Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [1]
Since this book was published, author Martin Gardner has presented us with another very welcome volume, Science, Good, Bad and Bogus (Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York), which delves into many of the matters handled in this book. It proves, above all, that the parascientists make a great deal of noise about the criticisms they receive but do not come up with the evidence to support their complaints. As usual, Gardner makes a compelling case, and this book can only hope to echo it.
A modest number of footnotes and corrections have been incorporated in this edition. To do a thorough job would require an entirely new book. The facts as stated here have not changed; but in some cases new developments required the addition of certain comments to make this volume as up-to-date as possible.
I hope that interested readers will seek out more information of this kind and will support authors who dare to tell the truth about paranormal matters. Our reward is largely in knowing that our efforts have stimulated this kind of interest.
James Randi
Rumson, N.J.
May, 1982
Preface to the Current Edition
In the thirty years since this book was written, substantial changes have taken place in the so-called "paranormal" world. Both the nature and the extent of the silliness have taken off, largely fueled by the increasing influence of the Information Age and the ease with which data―regardless of accuracy―can be accessed. It has always been the case that the media, generally, has little interest in the accuracy of such data, the bottom line always being whether or not a "good" story can be arrived at by accepting the current reports of miracles. The damage that might be done to the consumer, the grief and misinformation that can be inflicted on those who incautiously accept bad data, are often of little consequence to those who create the stories.
Had I not been inundated with obligations for lectures, other writing assignments, and the regular maintenance of the James Randi Educational Foundation, I might have considered rewriting this book. Such a luxury has been denied me, however. The data contained in these pages is still valid, very minor changes can be safely ignored, and the basic facts still hold: the world of flummery is still out there, it is pervasive, damaging, and dangerous. My message may have changed in hue, but in little else. Uri Geller is still out there flaunting the only six tricks that he has ever known, and doing very well with them because the media are well aware that he is available to them as their favorite marionette, always ready to perform when his strings are pulled; I'm sure that few of them still believe―as so many of them once did―that ETs from the planet Hoova, which might very well be the source of those vacuum cleaners? bestowed upon him the gift of spoon-bending, but when a paragraph or two is needed to fill out pages between more important matters, the Geller file can be pulled from the shelf.
The Bermuda Triangle Mystery is hardly a news item anymore, but serves as a good example of how a silly legend can be created―largely by one author with far too much time on his hands―and can capture the attention of the public. Swiss author Erich von Daniken has retired as a player in this miserable morality drama, having been thoroughly exposed as a faker. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is no longer with us, though the structure he set up to sell the notion of Transcendental Meditation is still in place under different management and still pouring out masses of publicity material jammed with photographs of perpetually smiling victims of this particular brand of nonsense.
Scientists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff are still with us, though the latter has now turned his fevered attention to the ancient notion of Free Energy, obtained somehow from someplace "out there"