James Hydrick
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James Hydrick is an American martial arts instructor and self-described psychic who claimed to be able to perform telekinesis. Following a nationally televised demonstration of his abilities, he was exposed as a fraud on a subsequent show and eventually confessed to an investigative reporter.
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[edit] Rise to fame
By the early 1980s in Salt Lake City, Utah, Hydrick developed a cult-like following. He claimed he was able to use psychokinesis to turn the pages of books and make pencils spin around while placed on the edge of a desk, among other feats. Hydrick had also set up martial arts classes and claimed he could pass on the gift of psychokinesis to youngsters through special training techniques.
Hydrick rose to international attention through his demonstration of these skills on the American television show, That's Incredible!. He performed the pencil-spinning trick with the skeptical host's hand on his mouth to block possible air blowing (after the host suggested that he could hear Hydrick blowing). However, Hydrick deliberately readjusted the pencil beforehand so that it was as precarious as possible and so would move with the slight disturbance caused by his hands. Hydrick also performed an impromptu magic trick with cocktail sticks that is usually performed with matches. [1]
[edit] Fraud exposed
Magician and paranormal skeptic James Randi demonstrated the pencil trick on the television program That's My Line, hosted by Bob Barker. [2] In a follow-up episode, Randi and Hydrick both appeared. When Randi performed the simple control of placing small pieces of styrofoam "peanuts" on the table around the phone book (to show if Hydrick was actually turning the pages by blowing on them), Hydrick's "powers" suddenly failed him. Hydrick attempted to explain that when the foam was heated by the stage lights that they formed a static electricity which, when added to the weight of the page, required more force than he was able to generate to turn the page. Randi and the judges, though, declared that this theory had no scientific basis.
After several minutes of Hydrick staring at the pages without their moving, and indignantly claiming that his powers were real, he finally admitted being unable to complete the challenge. The judging panel (which included a parapsychologist) stated that, in their opinion, no supernatural phenomenon had taken place. Randi further proved Hydrick's fraudulent claim by performing the page trick himself, which effectively ended Hydrick's television career. The failed stunt resulted in the television show That's Incredible receiving a Pigasus Award.
[edit] Later life
In 1981, Hydrick's psychic powers were definitively exposed as being fraudulent by investigative journalist Dan Korem. Hydrick confessed his fraud to Korem and admitted that he had developed his unique talent while he was in prison, and did not learn it from a Chinese master as he had originally claimed. [3]
Korem described the investigation he and Hugh Aynesworth conducted on Hydrick in a 1997 book about profiling:
Hugh helped me investigate a cult-like individual, James Hydrick from Salt Lake City, who had the same background profile as Waco cult leader David Koresh. Like Koresh, Hydrick was from an abusive home, was obsessed with weapons, threatened to kill others and himself, embraced a contrived religious dogma, and was a pedophile. The investigation culminated in the only known confession of a cult-like leader. Hydrick detailed how he deceived millions of people into believing that he had powers and how others wanted to use him to control people.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Jumping match trick explained.
- ^ Randi, James. "A Look At The Past", James Randi Educational Foundation, September 22, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
- ^ Korem, Dan (1983). Psychic Confession. (also transcript)
- ^ Korem, Dan (1997). The Art of Profiling: Reading People Right the First Time. International Focus Press, ISBN 978-0963910332
