James Randi Educational Foundation

We dont have a sceptics corner, so i thought this the place to post this one,although its not a pop at mediums and psychics in particular although they to me are the obvious choice of paranormal practioners to have easily won this prize.
James Randi has put up a prize of 1 million bucks to be won by anyone who can prove they have paranormal powers and in all the years that this has been available, no one has managed to win it. the tests are devised with the cooperation of the person who is to be tested and often only the very basic tests are failed at the first stage. Now i know that this sort of prize money will attract all sorts of fruit cakes, but i still find it strange that none of our best mediums have put themselves up to it and walked off a very rich person. Why do you think this might be ?

Yes I have to agree with you Dan in that I wonder why this money has not been won is it because there is money offered and it would not be right to take money for this gift but maybe you could get around this by giving the money to charity. I know Gordon Smith has passed loads of tests I will have to have a look threw his books and post more about the tests he took etc I know he did really well etc. Dan there is a fab show on Wednesday nights its called American Psychic challenge and its testing different mediums etc when I watched this I thought Dan would be interested in this show I have a thread on it on Parnormal TV section.

I think it is possible that the better known mediums, could make more than that in appearances and book deals to be honest Dan!
As for the normal every day mediums and pyshics, most do not believe that they have anything to prove. The James Randi prize would and has attracted all sorts of 'strange' people.
I also think that those who want to be 'famous mediums' for the sake of fame would not pass the tests set, as I have heard that the spirit world does not play ball with this sort of thing. And most are not more than talent amateurs, or fame junkings and see it as a paying job.

As Mel said, Gordon Smith subjected himself to a series of tests, and had quite good results. I don't really know if any other well known pyshic has been tested.
I suppose it is very hard to set a test that would be 'proof positive' as either side could claim mitigating circumstances.
My dad and I agreed something that if he contacted a medium and my mother and I were together he could only do a certain thing. We went to see Gordon Smith, and he came out with almost the exact words I SAID to my dad just before he died. Now this would be hard to prove in a scientific sense but both my mother and myself where there when I said it to my dad, and my sister did not know it until after Gordon Smith came with the message.

Mags it stuff like this i.e. only you and your dad etc knew the exact words and then Gordon said them that convinces me of the afterlife etc because when you think of the thousands of words Gordon could have said he said the same ones. Just looked in one of my Gordon Smith books Dan The Unvelievable Truth and it says that Gordon was tested by the Scottish Society for Psychical Research which is based at the University of Glasgow. Over the course of 7 years or so he has taken part in blind tests where he was not allowed to see the recipients of his messages or hear their replies to anything he said. And also double blind test which involve him being asked to sit in one room while a group of peps sit in another room and one of these peps is chosen by one of the scientists running the experiment and then has to give that person the message which they do no know they are receving. At the end of the tests all the peps present are given a sheet of paper with a list of statemtns he had made and are asked to put a tick next to any information that applies to them and the strange thing is it usually turns out that the only person who can tick all of the boxes is the person who was chosen to receive the message.

Apprently he has had his head wired to machines to register brainwaves in order to determine brain functions during a session of mediumship and apparently he waves go from alpha to theta in around two minutes.

Mags, your right, most mediums could earn more than the 1 million dollar prize, but if they are out to earn money, and any medium who has appeared on tv programmes like MH or have their own show,then they are obviously interested in money and their career,so taking the test would be easy cash and their earnings would soar, having their gift proved by a sceptical organisation. Likewise i suppose if they take a test and fail it miserably,then the career is over.

Acting as devil's advocate here, listening to the statement that Gordon Smith made on both nights before he did any readings, he said that sometimes he will not get anything from the spirit world. He said that in large audiences he usually takes a time to start. So perhaps this is why some do not want to be tested.
Also I've just finished reading a Doris Stoke book which was a combination of her first two books. In it she mentions James Randi, he was on a radio show and claimed that he had a reading with her and that she was a fake. She challenged him to appear on stage with her and do what she did, he refused.
Now I confess I don't know much about James Randi beyond his challenge.Which I think is not much more than a publicity stunt for him and I would also not really trust the mediums willing to take part in this challenge either, I would not hold his tests as any sort of scientific challenge, I think he has a thing to prove, for personal reasons.
I would much prefer a medium to submit to tests like Gordon Smith did, at a reputable university. However I would not include Hope University Liverpool in any of the testing because I feel the university parapschologists have become too involved with the Livingtv channel and most haunted.

freespirit wrote:We dont have a sceptics corner

We do now

good idea...I'll plop down in here.