This clip is an old one. It actually goes back to the 1980’s and the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. However, it remains one of my all time favorite classic Randi clips. If you have not seen it before, it’s both amusing and informative. That’s what I love about Randi’s style: He provides good information and works to debunk frauds, but he manages to do it in a way that’s interesting and gets the attention of the public. He’s both a good showman and a promoter of good science and critical thinking.

What this pertains to are some claims of “psychic surgery.” Basically there have been some practitioners who claimed to use magic or paranormal powers to preform surgery without anesthesia or a scalpel. They apparently reach into patients and pull out diseased tissue or infected material and then magically reseal the opening, leaving no wound afterward. Needless to say, this doesn’t fool someone like Randi. Here he shows how the effect can be created with a some basic slight of hand, a hidden capsule of stage blood and a few pieces of uncooked chicken.

A true classic!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 2:03 pm and is filed under Education, Humor, Paranormal, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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