Added: 4 years ago
From: 777Skeptic
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  • I do believe in fairies.

  • Aaaaw, C'mon. How come after all these years, they suddenly come out saying this was all fake! My grandparents (both deceased) believed in these pictures.. May God have pity on you.

  • The man is a tribute to the Atheist race.

  • Mr. Randi, you did not include the famous 5th photo--of real fairies materializing in the grass--these the girls could not have faked. I believe these elementals were attracted to the girls doing fairy cut outs--perhaps those frauds touched the fairy vanity---so they decided to show up for the 5th photo--and really shocked the girls!!

  • @windstorm1000

    The fifth photo was proved to be a double exposure.

    NEXT CONTESTANT!

  • They are real!!

  • Two fairies woke in the morning.

    One looked at the other and, smiling broadly, said "Darling, you made my whole night ... "

    The other grinned back and said " Ah, but you made my whole week".

  • UR FAKE YOUS ARE SUPID

  • I believe in fairies!

    

  • the cottingley farie hoax may not b real, but i know for a fact that they are real!! ive got photos! (and they arent fake!!) lol

  • I rather like the photo of the Gnome. He is looking at the camera too. I wish I had that Gnome cutout.. People have been wondering why Frances' hand looked so long and distorted? I think she had just moved it a bit during the 10 second hold.

  • The very first time I got the book about all this was in the 1980's. my first impression of the photos was " those aren't real Fairies they are just cutout drawings". Then I said how could people be so stupid to think any of this was real? I amazed me how people let this go for so long and never saw right of the bat they were cutouts. i know that photographing in those days was not good but it is so stupid.

  • @allexx123 I'll bet you'd tell young children that theres no santa, you meany!!!

  • Here you go again- randi pissing on everyones fun. Just let the dream LIVE randi, you killjoy buttmunch!!

  • James Randi is a Fairy

  • idk bout james randi but i thought this clip was somewhat biast and harsh becuase b4 i saw this video i checked this out  /watch?v=CN3DpHDKFMg&feature=r­elated

  • I'm still waitin fer Randi to bend rebarb with his throat, walk on glass and tear a phone book in half.

  • It would also be necessary to know the shortest exposure that is required to produce the amount of blurring of the waterfall in the picture. I do not believe or disbelieve in fairies. I simply have not seen proof of either case. Randi does not prove here that there are no fairies. In fact he does not even prove that their are no fairies in the photograph. His background is that of a magician. Magicians lie and deceive for a living.

  • So Randi knows that there are no fairies because he knows that standing fairies flutter their wings and the "fairies" in the picture are not fluttering their wings. I see at least two extremely egregious errors in logic here. An effective investigator needs to understand basic logic.  Either Randi is an idiot or he is a liar or at least an intentional deceiver. I would guess idiot. Even if he knew that fairies must always flutter their wings it would be necessary to know at what frequency.

  • @cunnidvd out of the 4 fairies in the picture at least one of them would be fluttering their wings as they appear to be flying. Also, the wings will be fluttering rather fast because of the size of the faires i assume they weigh more than a bee or a fly, which flap their wings extremely rapidly anyway. they r more bird sized, and birds have to flap their wings fast as well to overcome gravity.

  • @RelativelyHostile1 Thanks dude. I couldn't tell that one of the four is flying. I couldn't tell that these were bird size fairies and it wasn't clear to me that a fairie must weigh more than a bee. I thought that maybe they were like ghosts and didn't weigh beans or maybe they were like butterflies and didn't have to flap their wings that much especially while standing still. I am quite ignorant about fairies. I don't know at what frequency fairy wings beat relative to waterfalls streaking.

  • @cunnidvd even if they were beating their wings like butterflys that is still damn fast, so there would be blurring. also, what do u mean they r like ghosts, ghosts don't exhist. no one has ever even seen a real ghost. how can light bounce off of something that is not solid so vividly? ghosts don't exhist. what does it matter about the exact frequency of the beating wings, u can use logic that it will be fast enough to cause a blur

  • C'mon. All those photos are SOO cutout paper.

  • It's a pity that Randi lets his background as a stage conjurer get the better of him. Claiming that the first photo is "the most important of all five" is just classic misdirection, when it was the *fifth* photograph that Frances claimed (to her death) was the one they hadn't faked. OK, so the fifth photo is a (probably unintentional) double exposure which just looks more "ethereal" , but explaining that would not have been as clear-cut a debunking for Randi's TV audience, so he ignores it. Pity

  • I don't get it. Did people think those were fairies? I mean, really? I know it was before photoshop, but... they were aware of the existence of paper and scissors, weren't they? I really don't get it.

  • @grandexandi

    nahh you'd be surprised how things look different in black and white....

    those fairies looked somewhat believable back in the day considering the complete

    lack of color photos.

  • @RantNRavinFection I guess it has more to do with how unfamiliar they were with the process of photographing... Perhaps photos were so new that they still weren't able to imagine ways of playing with it, as improbable as it sounds. Still... sounds very dumb to me. I mean really. I even hope that the statement "people believed it" is just an exaggeration of a somewhat surprised and/or amazed reaction.

  • People see things like this, whilst under the influence of some substance or whilst in the grip of sleep paralysis, I've had such experiences myself.

  • @noirkitten No I'm just pissed off at self-absorbed pseudo-intellectuals who go on youtube and complain that video is not good enough for them, like seriously what the fuck are you entitled to? What do you do besides point at something and call it dumb in the hope that anonymous strangers will somehow perceive you as intelligent without actually producing anything.

  • @noirkitten And if you gotta problem with dude go fuck yourself, I have a universe of terms to pick from, you talk like your such a smart motherfucker and yet you've done nothing but bitch in your posts, how bout critically analyzing the video and making an actual set of points of problems you have tackling the subject instead of "How come the universe dosn't fucking revolve around me and the way I want things." I Guarantee you I could school you in an intellectual debate but as far as posts

  • @sexyme93 on this vid are concerned you've done nothing to add to the intellectual stimulation of the masses, you've just bitched and mocked with any real merit beyond the fact I said dude, well DUDE GO FUCK YOURSELF.

  • @noirkitten Well why dont you get off your complaining ass and do something you want to see, fuck are you a baby.

  • @noirkitten Dude, he isn't a fucking scientist thats the fucking point, he was a magician and still is and saw other people used sleight of hand and many other magician tricks being used to scam people, thats why he does it, fuck your a fucking retard.

  • @noirkitten I can't believe your so angry that someone took it upon themselves to prove people are full of shit.

  • I am not trying to be insensitive here, but ... can anyone translate the lady at the end @1:10? What I heard was:

    I, uh, touched the mouth, the got the gauze, the gauze (haha)

    and left a little gauze-ish around the waist

    and put the wings on, and then pick up the mouth

  • Wow people are dumb I guess.

  • Comment removed

  • The original photographs were not of pretty fairies dancing but something more macabre.

  • Comment removed

  • The fairy photographs here are NOT the original ones that convinced Conan Doyle they were genuine. The original ones have not been shown to the public. These obviously fakes ones were created by the authorities to calm the public outcry.

  • @flossy100 That`s weird, because the "success" of the story, relied exactly on that: on showing the photos to everyone

  • @flossy100 Are you suggesting fairies actually exist and were photographed?

    To what public outcry do you refer? Are you an idiot, or just bored and trolling?

  • @KCKatheist please see an exchange between gallery118 and myself a year ago just a few comments down.

  • @flossy100

    You have issues. The photos ARE the same ones that convinced Doyle. He showed copies of them in his book "The Coming of the Fairies" and in "The Strand" magazine in which his commentary was posted. Grab some reality please.

  • thats ridiculous they might have been just dancing and not using their wings but come on who would fool for this they look as fake as hell I know they fooled a lot of people i'm surprised Randi bothered with this one. i'm a Randi fan by the way

  • It truly is fanaticism that is destroying this World.. the Atheistic or the religious kind. The trouble with Captain Ahab was that he never thought it through. What was his purpose for living going to be after he killed his Whale ? Leave a little room in your lives for doubt ..

  • @masterblackthorn "It truly is fanaticism that is destroying this World.. the Atheistic or the religious kind."

    What would be an example of atheistic fanatacism?

  • @ Intiom: Madalyn Murray O'Hair comes to mind, though I recognize that may be contentious. Or if you're looking for a more broadly 'hypothetical' example, it's plausible that there be at least one atheist who thinks that religion is the source of all evil and therefore Christians should be banished from the country or something of the like. Whether or not one group is more fanatical than another doesn't mean that for any belief there cannot be fanaticism.

  • Fanatics typically cannot distinguish between their perosnal view, and an objective one. O'Hair may have personally wanted rid of religion, but she only campaigned for the legal stopping of all children being made to pray to the Christian god. She did not, as many allege, try to stop prayer in school.

    I take your second point, though I would say that you could be just as anti-religious, and stil believe in a god.

    I still believe that there is no causal line between non-belief and action.

  • You both make very good points.. and yes you are right he is not against imagination but irrational belief. The trouble with that is .. that the world will always be full of feeble minds all too read to believe rubbish. The Taliban being one lot.

  • and every other religion in fact, no need to target a specific one

  • I conceeded the point regarding Randi's motives... perhaps it would be better if you lot were not so fanatical in your point of view. you have no proof that the world of spirit does not underpin our lives .. just as I have no proof it does. People have a right to religious belief.. just as you have a right to deny it . Or don't you believe in freedom of thought either ?

  • masterblackthorn No, that was the problem. Many many people thought it was real. It was never something for imagination. Some people can´t separate imagination from reality

  • There is something extremely sad about this man.. his who life seems to a relentless crusade against the imagination of humanity. Of course its most likely a party trick .. with a camera.. but he misses the point completely. Einstein with his his pragmatism and analytical mind understood when he said " The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.. I is the source of all Art and Science. Just take it for what it is James a beautiful fairy story .. we already new it was a fake.

  • well its more like devoting your life to critical thinking, not imagination-lessness

  • A couple of things not mentioned here: the fairy at 0:07 drew particular suspicion for it's contemporary appearance - fashionable dress, Parisian-style hairdo etc. Also, the 9yr old Elsie was a fairly good artist and painted pictures of fairies frequently. Both of these also helped give the game away.

  • wat year is thjs?

  • So, if you are correct, then they accepted that the first four were fakes, but the fifth was real. And we should believe them even though they admitted to the fake. Yeah, right!

  • They still claimed the fifth picture was real, and said they DID see faries out the back, they just made the first one to begin with because they had told their parents about the faries and their parents didnt believe them so they took the pictures to prove it

  • Where exactly?

  • a complete skeptic reckons nothing exists that cannot be seen. got no time for them and their narrow little minds. so so arrogant and unintelligent and unevolved is men like this.

  • I have never met a skeptic that matches your description.

    Skeptics simply demand evidence for things which others might take for granted. I don't deny that there may be intelligent life on other planets. In fact it is one of my fondest wishes that we'll make first contact with one or more of those races within my lifetime. Having said that, I have seen no evidence that unambiguously and definitively proves that intelligent extraterrestrials actually exist.

    Do you see the difference?

  • @SurlyInsomniac youve never met a skeptic that never matches his description because they are very, very rare, most skeptics are merely just like religious fanatics, just the other way around. true open-mindedness is indeed very hard to come by

  • How does Randi know faerie wings flutter? Maybe they stay perfectly still

  • hahahaha good point

  • And with 10 seconds exposure time, they held their posture perfectly on their toes?

  • Randi Rules

  • those pictures are neat.

  • Oh well, since they said it then it must be truth. Their truthfulness record speaks for itself.

  • I cant judge you, but I have to add as a side note that this is the reasoning hardcore drug users use.

    Just a word of caution...

  • I don't think you are crazy! I just think you are stupid

  • TOTALLY!!

    Ignorance is bliss. Keep it up.

  • Even when I was into Theosophy & Occult studies, I knew the Cottingley Fairies were fake They had all the authenticity of a Yogi Bear/ Huckleberry Hound, Hanna & Barbera cartoon. In fact, if those English girls made cardboard cut-outs of Yogi, Magilla Gorilla, Snagglepuss & Quickdraw Magraw and had themselves photographed.

    People would say, here's irrefutable evidence of Spiritual entities in the astral plane! I can't understand how the creator of Sherlock Holmes swallowed this bullshit.

  • Too much opium!! Sir Connan was a heavy user! He loved to be high! Probably he used to see fairies too! ;-)

  • The same way you believe in Spirits and astral planes, you want to believe so you dont think about the fact there is no real evidence

  • gotta love james randi

  • Yeah we know it's fake since the wings were not blurry.

    (and also the fact that fairies don't exist)

  • That is not a reason to reject evidence. If good evidence is found of the existence of fairies, it would be nonsense to reject it on the premise that their are no fairies.

    It'd take some damn good evidence, though.

  • Yeah, you're right. Otherwise a new dicovery could ever be proven to exist.

  • fairies do exist as a matter of fact, believe it or dont

  • so does the flying spaghetti monster, believe it or not

  • ive seen the flying spaghetti monster...

  • Comment removed

  • different how?

  • You can find the photo on Google. The fairies are rather transparent... almost as if the photo was a double exposure. :P

    If you look at the fairy on the right in the fifth photo, you can see that the bottom of her dress and the mushroom she's holding seem to be bending rather like paper.

    Overall, the fifth photograph doesn't look as good as the others. The fairies don't stand out as well as they do in the other photographs.

  • One thing that's *not* different in the fifth photograph is the way the fairies look. They are consistant with the artistic style of the other fairies. (You can really see it if you compare it with the fourth photo.) Their proportions are the same and the wear the same type of clothing as the other fairies. It's difficult to believe they weren't drawn by the same artist.

    I have a hard time believing they're "real" when they look like they stepped out of the very same book as the fakes.

  • wow i hope you believe in santa claus too! cos you comment is retarded.

  • james randi is av ery scared man.

  • About what 82mozn?

  • He worded it improperly, but he's right. As proven by the waterfall, a 10 second exposure, even a fraction of that, should have had a lot of motion blur in what are clearly *dancing* fairies. Would fairies remain in such awkward dancing poses for that long simply so the girls could get a pretty photo?

  • i believe in fairies

    there are tons in san francisco and west hollywood...and i will post the pics to prove it

  • "those wings should have been fluttering"

    of course james! cos we all know exactly how a fairies wings work!??!

    not the most convincing evidence he has ever presented.

  • Well the fact that one is clearly depicted as flying/hovering, physics dictates that some upward thrust must be occurring. Not to mention that the (presumably very light and thin) fairy wings are absolutely still for about 10 seconds (very sharp edges = no movement) is rather damning. You don't have to know exactly how a fairy's wings work to know that the laws of physics are being shattered...

  • good use of simple logic. well done. but still, they are FAIRIES. my point was they are magical or paranormal. the laws of physics dont really apply!

  • Maybe fairies like those do exist, but the overwhelming evidence shows they are nothing more that rumors and hoaxes. James Randi proved his point very well :)

  • "What should be good about knowing the truth?" I rest my case.

  • maybe james randi takes pleasure in knowing he is right :)

  • If you hate James Randi that´s your choice of course. If you like to live in a make belief world again that´s your choice. But most people don´t. This story is about how people were fooled by two little girls and how blind they become to the truth. About how gullible people can be. And you are angry at the one that showed you the truth, not the at the one who fooled you.

  • Boy there are a LOT of dullards in the world. Especially that woodbinedrinker fool. Not the brightest leaf on the branch is he? WHEW!

  • they used cutouts

    why would they fool the world?(they even fooled me)

    what's the point of making it a hoax? to make them popular?

  • daymyth~~aww tOo bad huhuhu..now im confuse ahhaha

  • Oh no you just found out faeries aren't real?

    To avoid all buzzkills I would reccomend avoiding science, or else the next thing you know Thors hammer doesn't create the thunder... I mean of course it does... of course it does... I would hate to be a buzz kill

  • There is a difference between magicians and con artists. And that distinction is important.

  • takes one to know one

  • ooh fairies! pixies! Gods and Angels are real..but those? lol..

  • i want revenge. i feel robbed.

  • Aww man! Now I know those Disney movies are all just bunch of lies.

  • Just don't let anyone ruin the tooth fairy for you. There's money in those molars!

  • Quiet, everytime you say they don't exist a fairy dies.

  • People believe in religion which is just as idiotic.

  • The fairies would be good........ AT ROLLING DOOBIES.

  • FAIRY GODPARENTS!!!!

  • i really liked the movie that was based on this, there back yard or w,e what so beautiful

  • if you think them photos are real you are fucking retarded

  • people didn't have the internet back then. Hell people thought, when they released War of the Worlds on the radio for the first time, that it was an actual broadcast and not a show. We can only say they are dumb because we are better educated and have hind site. This is why we need people like Randi to expose fraudsters who would have us otherwise believe their trickery.

  • Unfortunately, the internet also disseminates frauds which in earlier times might not have spread as far. Two-edged sword I guess. I'm guessing 100 years from now, they'll still be huge numbers of people who will buy into anything. Improved educational standards and basic classes in logic would help immensely.

  • agreed.

  • You know, every time someone says "I don't believe in fairies", a fairy dies.... Oh shit! I just killed one! FUCK!

  • The comments I made earlier - along with gallery118 were that the photo's shown to the public were not the original ones.

  • yea do you remember in the movie how they swore not 2 tell thw world but i think they didnt break the promise completley i think thats the reason why they showed fake photos so they can convince peeople they are real but in the mean time not to acutally show them where they are so they dont capture them and hurt them

  • i believe those photos are fake but i dont think they lied about saying that they saw real fairies

  • ...why not?

  • News flash:Fairies don't exist.

  • They do, and they wear boots. I saw 'em, saw 'em with my own two eyes.

  • Well,good for you.I did heard that LSD is a hell of a drug.

  • Let me guess. Black Sabbath?

  • ya same here

  • When we talk about little fairies, are we talking about gay people? Let's clarify this!!!!!

    Truman Capote was a fairy, no?

    Was Truman Capote a Cottingley fairy?

    If so, he was a real fairy! Am I not correct?????

    James Randi is WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • HAHAHAHAHAHA

  • finally shutitup, if you read the exchange between gallery118 and myself, you will see that we are discussing the implications that have been made (including documents in the british library) that the fake, cut-out fairies were not the original photographs. I have found, and am still finding, information that suggest there was more to the story than we've been lead to believe.

  • No. I am a firm believer in God and I am myself a Roman Catholic. It's just nonsense to think that little fairies you hear about in fairy tales are running about us all without firm concrete proof. God for me is a belief issue which should not include science.

  • If you believe in God (as I do) then you really ought to keep your mind open as far as fairies are concerned. After all, if you believe (as I believe) in the Resurrection and the Immaculate Conception - two largely implausible events - thenbelievin in fairies is a mere walk in the park.

  • Shutitup18 - Interesting you accuse fairy- believers and the like, as speaking nonsense and yet as a roman catholic you must believe in a million superstitions including: praying to St Anthony to retrieve lost property. Kissing relics and believing them to have magical powers, worshiping Mary, whom you hail, 'Queen of Heaven' and paying money at mass for people's dead souls etc etc etc

  • Yeah, I think that fairies should be separate from science, too!

    ...and you should have to respect, not just allow, my belief in them and accept that I have the right to do whatever the fairies tell me to!

  • gallery18, thanks for that info. Do you have any other details on this as I'm interested in researching this further. I thought it odd that an intelligent man like Conan Doyle could have risked his reputation, publicly claiming the obvious cut-outs were real but this new evidence makes sense.The originals could have been fake as well but just more convincing.What do you think?

  • The 'real' photos were not taken by the girls but by a man called Gardner, an associate of Conan Doyle's whom he sent to check out the family. I have located these in a private collection - and by any standards they are quite sensational. It is easy to see why they were suppressed - there were, at the time, sensitivities about religion, evolution and so on. I'm scouting about for a publishing deal so cannot reveal tooo much more about the photos.

  • There was indeed an original set of photographs, referred to in the papers of Walter Shaw Sparrow, a correspondent of Conan Doyle's. These were suppressed by the police, since unlike the later 'faked up' photographs they were unquestionably real - and as such quite alarming. The decision to suppress them was, it seems, made by a committee comprised of senior officials in Scotland Yard and senior Church of England clergy.

  • That's fascinating! I wonder what happened to the original photographs.

  • Uh...  They didn't exist?

  • Please read my previous comment and gallery118 response.

  • It's interresting to see that people actually can belive in something without any proof or even a single indication that it might be real.

  • i.e. religion

  • Yes. That, my friend, is what is interesting. More than the magic phenomena per se, it's the fact that we're so drawn to it, that is interesting.

  • Whilst doing some research I stumbled across documents stating that the original photographs were authentic. However they were stolen so Sir Arthur Conan Doyle faked new photographs as he wanted to continue getting funding and public support for the discovery. Although they were not convincing they fooled people. The old lady made a false confession because she'd received unwelcome attention including, hate mail, all her life. As she got frailer decided to end the publicity.

  • no its a mith no one belives that is a story to put kids to sleep at night with

  • i live in cottingly

  • are their Fairies there?

  • I seriously cannot believe people think fairies are actually real. That is the stuff of bed time stories and not anything even remotely credible to look into. You're better off looking for Nessie than looking for fairies ( that obviously is an insult). Nonetheless, people have every God-given right to believe such nonsense, though the whole logic of it escapes me.

  • Nonsense.. like god?

  • I tried to trick my parents once by placing icicles upside down on a roof of a garage one winter when I was 9 and told them I found them that way. I think it was because I wanted them to pay attention to me. But as soon as they said they were going to call the newspaper and have them come take pictures of them that I confessed. I wasn't punished because they knew I was just looking for attention.

  • how do they know anyways that the wings were fluttering the fairies could have not been fluttering their wings

  • then how could the fairies balance the way they did in the picture if they didn't flutter their wings?

  • they look like they are balancing fine!

    anyways i dunno im just guessing even if they were fake

  • they already said they cut them out and placed them there XD

  • i know!!!!!:D im just sayin

    i know its fake!!!!

  • ...just because some loser with a dull life doesn't have to get out the basement and join reality.  Lets forget our facts, guys, and just agree and smile and nod so that people can spread lies and BS to children and everything else, all in the name of having a fantasy comfort blanky to cling to. That way they don't have to face the real, hard world out there.

  • no...i think believing its pefectly alright for anyone to believe any stupid shit they want. Because we dont have enough natural selection anymore and hopefully, these retards who believe it will let natural selection take its course and then we can advance some more in human development

  • don't you think it's just as "silly" to believe in something like God, something we cannot prove or virtually "see"? everything is about faith, and really imagination which advances society. without innovation or imagination, we wouldn't be where we are now.

  • I think it's everyone's business when someone believes in something this jacked up. It's these people who stand in the way of science, common sense, and real advancement for the human race. If everyone runs around with different beliefs on EVERYTHING, pretty soon the facts are going to get lost in the cluster-f*ck. That's how societies backtrack, and after all our achievments, that would be pretty sad...

  • Elementary, my dear Randi.

  • The reason people perpetuate the belief of fairies lies to the use of fairies in such popular fashion throughout culture.

    If I said there were Blue One-Legged Monkeys, no one would believe me based on the fact they couldn't see them NOR appeal to them on the majority level of cultural use.

  • Oh come on now, they're just thumbs down. It's not like anyone's fighting over somethiong this silly.

  • any1 can state their opinion and if they believe in fairies then they can. ! but in this video didnt she say they were faked photos ?? tbh i kinda believe in faires , i only kinda believe in them cus i havent actually seen one !!

  • I'm marking them down for being retards who drag the human average down.

    stop. believing. in. stupid. shit.

    Stop it. STOP BEING DUMB.

  • Why the hell does it bother you what they believe?! Seriously how freaking bossy and pushy can you get?! It's none of your damn business what they believe anyway!