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Subject: 'Mazing Randi vs Popoff
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Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 20:31:41 EDT
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Posted: Thu Oct  9 20:31:41 1986
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Extracted from SCIENCE magazine, 1,Aug,1986 pg.517

Amazing Randi one of 25 MacArthur Genius Winners

James Randi (the Amazing Randi), the magician known to scientists for
shooting holes in research on paranormal phenomena, has been awarded
one of this year's MacArthur Foundation grants for "outstandingly talented"
people.

Randi was cited for his work in exposing the fraud behind "psychic surgery"
and for his recent campaign against television evangelists for mulcting their
audiences and gulling the sick.

  Randi, 57, says he plans to use his $272,000 award, to be doled out over
the next 5 years, in expanding his office and computer system and hiring an
assistant.

  For the past year and a half, Randi has been on the trail of faith healers
who he says are fleecing the public with the aid of advanced computerized
information and mailing systems.

  Randi says these men have an enormous amount of information, including
everything from the health status of individuals to the names of their pets,
gained through mailing lists from a variety of sources such as fundamentalist
groups and purveyors of holy water from Lourdes.

  Randi says many people are dying because at healing services they are told
to throw away their pills.  In undercover work in San Fransisco and Houston,
he says he went through the trash following a service held by the now
"vanished" evangelist Peter Popoff, and found a great variety of medications
tossed away by the audience, including nitroglycerin, digitalis, and oral
antidiabetic agents.

  He says he also intercepted transmissions to a receiver Popoff had in his
ear as he walked among the audience.  Popoff was getting information on
peoples' identities, incomes, relatives, and diseases. "You're talking James
Bond here," says Randi.

  Randi has been spreading his message with appearances on the Johnny Carson
show.  He has contacted states' attorneys in seven states to alert them
to the various violations including fraud and invasion of privacy but, he says,
the law won't do anything because these are religious organizations.

-----------------------

It then went on to list the other award winners.


Gary
HASA
H-Division

(allegra,ihnp4,hplabs,glacier)oliveb!oliven!gnome