Will anyone ever win Randi's Million Dollar Challenge?

Question

Hurry up psychics, spoon benders, dowsers and aura readers, the Million Dollar Challenge will soon be coming to an end!

http://www.randi.org/joom/content/view/144/1/#i4

The Challenge will expire March 6, 2010, so hurry up and grab that cash.

Answer 1

You know, I just read an answer in R&S that claimed that Noah's Arc has been found.

Contrary to what believers believe, scientist would welcome proof of things previously considered supernatural.

You think the names of Newton and Einstein are big?  They will be NOTHING compared to the guy that can show that telepathy or ghosts exist.  It would be the biggest find ever.  Bigger than first contact with aliens.  It would be the confirmation of the heartfelt beliefs of 98% of the world.

Yet, even though everyone believes in magic and looks for it, they can't find it.

Randi's $ is safer than Fort Knox.

Answer 2

I was going over Discover magazine top 100 science events of last year. Nope, not a thing from the paranormal community. Again. They must be disappointed such powers, that are routine to them, are being ignored.

Not too surprised that Randi is pulling the plug on the challenge. The point is taken.

Answer 3

No one is going to win the money, but I'll guarantee that as soon as the offer ends we'll be barraged by folks who'll claim that they could have passed the test if only they'd heard about it before the deadline.

You can also bet that the news media won't go with this story until March 5, 2010.

Answer 4

I don't think the prize will be claimed.  Many people have tried over the years, and not one has met the standards (which are not unreasonable).

Answer 5

Here is the challenge to skeptics to prove there is no afterlife.

$1 Million Challenge

Preface and Conditions

Preface

One million dollars is offered to any skeptic who can rebut the evidence for the existence of the afterlife.

The afterlife is not just a speculative claim like there may be unicorns or there may be green cheese on the other side of the moon. There have been top scientists, genuine mediums, and thousands of others including empirical investigators like myself, who experienced psi and afterlife communication.(See Chapter 2 of my book on the Net)

It is claimed that there is now a substantial body of evidence which supports the existence of the afterlife and which taken as a whole cannot be satisfactorily accounted for except by the existence of the afterlife.

I have had complaints from genuine psychics and those who support the validity of psychic phenomena that those who reject the existence of the afterlife have never really examined the evidence.

Psychics claim they experienced a great deal of frustration when they tried to apply for a highly publicised skeptics' one million dollar challenge. It was put to me that the skeptics' offer is not genuine. Also, it was suggested that the psychics ought to put up a similar challenge reflecting the skeptics' own conditions for the stated prize.

WHERE IS THE FUNDING? Naturally, the effort has to be commensurate with the very high cash reward. Legal documentation that there is one million dollars available will be shown to all bone fides applicants and to any objective recognized authority.

Because of the very high cash offer, the applicant has to rebut the substantive objective evidence presented in Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife (http://www.victorzammit.com/book/ 4th version) (see chapters 3 to 25) which includes: Materialization, Electronic Voice Phenomena, Instrumental Transcommunication, the Scole Experiments, Professor Gary Schwartz' Experiments, Mediumship - Mental, Physical and Direct Voice, Xenoglossy, the Cross-Correspondences, Proxy Sittings, Automatic Etheric Writing, Laboratory Experiments, Poltergeists, Apparitions together with the evidence provided by Near Death Experiences and Out of Body Experiences which psychics claim are supportive of and are directly linked with the afterlife.

Further, the applicant has to rebut the technical afterlife evidence presented by the following: Arthur Findlay's On the Edge of the Etheric, Sir William Crookes' On Human Personality and Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism; Sir Oliver Lodge's Raymond and Geraldine Cummins' Swan on a Black Sea and the evidence provided by the Inner Peace Movement.

Here is the challenge for those skeptics who have been continuously campaigning in the media that there is no afterlife: those closed-minded skeptics who have been crusading around the world denigrating, destroying and demeaning the credibility of gifted psychics, trying to dismiss the positive evidence being produced for the afterlife; those skeptics who have been cruelly twisting and manipulating psychic truth to reduce its effect; those who unconscionably have tried to destroy the reputations of some of the greatest and most brilliant 'classical' scientists and psychic writers who ever walked this planet earth like Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Barrett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Findlay and so many others!

I concede that the skeptics' offer has been used very successfully and has provided huge propaganda against psychics. It has misled journalists, radio and TV interviewers. It has been a powerful tool for the dissemination of global darkness. The media's pet rent-a-skeptic vociferates on behalf of some 2% of the population who are closed minded skeptics yet these skeptics have been given exaggerated time and space in the media.

Although there is sponsorship for the offer, I am fully and solely responsible for the said offer.

Given the circumstances it is only reasonable, fair and equitable to match and to mirror as far as possible the skeptics' fundamental conditions one by one as the skeptics have had them on the Internet for a number of years now. It is reiterated that these conditions are based on the skeptics' own conditions.

NOTE CAREFULLY: The applicant is not required to 'prove the negative' as skeptical debunkers try to deliberately mislead readers: the evidence is positively expressly stated (as outlined in the subject book A LAWYER PRESENTS THE CASE FOR THE AFTERLIFE). Then the onus is on the applicant to demonstrate WHERE, WHEN, WHY, and HOW the expressly stated evidence is not valid.

Conditions

'The challenge' refers to the offer of one million American dollars. The 'offeror' refers to Victor Zammit who is making the challenge. 'The Committee' refers to a group of people expert in afterlife evidence. The 'afterlife evidence' refers to the evidence mentioned above in the Preface. 'Applicant' refers to a person applying to meet 'the challenge.' Stage One refers to the first stage of the challenge where the applicant explains in clear terms how the applicant is intending to rebut the evidence. Stage Two, is the stage where the applicant (as in the skeptics' offer) becomes the claimant and clearly explains in the English language in academically acceptable format his rebuttal of the evidence.

1. Stage One- Initial submission.

Because there have been applicants who wasted a great deal of our precious time and money who had not examined the evidence in detail, it has become essential and a pre-requisite that prior to any actual submission of any rebuttals of the evidence in Stage Two of the Challenge, a potential applicant must initially submit to the offeror a detailed exposition of how the applicant is going to rebut the evidence outlined in the above Preface.Further, see 2 below.

2. The offeror and the applicant will agree that the applicant has demonstrated the technical skills to rebut the evidence. This is a fundamental and most important condition.

3. In relation to 2 above the decision of the offeror or his appointed representative will be absolute, irrevocable and final.

4. The applicant agrees that all data of any sort gathered as a result of the application may be used freely by the offeror or the Committee in any way they choose.

5) The 'Committee' shall comprise experienced adjudicators qualified empirically in litigation and empiricism and will be appointed jointly by the offeror and the applicant.

6. Stage Two- Rebutting the evidence

Once agreement on condition 2 above has been reached the claimant will submit his/her rebuttals to be placed before the Committee.

7. The applicant and the offeror accept that the decision of the Committee in relation to the submissions will be absolute, irrevocable and final.

8. The applicant agrees that the level of proof required to rebut the evidence will be the Cartesian test, "beyond any doubt". This means that there has to be absolutely no doubt at all in the minds of the Committee that the 'evidence' has been rebutted.

9. All correspondence in this challenge must be communicated in the English language and sent to: The Challenge, P.O. Box 1810 Dee Why, Northern Beaches, NSW Australia 2099 by registered mail.

10. All costs incurred by the applicant in relation to this challenge will be borne by the applicant.

11. Whilst this rule is independent to and separate from the awarding of the above stated prize, the applicant agrees not to take legal action against the committee, the challenger or his reprentatives in relation to anything outside the actual challenge - the applicant is unreservedly and unqualifiedly responsible for the applicant's own risks - physical, emotional, psychological howsoever caused.

12. The applicant agrees that in context of this challenge the applicant is not a commercial consumer.

13. Upon successfully proceeding to Stage Two the claimant will be given all other relevant details.

14. Before the applicant makes a first submission (see paragraph 1 above) he/she must submit a document properly witnessed by a litigation lawyer that the litigation lawyer has explained to the applicant the preface and the conditions and that these have been understood and accepted by the applicant. This submission is to be forwarded to THE CHALLENGE, PO Box 1810, Dee Why, Northern Beaches, NSW AUSTRALIA 2099 by registered mail. Staff check mailbox and vet all mail every day.

Because some applicants have wasted precious time, money and energy, three fundamental conditions have been added:

15. Because the afterlife evidence is highly technical, first, the applicant must exhibit understanding of iScientific Method; secondly, of the admissibility of evidence - inter alia the differences between objective, subjective and anecdotal evidence and thirdly, the applicant must have been identified in recognized public news-media that the applicant is a genuine, bona fides investigator of the afterlife.

16. Notwithstanding anything hereinbefore stated, the offeror personally guarantees that payment of one million dollars will be made on results as determined by the jointly appointed committee.

Answer 6

What Randi did was set up a quest to climb the everest of paranormal proof, eventually even everest was conquered and has been repeatedly climed since.

I think he should be applauded for exposing fakers, anyone who can fool people out of their money with mere parlor tricks should be ashamed and exposed.

No one would want to be the winner of "that" prize, could you imagine if the worlds leading authority (James Randi) declared someone had actually proved the paranormal? That person would be instantly attacked by every living person on this planet.

If I were that capable person enough, I would tell Randi to keep his money and shove it, then prove over and over again something even he couldn't explain - just to make my point.

Answer 7

YES...er, that is, if someone actually has psychic powers.

I've very familiar with this testing, having reviewed many experimental protocols put together for various entrants. Randi himself is not actually involved in designing the testing protocol, but relies on associated scientists to do that. It seems they have been willing to bend over backwards to work with the entrants, and their statistical designs do not rely on a 100% success rate as many critics like to charge. Yet, there have been no winners. In fact, no one has even survived the preliminary testing stage. Kinda says something.

It would be absolutely HUGE if a psychic did win this, wouldn't it?  Of course this would be only one experiment and would require duplication by independent researchers before it could be considered a scientific data point, but still, think of the repercussions.

EDIT: LOL, Peter that Wired link is great.

Answer 8

I hope so, but I doubt it.While it wouldn't prove anything.I'd like to see someone after all this time,finally put up.It's a certainty they'll never shut up.

Edit.Here's an example of Randi exposing Faith Healer/psychic Popoff.He wouldn't take the test so they went to him.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7BQKu0YP...

Answer 9

I had no idea it was ending.  No, I suspect if there were any actual psychic powers, somebody would have claimed the prize. Obviously psychic powers are completely bogus, and I can think of a million reasons why.

Answer 10

Isn't this kind of like challenging a group of machinists to prove a transistor exists by building one in their machine shop?

Well maybe that's not the best objection, but how about this?

We all know that light has a dual nature, IE it can be thought of as a particle or as a wave but no one has captured the transition from one of its manifestations to the other.  Since we cannot directly prove this transition exists by seeing it we still accept that it is a reality.  So there Randi!! take that!!

If you want to study science or understand what has been put forth so far, you best study the fine art of conjuration.  Also read Lee Smolin's book, The Trouble With Physics.

Answer 11

He is a magician. Do you think he would make a proposition that he didn't think was vague enough to never to have to pay off?

Oh, if you did read Psiexplorers answer. You would just end up scratching your head and wondering if it actually meant anything to anyone but Psi. So I won't waste the keystrokes.

Answer 12

No, no one will ever change Randi's beliefs about the paranormal. I will offer a $100 to anyone that converts him to the Nation of Islam because that is a comparable task.

Thank God (and science) that this pseudoscience test is being removed and won't be discussed further by the public. It is already only discussed with disgust, laughter, and dismissal in the scientific community of parapsychologist and skeptics alike. Well known skeptic Ray Hyman has commented:

"but as a leading Fellow of CSICOP, Ray Hyman, has pointed out, this "prize" cannot be taken seriously from a scientific point of view: "Scientists don't settle issues with a single test, so even if someone does win a big cash prize in a demonstration, this isn't going to convince anyone. Proof in science happens through replication, not through single experiments." (link below)

So don't worry scientist (including parapsychologist) Randi will now have more time (and money) to take some basic science classes so he can comprehend the data in growing piles of supporting evidence. He might even be able to conduct actual research with his extra money instead of continuing his career in preaching his faith against established (but unexplained) phenomena.

Edit: No it has not. People that have taken it and failed believe it to be unfair or bias and not a single person has come forward and said "wow I thought I had these abilities but after this test I guess I really don't" and many people that make there living on psychic ability like Sylvia Brown continue to do so without taking the challenge.

It has not shut up anyone that thinks they have abilities (if they do or not) and not a single commercial psychic has been "exposed" in failing a test. It has accomplished publicity for Randi and confused science with bad showmanship but nothing more.

Oh there was nothing unpredictable in your faith based answer or baiting question either.

Answer 13

I don't believe anyone will win it.  The only people allowed to take the challenge are those who claim some clearly supernatural power.  Such supernatural powers do not exist. So....

Nteligent, you've never really read the challenge have you?  It has been painstakingly constructed so that no test will ever be performed unless the claimant is entirely satisfied with the conditions and the criteria for success.  They have to sign a statement saying they will not later challenge those conditions as a means of weaseling out of their failure.  If someone who has ever taken the challenge says it was unfair or loaded or rigged or whatever, the person, by the terms of the challenge, has violated his end of the bargain.  Randi absolutely will NOT allow anyone to take the challenge until both he and the claimant are satisfied with all of the conditions.  

Nice strawman, psi.  Randi never claimed that his challenge results would dictate scientific truth.  Although it should be noted that his tests will most likely be as good as any scientist could perform.  In fact, they will definitely be better than some.