Customer Reviews

Nova: Secrets of the Psychics [VHS]

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It is hard to argue with believers of the supernatural, no matter how many hoaxes are exposed. Sadly, most people are to lazy to read, but they may see a one hour documentary. Just keep this in your collection, and put it on the VCR when you have visitors. You will have then interesting conversations and arguments during the rest of the night.

The first half hour is a summary of some of the exposes by Randi, such as the claims of "psychic" Uri Geller, faith healers, and other. There is also simple but interesting experiments regarding astrology and palm reading.

The second half presents Randi debunking psychics in Moscow. This is great fun, as it is frustrating seeing how the psychics try to escape from his tests (one "psychic" cannot identify which of three glasses with water is the one he previously "energized", because once he thinks about the glasses, the water in all of them gets "energized"!).

Highly recommeded. If you enjoy reading, you must check the books by James Randi (I strongly recommend you try his supernatural encyclopedia, Flim-Flam! and The Faith Healers).

What's wrong with belief in the paranormal, pseudoscience, and--not incidentally--fundamentalist religious beliefs? Everything. When we're too easily seduced into believing based on the flimsiest of evidence, we blind ourselves to the sense of wonder we can get from looking clear-eyed at the world right before our eyes, to the mysteries that hard science simultaneously explains and deepens. I agree with the previous reviewers that this Nova episode is an excellent overview of how psychics deceive us, and many times themselves. (All my life people have insisted that I'm psychic; careful exercise of my reason has shown me I am not, and many of the principles I've used are explained in this film.)

Because Randi deals with some of the "best" in the psychic field and communicates so clearly, this video might be just the thing to get people thinking, especially people who won't read. We can't expect a true believer in psychic phenomena to buy a copy, though, can we? If everyone who has seen it would donate a copy to their library, maybe we'd begin to make some inroads into the epidemic of irrational belief.

The late, great Johnny Carson was a great friend and supporter of James Randi, frequently sending six-figure checks to the James Randi Educational Foundation. This production will delight you with some classic scenes from Mr. Randi's many visits to the Carson show, including the ones pulling the wool off Uri Geller and "healer" Peter Popoff.

At the end of this film, in a statement also repeated on James Randi's website, he says: "A lot of people hate my skepticism, and I think I understand why. The psychics offer wonders and endless possibilities in a world that often seems difficult and mundane. They promise health, wealth, wisdom, eternal life. But if you examine the record, it's not the psychics but the hard-nosed scientists who have actually delivered the things that improve human life. And, to me, science describes a world far more interesting than any psychic fantasy. It's a good world - not perfect - but it's ours. So we'd better learn to live with it, the way it is."

Well said, Mr. Randi. I would reiterate that the real world "the way it is" is much stranger, many times more wondrous than the one offered us by the charlatans.
--- Sherry Austin.

For anyone sick of watching Psychics on TV robbing people of money and their rationality this video is the cure. James Randi is great, I actually purchased a couple of his books after viewing this video. Everything from horoscopes to spoon bending, the Amazing Randi uncovers all their tricks of the trade.

This episode of Nova has noted skeptic James Randi traveling the world to expose the nonsense perpetrated under the various guises of psychic phenomena. I could pick nits with the production here and there, but the bottom line is that the video is incredibly entertaining, often hilarious, and at least moderately informative (Randi spends a little time exposing some of the simpler tricks psychics use). If you enjoy watching self-proclaimed psychics made to look ridiculous, this video will be a great investment.

For over 30 years Nova has been producing some of the greatest documentaries available ,and 'Secrets of the Psychics' ranks as one of their finest. James Randi serves as our guide , investigating proclaimed acts of psychic ability . The result is an eloquent and often humorous journey through both our eagerness to be deceived and the outrage when we are.

Whenever someone makes an extraordinary claim, one should be able to hold it up to the lens of the scientific method. If said claims do not materialize, you can classify it as pseudoscience, or false science. This documentary provides multiple examples of claims revolving around psychic abilities.

My favorite example is the Russian psychic who claims to be able to control the blood pressure and brain waves of others. Randi places the psychic in one room, and the patient and doctors in another. Random cards are drawn for the psychic to either manipulate the patient's blood pressure, brain waves, or do nothing. This illustrates a scientific experiment with a control group, an experimental group, and set up double-blind to boot!

I used to use this video to teach critical thinking skills to my middle school classes. This video probably turned more of my students into skeptical freethinkers than any other thing I used. If you still have a vhs player, and if you have middle school age kids of your own, you should buy this right now! James Randi is very entertaining, so your kids will be interested in what he has to say. And, by doing that, you will have helped slow the slide of our culture into the depths of idiocracy.

To anyone who believes in clear thinking and rational thought, this is a must watch. It is especially important in this day and age when logic and reason in our media is completely nonexistant. In a world of charlatans where even the most obvious bunk is given credit by an ignorant and apathetic press, this program reveals the critical thinking skills necessary to cut through the lies and spin doctoring so prevalent in our society today. It is more relevant to todays problems than when it was first produced many years ago. The Amazing Randi is truly a man for our times.

I love this video. It should be a required part of the science curriculum in our schools. This video shows "critical thinking" in action and the world would be a much better place if people would learn this very important skill.

As the video graphically illustrates there as those people who, when smacked in the face with reality, will still ignore the facts. This is yet another important lesson that people need to learn (sad as it may be).

In summary, it's highly entertaining and exceedingly educational. My only beef is that it's not available on DVD.

Mr. Randi has done a great service in exposing frauds. It can be rather like when you first discovered the truth about the Easter Bunny in that you will become not just skeptical but perhaps over-cynical at the same time. The line between the two can be very fine. But truth is always better than believing a lie. Always challenge what you believe to be true by taking a step back and observing from the outside as much as possible. Those of us who are naturally skeptical need to avoid the "I told you so" attitude and leave the door open for things that may be beyond human understanding - never lose the wonder or believe that science always has the answers. As sure as science has brought us medicine and flights to the moon, it has also brought us the ability to destroy our world many times over in a matter of minutes. Seek the truth but never assume you have found all the answers or that there is not some corner of the world you have not yet explored. Take Mr. Randi's inquisitive mind as an example of always seeking and questioning. But balance a healthy skepticism with a healthy humility that allows that there may be things our senses cannot observe and therefore cannot explain.