Less than a week before I’m due to head to Las Vegas for the Amazing Meeting, the Amazing Randi has announced that he’s changing the way his Million Dollar Challenge operates. (The million dollars will go to anyone who can demonstrate “paranormal” abilities in a controlled setting.) The changes are described in this well-written Wired News article. Here’s a really short summary:
Change #1. Currently Randi’s organization spends time on almost every applicant who comes along, including people who may turn out to be mentally ill, or those who will spend months and months of e-mailing back and forth just trying to describe what exactly their psychic power can accomplish. Now the Challenge is going to cut out much of this time-wasting and focus on people who get into the news media for their alleged psychic powers. Applicants will have to have a media profile and at least one academic who will endorse them. This not only saves a lot of time and energy, but focuses attention on those who have been granted some degree of credibility, and thus ought to be challenged to see if it’s deserved.
Change #2. Randi’s organization is going to go after the big-name psychics like John Edwards and Sylvia Browne. That is, they will generate publicity about how phony these people are, run ads about them, challenge them, embarrass them if possible, etc. Sounds like fun.
Here’s a video of Randi on a TV show, exposing a guy who says he can move objects with his mind.
Filed under: skeptic
