There’s been a lot of talk about James Randi’s Million dollar challenge. In this challenge, Randi promises a prize of one million dollars to anyone proving his paranormal abilities. Skeptics of anything paranormal use the fact that no one got the prize that they are right and nothing paranormal exists all claiming otherwise are either misguided or frauds. I’ve written about Randi before in James Randi attacks Uri Geller again.
Some good write-ups about Randi’s prize are available from these sources:
Michael Prescott’s blog – Prescott posted a series of article’s about Randi’s challenge. You can read his posts in The challenge, part one and in The challenge, part two. In these posts Michael Prescott reviews the FAQ of the JREF Million Dollar Challenge. JREF stands for James Randi Educational Foundation. One of the things going against the challenge is that it’s hard to apply and to get to the part where you actually have to prove something. In the review of the FAQ Prescott shows various parts of the challenge that demonstrate the nature of the prize offer, where some claims are not even considered because they are being pre-decided as being false claims. Read those posts.
PsiPog’s founder Sean (aka Peebrain) wrote about his try to take and win the million dollars. Sean describes how his question about the nature of the Million dollars (offered in some kind of bonds) was left unanswered and his correspondence with the foundation was edited to remove foul language of the foundation’s representative and an email which he never wrote was posted on the forum as being written by him. This is a very interesting evidence of how hard it is to apply and how the foundation treats the applicants. Read Beware Pseudo-Skepticism.
Jaime Licauco from Inquirer – wrote about his correspondence with James Randi, where Randi answers some of his previous claims. It’s a short and interesting read. One quote:
Randi: “I have never said that Uri Geller was a ‘fake psychic.’ Geller never filed any harassment suit against me. In the one case he did file, he lost and had to pay $150,000 in sanctions.”
He may not have called Geller a fake psychic, but he certainly hounded him for years, saying what Geller was doing was plain trickery that he could duplicate anytime.
Let me quote Dr. Broughton again (from the above mentioned book “Parapsychology”): “The research on Geller’s alleged PK abilities has received severe criticism, primarily from James Randi and others with conjuring and sleight-of-hand experience. In fact, Randi has made something of a career as Geller’s debunker, having risen from relative obscurity to national prominence through books and television appearances in which he claims to expose Geller’s tricks. Randi and other critics claim that all scientists who observed Geller’s demonstrations were simply duped by conjuring tricks.”
Another interesting quote is about CSICOP, which is the organization which Randi headed sometime during his carreer:
Fate Magazine said in its September 1983 issue, “They call themselves the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. In fact, they are a group of would-be de-bunkers who bungled their major investigation, falsified the results, covered up their errors and gave the boot to a colleague (Dennis Rawlins) who threatened to tell the truth.”
Jeffrey Mishlove – Doctor of parapsychology, whom I interviewed in Interview with Jeffrey Mishlove wrote this on his blog entry Objections to ESP:
Although on the popular media scene many magicians-such as the Amazing Randi have claimed that they can duplicate parapsychological effects using magic tricks, they have consistently been unable or unwilling to do so under controlled laboratory conditions (Eisenbud 1975).
In another entry on his blog “The “Pigasus Award Ironies … he writes:
But, I believe Randi’s offer is a scam. And, I will say why I believe it to be so, in very simple terms.
First of all, there is no doubt that Randi has used his alleged offer – over a period of many years – to generate enormous publicity for himself and his cult of debunkers.
Second of all, Randi’s offer sets himself up as judge and jury. And, of course, he has not the slightest interest in losing the very game that he has created. A true prize would have an independent panel of neutral judges – and these judges, not Randi, should be in control of prize money, to determine if and when it shall be released.
So while James Randi and his cult go around accusing the general public of falling for a wide variety of psychic scams, they themselves are engaged in perpetrating a scam of an equal and opposite sort. The final irony is that they are the very near a mirror image of the phonies they try to expose.
As long as they set about exposing the true frauds and schemes in the psychic world, they do the world a service. And, I applaud Randi and his ilk for that. But, in their fanatical zeal, they sometimes endeavor to put a stop to legitimate scientific and academic inquiry. (I know this, first hand, as they attempted to interfere with my own doctoral degree program in parapsychology at the University of California, Berkeley.) When they go this far, as they did with Brenda Dunne, they simply reveal the philosophical and moral emptiness of their position.
What are your thoughts on the Randi Million Dollars Challenge?
There are more videos like these on such topics on YouTube, but these are my favorites. Now what has been proved again.
Also check out this page:
We all emit EM energy, which is believed to be also more metaphysical and “higher” before manifesting in the physical. Metaphysical like emotional, mental, spiritual (holistic), energy or force.
Skeptics who are famous try to keep this research hidden, because they have no explaination for it.
“they can bend a spoon with their mind only (i.e. without touching it at all).” yes, they can, and it was proven by
scientists 🙂 Most of you dont’t know nothing about PK tests done years ago.
persoanlly i wish I could achieve the Darth Vader telekinetic choke grip on James Randi. And then laugh at his reaction.
You’re an idiot, you know that. The test is rigged and he puts up bonds that probably don’t have monetary value as a prize.
He’s actually denied multiple people because they have an ability that at first glance has no problems other than being too long of an experiment. Such as the man who can survive off of sunlight and water.
You tell them to grow up, I tell you to stop being a hypocrite. You probably have the brain of a 5 year old and is scared of change.
why are you people so damn primitive?
whats the point of prooving the world that paranormal abilities exists? dont you know what happened when humans recieved guns from scientist? + money cannot buy the persons will to do it ,people with paranormal abilities dont really need the money because they cannot take it with them when they leave this world.
On top of that , did you really think about what will happen to the person who actually prooved it?
nothing good , he or she will just become a Rat to the scientific experiments. No wonder they put up 1 million just for that.
seriously its the same thing as sending someone to a death sentence.
ahaha Ken Human evolution?
You mean useless wars which we deal today ? before mentioning the word evolution make sure you learn whats going on in our planet ,and seriously dont talk about evolution because we aint advancing at all, the only thing we do advance in is technology…………………..
Why are people so primitive? That is a good question. Most people will not evolve because of belief systems, they know the “TRUTH”. Their communication style is one of talking at people, not a back and forth style, where the questions asked are the the ones answered.
It’s like asking a politician a question.
When I see or hear someone using evasive tactics when asked about their abilities or beliefs, (and not back up what they are saying) then I believe they are either naive or spouting BS. On this site, it appears proof is never repeatable or current.
The people who believe, will most likely not stop believing, the skeptical will most likely stay skeptical. What I’m hoping to highlight is for the people in the middle, (not knowing what to believe) is that wishful thinking doesn’t make things so. Have faith in God if you want, but be somewhat critical of people who apparently cannot backup ANY claims beyond normal human abilities or probabilities.
Most people aren’t aware of their own blindspots. I think the Johari window models this pretty well. I am amazed at the answers people give about something they believe they know. Things are so because I say so.
For example, ask someone to explain the phases of the moon. Roughly more than half of the people I’ve asked will explain that the phases of the moon are the effect of earth’s shadow on the moon. Most of the people I’ve asked have a least 2 years of college. Most people never question their beliefs. Their beliefs were for the most part inherited thru family, media and cultural experiences.
Ask people what percent of our total atmosphere is made up of CO2. Most people I’ve asked who are very passionate about the environment give me answers that they think it’s between 5 to 80% of our atmosheric gasses. When I tell them that the total amount of CO2 in our environment is estimated to be between 0.03 – 0.06% they do not believe me. But of course they haven’t read anything about it, they just know it has to be higher than that.
Some of the books I’ve read about human evolution state that basically evolution occurs after the existing system (including values and belief systems) fail. Change does not occur in a comfort zone. Why would change occur or people evolve when life is working for them.
Magicians have been in business for hundreds of years, not because they are magical, but because they learned how to deceive the audience. They will charge you a fee to watch the show, but no one gets hurt. They are honest about their tricking the audience. Deceiving people and giving false hopes is not enlightenment.
In order for evolution to begin to occur, belief systems will have to be challenged.
If someone has the talent to bend a spoon, is it possible they could disable a suicide bombers device and save lives?
There appears to be many, many people who claim they have a gift. If that were so, collectivly they could change the world. What are they waiting for?
By the way, I’m aware that I appear to be contradicting myself. How can psi effects be mostly unconscious and yet be shown in thousands of quality lab experiments?
The answer is that many studies have either a) Studied unconscious anomalous effects such as nervous system response, b) Put study subjects in altered states of awareness, or c) Shown effects that were small but statistically very significant, just not as dramatic as the spoon-bending or card reading tricks we’ve been conditioned to expect by a hundred bad TV shows and movies.
Re: http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?s=9bd78a9fe60576582e1239c3795d21b4&t=71335&page=17
The Overseer (Anthony Hogg) is having something of a hard time on the pro-Farrant James Randi Educational Foundation Forum.
They have accused him of being Bishop Manchester. They accuse everyone of being Bishop Manchester who challenges Farrant.
But what is an atheistic forum for hardened sceptics doing supporting David Farrant at all? Agendas … agendas … agendas!
More about Farrant can be gleaned from this recent newspaper report:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006500393,00.html
Two facts (I’m new to this site, so pardon me if I’m being a touch too polite or respectful):
1) Thousands of rigorous, replicated scientific experiments (not to mention millions of anecdotal stories that are, alas, regarded as scientifically useless) have left little doubt that abilities such as remote viewing, ESP and PK are indeed genuine, though there is as yet no cogent theory as to how they could work. Contrary to what many skeptics have stated, the majority of these experiments conform to exceptionally strict standards for experimental design.
2) A large body of experimentation also strongly suggests that for 99% of people, these abilities are largely unconscious in nature, that is, precognitive flashes just “appear” without volition, rather than someone being able to say, “OK, I’m going to find out what number’s going to come up on the roulette wheel.” For the vast majority of human beings, anomalous cognition seems to be beyond deliberate control. It just happens.
So the Randi Challenge would appear to be a rigged game in that sense. We have phenomena that are genuine but are difficult to replicate on demand—and frequently scare the living daylights out of those who experience them. What remains are the deluded, the tricksters and the New Age credulous.
For those of you who are truly curious about such phenomena, a wonderful point of view from a skeptic-turned-seeker can be found in the book “Extraordinary Knowing” by Dr. Elizabeth Mayer.
oh by the way, what is this little magic spoonbending trick that all skeptics claim disproves psionics
There are a number of methods of these tricks. I’ve spent the past month learning them, and have destroyed quite a few spoons (and some keys) in the process. Learning this is instructive, and has allowed me to catch a number of “cheaters” (for a lack of a less pejorative term) on Youtube. Simple stuff, yet powerful when…well, I’ll let Martin Gardner explain. I suggest you get his book “Science, Good, Bad, and Bogus.”
To summarize, this “little trick” makes objects appear to bend be rubbing them. Also, you can turn a spoon in loops using the normal force of your arms, which is critical to Rohde’s video.