1.2 Million Dollars if you can Show Evidence of any Paranormal, Supernatural, or Occult Power or Eve

So, I stumbled onto this. There is a challenge that has been running for 40+ years. If you can show evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event in a scientific setting you will be given 1.2 million dollars. To date, they've had 1,010 applicants, none of which have passed a preliminary test.

So, if you are interested, or know anything about this (or have applied) let the board know. Here is the link if you want to apply:

www.randi.org... /content/article/37-static/254-jref-challenge-faq.html

Dude, what rock have you been living under. First of all there are tons of threads on this topic, as a search for amazing randi or million dollar challenge would show, second of all, that contest is no longer valid, and lastly there were so many shinnanigans with his preliminary tests that they were far from unbiased.

You gotta do a little research and work harder than that before you start a thread on ATS.

reply to post by Ryanp5555

In a scientific setting? Screw that. If only I could just take them to a reportedly "haunted" place up the road from my house... Creepy stuff happens every single time I go there.

seems like a trick to me. how do we know this man is not trying to take these supernatural powers from people in order to RULE THE WORLD MUahahahahaha!

reply to post by Ryanp5555


It's somewhat pointless cause there's already plenty of ghost photos and videos out there, but nobody believes them. So why bother making more for these guys?

Yes some are fake, but we can't know if all of them are. Not saying ghosts are real or not, but the point is, if they are real then some of those photos and video are probably legit. The problem is, we have no way of knowing if some are legit or not, so what good are they? Even if only one ghost photo is legit, then that means ghosts must exist, or the photo wouldn't. But we just don't know for sure.

It's not like you can catch a ghost or make one show up on camera at will. We don't know how to do that yet. So, the only evidence, same with UFOs, is photos and videos. And there's no way to prove what's on the video or photo hasn't been faked. So basically we're screwed.

It's like offering to pay someone 1.2 million dollars to build an artificially intelligent terminator. All the money in the world doesn't matter, because no one knows how to build an AI terminator yet. So, no matter how possible it may be in the future, our inability to do it today doesn't prove anything.

Same thing with ghosts and paranormal, It may be real and it may not, but they know full well we haven't advanced enough technology wise to know one way or the other. So they offer some BS challenge.

It works for anyone claiming to have proof NOW cause some crazies do that. Claim they're psychic or can talk to ghosts or claim they have proof or whatever. It's a great way to prove that the crazies are crazy, but we already knew that the crazy people were crazy. I'm crazy and I know I'm crazy. I don't need a 1.2 million dollar challenge to know that. So, that doesn't really help either.

But in the grand scheme of things it still doesn't answer the question if anything paranormal exists or not in the long run. It's just a bunch of jerks offering imaginary money because they know they'll never have to pay it out. They're doing almost nothing for society with this.

Hopefully one day we can figure out what all this paranormal stuff is about though.

Yes, Randi is a fraud. If you look into his "contest", you'll find that he only accepts pre-screened contestants. That means, he has to personally make sure they "fit the bill" before allowing them to even compete. Needless to say, he's come across and turned down hundreds of people who did not "fit the bill". I wonder why?

reply to post by Son of Will



I read that he only accepts people of some sort of notoriety (i.e. article in paper published about him). I did not know he was a "fraud." Then again, I'm not sure being selective equates to being a fraud. I find it interesting that over the last 20 yearsish he's only brought on 360 people.

This is probably a lot like Dr. Dino's "proof of evolution" challenge. I mean, they most likely set it up to where it's pretty much impossible to win.

And even if its not, the investigation into "paranormal" activity with scientific instruments and the like is still pretty young and done by amateurs. It's hardly surprising that they can find nobody whose investigations and claims can stand up to rigorous scientific standards.

Originally posted by Ryanp5555
reply to post by Son of Will

 

I read that he only accepts people of some sort of notoriety (i.e. article in paper published about him). I did not know he was a "fraud." Then again, I'm not sure being selective equates to being a fraud. I find it interesting that over the last 20 yearsish he's only brought on 360 people.

I don't think he's a fraud, but you're right about people with some sort of notoriety, so yes, he intended to be somewhat selective and didn't necessarily intend to test 30 million people. For one thing, his rules do something like narrow down the probability of a feat happening by chance alone to something like 1 in a million (though I don't recall the exact figure, but it's something like that). For example, if you flip a coin 20 times and get all heads, that's roughly a one in a million occurrence. But if you flip a coin 20 times and do that a million times, and one of those times you get all heads, that doesn't mean you had a special ability, that will happen just by random chance.

So if he tested 30 million people on feats that had a 1 in a million chance of happening by random chance alone, 30 people would win the million dollars even though they had no paranormal abilities at all. So if he tested large numbers of people, he'd probably have to make the requirements even more stringent, but some people claim he's a fraud because the requirements are so stringent already, but they just don't understand the statistics involved.

Now my ability is, I can make these vanes spin around, but only with the lights on, does that count?
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6116ce879ca3.gif[/atsimg]
I guess turning the lights off breaks my concentration or something...

I was confused because I heard he was stopping the challenge in 2010, then he wasn't stopping it....

en.wikipedia.org...

On January 4, 2008 it was announced that the prize would be discontinued on March 6, 2010 in order to free the money for other uses. In the meantime, claimants were welcome to vie for it. One of the reasons offered for its discontinuation is the unwillingness of higher-profile claimants to apply.[25] However, at The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, it was announced that the $1 Million Challenge prize would not expire in 2010. This was also confirmed in the July/August issue of Skeptical Inquirer, in which Randi is additionally quoted as saying: "It was going to terminate... but now it will continue."

False alarm?

In topic title it also says eve along with occult power, what is eve?

Originally posted by Headcrusher23
In topic title it also says eve along with occult power, what is eve?

I assume if you can make a woman from one of your ribs like Eve was made from Adam's rib, you'd also get the prize.

But my guess is the title was cut off and the word is probably "event". There's some kind of limit on title length.

reply to post by Son of Will

If you look into his "contest", you'll find that he only accepts pre-screened contestants.

I agree otherwise someone could come forward with some cutting edge quantum exhibition that would blow Randi's socks off!

Also who gets to judge Randi's debunking explanation? His style reminds me a little of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. There are people out there that will jump on almost any reasonable explanation that is proposed.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Ahhh, thank you, and i would think they meant the latter, but whatever.

I heard about this contest a while ago, but it seemed like the host person was biased.

Originally posted by Headcrusher23
I heard about this contest a while ago, but it seemed like the host person was biased.

Of course he's biased, he's offering a million dollars to put his money where his biased mouth is.

But just because he's biased, doesn't mean he can't be proven wrong. If someone really had a demonstrable paranormal ability and could demonstrate it, he'd have to pay up.

But all you hear from the paranormal people are a million excuses, things like their abilities don't work under the pressure of a "contest", and other excuses like that.

It appears Randi is an INTJ, worships Isaac Asimov and has tested as high as 168 on IQ tests.
Going to be a little tough to get a jury together that could observe a contest objectively and award the prize..

Originally posted by Bordon81
Going to be a little tough to get a jury together that could observe a contest objectively and award the prize..

Since nobody has ever passed the preliminary testing, that hasn't been an issue.

Originally posted by The Cusp
second of all, that contest is no longer valid, and lastly there were so many shinnanigans with his preliminary tests that they were far from unbiased.

Just curious could you please provide details on this? Why is it no longer valid and what kind of shinnanigans, specifically, are there?

Originally posted by Son of Will
Yes, Randi is a fraud. If you look into his "contest", you'll find that he only accepts pre-screened contestants. That means, he has to personally make sure they "fit the bill" before allowing them to even compete. Needless to say, he's come across and turned down hundreds of people who did not "fit the bill". I wonder why?

Where does it say he only accepts pre-screend clients and what are the conditions? Could you provide a web link?

Do you have any specific examples of people he has turned down that can be researched online?

I always took Randi as a debunker with an agenda and had my suspicions about his test. But, as I understand it, a lot of big names in the business like John Edwards, Sylvia Browne, etc all refused to take part in his test.

Originally posted by EthanT
Where does it say he only accepts pre-screend clients and what are the conditions? Could you provide a web link?

The Cusp can clarify if he meant something else, the first level of screening is that you have to be able to get a newspaper or some kind of media to do a feature on your ability, which, if you really have one, shouldn't be too hard to do:

JREF Challenge FAQ

Issue 2: I’ve never been featured in a news story.

Response: Newspapers and news stations love human interest stories. Contact one and ask that they run your story. If you can really perform what you claim, that should be no problem!

Issue 3: You didn’t used to have this rule. Why do you have it now?

Response: The JREF has spent valuable time and resources investigating claims that were submitted by people who were obviously suffering from a mental ailment. These people need medical help, not encouragement. By requiring media presence, the JREF ensures that only those people who make an impact on society will be tested, and the individuals who are mentally ill receive no encouragement to continue their delusions

So getting featured in a news story is intended to help filter out cases of people who are delusional, which if you search youtube you can probably find examples of people who seem to be delusional because they demonstrate so-called "abilities" which apparently exist only in their mind because the videos don't show any paranormal abilities to me. If people want to fault them for not wanting to waste a lot of time on delusional cases, I can't understand why unless those people are also delusional.

Once you get our ability written up in a feature article in the local newspaper, or shown on a local broadcast in the special interest segment of the news, you submit your application and then take a preliminary test:

1.3 How many people have applied for the Challenge?

Between 1964 and 1982, Randi declared that over 650 people had applied. Between 1997 and February 15, 2005, there had been a total of 360 official, notarized applications. Applications continue to pour in!

1.4 Has anyone ever gotten past the preliminary test?

No. Some people use this fact as a reason not to apply – and yet the protocol is never altered once the applicant agrees to it. In fact, we ask the applicant to design the test.

1.5 Has anyone taken the formal test?

No. Applicants must pass the preliminary test in order to move on to a formal test. So far, no one has ever performed the paranormal ability they claimed to have.

I always took Randi as a debunker with an agenda and had my suspicions about his test. But, as I understand it, a lot of big names in the business like John Edwards, Sylvia Browne, etc all refused to take part in his test.

He might find it exciting to give away the money. It's already set aside in a special account, so it's not like it will come out of his pocket.

(2) Has there ever been a time when you thought, "This is the one that will take the prize?"

No. I wish there were some really challenging offers or claims, just to add some excitement to my job, but it's pretty well the same old material, endlessly repeated....

(4) Why does it appear that you only test persons with very minor and even frivolous claims, and not the prominent "psychic" performers and/or scientists who appear on television and in the media, and who write books about their careers?

We can only test persons who either apply to become claimants for the million-dollar prize, or who will actually submit themselves to undergoing proper test procedures. The "stars" never do this, and in fact they do anything they can to avoid us and our challenge; they would rather just run on about past glories, point to anecdotal evidence, or grandly ignore our genuine offer to test them. The people who do apply are probably honestly convinced of their abilities, and have no fear of discovery. Where are James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne, George Anderson, John Edward, and the rest of the current "big names"? And why hasn't Uri Geller, the professional spoon-bender (remember him from the 70s?) snapped up this easy cash? One can only wonder.

We at JREF must offer to test any and every applicant, because we cannot be the judges of whether a claim is likely to be valid.

They give an example of an applicant they just couldn't and wouldn't test because he claimed to put some kind of a spirit inside a stone, and they couldn't come to any kind of agreement on how to even test for that.

But if there are any examples of people who supposedly have real abilities, (other than putting spirits into stones ), who have been rejected or screened out, then I'd like to read more about those too.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yeah, i was hoping someone would enter and win just to shut him up, but, of course, no one won because everyone was a fake at the contest.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Thanks Arbitrageur!! Good information.

I guess unless there is more to this, it doesn't sound quite that bad. Don't really see a whole lot of the "shinanigans" mentioned.

Still, one thing I would like to know is how "hard" is the test?

I only ask because many "debunkers" seem to operate under the idea that psychic ability is NOT a learned ability, like any other human talent. I often hear statements like "if we could tell the future, we'd already be able to do it", or "if you're psychic you should be able to get things right 100% of the time".

Why wouldn't psychic ability be like every other human ability: practically non-existent in most, crappy in many, good in some, and exceptional in only a few.

If you check out the latest experiment on psychic ability by Daryl Bem, it seems to suggest just that. Psychic ability is innate in ALL of us, but hardly there:

www.dbem.ws...

So, do you have to be the Michael Jordan of psychics to pass Randi's test?