Nova: Secrets of the Psychics

The first half hour is a summary of some of the exposes by Randi, such as the claims of "psychic" Uri Geller, faith healers, and other. There is also simple but interesting experiments regarding astrology and palm reading.

The second half presents Randi debunking psychics in Moscow. This is great fun, as it is frustrating seeing how the psychics try to escape from his tests (one "psychic" cannot identify which of three glasses with water is the one he previously "energized", because once he thinks about the glasses, the water in all of them gets "energized"!).

Highly recommeded. If you enjoy reading, you must check the books by James Randi (I strongly recommend you try his supernatural encyclopedia, Flim-Flam! and The Faith Healers).


A must have for skeptics or seekers of the truth   May 4, 1999
14 out of 16 found this review helpful

For anyone sick of watching Psychics on TV robbing people of money and their rationality this video is the cure. James Randi is great, I actually purchased a couple of his books after viewing this video. Everything from horoscopes to spoon bending, the Amazing Randi uncovers all their tricks of the trade.


Classic Carson episodes   January 18, 2005
Sherry Austin (Southern U.S.)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful


What's wrong with belief in the paranormal, pseudoscience, and--not incidentally--fundamentalist religious beliefs? Everything. When we're too easily seduced into believing based on the flimsiest of evidence, we blind ourselves to the sense of wonder we can get from looking clear-eyed at the world right before our eyes, to the mysteries that hard science simultaneously explains and deepens. I agree with the previous reviewers that this Nova episode is an excellent overview of how psychics deceive us, and many times themselves. (All my life people have insisted that I'm psychic; careful exercise of my reason has shown me I am not, and many of the principles I've used are explained in this film.)

Because Randi deals with some of the "best" in the psychic field and communicates so clearly, this video might be just the thing to get people thinking, especially people who won't read. We can't expect a true believer in psychic phenomena to buy a copy, though, can we? If everyone who has seen it would donate a copy to their library, maybe we'd begin to make some inroads into the epidemic of irrational belief.

The late, great Johnny Carson was a great friend and supporter of James Randi, frequently sending six-figure checks to the James Randi Educational Foundation. This production will delight you with some classic scenes from Mr. Randi's many visits to the Carson show, including the ones pulling the wool off Uri Geller and "healer" Peter Popoff.

At the end of this film, in a statement also repeated on James Randi's website, he says: "A lot of people hate my skepticism, and I think I understand why. The psychics offer wonders and endless possibilities in a world that often seems difficult and mundane. They promise health, wealth, wisdom, eternal life. But if you examine the record, it's not the psychics but the hard-nosed scientists who have actually delivered the things that improve human life. And, to me, science describes a world far more interesting than any psychic fantasy. It's a good world - not perfect - but it's ours. So we'd better learn to live with it, the way it is."

Well said, Mr. Randi. I would reiterate that the real world "the way it is" is much stranger, many times more wondrous than the one offered us by the charlatans.
--- Sherry Austin.



vastly entertaining   March 22, 2003
Daniel Kimberg (Greater Philadelphia, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This episode of Nova has noted skeptic James Randi traveling the world to expose the nonsense perpetrated under the various guises of psychic phenomena. I could pick nits with the production here and there, but the bottom line is that the video is incredibly entertaining, often hilarious, and at least moderately informative (Randi spends a little time exposing some of the simpler tricks psychics use). If you enjoy watching self-proclaimed psychics made to look ridiculous, this video will be a great investment.


I know you'll enjoy this   May 8, 2004
anonymous_reader_of books
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

For over 30 years Nova has been producing some of the greatest documentaries available ,and 'Secrets of the Psychics' ranks as one of their finest. James Randi serves as our guide , investigating proclaimed acts of psychic ability . The result is an eloquent and often humorous journey through both our eagerness to be deceived and the outrage when we are.