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Reminder that there used to be a $1,000,000 prize available for anyone who could display any sort of supernatural powers that remained unclaimed for 20 years. The challenge rules required that both parties agree upon the test setup, and several people actually tried to claim it and all failed. It astounds me that anyone still believes in this nonsense and that it seems to be becoming even more popular to believe in literal magic and other supernatural idiocy.
Ah yes James Randi, a man I have very mixed feelings on. He was a climate skeptic who would claim to have debunked people who never signed up for his challenge. A real scum bag in general. He was also a high School drop out with no training in the sciences.
Admittedly he called himself an “Honest Liar” and was motivated not by money but out of fear that people believed he had magic back when he was a magician.
Still given his character I tend not to take JREF too seriously.
I think the case for climate skeptic is a bit overblown. In his own words:
http://archive.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/806-i-am-not-qdenyingq-anything.html
The relevant quote:
My remarks, again, are directed at the complexity of determining whether this GW is anthropogenic or not. I do not deny that possibility. In fact, I accept it as quite probable.
Not sure what to make of the claim that he debunked people who never signed up for his challenge. There are a number of psychics and others that he has debunked that never signed up for the challenge (for example Uri Geller or Sylvia Browne) which this could be referring to, and I feel are valid debunking.
I could show quite a few unflattering articles about Randi’s controversies but I feel his supporters insist that the fact that the challenge existed was the end all be all. In and of itself.
When one must realize that Randi’s big claim to fame was the million dollar challenge and without that he had nothing.
Critical thinking should tell you quite simply that JREF’s donations required appealing to skeptics. If Randi went to bat for anything that seemed supernatural his fans would turn on him, and if his big claim to fame was an unwinnable contest then his bread and butter demanded that he never allowed the contest to be won.
It’s that simple.
Now one could say that he’d get famous and rich for confirming Magick exists but… why would he? The papers would talk about the psychic not the foundation and further studies couldn’t be done at JREF because it wasn’t a scientific research facility and James had no training in science at all…
It merely had people who were trained to look out for things like cold reading and the like.
There’s nothing to gain and everything to lose and the fact that 99% of people who applied to challenge were turned down and 0% of those who did even got past so much as a preliminary round. Well it’s a little sus.
Now I’m not saying magic is out there and JREF is hiding it. If it were then JREF wouldn’t have the means to hide it.
What I am saying is JREF and James Randi were not scientists they were showmen and that’s very important to keep in mind.
Sharing The idea that you can debunk a phenomenon by yelling “FAKE!” And doing a smug dance is something that offers more harm than good imho. Especially when you get people like Anti-Vaxxers who Mimic this behavior though rallying against medicine instead of faith and folklore.
What I am saying is JREF and James Randi were not scientists they were showmen and that’s very important to keep in mind.
Indeed. Randi said that a lot himself. He wasn’t a scientist, but a magician. Magicians figure out how something seems to work, scientists work out how somehow works. He explained numerous times that those are very much not the same.
Sharing The idea that you can debunk a phenomenon by yelling “FAKE!” And doing a smug dance is something that offers more harm than good imho.
He didn’t do that. He said “show me. Ok, now show me under controlled conditions”.
I have an interesting opinion on this. If someone displays “supernatural powers”, then those powers are not supernatural–just unknown. Therefore, it is an impossible prize to claim.
If you read the article, the rules were only that both parties have to agree on a test and if someone passed the test they won the prize. There wasn’t a “gotcha” clause like “Oh since you did it it’s clearly allowed by physics and we don’t have to pay up!” So like if someone showed they had psychic powers sufficient to pass an agreed upon test it doesn’t matter if there’s a natural explanation for it, they would have still won the prize.
Well, in seriousness, and more interestingly, I’m not really willing to call supernatural powers real or fake, currently. There exist some stories I’ve come across, which are likely real, which contain absolutely unexplainable phenomenon. Just this morning, someone in a Discord I’m in (who wouldn’t just fake stories) was explaining how someone they knew had a psychotic break on psychedelics, and, in the ambulance, narrated the paramedics’ childhoods with disturbing accuracy. A trusted moderator of that space responded to my skepticism with “psychics absolutely exist, but the vast majority are just grifters”.
Note: Without getting into all the context, this moderator is not the kind of person to simply believe in conspiracy theories.
I used to be a Reddit atheist (ew), and I’ve gone from thinking I know everything, to being very serious about accepting different views–no matter how absurd. We’re unaware of so many more things than we’re aware of.
I’m of the opinion that if psychic abilities exist, they can not be on command. They might. They might not. I would rather be honest than claim to be factual–I don’t know.
Most of that is just mentalism, which is effective and useful but works off a psychological and stochastic approach but is absolutely explainable and not supernatural despite its applications in manipulating people. See: Jacob Wysocki in the one year later episode of game changer
A LOT of mentalism is stage magic, and has nothing to do with psychology. That’s part of the set dressing they’re trying to sell you, they’re just magicians as with a 21st century coat of paint on top.
I am at the point where if anyone, ever, for any reason, asks me what my astrological sign is, I stop communicating with them.
They always turn out to be irresponsible, narcissistic idiots every time.
An exception would be if this interaction is taking place completely within the confines of an actually defined fantasy world like a video game or ttrpg.
But real life? People who actually believe there is, or could potentially be anything to astrology?
Dangerous morons.
devil’s advocate: there are people like me who don’t take it seriously. like I enjoy talking to astrology people because listening to anyone talk about anything they’re interested in is downright entertaining, even if I personally don’t believe planetary positions have any influence on humans
Lots of people doing something for fun but not taking it seriously is just an advertisement for people that will take it seriously.
That’s a fair point. The only time I’ve recommended/passed along business cards of those in the metaphysical entertainment industry (at least that’s what it is to me), have been to others I know are already into it on some level
But I guess I could do inadvertent damage talking about it with those who aren’t into it, if they also happen to be in a vulnerable state where the less honest members of that industry could really take advantage of them
That’s something to think about. I’m probably going to add “don’t bring up my unserious enjoyment of metaphysics to people unless they mention it first” to my personal rules
