James Randi Embraces a Different Kind of Skepticism

"None of you fuckers exist, and I can prove it." - James Randi

Long time skeptic, science pundit, and hater of all things paranormal, James Randi has left the domains of science, embracing a more radical and cut throat skepticism: Solipsism.

James Randi no longer believes that the cutting edge of science can satisfy him and his overtly skeptical urges. Where as once his scientific realism was the basis for his skepticism, now his skepticism has turned against science, and virtually everything else.

"I remember doing this one magic trick back in the 80's" said James Randi, " It's been really bugging me at the back of my mind since then, and Its about time I settle with it.

"I used that magic trick as a basis to prove across the board that all psychics were frauds. I remember the trick being really simple. It wasn't even eloquent or nifty. It was really low grade stuff- and every one applauded me. I'm not shitting you, everyone started clapping over how great this shitty magic trick I learned in 4th grade was. No one even bothered to call me out on the logical gap I had made in my statement that because I can pull a card out of my ass, that all psychics were frauds."

This discomfort in Randi's old, crotchety heart grew over the years. It seemed like everything he did regarding magic tricks and the paranormal received automatic applause from a skeptical community who did nothing but pat themselves on the back all day about how skeptical they were.

"I don't know if these guys ever actually read any of the material I put out, because anyone who was really skeptical would put my material into question. But no, this hardly ever happened at all. None of the skeptics are skeptical of themselves or their scientific methods, which means they're not really skeptics, they're dogmatists; dogmatists who are figments of my mind, but dogmatists none the less."

Another event that had James' panties in a bunch happened in the 80's when he had a tv show. He did an experiment with an astrologer. Not just any kind of experiment, though, a loaded experiment that went something like this: take a handful of married couples, mix them up so you don't know whose married to who, and try to match them to their spouse by their sun sign.

The problem with that is, as the astrologer pointed out, is that your missing over 9/10 of a persons relevant astrological information if you are just given their sun sign, and those are not favorable conditions to try to match couples at all, let alone do anything else regarding a persons astrology.

The experiment was a disaster as virtually none of the real couples were actually matched together, the crowd awed in astonishment, and Randi succeeded in publicly humiliating the practice of astrology on television by not giving the astrologer enough time or information to conduct the experiment with more then 5-10% of the relevant information regarding peoples astrological natal charts.



"Only a con man can get away with a stunt like that," said Randi, " and no one was calling me out on it."

This discomfort grew to even greater size when he came up with the 'million dollar challenge'. Randi, who admittedly has an 'abysmal knowledge of statistics', made up some bullshit test for psychics wherein the only way you could pass was by scoring within chances of 1 in a million- a number unheard of in scientific experiments, yet "everyone treated the challenge as if it was actual science."

The problem here was that people of the scientific skeptical type would use Randi's million dollar challenge as a tool of rhetoric to reject psychic phenomena of any kind by going "well, have you beaten Randi's challenge?" The thing is that the challenge, if beaten, could be rejected on the grounds that passing one single test does not constitute a scientific fact. Its a lose/lose scenario. If you don't pass it, your wrong. If you do pass it, it doesn't count.

The fact that no one within the skeptical community called him on his bullshit use of statistics, his crappy experiment designs, his lack of scientific credentials, or his smoke screen publicity stunts, proved his suspicions to him even more: everything was just a figment of his imagination.

"It's the only explanation that suffices" said Randi, "I simply can't live in a world were people actually buy into my shitty magic tricks and publicity stunts. Any other time someone with a lack of a scientific background comes along and makes all these shoddy experiments and claims, they get ripped a new asshole. For some reason I have been spared from this. Hell, I've been spared from a lot more then that. When I went into chemotherapy the other day, I didn't experience the pain I hear that most people go through.

"It all must be a result of my mind constructing a vaguely painless, pat-you-on-the-back, congratulatory reality that's all in my head."

Scientists have said that there's a perfectly logical explanation for why he's not experiencing pain going through chemo therapy, to which Randi agreed, and responded by pointing to his head. The New Age thinks he may be onto something.

"I wasn't a solipsist at first. It started by me taking my skepticism to new lengths. How could I prove the world existed outside of my sensations? I couldn't. It's not possible. To believe in anymore then my sensory impressions is an absolute matter of faith, and I can't have any of that.

"But I didn't think that it was all my imagination, not at first. I didn't start thinking that until the world bought into my bad writing, my leaps in logic, my cruddy magical demonstrations, the experiments I (tried to) conduct, my lack of scientific credentials, my tirades. If that wasn't enough, the chemo thing really kicked it off for me that this was all a phantasm of my mind, and that I'm some eternal semi conscious demi-god comparable to the Brahman of the Hindu pantheon.

"Yeah, I may get sick every once and a while," says Randi, "and it hurts when I pinch myself, but I don't think that its proof of the external world. Until I have proof of the external world, I can only assume any 'sickness' or 'pain' I experience is a perturbation of my mental faculties, and nothing more. The burden of proof is on the external world, not me."

He has since left CSICOP and The Skeptical Society and dedicated a new monthly magazine publication to writings on his solipsism and drawing comparisons between him and eastern mythological figures like Braham and Bodhisattva.

Randi's departure has also sent a tremor through the 'skeptical' community. We put that in quotes because they have since had their title stripped from them and are now being called out on for being the dogmatic scientific realists they are. Debates have been exploding as to what constitutes real skepticism. Some people have come forward to say that skepticism isn't a position or a stance, but a weapon. Skepticism has no bias or foundation in any kind of epistemology, and can be aimed at everything from experience to religion to science itself- this has been a concept virtually unheard of to anyone who wasn't already a post-modernist.

Randi is only bemused by the fact that his imagination is running so wild now that he's become aware of it's predominance over 'reality'. When he's not writing for his magazines, he spends his time meditating about his Brahman-self in a hut on the Appalachian mountains.