Sometimes people believe strange things. Some people believe the alignment of the stars at the time of their birth can influence their lives. Some think that their future can be found in a deck of cards. Or that they can receive messages from long dead loved ones. Some people believe that Sylvester Stallone's mother can tell their fortune by looking at a photograph of their naked posterior. You laugh. I understand she's making a good living at it.
Recently, something led me to the website of The James Randi Educational Foundation.
James Randi, formerly known as The Amazing Randi, was at one time a working illusionist and escape artist. He first came to the public attention in his new role as a debunker of paranormal frauds and proponent of critical thinking in the early 1970s when he assisted The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in ensuring Israeli mentalist Uri Geller could not employ common magicians' tricks during his guest appearance. Uri had little success demonstrating his "psycho-kinetic" powers that night. In the 80s, Randi exposed televangelist Peter Popoff as little more than a carnival fraudster, using a concealed earphone to receive information about audience members from assistants offstage. In 1996 he formalized his long time challenge to psychics with the creation of the JREF and the establishment of the $1,000,000 prize, available to anyone who can demonstrate, "under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event." More recently, well known "psychic" Sylvia Browne agreed to take the JREF challenge. That was almost four years ago. Since then, she has accused Randi of dealing in bad faith, and not actually having $1,000,000 available to pay out. Randi claims she is just dragging her feet because she objects to the scientific controls he insists on placing on any experiment or demonstration. To this day, she has yet to complete the challenge. Nor, for that matter, has anyone else.
I give you this short biography of James Randi in preamble to my experience at his site. Mr. Randi writes a weekly commentary in which he discusses critical thinking, and talks about current events that get his hackles up. He also hosts a forum where people are invited to discuss matters pertaining to the $1,000,000 challenge, paranormal investigation, and critical thinking in general. At first, I visited almost daily, riffing through the forums, itching for the next commentary article to be published, and reading through much of the information to be found. As time went on, I found myself dropping in there less and less frequently. Now, I pop in once a month or so to see if anything interesting was mentioned in a commentary, and I almost never visit the forums any more. Why? Because nothing new ever happens. The forums, like many throughout the internet, are jammed with regulars just waiting to tee off on unsuspecting newbs. If there aren't any of those to be had, they turn on each other, criticizing each others' beliefs for no reason other than the fact they hold them. Randi's commentaries, while sometimes interesting, increasingly sound like a melon being thrown against a wall. I guess the most illuminating piece of information is the fact that Uri Geller, Peter Popoff, and Sylvia Browne, all of whom were embarrassed on national TV by James Randi, continue to take money from unsuspecting and emotionally needy people to this day. In the end, people will believe what they want to believe, in many cases flat out ignoring known facts in order to do so.
If anyone reading this has demonstrable psychic, or paranormal abilities, the JREF $1,000,000 prize is still up for grabs. Let me know if you apply. Oh, and if you're hard up for a little tittilation, Jackie Stallone's site has examples of the types of pictures she wants you to send her.
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