35 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“High in the back area of the Coliseum, using an electronic scanner receiver, Bob Steiner and Alec Jason had quickly located the frequency used by the Popoffs—39.17 Megahertz. A tape recorder was attached to the receiver, and every word was heard. When Popoff made his entrance, we heard Mrs. Popoff testing the communications channel: ‘Hello, Petey. I love you! I’m talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can’t, you’re in trouble. … I’m looking up names, right now.’

            “Transcribing the tape later on, we heard such commentary as: ‘I have a hot one for you. Robert Kaywood. He’s got a chest condition that needs surgery. Robert Kaywood. Kaywood. Kaywood. He needs surgery. His veins aren’t formed. He prays that God will heal him today.’

            … “I suggest that the heartless exploitation of the elderly, the ailing, and the emotionally unstable citizens of this country will continue until someone in government decides that these ‘faith-healers’ have abused, deceived, and milked enough people. Perhaps a St. George, rather than a Don Quixote, is waiting in the wings. Let us hope so.”

—James “The Amazing” Randi, “Peter Popoff Reaches Heaven via 39.17 Megahertz,”

Free Inquiry, Volume 6, no. 3 (Summer 1986)

Editor’s Note: James Randi (1928–2020) was a stage magician, a hugely influential critic of the paranormal, and a cofounder of CSICOP, today the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. In his famous investigation of faith-healer Peter Popoff, Randi himself played the role of St. George, going on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to expose Popoff’s electronic malfeasance to the nation. That put Popoff’s ministry out of business for several years, though it later returned. Randi’s investigation also inspired the 1992 film Leap of Faith starring Steve Martin.

25 Years Ago in Free Inquiry

“In the long run, if we can convince our fellow human beings that the sights we see in the heavens—even something as wondrous as Comet Hale-Bopp will hopefully turn out to be—are purely natural phenomena, and that there is no need to invoke any supernatural or mystical elements as an explanation, then we will have taken a significant step toward preparing our society to deal responsibly with the technological and ethical issues with which it will be confronted during the twenty-first century.”

—Alan Hale, “The Unlimited Cosmos—A Personal Odyssey,”

Free Inquiry, Volume 16 no. 3 (Summer 1996)

Editor’s Note: Alan Hale was the codiscoverer of Comet Hale–Bopp, perhaps the most observed comet of the later twentieth century. The comet’s dramatic perihelion in spring 1997 was preceded by tragedy: that March, thirty-nine members of the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult committed suicide, convinced that by doing so they could board a flying saucer they believed was flying behind the comet.