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James Hydrick

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James Hydrick
Born (1959-02-28) February 28, 1959 (age 65)
New Ellenton, South Carolina,[citation needed] U.S.
OccupationSelf-proclaimed psychic

James Alan Hydrick (born February 28, 1959)[1] is an American former stage performer and self-described psychic.

Hydrick claimed to be able to perform acts of telekinesis, such as his trademark trick of moving a pencil resting at the edge of a table. Following a nationally televised demonstration of his abilities on That's Incredible!, he was unable to prove his supernatural abilities on That's My Line, and later confessed the fraud.

Hydrick was imprisoned for child molestation in 1989; he remains in a psychiatric hospital.

Early life

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Hydrick was born in South Carolina to 36-year-old father Billy Hydrick and 13-year-old mother Lois Hydrick.[2][3] His father was allegedly abusive.[4] In 1989, he told an interviewer that he started learning karate at age six to protect himself from his father after seeing one of his brothers beaten to death. He and his other siblings later lived in a series of foster homes and orphanages.[5]

Hydrick was convicted of kidnapping and torture in 1977, for which he was imprisoned.[6] He escaped three times: he allegedly kicked through a concrete wall in a Georgia jail, broke through gates at a South Carolina prison, and finally, in 1982, he pole-vaulted over a fence at a state prison in Utah.[7]

Rise to fame

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Throughout the 1970s, Hydrick was arrested repeatedly for crimes ranging from burglary to assault.[7] Despite his difficult background and ongoing legal troubles, Hydrick gained prominence for his karate and sleight of hand tricks, earning national television exposure and a cult following. He claimed he was able to use psychokinesis to turn the pages of books and make pencils spin around on desks, among other feats.[8][9] Hydrick also set up martial arts classes and claimed he could pass on the gift of psychokinesis to children through special training techniques, which was shown in 1989 to be a front for his coercing children into performing sexual favors for him, and was a factor in his conviction for sexual assault of a minor.[10][11]

Hydrick's most visible demonstration of his purported skills was in an episode of the series That's Incredible! that originally aired in December 1980 and repeated in 1981. He performed the pencil-spinning trick with the host John Davidson's hand on his mouth to block him from exhaling (after Davidson suggested that he could hear Hydrick blowing).[10] However, Hydrick had readjusted the pencil beforehand so that it was as precarious as possible and would move with the slight manipulation of his hands. He also caused a page from a telephone book to turn over, allegedly by telekinesis.[10] Magician and paranormal skeptic James Randi awarded the program a 1980 Uri Award, later renamed the Pigasus Award, "for declaring a simple magic trick to be genuine."[12]

Exposure as fraud

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James Randi replicated the pencil trick on a similar show, That's My Line, hosted by Bob Barker, demonstrating that it was a simple illusion and not a product of telekinesis.[13] Hydrick and Randi both appeared in a follow-up episode of the show, Hydrick to demonstrate his telekinesis, while Randi was determined to prove it was only a trick. Barker and Randi offered $10,000 if Hydrick would be able to move the pages of a phone book under certain conditions. To do this, Randi placed foam peanuts on the table around the phone book to show if Hydrick was actually turning the pages by blowing on them. As Hydrick attempted to turn the page, his "powers" failed him; he claimed that the stage lights were causing the foam pieces to generate a static electric charge 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 countered that this hypothesis had no scientific basis.[8] After 45 minutes with no results, Hydrick finally conceded his inability to complete the challenge, and the judging panel, which included a parapsychologist, declared that no supernatural phenomenon had taken place. At the end of the episode, Randi, to further discredit Hydrick, performed the same trick, openly demonstrating the blowing technique Hydrick used.[10]

In 1981, Hydrick's so-called psychic powers were conclusively exposed as frauds by investigative journalist and professional magician Dan Korem. Hydrick confessed to Korem that he had developed his trick in prison, and that he had not learned it from a Chinese master as he originally claimed.[8][4][14] Hydrick confessed, "My whole idea behind this in the first place was to see how dumb America was. How dumb the world is."[15]

Child molestation

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Wanted on an outstanding warrant, Hydrick was apprehended after police saw him discussing psychic powers on the Sally Jessy Raphael talk show.[7] In 1989, Hydrick was sentenced to 17 years for molesting five boys in Huntington Beach, California.[11] After serving his sentence, he was remanded to Atascadero State Hospital for treatment under the state's sexually violent predator law. Psychologist Jesus Padilla described Hydrick as "an extremely difficult patient" who suffers from pedophilia, paraphilia, and antisocial personality disorder.[16] Hydrick petitioned for release in May 2013, but a trial resulted in a hung jury.[6] As of 2021, he is housed at the Coalinga State Hospital.[6][17][18]

References

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  1. ^ "Hydrick, James Alan". www.meganslaw.ca.gov. State of California Department of Justice. Retrieved January 8, 2023.[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ "Psychic Confession". YouTube. April 17, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  3. ^ "FindLaw's California Court of Appeal case and opinions". Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Korem, Dan (1983). Psychic Confession on YouTube (also transcript) Archived August 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Rivera, Carla (January 7, 1989). "Suspect With Many Images: Man Denies Guilt in Molestations". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c Pemberton, Patrick S. (June 6, 2013). "Jury deadlocked on whether to free purported psychic from custody". The Tribune. San Luis Obispo, CA. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  7. ^ a b c Patrick S. Pemberton (May 22, 2013). "1980s TV 'psychic' and sex offender wants to be freed from mental hospital". sanluisobispo.com. Archived from the original on July 17, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c Brian Regal (2009). Pseudoscience : a critical encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-313-35507-3.
  9. ^ Robert A. Baker; Joe Nickell (1992). Missing pieces : how to investigate ghosts, UFOs, psychics, & other mysteries. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. p. 80. ISBN 0-87975-729-9.
  10. ^ a b c d Richard Wiseman (2011). Paranormality : why we see what isn't there. London: Macmillan. pp. 81–95. ISBN 978-0-230-75298-6.
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Ted (August 19, 1989). "Man Receives 17 Years for Molesting 5 Boys". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 10, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  12. ^ James Randi (1982). The truth about Uri Geller (Rev. ed.). Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. p. 329. ISBN 0-87975-199-1.
  13. ^ Randi, James (September 22, 2006). "A Look at the Past". Swift (Newsletter). James Randi Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved November 18, 2006.
  14. ^ Korem, Dan (1983). "Psychic Confession - Part 2". Vimeo. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  15. ^ Dan Korem (1988). Powers : testing the psychic & supernatural. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press. p. 149. ISBN 0-8308-1277-6.
  16. ^ "1980s TV "psychic" and sex offender wants to be freed from mental hospital". The Tribune. San Luis Obispo, CA. Associated Press. May 22, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  17. ^ "Convicted Calif. Molester, Psychic Seeks Release". NBC Bay Area. Associated Press. June 7, 2013. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 10, 2013.
  18. ^ "Family of Coalinga State Hospital Resident Says They Weren't Told He Died—Or That He Had COVID-19". KVPR. January 8, 2021. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
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