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| Modern Debates |
Modern Debates
With the death of Houdini in 1926 and the decline of physical phenomena in the 1930s, the warfare between Spiritualism and the world of stage conjuring faded, although it by no means died out. It entered the next era during the occult revival of the 1960s, with renewed claims of physical phenomena.
As public attention to the paranormal again emerged, Milbourne Christopher, a modern illusionist skeptic and member of the Occult Committee of the Society of American Magicians, wrote several books attacking some of the more obvious problems with psychics and the occult.
The continuing issues between magicians and psychics became a public controversy, however, with the advent of Uri Geller, an Israeli psychic who claimed extraordinary powers of psychokinesis (starting old watches, bending metal spoons) and telepathy. He impressed several psychical researchers, and Andrija Puharich extolled his abilities in a 1974 book. Christopher was possibly the first to publicly suggest that sleight-ofhand and mentalist tricks accounted for Geller’s success.
The Geller controversy brought to the fore Canadian-born magician James Randi (stage name ‘‘The Amazing Randi’’), who had helped organize the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and subsequently assumed the mantle of Houdini as the archenemy of psychic phenomena and psychics. Randi claimed to be able to duplicate Geller’s feats of telepathy and metal bending by trickery. He accused Geller of deception. Their battle was in the forefront of television talk and variety shows throughout the 1970s. Every well-known television host from Merv Griffin to Phil Donahue presented the issue to the American public. When Randi wrote
his book, The Magic of Uri Geller (1975), both men continued through the 1980s and 1990s with legal battles resulting from the accusations the two exchanged about each other. Randi went on to challenge other psychic claims, explaining to audiences the techniques used by fake occultists.
Master illusionist Doug Henning (d. 2000) was considered by many to be the one responsible for the revival of magic because of his live stage and television performances in the 1970s.Henning, dressed in the uniform of his generation—blue jeans and a tie-dyed shirt—began to transform magic into a primetime spectacle. With regular network television specials, and three Broadway shows, he rekindled the public’s interest in the glamour of magic. As Randi told Time in a 1974 article the newfound interest in magic was, ‘‘a sign that our society is still healthy. When people stop being enthralled by a magician who can make a lady vanish, it will mean that the world has lost its most precious possession: its sense of wonder.’’ With other famous magicians and illusionists such as, Harry Blackstone, Jr. (d. 1997), Penn and Teller, and David Copperfield, magic moved to the grandeur of Las Vegas, and television screens across the world by the end of the twentieth century.
Furor entered the public once again in the late-1990s when the Fox television network presented a series of specials which set out to reveal the secrets behind the magician’s trade. Although many famous magicians protested the airing of these specials, they proceeded nonetheless. Regardless of whether they revealed any secrets, the specials did not succeed in quieting the public’s fascination with magic. In 1999, magician David Blaine stirred up extreme media and public attention by burying himself alive for a week. The media kept close guard to make certain no tricks were used, and Blaine became a cult-hero by lasting out the week and conducting exclusive interviews with television and newspapers.
As the battle rages between those who have come to accept the existence of psychic phenomena and those skeptical of all such claims, both sides have attempted to make use of the work of the magicians. Skeptics have pointed to the exposures of fraud as a good reason to dismiss all claims of paranormal occurrences.
Believers, on the other hand, have pointed out that magicians have done a good job in helping them to uncover fraud and drive fakes from the arena of the genuine. The work
of magicians and others within the Spiritualist and psychic community in exposing fraud helps define the boundary of real psychic occurrences. It does not speak to the body of parapsychological research or to the experiences of hundreds of thousands
of believers.
With the death of Houdini in 1926 and the decline of physical phenomena in the 1930s, the warfare between Spiritualism and the world of stage conjuring faded, although it by no means died out. It entered the next era during the occult revival of the 1960s, with renewed claims of physical phenomena.
As public attention to the paranormal again emerged, Milbourne Christopher, a modern illusionist skeptic and member of the Occult Committee of the Society of American Magicians, wrote several books attacking some of the more obvious problems with psychics and the occult.
The continuing issues between magicians and psychics became a public controversy, however, with the advent of Uri Geller, an Israeli psychic who claimed extraordinary powers of psychokinesis (starting old watches, bending metal spoons) and telepathy. He impressed several psychical researchers, and Andrija Puharich extolled his abilities in a 1974 book. Christopher was possibly the first to publicly suggest that sleight-ofhand and mentalist tricks accounted for Geller’s success.
The Geller controversy brought to the fore Canadian-born magician James Randi (stage name ‘‘The Amazing Randi’’), who had helped organize the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and subsequently assumed the mantle of Houdini as the archenemy of psychic phenomena and psychics. Randi claimed to be able to duplicate Geller’s feats of telepathy and metal bending by trickery. He accused Geller of deception. Their battle was in the forefront of television talk and variety shows throughout the 1970s. Every well-known television host from Merv Griffin to Phil Donahue presented the issue to the American public. When Randi wrote
his book, The Magic of Uri Geller (1975), both men continued through the 1980s and 1990s with legal battles resulting from the accusations the two exchanged about each other. Randi went on to challenge other psychic claims, explaining to audiences the techniques used by fake occultists.
Master illusionist Doug Henning (d. 2000) was considered by many to be the one responsible for the revival of magic because of his live stage and television performances in the 1970s.Henning, dressed in the uniform of his generation—blue jeans and a tie-dyed shirt—began to transform magic into a primetime spectacle. With regular network television specials, and three Broadway shows, he rekindled the public’s interest in the glamour of magic. As Randi told Time in a 1974 article the newfound interest in magic was, ‘‘a sign that our society is still healthy. When people stop being enthralled by a magician who can make a lady vanish, it will mean that the world has lost its most precious possession: its sense of wonder.’’ With other famous magicians and illusionists such as, Harry Blackstone, Jr. (d. 1997), Penn and Teller, and David Copperfield, magic moved to the grandeur of Las Vegas, and television screens across the world by the end of the twentieth century.
Furor entered the public once again in the late-1990s when the Fox television network presented a series of specials which set out to reveal the secrets behind the magician’s trade. Although many famous magicians protested the airing of these specials, they proceeded nonetheless. Regardless of whether they revealed any secrets, the specials did not succeed in quieting the public’s fascination with magic. In 1999, magician David Blaine stirred up extreme media and public attention by burying himself alive for a week. The media kept close guard to make certain no tricks were used, and Blaine became a cult-hero by lasting out the week and conducting exclusive interviews with television and newspapers.
As the battle rages between those who have come to accept the existence of psychic phenomena and those skeptical of all such claims, both sides have attempted to make use of the work of the magicians. Skeptics have pointed to the exposures of fraud as a good reason to dismiss all claims of paranormal occurrences.
Believers, on the other hand, have pointed out that magicians have done a good job in helping them to uncover fraud and drive fakes from the arena of the genuine. The work
of magicians and others within the Spiritualist and psychic community in exposing fraud helps define the boundary of real psychic occurrences. It does not speak to the body of parapsychological research or to the experiences of hundreds of thousands
of believers.
