This Magician Spent Decades Busting Con Men
Seeing through fraudsters is an art, and James Randi was among the best practitioners of that art.

Few people are better equipped to bust con men than magicians. Magicians are well-versed in sleight-of-hand and other methods of concealing trickery. They know what goes into creating the illusion of magic.
However, few of those magicians make a career out of seeing through frauds. Flim-Flam! is James Randi’s account of busting various frauds and debunking paranormal claims. It’s a refreshing look at skepticism at its best instead of its memed version: reflexively believing nothing.
This book includes many examples of debunked charlatans, from UFO claims to alien history to Randi’s famous takedown of “psychic,” Uri Geller. Some of the most telling stories show how easily people who seem “wrong” can be found out.
The “Ancients” Were People Too
One of the frauds debunked in Randi’s book is Erich von Daniken. He wrote books that posited that aliens mated with primitive humans and that ancient artifacts confirm these happenings. The only thing crazier than his claims is his high volume of book sales. Randi starts his von Daniken chapter by noting van Daniken’s 36 million book sales.
One of von Daniken’s specific frauds concerned Incan artifacts, which supposedly had images of heart transplants and other modern technologies.
Von Daniken’s artifacts were fakes. Randi and a team of investigators visited the museum in Ica, Peru where von Daniken supposedly discovered these artifacts:
“The museum in Ica is an amateur affair, run by a dentist. The fakes are rather amateurish, too. I say this because my experience in Peru has acquainted me with some of the finest phony pottery and grave articles that have ever been made. Artisans there use precisely the same methods employed by the ancients in making their pottery, and since most of their product is copied directly from the fine work produced by those little-recognized masters of long ago, it is almost impossible to detect the fakery unless you know a few tricks of the trade.”
His team then questioned the dentist who ran the museum. “Within an hour,” the team learned where the fake artifacts were made “and drove a few miles out of town to order a custom-made heart transplant item to be prepared while they waited and filmed the process.”
This didn’t prevent von Daniken from continuing to sell books or peddle fake artifacts. The artifacts were only one of von Daniken’s frauds. But as Randi points out:
“Try as he may, von Daniken cannot diminish the works created by greater men than he. For every giant, there is a little man to kick at his ankles. But the great accomplishments of long ago remain.”
Biorhythm Isn’t Physiology Anymore than Alchemy Was Chemistry
Fraudulent individuals weren’t the only targets of Randi’s investigations. Entire pseudosciences receive patient debunking.
Biorhythm was a pseudodiscipline claiming to predict human behavior based on masculine and feminine cycles that last around a month each. It’s a bizarre theory founded by Dr. Hermann Swoboda, a psychology professor, and Dr. Wilhelm Fliess, “an ardent numerologist and physician specializing in ailments of the nose.”
Dr. Fliess tried applying the theory he co-founded to his patients:
“He had discovered that there were “cyclic changes” in the mucous membrane lining the nose, and he related these variations to sexual problems. He also isolated areas inside the nose where he believed “genital cells” abounded, and he stimulated these areas by dabbing cocaine on them.”
Cocaine use can temporarily increase sex drive in patients, so it’s no wonder that Dr. Fliess did so well.
Debunking Biorhythm Live on Air
Randi’s subject of biorhythm’s debunking did less well. George Thommen wrote a book on how to use biorhythm to predict catastrophes or accomplishments. Thommen also had the misfortune to appear on Randi’s radio show.
Then, Randi asked for a biorhythm chart for himself and his secretary and had one provided for a listener who had called in and wanted one. He had a biorhythm chart sent to her, and she kept a daily diary for two months to see how the chart matched up with her life. At the end of two months, she reported that the results were “at least ninety percent accurate.”
However, she didn’t receive her own biorhythm chart. She received Randi’s. Randi then sent the woman another chart, and “she called to report that this one was even more accurate, if that was possible!”
She still hadn’t received her chart. She had received Randi’s secretary’s chart. Randi’s experiment revealed:
“She had been taken in by after-the-fact rationalization of the data, as have so many thousands who have followed the undulating curves and erratic reasoning necessary to make the facts fit this theory. So much for Thommen and his charts.”
This debunking was in addition to the scientific literature which failed to find any predictive value in biorhythm. Randi begins wrapping up his discussion of the various biorhythm fraudsters by comparing them to alchemists:
“Alchemy was dedicated to a search for the Philosopher’s Stone, which would change base metals into gold. The Stone was never found, and peripheral facts discovered during the search were later incorporated into the true science of chemistry. The only future for biorhythm is to become an abandoned quest, and the case histories of poor logic and research that remain from its wreckage eventually may well be incorporated into the study of abnormal psychology.”
Why Seeing Through Frauds Matters
Many people may read this review and wonder why it’s so important to bust fraudsters like von Daniken or Dr. Fliess. Everyone is wrong sometimes, and letting people believe what they want may be kinder.
A Washington Star columnist made the same argument about Randi and his team of investigators. The columnist believed that “nothing was funnier” than Randi’s in-depth debunkings. Randi ended the chapter with this response:
“That writer never saw the distraught faces of parents whose children were caught up in some stupid cult that promises miracles. He never faced a man whose life savings had gone down the drain because a curse had to be lifted. He never held the hand of a woman at a dark seance who expected her loved one to come back to her as promised by a swindler who fed on her belief in nonsense.”
Randi lists more refutations before answering “What happened to their [his and his team’s] funny-bones:”
“Our collective sense of humor has been dulled by the fried, frustration, and anger that comes of preaching in the wilderness. The Star, apparently, would like that wilderness to continue to be empty of rational forces. I hope they enjoyed their big laugh.”
Flim-Flam! isn’t about reducing the amount of magic in the world. It’s a celebration of the accomplishments that real people have made across time. Legitimate Incan artifacts are remarkable pieces of art. Medical science has made enormous strides in improving human well-being. Casting light on fraudsters who undermine that brilliance is a vital - and often entertaining - endeavor.
This book sounds like an interesting read! I remember seeing James Randi on TV a lot in my youth. I also remember how pervasive the concept of biorhythms was back then. However, I was unaware he had debunked that 'science' and had completely forgotten about it.