Preface to the Current Edition

  In the thirty years since this book was written, substantial changes have taken place in the so-called "paranormal" world. Both the nature and the extent of the silliness have taken off, largely fueled by the increasing influence of the Information Age and the ease with which data―regardless of accuracy―can be accessed. It has always been the case that the media, generally, has little interest in the accuracy of such data, the bottom line always being whether or not a "good" story can be arrived at by accepting the current reports of miracles. The damage that might be done to the consumer, the grief and misinformation that can be inflicted on those who incautiously accept bad data, are often of little consequence to those who create the stories.

  Had I not been inundated with obligations for lectures, other writing assignments, and the regular maintenance of the James Randi Educational Foundation, I might have considered rewriting this book. Such a luxury has been denied me, however. The data contained in these pages is still valid, very minor changes can be safely ignored, and the basic facts still hold: the world of flummery is still out there, it is pervasive, damaging, and dangerous. My message may have changed in hue, but in little else. Uri Geller is still out there flaunting the only six tricks that he has ever known, and doing very well with them because the media are well aware that he is available to them as their favorite marionette, always ready to perform when his strings are pulled; I'm sure that few of them still believe―as so many of them once did―that ETs from the planet Hoova, which might very well be the source of those vacuum cleaners? bestowed upon him the gift of spoon-bending, but when a paragraph or two is needed to fill out pages between more important matters, the Geller file can be pulled from the shelf.

  The Bermuda Triangle Mystery is hardly a news item anymore, but serves as a good example of how a silly legend can be created―largely by one author with far too much time on his hands―and can capture the attention of the public. Swiss author Erich von Daniken has retired as a player in this miserable morality drama, having been thoroughly exposed as a faker. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is no longer with us, though the structure he set up to sell the notion of Transcendental Meditation is still in place under different management and still pouring out masses of publicity material jammed with photographs of perpetually smiling victims of this particular brand of nonsense.

  Scientists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff are still with us, though the latter has now turned his fevered attention to the ancient notion of Free Energy, obtained somehow from someplace "out there" by still-unknown means; he's in good company, the thousands of naifs who have pursued this chimera―along with the "philosophers stone"? down through the centuries. Medical humbuggery has graduated far beyond such harebrained notions as homeopathy to tap Wonderland and Never-Never Land, and the ridiculous "dowsing" hobby continues to captivate the uninformed, around the globe.

  In summary, this book still tells the basic story, while the modern media can fill in and amplify the picture of pseudoscience and nonsense as it develops day by day. Stay tuned.

  James Randi

  Fort Lauderdale, Florida August, 2010