Flim Flam book report

My group chose to read the book Flim Flam by James Randi for our book report because of the wide variety of topics that were involved in the book. The book focuses on paranormal beliefs, including some that we covered in the course such as psychics and the myths like people who claim to have telekinesis or psychic abilities. We decided as a group to read this book because it looked interesting and seemed easy enough to read and write a report on. There were some parts of this book that were more interesting than others, obviously, but overall I thought it was a good book and it covered a wide variety of supernatural beliefs. 

The chapter that interested me the most was the Fairies at the Foot of the Garden chapter. This  chapter talks about these two girls at Cottingley Glen during the 1920s who claimed to have taken a picture of real fairies and they also took a picture with the fairies. The photo was eventually examined by experts and the experts claimed that the photo could not have been faked and the people on the girls’ side noted that these girls had no prior history with fake photos or any fake claims and had no reason to have faked these photos. At this time, I don’t think there was photoshop or any kind of technology like that so it was easy for people to believe these girls and the pictures they were presenting.

Another chapter that I liked reading was the All At Sea chapter about the Bermuda Triangle. I have always been intrigued by the stories about the Bermuda Triangle, so this chapter was extremely interesting to me. For those who don’t know, the Bermuda Triangle is “famous” for the fact that if you try to go through the Bermuda Triangle, you won’t make it out alive. There have been many disappearances and strange occurrences that have all been linked to the Bermuda Triangle. It is such an attraction to people because of how many people just disappear when sailing through it. This could be due to bad weather or other factors, but it is definitely interesting to read about.

Another interesting chapter that I enjoyed reading was The Medical Humbugs chapter which talks about psychic surgery which has been widely falsified by many experts even though it is done all over the world. Randhi attempted to sit in on a surgery, but wasn’t allowed. This chapter intrigued me based solely on how strange this claim was. He claimed that the doctors were using tricks shown in various videos that were not actually performed. There were also claims that they were using fake blood and body parts as a way to influence the viewers and show that it was real and it was due to their psychic abilities.

In conclusion, I liked the book and was very interested in it’s content and the strange paranormal claims that each chapter had. I think the author did a good job of explaining to the reader what exactly was going on, so it was easier for us to comprehend. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys these types of supernatural and psychic books and the claims that many people, including Randi, have tried to disprove.