Have you ever witnessed a "paranormal" phenomenon that could win a Randi Prize?

[Kirkrapine]

Have you ever witnessed a "paranormal" phenomenon that could win a Randi Prize?

There's a million dollars in it, or could be in the future. Got your attention?

I've noticed there are a lot of Litsters who appear to believe in ghosts and psychic powers and magic and such. (There are also many who believe in God and angels and devils -- but somehow I don't think that's exactly the same thing, though I can't put my finger on the difference.)

James Randi is a stage magician who has devoted a lot of his life to successfully debunking claims of the paranormal; like Houdini, who did the same to Spiritualists (in whom he actually wanted to believe, so he could contact his dead mother), as a magician Randi knows all the tricks of deception, both intentional and self-deception.

Million-dollar challenge

“”Paranormal phenomena have a habit of going away whenever they are tested under rigorous conditions. This is why the $1,000,000 reward of James Randi, offered to anyone who can demonstrate a paranormal effect under proper scientific controls, is safe.
—Richard Dawkins[1]

The million-dollar challenge is a prize offered by the James Randi foundation to anyone "who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event."[9]

Unsurprisingly, it has yet to be won though there have been a vast number of attempts.[10]

When challenged in 2011 Sally Morgan did not even attempt the challenge.[11]

After Randi's retirement in 2015, the JREF board decided to temporarily discontinue the challenge, pending a revision of the preliminary testing protocol. They expected to have the protocols ready in early 2016, but as of August 2016, the challenge is still on ice. In the meantime, the challenge remains open for any established psychics.[12]

Sylvia Browne's attempt
See the main article on this topic: Sylvia Browne

The James Randi Foundation offer of $1,000,000 prize to anyone who could prove any supernatural power has attracted many amateurs. However, Sylvia Browne is the only widely known psychic who has offered to take up the challenge.[13] Sylvia was a popular television psychic (who was made famous when she began to appear as a frequent guest on The Montel Williams show) who claimed that she could communicate with the dead. On March 6, 2001, she agreed to take up the challenge.

On the Larry King Live show, Browne stated that she would take up Randi's challenge (that was on September 3, 2001.[14] To her dying day she did not take the challenge. Sylvia's first excuse was because she did not know how to contact Randi. That is comical: a professional psychic who speaks to dead people cannot figure out how to reach Randi. Her following excuse was that she did not want to take the challenge because Randi is a godless individual—all the more reason to take the challenge, Sylvia. If the supernatural could be proven and demonstrated, and the $1,000,000 were claimed, it would be a tremendous blow to Randi and the skeptical and atheist community, and a tremendous boost to her career as a psychic. Sylvia Browne was special because she was the only professional psychic to accept Randi's challenge, though she later backed off.

 

[TwinkleStars]

James Randi stopped that challenge in 2015.

 

[Kirkrapine]

James Randi stopped that challenge in 2015.

I know, that's why I said "or could be in the future," but it's still worthy of discussion in the terms herein framed.

 

[Kirkrapine]

Nobody?

 

[IG_88]

And the sailors say Randi you're a fine girl
What a good wife you would be