The End of the James Randi Million Dollar Challenge

James Randi is truly amazing. At the age of 79, he is perhaps the oldest living foe of fraud and charlatanism. Born in Canada, he took up magic at an early age, and had a successful career as a magician and escape artist. Like Harry Houdini, he gained fame and notoriety for his uncanny ability to escape from thrilling death traps. He followed in Houdini’s footsteps in another way: by challenging those who would claim to have real supernatural powers.

Randi’s earliest challenge was against the popular psychic phenom, Uri Geller. In the 1970s, Geller managed to convince a large part of the world, including some scientists, that his powers were genuine. He used him mental abilities for such useful purposes as bending spoons and other metal objects. When James Randi saw the performance, he knew immediately that Geller was using some very well-known magician’s tricks. For starters, Randi demonstrated that the same feats could be accomplished without supernatural powers, and then he conspired with Johnny Carson to test Geller’s abilities under more controlled conditions. When examined under conditions that did not allow Geller to employ his tricks, his powers vanished.

In the 1960s, the Amazing Randi put his money where his mouth was. He placed $1,000 of his own money as a prize for anyone who could prove the existence of supernatural, paranormal, or spiritual powers under proper observing conditions. Since then, the prize money has grown to $1,000,000. The terms are simple: if you believe you can read minds, or hear messages from the dead, or levitate, all you have to do is perform your stunt under conditions that will now allow you to use tricks. This should be a very attractive proposal for many famous people. Even faith healers would be eligible. We see them pulling people out of wheelchairs on television. Surely they can do the same thing in an environment where their miracle can be verified.

The $1,000,000 has never really been in danger. Nobody has come very close to winning. Several have tried and failed. Of course, they always have an excuse for their failure. Sometimes they blame it on bad vibes emanated from Randi himself. How frustrating for psychics! Their powers only work when nobody is looking too closely.

Prominent psychics like Sylvia Browne and John Edward have avoided taking the test altogether, and it is easy to see why. They have made fortunes by convincing people that they can contact departed loved ones. To the skeptic, they appear to be using a technique called “cold reading”, by which they toss out a series of guesses, and use responses from the subject to zero in on a correct answer. The trick requires no supernatural ability at all, only a skill at listening and asking the right questions.

The Amazing One has made headlines numerous times through the years. Of course, there are the famous lawsuits brought against him by those who he accuses of fraud. He also gained attention for his uncovering of faith healer Peter Popoff, who was using a wireless communicator to convince his audience that he was receiving messages from God. To challenge the gullibility of scientists who study paranormal phenomena, he launched Project Alpha, a hoax that convinced researchers that undercover collaborators had real psychic powers. Perhaps the biggest, most entertaining hoax conducted by the Amazing Randi was Carlos, the fake medium. Working with Australia’s 60 Minutes, he effectively conned a whole country into believing that Carlos, an amateur that was coached by Randi to perform a few convincing tricks, was truly an ancient disembodied spirit. Had any member of the Australian news media had made a single phone call to check up on Carlos’s story, they would have exposed the hoax. Randi challenged the quality of journalism surrounding extraordinary claims.

The million dollar challenged has provided endless entertainment for those of us who suspect that psychics might not really have the abilities they claim to have. Make no mistake, we want psychics to take the challenge. If they won, I don’t think anybody would deny that they would add something truly significant to the canon of human knowledge. Instead, they tend to fail in spectacular and humorous ways. Sadly, all good things must come to an end. On January 4th, the James Randi Educational Foundation announced that the million dollar challenge would soon end. Those who wish to win an easy million by proving that their parlor tricks are indeed otherworldly have until March 6th, 2010 to enter the contest.(1) Exactly twelve years after the challenge started, it will close. Sylvia Browne will have missed her chance.

Though this move is no doubt necessary and practical, it is unfortunate. For twelve years, frauds and fakers have had the million dollar challenge hanging over their heads, challenging them to put up some proof. Without the challenge, they can pretend that they have won, that Randi finally gave up. It is not a fair criticism, but it will be made.

Sylvia Browne and John Edward may get a false sense of security from the end of the million dollar challenge. One of the reasons Randi decided to end the challenge was to use some of that money to expand the activities of his Educational Foundation. With the additional funds, he could be an even more annoying burr under the saddle of the psychics who prey on the vulnerable.

James Randi is something of a living legend. His skepticism has deep roots. He is carrying the torch passed by Houdini and others who understood how people are deceived, and how they deceive themselves. His fellow skeptics hope that he can spend his remaining years bringing light to the darkness, illuminating the truth where it is obscured, and challenging the purveyors of flim-flam.

© 2008 Bryan Lower

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