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Magic or Miracle - The Shazam Scam - Project Alpha

JREF DVD #014Project Alpha was a hoax orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi. It involved planting two fake psychics, Steve Shaw and Michael Edwards, into a paranormal research project. The researchers became convinced that the pair's psychic powers were real. The hoax was later revealed publicly.

The success of Project Alpha led Randi to use variations of the technique on several other occasions. Perhaps the most famous example led to the downfall of TV evangelist and faith healer Peter Popoff, when Randi had a man pose as a woman with uterine cancer, which Popoff happily "cured". In another example, Randi hired a performance artist to pose as a channeller known as "Carlos", who was presented on Australian TV and soon had a wide following. After this hoax was exposed the artist was constantly approached by people who believed him to be genuine, even if he told them directly that he was an actor.

Channel: Nonprofit
Uploaded: March 24, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Author: JamesRandiFoundation

Length: 00:05:37
Rating: 5.00
Views: 2422

Tags: shaw randi project michael james psychic steve jref edwards alpha

Video Comments:

puppetdesign (October 14, 2008 at 10:50 pm)

Psychics are nothing more than snake oil peddlers

darkuser999 (June 25, 2008 at 9:43 pm)

What makes scientists think that they can't be fooled? Have they ever seen magicians performing on TV or live? Good magicians can and are trained to fool people, scientists or not. Scientists are intelligent and study science but they are not trained to spot trickery. Hell, an 60 year old professor is certainly not going to spot sleight of hand!!!

magicdosh (June 15, 2008 at 9:25 pm)

This is an important point, skeptics get depicted as people who don't believe anything. However, many would dearly love to find genuine psychics or magic, but, no one has yet displayed it.

At least sleight of hand artists don't get burnt at the stake now!

Itslvle (May 18, 2008 at 11:23 am)

When you want to believe, there is only positive proof and inconclusive data. Nothing ever disproves anything. I don´t understand how people can be content with the explanation "it´s magic" or "god did it".

Wisdombluetooth (May 1, 2008 at 11:11 am)

scientist my hairy back ;-)

mjr256 (May 1, 2008 at 4:55 am)

I hope you've got another Project Alpha operating today on the verge of revealing themselves to the world because the world has a very, very short memory.

This was an absolutely brilliant tactic but it needs an even wider audience to sink in.

kirby4blues (April 28, 2008 at 3:36 pm)

That made me rofl while banging my head on the desk

Deejio (April 21, 2008 at 2:51 am)

yes, I agree with you to an extent...but that's why it's so attractive: it's simple. James Randi's work is amazing. His videos has proven to my religious family that there really aren't such things as magic...In fact, I usually learn a few trick, get a little bit good at it and perform it for them, to show that even I, an atheist, can do it and I obviously don't purport to have magic powers.

lumpcouch (April 18, 2008 at 11:34 pm)

Believing in psychic energy may comfort people and maybe that is one of the reasons why many people still believe in it but it is still something that from what we know is not existent.
It is always complicated to have an answer for everything but you'll live closer to the truth if you search for answers and don't believe anything you see.
You are just making your life easy by saying : "It is magic!".

LegendSaber (April 16, 2008 at 5:48 pm)

I actually agree with this.

There are times where the reality of the world seems dull or dreary, but magic is very free to exist in the one place it rightly belongs: dreams. And dreams can indeed offer a magic greater than any psychic offers.