Reviewed by Nemo C. Mörck
Jamy Ian Swiss (b. 1952) is a sceptical activist and a conjurer. He was a co-founder of National Capital Area Skeptics, in 1987. Swiss has reviewed a number of books for Genii, the conjurers’ magazine. He has also written five books, including The Conjurer’s Conundrum. An excerpt and a book review were published in the American Skeptic magazine (26.4). In 2021, Swiss participated in a webinar, Magic, Charlatanry, and Skepticism, moderated by Matthew Tompkins, during which he discussed with Prof. Chris French and Prof. Caroline Watt, now President of the SPR.
The Conjurer’s Conundrum is a small format book, 158 pages, with illustrations and photos. Swiss has also included a selected bibliography. He thanks Carol Tavris for her help with editing. Tavris co-wrote the popular book Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me) (Tarvis & Aronson, 2020). Unfortunately, there are a couple of mistakes in The Conjurer’s Conundrum – Aldous Huxley cannot have helped Charles Darwin ensure that Alfred Russel Wallace got a modest pension. I presume that Swiss meant Thomas Huxley. In addition, he consistently writes Paladino when referring to Eusapia Palladino, and introduces Florence Cook as Florence Cooke. This is nitpicking, but these kinds of mistakes can suggest that the writer is not familiar with the literature. More suggestive is his bold assertion that there is not a shred of evidence for psychic phenomena, but perhaps this was meant merely as rhetoric.
Swiss, in contrast to some other sceptics, makes no avowal of prior paranormal belief. He recalls having encountered a machine, in 1964, that purported to analyse handwriting. This first made him wonder and later realise what the machine actually did. This experience inspires Swiss to make some initial commentary about cold reading, the Barnum effect and Forer statements. This is a subject that he returns to in the book.
The experience with the machine made Swiss realise that he was a sceptic. However, what does it mean to be a sceptic? Swiss devotes space to Reginald Scot, whose The Discoverie of Witchcraft, published in 1584, included twenty-two pages about conjuring tricks. Swiss notes that it has been debated whether it should be considered a work of scepticism given some of Scot’s beliefs. Swiss argues that scepticism is more about the thinking process than about personal beliefs.
Swiss provides some history about individuals such as the Fox sisters, Henry Slade, and Palladino. However, his overview is necessarily sketchy, and made me wonder who the intended reader is. Readers familiar with psychical research are not going to learn much from this. The following chapter about Harry Houdini and his surprising friendship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will perhaps be of more interest. Then follows a chapter about James Randi, who took after Houdini. Swiss recalls having first seen Randi on a programme for children, Wonderama. Randi later appeared on the Long John Nebel’s radio show and had his own, The Amazing Randi Show, from 1967 to 1968. However, many modern readers know him for his public criticism of Uri Geller, whom he argued is just a conjurer pretending to be a psychic.
Swiss came to be acquainted with Randi, and appeared in An Honest Liar, a documentary about him. Randi was still alive when Swiss wrote his book, but I like to think that their relationship could have survived a bit of critical commentary (cf. Cridland, 2010). That said, Randi was a fascinating person not easy to truly capture on a few pages.
The foundation of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), in 1976, is mentioned almost in passing and Swiss omits Marcello Truzzi among the co-founders. This is unfortunate. Truzzi was also a conjurer and wrote an overview about conjurers’ interactions with psychical research (Truzzi, 1997). Randi’s Project Alpha is also briefly covered, but not properly discussed. Swiss does not mention this, but Steven Shaw told McClenon (2018) that he was not a magician and insisted that he had never cheated.
Swiss writes that he has known Shaw since the late 1980s. Shaw is now a prominent conjurer, professionally known as Banachek, also known as a sceptic. Both Swiss and Banachek have been involved with the so-called Million Dollar Challenge (MDC). Swiss shares some recollections from 2011 about this. He notes that professional con artists never apply; instead they get applications from ”shut-eyes”, victims of self-deception. Swiss notes that others involved in the MDC also had a background in magic, including D.W. ”Chip” Denman, D.J. Grothe, and Richard Saunders.
According to Swiss, storefront psychics in New York City and South Florida work for criminal organisations. I would have appreciated a reference to back this up. However, he later uses Rose Marks as an example, and it is easy to learn about the charges she faced.
Swiss argues that everyone can be fooled and takes Prof. Paul Kurtz, co-founder of CSICOP, as an example. In 1991, Kurtz invited the mentalist Kreskin to the annual CSICOP convention and the same year Prometheus Books, founded by Kurtz, published the 2nd edition of Secrets of the Amazing Kreskin. (Mentalist is a term that refers to a conjurer who specialises in simulating psychic phenomena). Swiss and others were outraged by what Kurtz had done because Kreskin never seemed willing to outright admit that he only utilised conjuring tricks. According to Swiss, Kurtz believed that only 98% of what Kreskin did was tricks and could not be convinced otherwise. When Kurtz dared to suggest that the reactions Kreskin evoked might be due to professional jealousy, Randi had to escort Swiss away.
Geller is also subject to some brief commentary, but Swiss could have written much more about him. It would have been interesting to learn more about how the conjuring community regards Geller. I get the impression that he has become accepted but not embraced. In 2011, Geller participated as a judge in Fenomen, a Swedish programme, in which conjurers’ performances were assessed. In addition, it seems fair to point out that Geller is not the only one who enjoys being seen and heard. Professional conjurers need publicity.
Swiss has been involved in scepticism for a long time and must have countless interesting stories to relate. Towards the end of the book, he selects three, the first about the psychic claimant Ronnie Marcus, who briefly came into the limelight in 1994 (see Auerbach, 1996; Braude, 2011). In 2003, Swiss was involved in what he calls Operation Crystal Ball. An attorney wished to prosecute a medium for fraud and thought that it would be possible to do so if it could be proven that the medium had obtained information about the sitters beforehand. However, the investigation suggested that the medium relied on ordinary cold reading. The third story concerns blindfold reading, trickery that resurfaces now and then (e.g., see Gardner, 1966). Finally, Swiss relates why it is necessary to address these kinds of claims rather than just letting people believe what they like.
Overall, this is a pleasant, well-written informal small book. However, some issues, such as the ethical concerns involved in Project Alpha, deserve more attention. I also found it curious that the sceptic and conjurer Mark Edward is never mentioned, given the heated panel debate Magicians vs. Psychics, at The Amazing Meeting in 2013. Edward used to work for the Psychic Friends Network and wrote about his experiences in Psychic Blues (Edward, 2012). In addition, I never figured out who the intended reader is. The historical sections are brief and the sections about fraud must seem basic to conjurers. Given this, I believe that this book will mainly be appreciated by readers familiar with Swiss and his writing style.
References
Auerbach, L. (1996). Mind over matter. Kensington Books.
Braude, S. E. (2011). The gold leaf lady and other parapsychological investigations. University of Chicago Press.
Cridland, T. (2010). The real James Randi. In I. Simmons (Ed.), Electricity of the mind (pp. 161-169). Anomalist Books.
Edward, M. (2012). Psychic blues: Confessions of a conflicted medium. Feral House.
Gardner, M. (1966). Dermo-optical perception: A peek down the nose. Science, 151(3711), 654-657. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.151.3711.654
McClenon, J. (2018). The entity letters. Anomalist Books.
Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2020). Mistakes were made (but not by me) (3rd Ed.). Mariner Books
Truzzi, M. (1997). Reflections on the sociology and social psychology of conjurors and their relations with psychical research. In S. Krippner (Ed.), Advances in parapsychological research 8 (pp. 221–271). McFarland.