James Randi Speaks: The Compass Trick

hello I'm James Ravi when I was a kid at summer camp we older campers would spook out the newcomers by making a compass needle move magically it should be done usually just by bringing any magnetic object such as a regular pocketknife near to it now remember that early Yeller only knows six tricks five magic tricks and suing anyone who annoys him here's a video clip of gehler doing his compass moving tricks in a TV studio in Israel this video has had more than 1 million views on YouTube for the first 50 seconds we see Geller freely gesturing near the compass with both his hands nothing moves he then has the audience count to three and shout at the compass twice ostensibly trying to make it move but it doesn't budge in other words it's behaving as a magnetic compass should we see him openly putting on the thumb tip onto his left hand right in front of the audience now he's ready and he spends some time fussing about and getting the audience to hold hands as if to build up the power actually to misdirect attention from himself note that his left hand with the thumb tip cross magnet is always free because he has to use it he keeps that hand well away from the compass he suddenly brings it in above the instrument with his fist cloves and the thumb tucked inside his fist now the compass moves as he planned and he announces success it moved by actual measurement 11 degrees in rotation here we have a similar marine compass a tag attached to it reads caution magnetic interference will affect the security of your compass heading you see the manufacturers knew this fact too here I have a regular jackknife bringing it in close to the compass causes movement of some degrees watch now here's my thumb tip let's see what deflection I can cause using my own version of this ancient trick It's Showtime Wow know just how big if the magnet I used that recent online article that I featured last week said that it would have to be large remember not so folks you see this is a trick within a trick the thumb tip I used was not needed at all here's where the magnet was hidden invisible and other sight merely taped to the heel of my hand now I use transparent tape here but I could have used opaque tape flesh-colored so you wouldn't see it at all and how big is it this big watch so get yourself a tiny magnet forget the thumb tip and you too can become a good a psychic as early Goeller the other four tricks believe me they're just as easy I'm James Randi thank you 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 Randy's org

Channel: JamesRandiFoundation

Views: 734,888

Rating: 4.9174838 out of 5

Keywords: james, randi, url, geller, psychics, compass, trick, magic, power, paranormal, the, next, uri, succesor

Id: siDy1o9-swk

Length: 3min 49sec (229 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/moonTitan]

A hero...

[u/messianol]

Jame Randi is my all time favourite psychic.

[u/gh3ttoblaster]

Everything else aside. This seems like an incredibly boring "magic" trick, and also is it not common knowledge that magnets affect compasses? Nothing against the man showing how it works it just seems like that audience is completely blown away by this incredibly simple trick.

[u/JefferyGoldberg]

James Randi is such a badass.

[u/FM-101]

I have massive respect for people like James Randi.

I also love how he never misses an opportunity to burn Uri Geller.

[u/electricfoxx]

Stay safe, Randi.

[u/platyviolence]

Savage

[u/[deleted]]

It's easy to debunk psychic and paranormal phenomena when you yourself are the world's most powerful telepath/telekinetic who actively subverts and maligns all other B-grade extradimensional enthusiasts for his own amusement. Imagine the truths he's burying: divining, past-lives, remote-viewing, where all those left socks go in the dryer. He must be stopped.

[u/WayneCarlton]

james randi is my boy