James Randi Speaks: The Carlos Hoax

hello i'm james randi back in the 1980s you may remember one of the biggest whoo-whoo attractions was channeling the notion that the luminiferous ether or whatever was stacked up with the souls of the departed who were still hanging around eagerly waiting to be contacted by specialists with strange voices and a cetaceans but little talent outside of moaning and groaning these channelers infested the TV studios the assembly halls and the churches of any country that could afford them all over the USA the UK and most of Europe local versions of this nonsense were suddenly on the scene and the media as usual promoted them all because they were interesting weird and popular well Australia was visited by one of these gurus who came and went in a spectacular style from which Down Under still hasn't quite recovered in 1988 I was contacted by TV channel 9 and asked for suggestions on what they might do to bring a certain degree of rationality back to their continent where the moaners and groaners had begun to flourish like another infestation of rabbits I opened that the best way of doing this was to demonstrate that we could literally create such a personality from scratch for the TV networks and newspapers to gobble up a giant hoax using an inexperienced layperson and the same techniques that those rabbits were using though less biologically direct of course I turned to my good friend performance artist Jose Luis Alvarez who at that time was not even aware that such spirit mongers were in existence and thus a perfect subject for our project he was exposed to a few hours of JZ night and Lazarus among others and he immediately fell into his own alter ego character who we decided to name after Charlie my rough and tough red cat though we chose the Spanish version thus was born pardon me reborn Carlos the thousand-year-old spirit of a powerful guru who had kept company with several of Carlos Castaneda is creations in Latin America the proper robes enamel it's for selected we needed Carlos to have the right vibrations of course and he always dressed in white come to think of it he got to be a bit much when he was in his Carlos mode and we couldn't wait for him to descend from heaven and down a beer with us mortals Jose took on his friend Jorge as a manager to the great Carlos both of them spoke Spanish we just hope that Aussies would not detect a Broncs inflection when Carlos declared little no and truths of the universe to them Channel nine planned to present this item on the down under version of the 60 Minutes TV series so they had a very satisfactory budget for the enterprise thus Jorge was decked out in managerial finery pinky ring at all as befitted a companion who fronted for an ancient guru a few rehearsals and the pair was ready to take on Australia while we were grooming the star the channel nine folks were busy preparing the public for his arrival on their shores they set up a modest office on a short lease from which to distribute pamphlets press releases and bulletins and every woo agent radio show an amateur Chandler fan club lined up to get passes to everything that Carlos might do while on their continent we turned out a booklet titled the wisdom of Carlos which I'd whipped into existence in about twenty minutes it was about as vapid as anything turned out by Rio channelers so it was immediately accepted now we did not inform the Australian skeptics of our project we knew that just one leaked of the fact that Carlos was not a bonafide fakir you follow my meaning I'm sure would have brought down the whole hoax which had to be developed fully before we triggered the demolition an art and itself any casual mention in a barber shop or a hint to the secretary Poole at the bank that the Carlos caper was a stunt could be fatal to our project so we had to leave the local skeptical community out of it until the daimyo Maw the only persons who knew for the channel nine personnel they were directly involved of course and our good friend dick smith who assisted this with connections and suggestions and journalist Philip Adams who couldn't wait to see Carlos released in all his glory but why would Carlos be so easily accepted you see we had a rather cute gimmick Carlos could stop his pulse by a simple means that got by the most astute observers except for one member of the Australian skeptics who easily solved it but none of the media paid any attention to him of course the story was far too good to die this was another of the summer camp style of stunts like the irregulars moving a directional compass which I'll now show you what's this Carlos had a ping-pong ball concealed in his armpit under his shirt of course and would stop his pulse by simply pressing his arm down against his side then releasing the pressure to make it surge back it's that simple folks let's take a look at what was broadcast eventually in Australia his name is Carlos ed you've probably seen him on television or mentioned in the press Carlos is involved in the mystical field of channeling that's when an ancient spirit supposedly takes over someone's body so that he may then walk around a stage offering his teachings to true believers channeling it's one of the fastest-growing in a long list of spiritual phase yes your doctor people it's a variation on reincarnation all right I'll see how are you this day of your time as you create time to exist the idea is that an ancient spirit decides to show up in someone else's body the letters masters indeed the New Age believers this is all perfectly reasonable perfectly logical earlier I spoke with a channel by the name of Jose Alvarez a 19 year old artist who is about to visit Australia his body is frequently taken over he says by a spirit called Carlos first comes Terry Willers he tonight who in good competitive spirit conducts a satellite interview with Carlos before he even leaves the United States what do you say to the skeptics they believe it's just an act that you put on a performance I do not say anything today nail it Carla did that he both look pretty good the primetime current affairs shows screens their satellite interview complete with a registered nurse they hire her to check alvarez's pulse it's gone I'm Carla Carlos has another home Graham homilies crystal our great sources of power this is all good news ayjnihh incarnation spiritual healing and the critical role of crystals the earth itself is a gigantic crystal all life on Earth derived from Keystone power admission to the Carlos performance was free but later the audience was invited to shop at a supernatural supermarket but what had drawn all these potential new followers well Carlos had foreshadowed his visit to Australia not through a sign from the heavens or a natural disaster but through a good old-fashioned public relations campaign mrs. Carr was organized first the key Sydney media received this glossy public relations handout now inside there's a book of Carlos's teachings various glossy photographs of the chap and other paraphernalia also available is a specially produced sound cassette and available on demand a specially produced video and this is Radio wlp in New York and Carlos this videotape shows a New York radio interview by Carlos and one of his Broadway appearances it all helps typing is a mystic media celebrity in the United States what response does the publicity handout produce can I ask you how you know I knew that this was occurring here today yeah you saw it on television yeah we can I can I say this to you if we didn't want you to want to you to have the opportunity to explain yourself we would not have involved you God and plentiful opportunity why'd you come in this morning other than for a little bit more publicity at the end of a lively interview the Mystics manager Jorge Grillet pulls a stunt that gets all of Sydney talking he'd asses the redoubtable [ __ ] when things get too hot I mean it's too much I think we've proved that I I think it speaks for itself this ellipse is shown and riche owned and makes newspaper headlines suddenly it seems the Sydney media is alive with water throwing and cars the mirror newspaper rain Martin's midday show George explained why he'd had to call Carlos back for the Channel 9 News all run with the story the event that I predicted will take place channels in the United States generate tens of millions of dollars a year they rely on a public all too easily fooled but they also depend just as heavily on a media overeager for new sensation the major lesson to be learned from this hoax was that it was the media not we who actually created and nurtured the Carlos entity from nothing but the acting talent of Jose Alvarez and some carefully designed coaching he became a character who was accepted as a genuine though transitory phenomenon I'll tell you much more about this in our next video I'm James Randi we thank you for watching this latest episode of James Randi speaks for more of James Randi and the Educational Foundation make sure you visit Randi org

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 439,280

Rating: 4.8199291 out of 5

Keywords: james, randi, carlos, hoax, channeler, jz, knight, 60, minutes, australian, skeptics, crystal, power, mysticism, new, ag

Id: y0hgP3ioAeA

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/Xuttuh]

I remember Don Lane and James Randi . Those two don't play well together...

[u/in_trouble_again]

apparently, someone at channel 9 got sacked over this hoax because mike willisee wasn't in on it, and he made himself look stupid because he was reporting from the US at the time, and made a comment about how everyone over there was talking about carlos

[u/mrsquishyface]

James Randi talks about it in his recent documentary A Honest Liar

[u/RAAFStupot]

Unfortunately I can't find the original 60 Minutes episode on YT, but this video has lots from it, plus heap of background info.

Everybody was talking about 'Carlos' when I was in Year 7. From memory when he was exposed as a hoax there were people who refused to believe it. (That it was a hoax).