[INTRO MUSIC] This library has almost
4,000 books in it. I want you to step to any
one of the shelves here, take any two books down
that are approximately the same thickness and size. Let me see. "Super Nature" by Lyall Watson. OK. And Edgar Cayce's
"Story of Jesus". All right. I'm going to flip
through this book, and you tell me when to stop. OK, stop. Whoops, sorry. I slipped. I dropped it. OK Craig, who is this
guy, and what's going on? That's Amazing Randi. He's a magician. And he's doing a magic trick. Ooo, magic? Sweet. Yeah. Stop. 91. Pick up that book, if you
would be so kind, please. I want you to look at
the top line on 91. OK OK. Choose a word out of there that
is not the kind of word that would occur on the top line
of every page in this library, I would say. No, don't say it. Don't say it. OK. You got it? OK. Close the book. Now I want you to
think of that word. OK. Hold on. Is he going to guess the
word by reading your mind? Shh, shut up. Watch the trick. Now, this is strange. OK. What was the first word that
your eye lit on there that you thought that would be suitable? It was entangled. This happens
every now and then. I got it upside down. Look at this. What? How did you do that? Very well, I thought. Yeah, you did. I don't believe it. Well, I have the
paper right here. Take a closer look. OK, I see it. I guess it does
actually say entangled. Well, what else
could it be, Matt? Seeing is believing, Well, it's just a
magic trick, right? The Amazing Randi is a magician. He's not actually
reading your mind. Is he? How can we tell
what's real or not? How do we know if our
senses are deceiving us? In this week's episode
we will test the limits of what we can understand. And question the very
nature of reality. By taking a look at the
parts of the world where-- [TOGETHER] Seeing
isn't believing. That was in unison. Good job. A no-look high-five. Yeah, we did it. Now, if I had told you
that I had ESP powers and then did that, without you
knowing who I am as a magician, would you possibly have said,
wow, that's the evidence. CRAIG: The Amazing Randi is
more than just a magician. He's also an accomplished
escape artist who broke one of
Houdini's records by staying submerged in a coffin
underwater for 104 minutes. He also escaped
from a straitjacket while hanging upside
down over Niagara Falls. But who hasn't? Most people. And he even toured
with Alice Cooper. MATT: So he's also a rock star. CRAIG: But he's spent much
of his career and retirement exposing and debunking
those who claim to have supernatural
or magical abilities. So he goes around
revealing magic tricks? Isn't that against
the magician's code? Let's get something straight
from the very beginning. I don't reveal
magician's tricks. I reveal the tricks that
the so-called psychics and paranormalists are preaching
to everybody as if they were facts, because
people should not be deceived in that way. What could have
happened that would make him give up touring
with Alice Cooper to start doing that? It happened after I was
well-established as a magician. And we'd get questions
from people saying, well, what you did with
the doves, there, that was very entertaining. Of course, that's a trick. But when you told the
lady her telephone number, that was real, right? And I'd say, no, no, no,
that's a mentalism trick. And they'd look at
your very strangely, because they figured you
were lying, because they were saying, no, no, you
can't do that unless you have telepathic powers. Yes, I can. Well then, how is it done? That's a professional secret. I determined that one
of these days I would, and I have done it ever since,
I would expose these things for the fakes they were. In 1976, James Randi became
one of the founding members of the Committee for Skeptical
Inquiry, also not known as cifski. And he went on to
investigate and debunk all kinds of psychics, healers,
and supernatural claims. So he's like a Ghostbuster. Nope, not at all. But James Randi did gain
much of his notoriety by going up against one of
the most famous psychics of his time, Uri Geller. Well, Uri Geller makes a
claim that he can bend metal. Bending spoons,
that's his profession. Could you imagine that? Your resume, professional
spoon-bender? Of what use is that? But Geller found out that
it was causing a sensation. And he promoted it. And he built his entire career
on a spoon-bending trick. And how was it done? You do it when nobody's looking. Well, they would
be looking when Geller guested on The
Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1972, however. Carson wanted to expose
Geller as a fraud, but didn't know how to do it. So he called up Randi. Randi told Carson to provide
the props, so Geller couldn't use his own spoons,
and to keep the props far away from Geller and his
crew until it was showtime. When Geller appeared
and was presented with The Tonight Show provided
props, guess what happened? He couldn't do it? [URI GELLER ON TV] OK, let
me rest a little, all right? All right. CRAIG: Yep. His powers failed him. Defeated by a comedy
legend, a skeptical mind, and normal everyday spoons. [JOHNNY CARSON ON TV]
Uri was telling me, what, you don't feel strong tonight? [URI GELLER ON TV]
I don't feel strong. JAMES RANDI: I think
he rather resents me. I suspect that he does, you see. No kidding. Taken down on live television. That's gotta sting. Yeah, but maybe $1 million
would make him feel better. Well, probably. Along with his crusade to
stamp out supernatural deceit, Randi set up a foundation that
would give anybody $1 million if they could provide objective
proof of the paranormal. JAMES RANDI: The foundation
has for many years now offered a $1 million
prize to any person or persons who could provide evidence
of any paranormal, occult, or supernatural
event of any kind under proper
observing conditions. That's the statement succinctly. And you would think, if you
look out the window there and this one over
here, you'd think that there'd a lineup
of people, wouldn't you, waiting to win the $1 million
prize, because they claim that there are tens of thousands
of psychics all over the world. Where are they? MATT: OK, Randi has
devoted his life to taking down these fakers. But what's the harm? Isn't it just some
people having some fun? JAMES RANDI:
There's a great deal of harm in the so-called
psychics and paranormalists and whatnot telling
people that what they do is from real psychic powers. [PETER POPOFF ON TV]
He said you smite that cancer with your fist. JAMES RANDI: Because
it misleads people into believing that
there are such things. And they will tend
to spend money. And they spend
fortunes on people who will offer them predictions
and prognostications of various kinds. Is there something, is there
anything other than money? Oh, yes. They get such power
over these people. Even after Randi
debunked Geller in front of a live
studio audience on one of the most
popular shows of its time, Geller remained a star and
still demonstrates his telepathy to this day. MATT: How can people still
believe him after that? These people are
unsinkable rubber ducks. They will stay in business
no matter what I do or what anybody does. But at least some people will
listen to what I have to say. The interesting thing is that I
often get people saying, well, I guess they just
want to believe. No. I correct that in one word. They need to believe. Some people really need to
believe in the supernatural. After years of
debunking, Randi decided to take his skeptical
enterprise to the next level. I determined that you could
create, actually create a psychic from nothing. My name is Deyvi
Orangel Pena Arteaga. I'm also known as the
artist, Jose Alvarez. And I did a project with
him in 1987, I believe, where I perform as a
channeler in Australia. CRAIG: Randi called
this channeler Carlos, and sent a press release to the
Australian media claiming that Carlos was the embodiment
of 2,000-year-old spirit. Well, they didn't just
believe that, did they? Well, they put him on TV. Oh. The character was
pretty colorful. CRAIG: I've seen video. It's very funny. So they decided to promote it. CRAIG: Carlos even called a
full-scale press conference that was attended by key
Australian media outlets. MATT: What? CRAIG: All this free publicity
made Carlos a huge attraction. MATT: Nobody questioned this? The proof was available
that he was a total fake. But nobody bothered
to check into a guy who speaks in tongues and
communicates with the dead? Nope. The promotional materials that
Randi distributed to the press were full of claims that anyone
could have tried to verify. One phone call would have
brought the whole thing down. But nobody called. We rehearsed, went on the
air, and with the agreement at the very beginning that
we would reveal all of this. CRAIG: Carlos premiered
to a packed audience at the Sydney Opera House. Randi's efforts paid off, and
Carlos had a large and fervent following. DEYVI: The interesting
thing for me was how easy it was for
a cult to be created and for people to follow a
character like this simply because he was
promoted on television. Could this happen again? Has anything changed since then? With the internet and various
forms of communication now, there couldn't be
another Carlos, right? The need to believe
is still there. And the people who want
to fulfill that need are still there. So therefore
nothing has changed. That basic relationship
is still there. They're looking for a magic. They want magic. And I'm not talking
about the kind of magic that I do as a performer. No. They want magic. Real magic. Do you think we'll ever
get better at discerning between what's real
and what's not? I don't know. Will people ever
become more skeptical of these outlandish claims? There may be other
generations up ahead that will have a much better
picture of how the world really works. But I think that
we are not quite capable of doing that yet. I'm an amateur. I'm only an amateur. I'm a magician by trade and an
amateur philosopher, I guess. But I've managed to make a
certain impact on the world. And I'm proud of that. Well, what do we do, Craig? How can we hone our minds
to be razor-sharp blades of objective thought? Well, maybe we don't want to. Look at how popular things like
Star Wars and Harry Potter are. Maybe there's a
part of us that just wants to believe in The Force,
magic, and the wookie planet, Kashyyyk. [WOOKIE NOISE] Yeah. Maybe we don't
want to be limited by our mundane, everyday lives,
because if magic can be real, anything's possible. Yeah. I guess our need to believe
could be a form of optimism. As long as we don't
confuse our need to believe as evidence
for our beliefs. Why don't we take
a look at the ways our perception can fool us. Next up, we'll talk
about how our brain often fails to see what's
right in front of it-- gorillas, for example--
and how maybe we should be thankful for that. Then we'll go searching for
evidence of UFO's and aliens. And finally, we'll take a look
at the cosmos and find out why our entire universe might
not be what it seems, because in this episode-- [TOGETHER] Seeing
isn't believing. Yeah. Nailed it. I didn't even see it. But I believe it. I don't believe it. And I didn't see it. Thank you for seeing our video. Do you believe that you saw it? You did. If you liked it, you could
click that Subscribe button way up there in the corner, or you
could contribute to our show right there, with
the patreon link. There's also a button
for our next video. And down there, our previous
playlist all about robots. Lots of things to see. Lots of things to believe. Or not. Or something. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING]
