will be treated as holy writ by believers in SM, as an entertaining sideshow by the open-minded, and as repugnant by believers in the philosophies Randi scorns.

Flim Flam, as the subtitle says, is about other delusions, and how James Randi investigates and exposes the tricks, frauds and fakery in the field of Psychic "Research". This field is really the wrestling arena for the con-artists who live by hype - either by fooling scientists, or in collusion with the pseudoscientists who live by money conned from good Samaritans, us - the tax payers and consumers and scientists of the normal. The Bermuda Triangle, Biorhythm, photos of fairies, ghosts and kirlia, levitation, pyramid power, Mayan visitors from outer space, tele-what-nots, TM and Z-rays are some of the "other delusions" exposed in this book. We know that these are bunk. But how do we convince our friends that they are? Give them this book. Show them how any of those so called psychic phenomena cannot stand the test of any skeptic with scientific approach which does not preclude the possibility of fraud or delusion or both. James Randi is the hit man of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and in this book you get an idea of how hard it is pull those punches.
Besides hundreds of names of people, places and institutions associated with these frauds, details from correspondence, this book has photos and diagrams of the hoax-rooms where the paranormal fakers did hoodwink and unnerve the rationality of the respectable scientists. The charts that were designed to fool the custodians of money - to be wasted through the propagation of pseudoscience of para-psychology and pollute the minds of the future generations of Americans with pure non-sense, the money that has been lost by genuine scientific and medical research - such charts have also been included in this book.
Issac Asimov in his introduction to this book rightly says, "Folly and Fakery has never before been dangerous as it is now" and that we therefore more than ever be grateful to Randi who deserves our admiration for his courage, diligence, perseverance, and the k! een senses needed for exposing these "rascals and knaves".
Dr. Russell Targ and Dr. Harold Puthoff are the Laurel and Hardy of Psi as a chapter title appropriately describes them. Reading this chapter it becomes at once obvious that if two scientists decide to cheat other men of science, tons and tons of our money can go down the drain. The directors of monies have to come up with an explanation for the misdirected research when the skeptics expose them. Because an apology would mean personal disaster, half-truths, rationalization, lies, damned lies, and, to back them up, statistical charts, and so on and on, until the consumer and tax-payer believes that there must be some truth somewhere beyond his common-sense beliefs. The fact that the Stanford Research Institute has been humiliated by these clowns, is only the tip of the iceberg of harm done by hype.
The flood of betting, lotto, and related software in the market is but the natural outcome of the pseudo-science of psi sanctified by misguided scientists who cannot tell the "law" of chances of mathematics from the laws of the physical world and believe that it can somehow determine the outcome of the roll of the dice, and their shortcut to fortune. If one just remembers that the people who sell such wares did not make money by the techniques they sell, but only by perpetuating wishful thought of the gullible, one would not be in that category any longer. Since the year 1964, Randi's Challenge to offer to pay $10,000 to any person who can demonstrate that she has any kind of paranormal power under fraud proof conditions still remains open. In chapter 13 Randi gives the details of this challenge and the conditions. The conditions can be obtained from him by sending a self addressed stamped envelope. To quote Randi "In response to that challenge, over 650 persons have applied as claimant. Only 54 (as of this writing) ever made it past the preliminaries, and none of them ever got a nickel.

I agree with James Randi's train of thought. It's not that I'm saying that unusual phenomenon doesn't exist, its just that I think that in a lot of cases, there are more likely reasons for certain occurrances than, say, the ghost of a thirteenth century slave. I am certainly pleased that there are people like James Randi out there who have studied the tricks that many people who claim to have special powers employ to fool people who, in many cases, are desparate people looking anywhere to find certain information about missing family members and loved ones. I feel that this unfortunate group will be even more expoited, especially in light of the 911 attacks.
That being said, however, I have to say this is a poorly written book. People who agree with Randi's position will probably give it a high rating, but even these people will probably agree that the book is heavily biased. He basically calls people who doesn't see his point of view stupid. It seems he has a great deal of anger against these flim-flam artists, and he is lasing out at them in this book. If I were a person who believed in the supernatural, I would probably get tired of being called stupid and wouldn't finish the book.
What I am really looking for from someone like James Randi is a book that would be psychic friendly, a book that I could give to my friends who believe in the supernatural for them to read without getting offended. This is where this book fails MISERABLY, and this is why I give it only three stars. People who are confused and looking for some helpful information to guide them in one direction or the other simply won't read this book. They will immediately tune out the name calling.
There was actually a TV program(Nova or Discovery) with Randi in it that was incredibly well balanced and fair. Perhaps in the future, with the goal of luring more people over to his unique stand on this topic, he could write a book like that TV program.

This book exposes those who make things up and try and pass them off as reality. It shows that it is easy to fool most of the people a lot more than we like to think.
James Randi is one of the leaders of the skeptical movement. He would love to be presented with a verifiable paranormal event. But whenever somebody looks for a verifiable paranormal event, they pretty much always find that there was no paranormal event taking place. Just a cleverly disguised normal event that it rigged up to look like magic.
This is why a real magicain is good to have when inventigating a claim of a paranormal event. Lay persons, and even scientists, can be fooled into believing something just because they are used to having the truth told to them.
This book is good to read so that one can learn how to avoid falling into some traps.

Randi is not only a professional conjurer, but also serves as an individual dedicated to exposing the illegitimacy of parapsychology, and other forms of pseudoscientific/supernatural beliefs held by people. Confidence in his affirmation that any form(s) of parapsychology, and many other unexplainable phenomena that are widely believed to be true are in fact not, is backed up by his offer of now $1 million. This book is a collection of Randi's encounters of that very group of individuals that claim to posses the supernatural abilities in question. The basic thesis of this book is that these supernatural phenomenas do not exist and their occurrences are quite explainable. The responsibility then, is rests on both the scientific community and ourselves, to not fall victim to their ability to deceive.
Randi does well in keeping the content light and relatively easy to read. His light sarcasm well reflects his lack of respect for false claims of the supernatural and other pseudoscientific beliefs. While the book consists mostly of accounts of objective observation, there are modest stints of ideas and opinions of the author, which keeps the book accessible to readers not looking to have to bore through only scientific account and analysis. The loose usage of the word(s) damn/damning to present ideas of the corruption of scientific ideals was amusing. Randi also does well in keeping his book for the most part, free of religion and its influence in science; rather, he chooses to focus on scientific explanation of respective phenomena.
A problem with the book was that Randi did not delve very deeply into the reasons behind the phenomena of those purporting evidence of the supernatural. Sparsely inserted throughout the book, the rest of reading consists of the actual encounters and experiments of Randi to discount the claims. When Randi does make a point to examine the reason behind some of the fallacies, they are short and concise. Some of these points include the need of the individual to believe in his/her's or other's "powers", economic attraction, or poor scientific investigation.
Another problem had of the author was his tendency to indulge in complicated details of the experiment. While one versed and knowledgeable in statistical charting and mathematical analysis may have understood the chapter on the fallacies of biorhythms in one reading, I found it difficult to fully grasp the ideas presented. The same went for the analysis of the Cottingley Fairies, where his careful explanation of the different uses of cameras and effects got to be drudging to read. Sometimes, the technical analysis of the many cases encountered by Randi were too drawn out and detailed, or boring, for an average reader to follow. Some are looking for more of a quick overview along with basic explanations of the hoaxes.
It is in these point that this book may not be for everyone. Detailed descriptions of procedures and outcomes of experiments impedes the flow of the book as a whole. Also a lack of psychological and social explanations and ramifications of such pseudosciences and paranormal phenomena may leave some desiring a reallocation of emphasis; from the book's strong emphasis on detail of the actual experiments to a more balanced approach, covering more explanation of root causes, and the ramifications of these delusions. As a whole, the book is witty and informative. It is amusing to read of failed ploys of trickery and manipulation. Essentially, we a have a text that serves as a directive for us to think for ourselves, and be skeptical and examine information that is given to us everyday. Yet, the book is written as if we think and know as Randi does, and this is where it fails to appeal and be accessible to everyone.

While Flim-Flam! does not conclusively prove that the paranormal doesn't exist (to be fair, it's rather impossible to do so; the lack of proof for the paranormal does not conclusively prove the lack of existence), it does a good job in exposing the deceptive claims that have bamboozled the human race even until today.
James Randi gives many case studies of supernatural claims that have turned out to be false, and shows how easily decieved we can be.
The book is easy reading with Randi's sarcasm seeping out every now and then. An interesting book, and an eye-opener; recommended for those who need a healthy dose of skepticism.

The founder of James Randi Educational Foundation offers a wonderful book that exposes the numerous frauds being perpetrated by quacks, shamans, psychics, and other shady characters who fake paranormal powers by use of fraud. Randi, a man with an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, is very familiar with the art of deception, and has built a career exposing numerous frauds. He's even exposed top-notch self-proclaimed Messiahs such as Uri Gellar.
Randi, years ago, set up a challenge to anyone claiming paranormal powers. Psychics, spoon-benders, faith-healers, and other assorted weirdos turned up for the challenge and a chance at its $10,000 reward (which has since been raised to $1 million). All of these phonies were exposed, and Randi documents many of his more humorous conquests in this book. So, the next time some theist talks about miracles in our own time, direct him or her to Randi's book or web site.

This book is a very good reference about paranormal quackeries of all kinds, but it is primarily the story of Randi's debunking of many tricksters and deluded people in their quest for aliens, fairies, or paranormal powers.
The last chapter details Randi's examinations of dowsers and other nonsense in the context of his million-dollar challenge, and is especially interesting.
Randi does not hold any barrels in his investigation of claims and uses his razor-sharp reason in a delectable way. But he also points out how society in general, and even scientists, can easily get conned by con-artists of all kinds, even children. His expertise in debunking is essential in our modern society.
My only objection to this book : it doesn't concentrate enough on religious flim-flam. He seems to have talked about it a bit more in his reference book "Encyclopedia of claims, frauds...", albeit not much.